What’s another term for a “failed coup”?
A rehearsal.
The United States came dangerously close to losing democracy January 6 when thousands of spiteful Donald Trump supporters descended on the Capitol to do the failed president’s bidding to “stop the steal” of votes he still claims are his.
Although this act of “domestic terrorism,” as FBI Director Christopher Wray defined the attack, did not elicit the outcome Donald Trump and his supporters intended, it successfully demonstrated how fragile our republic is.
Two months ago, news broke of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) concern over right-wing terror groups‘ online discussions about potential future violence.
At that time the talk was about a conspiracy theory that Donald Trump is going to be “reinstated as president” in August.
Obviously that did not occur.
There is new activity causing law enforcement concern, though.
An internal DC Capitol Police memo on the “Justice for J6” rally, organized by “Look Ahead America,” supposedly planned for Saturday, Sept. 18 explains Trump devotees’ online support for the terrorists charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, one of whom was Ashli Babbitt, whom an officer fatally shot while she was participating in smashing the crowd’s way into the Capitol Speaker’s Lobby.
“The document warns that many individuals may also see September 18 as a ‘Justice for Ashli Babbitt’ rally, which could be cause for concern, and it’s not unreasonable to plan for violent altercations. There have been additional discussions of violence associated with the event, with one online chat suggesting violence against Jewish centers and liberal churches while law enforcement is distracted that day.
Some of the online activity putting law enforcement on alert comes from the far-right internet site “4chan,” calling for those planning to participate on the 18th to “do justice” against “local jews [sic] and corrupted officials.”
There are also calls for demonstrators to use the demonstration as a means toward violent acts against local “Jewish centers and Liberal churches” while they are distracting law enforcement.
One thread reads:
“I will be there with my AR15 even though legally I can’t have one f*** the Demonrats.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi–a prominent target on Jan. 6–told reporters inquiring about preparations for Sept. 18:
“These people are coming back to praise the people who were out to kill, out to kill members of Congress. We intend to have the integrity of the Capitol be intact.”
In June, the Biden administration released its strategy for addressing the recent surge in violent crime the past year.
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told CNN’s Poppy Harlow:
“I think they should take it very seriously. In fact, they should take it more seriously than they took the same sort of intelligence that they likely saw on January 5.”
So far, it looks as though they are.
McCabe is optimistic law enforcement has “a few factors leaning in their favor,” explaining:
“You don’t have a sitting President actively fanning the flames and trying to get people to attend the rally. It looks like, from all indications, our law enforcement partners are well prepared for this one. They seem to be taking the intelligence very seriously, which raises a question as to whether or not they did on January 6, but that’s another issue.”
Police agencies all over the country had been preparing for unrest months before Jan. 6.
Trump loyalists all over the country had been planning insurrections for months, acting on Trump’s insistence either he win or the election was rigged.
Two days before the terror attack, The Hill ran the headline “DC braces for pro-Trump protests amid Electoral College challenge.”
Last June, the Transition Integrity Project (TIP) helped organize a bipartisan group of Democratic and Republican officials to simulate the day after a possibly contested election, for which every scenario resulted in “street-level violence.”
While the last “reinstatement” conspiracy theory fizzled, the latest delusion from “the former guy” is that “They’re going to decertify this election.”
Donald Trump’s sad band of sycophants are in such denial he lost fairly and squarely, they are willing to latch onto any cockamamie wish fulfillment floating in their general direction.
This is almost laughable except for the fact that we saw the danger their allegiance is capable of perpetrating.
They claim to “love their country.”
At the end of the day, though, their only real love is for a man–an ideologue who has lured them into his deep-seated sense of inadequacy and narcissism.
Image credit: Logan Weaver via Unsplash