I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so…Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election.….And Mike Pence…if you're not, I'm going to be very disappointed in you. I will tell you right now, I'm not hearing good stories……

And after this we'll walk down - and I'll be there with you….we're going to walk down to the Capitol….We fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore.

So we're going to, we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we're going to the Capitol, and we're going to try and give….them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue."

So spoke Donald Trump to a crowd of supporters who had gathered outside the White House on January 6, believers of the easily disproven Trump lies that the 2020 Presidential election had been stolen from him and that the Vice President has the authority to arbitrarily reject state-certified electoral results.

How the crowd interpreted Trump's messaging
Encouraged by Mr. Trump and other far-right voices since the November election, and using social media to spread Mr. Trump's election fraud lies and to threaten violence, the day began with a few thousand protestors (some peaceful, but many not-so-peaceful) congregating at the Ellipse just off Pennsylvania Avenue, thinking their presence could somehow stop the Senate's Constitutional duty of counting the certified Presidential election results submitted by each of our 50 states.

Whatever their initial plans may have been, the crowd turned into an unruly mob after being worked up by the lies and distortions from Mr. Trump, Donald Trump Jr. ("You have an opportunity today: You can be a hero, or you can be a zero.), Rudy Guiliani ("Let's have trial by combat."), and other Trump apologists.

Following the roughly dozen speeches, and per Mr. Trump's stated wishes (but without Mr. Trump in attendance), most of the crowd did march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. They then proceeded to attack Capitol security officers, break into Senate and House chambers and offices, threaten death to lawmakers (including Vice President Mike Pence), damage and steal government property, and urinate in public places. (These Trump cultists are such classy individuals aren't they? It's why even Mr. Trump makes fun of them and grifts them for money.)

Capitol security officer being crushed by mob
During the course of the mob's multi-hour rampage, Mr. Trump refused repeated requests from his staff and from Republican leaders either to issue a statement to calm the situation or to call in the National Guard to restore order.

You may recall that Mr. Trump had no qualms about dispersing a peaceful protest outside the White House last May in order to stage a photo op at St. John's Church (see our article, "Was Breaking Up a Peaceful Protest to Stage a Photo Op the Last Straw?"). But the self-proclaimed "law and order President" took no action this time as people lay bloodied and dying at the Capitol.

If this event wasn't so serious, it would have been fun listening to the right-wing media trying to figure out how to spin it. Everyone knew trying to overturn the election by violence was sedition, so initially they tried to say the participants really were left-wing protesters dressed as Trump supporters. That didn't sit well with the mob members themselves, though, who were angered at not getting the credit for their actions, and who quickly responded with the truth: they were hard-core Trump zealots who were proud to be drinking the Trump Kool-Aid.

If the intent was peaceful, why bring a noose, body armor, clubs, bear spray, etc.?

Fortunately, calm was restored by early evening and the Senate completed its counting of the Presidential electoral votes, confirming that Joe Biden had won a majority of those votes, 306 to 232. That made it official - Mr. Biden will be inaugurated on January 20th as the 46th President of the United States.

Unfortunately, two wanna-be Presidents, Senators Raphael ("Ted") Cruz of Texas and Joshua Hawley of Missouri (the latter having signaled his support to the gathering mob earlier in the day as he arrived at the Capitol) continued to delay the Senate's vote counting process and pander to the Trump crowd by asking for time to investigate Mr. Trump's repeatedly disproven lie of massive voter fraud. The Senate overwhelmingly voted down these requests, 93 to 6.

A sample of the Trump crowd that Senators Cruz and Hawley think are worth pandering to.

In the aftermath of Mr. Trump's having encouraged the seditious mob, and after his refusal to take action to end the violence, the House of Representatives impeached Mr. Trump for the second time, this time with Republican support.

We look forward to Mr. Trump's trial in the Senate, although Senate Leader Mitch McConnell has delayed the trial until after Inauguration Day when Mr. Trump no longer can be removed from office.

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