No matter how he wants to characterize the events of the day, or the manner in which he’d prefer history books talk about the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the United States Capitol, Donald Trump will never pardon away the reality.
Not that he isn’t trying.
Just hours after taking the Oath of Office in his return to the White House on Monday, President Trump issued a blanket forgiveness of the attempted coup d’état by issuing an executive order pardoning or commuting sentences for those convicted of crimes committed during their participation in the riot. He also ordered the dismissal of about 450 pending cases related to Jan. 6, effectively ending the largest investigation ever conducted by the United States Department of Justice.
Included among those who will now walk free: Trump supporters who overwhelmed, ignored, assaulted and injured police officers trying to do their jobs and keep the peace at the Capitol that day. Trump supporters who arrived at the Ellipse that day plotting to stop the transfer of power from Trump to Biden, with violence if they must, according to the Justice Department. Trump supporters who threatened the lives of elected representatives of the nation’s citizens.
The issue with that revision of history is, we saw what happened.
We sat in front of our television sets on Jan. 6, 2021, and watched the then-lame duck president — in an unprecedented and desperate attempt to cling to the power he lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 election two months earlier — rile up a crowd of supporters during a speech on the Ellipse on the day the election results were to be certified by Congress.
We heard him issue the words he wants everyone to remember he said that day: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
We also heard him say the words he’d sure love to have stricken from the record, the ones so many of those in the crowd took to heart: “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
They fought like hell. And just about as soon as he regained power, President Trump thanked them for it.
The emphatic forgiveness of even the most violent perpetrators of this attack, not to mention the timing of the action, should be taken as a sign that little has changed in Trump’s mindset since that speech on the Ellipse.
Trump remains convinced he was cheated of victory in what has been proven to be a free and fair election in 2020. He does not consider legitimate anything positive that happened in the four years since. And, with a somewhat convincing win in the 2024 election pushing his sails, made it clear he will double down on the damaging “Don’t cross me” rhetoric that became a trademark of his first presidency.
No matter how he spins it, Donald Trump made it OK to stage a coup, as long as it is a coup against one his political opponents. He made it clear that anyone participating in violent acts can expect not just to escape proper punishment, but to expect an embrace and a pat on the back as long as the violence is done in his name. He now has an emboldened, and well-armed, group of supporters ready to back any play he makes.
Monday was a great day for Trump’s stunning political comeback. It was a particularly rough one for anyone who hoped the second go-round with him in office would be less about his own thirst for revenge than a genuine attempt to govern for all.
This post was originally published on here
