Thread by @jenmercieca

Let's do some democracy!

https://twitter.com/January6thCmte/status/1539262108562608128

The whole coup plot was based on a lie, Trump did it anyway. The lie hasn't gone away, people who believe it (or pretend to believe it) are seeking (or have already won) offices of power. #DefendDemocracy

I forgot about how powerful that press conference was. Dec 1, 2020. Cheney asks for us all to focus on the evidence, not the politics.

It wasn't the first time Trump participated in a conspiracy to defraud. Schiff calls Trump's election conspiracy a "dangerous cancer on our body politic." Conspiracy theory works that way, it can never be proven or disproven. (old thread)

https://twitter.com/jenmercieca/status/1308898562764410880

<again I submitted an expert statement for the record to the J6 committee, part of what I explained in that statement is how Trump used conspiracy rhetoric, circulating things he knew were untrue for political gain & that he relentlessly put pressure on others to get his way>

Who does the voiceovers for those treason ads? Maybe that's a thing they should stop doing.

The J6 committee continues to do an excellent job with storytelling. This is a complicated story, a plot that worked on lots of different levels, with lots of different people involved. It's a hard story to tell, they're doing it well.

And using Republican testimony throughout these hearings is just brilliant.

Trump is still couping.

Some historians trace the idea that the Constitution was divinely inspired to Jefferson describing the members of the Constitutional Convention as an "assembly of demigods." The simultaneous deaths of Adams & Jefferson on July 4, 1826 helped w this "divine" narrative construction

overthrow = decertify (I'm ok with that, but maybe there's some legal distinction)

The first time the presidency changed parties (from Federalists to Republicans) was thought of as at the time and is still referred to today as "the revolution of 1800." It was thought to be miraculous that the ruling party could change hands without violence.

"Fake electors," "fake certificates" is good framing. People can easily understand what "fake" means.

They even conned the fake electors to get the fake electors to fake their certificates. Sheesh.

I published this the day after Jan 7 (it was scheduled to post that day, I updated the lede after the insurrection). Those folders from that press conference were everything. The appearance of legality was a feature of Trump's presidency: zocalopublicsquare.org/2021/01/07/pt-…

Every person who has defied Trump and upheld the Constitution has suffered threats of violence, intimidation, and retribution. He wields his mob like a cudgel.

Trump's months-long conspiracy prior to the election that the election would be rigged "poisoned the well" for the public. Trump supporters believed the election would be rigged & looked for & found "evidence" to support Trump's lie. Trump then amplified the "evidence" as if true

Trump's conspiracy rhetoric created the conditions by which Trump's conspiracy could be "proved." That's how conspiracy logic works in general--it's self-sealing and circular. Evidence can only build to support the claim that the conspiracy happened, never to disprove.

"I just know in my heart they cheated." is exactly it. Even if the evidence cannot prove they cheated, it FEELS like it's true, so it must be true. That "feeling" is what Trump cultivated.

His conspiracy created the "evidence" and the appearance of so much "evidence" made people think/feel it was true. Even critical thinking can't pierce that "feeling."

Trump's call shows his strong-arm pressure tactics: don't you want to win? The people want this, you know that everyone will be so happy with you when you do this. He's giving her attention, praise, permission, and promising rewards.

I would love to hear a little context: do presidents typically call state level folks to check in on the vote count or to pressure the vote count? Like, how unusual is it that Trump did this?

"The numbers were the numbers and we could not recalculate because we checked every allegation."

Do I hear a threat, quid pro quo? Trump threatened Raffensperger with a criminal offense--think about how that could play out. If Trump got someone else to cave, then Trump would have carried out his threat, falsely accusing Raffensperger of a crime. This is a prisoner's dilemma.

Just catching up on the last testimony, wow, Trump terrorized these amazing women. What an as$hole.

I hope these ladies sue Trump for defamation, harassment, incitement, and whatever else they can legally accuse him of doing. 😭

like I said, "urging others like them to use their weapons of war & their war words to attack the weak."