digby: Was he winging it?

[babylonsister]

https://digbysblog.net/2022/07/16/was-he-winging-it/


Was he winging it?
Published by digby on July 16, 2022
That really is the question


Ed Kilgore asks one of the big lingering questions about January 6th. What did Trump see happening at the Capitol on January 6th when he sent in the mob?

So what was the idea? Trump knew the votes weren’t there for his backers in Congress to reject Biden electors (it would have required a majority vote in both Democratic-controlled chambers). Pence wouldn’t play ball. And even if the rioters temporarily halted the count of electoral votes (as they did), Trump knew they would soon resume (as they also did, that very evening).

That leaves two possibilities, both of them damning: (1) Trump planned to use the violence to assert some sort of emergency powers that would have more definitively halted the congressional proceedings and/or kept him in office past January 20, or (2) Trump simply incited violence for the sheer disruptive hell of it without a scintilla of a strategy.

I think there are some other possibilities. He knew there were armed militants in the crowd and thought they might actually take Mike Pence hostage (or worse), thereby delaying the count. I wouldn’t put it past him. But now that we know he really did want to go down to the Capitol himself — and that Rudy had told Meadows he planned to go in and “stand next to the Senators and look strong” — it’s also possible that he thought such a show of strength with a huge crowd outside chanting would change Pence’s mind and that the congressional Republicans would back him up. He’s delusional. As I have mentioned dozens of times, when Pence said he didn’t have the authority to overturn the election, he did gesture to the crowd outside the White House on January 5th, and ask him, “what if these people say you do?”

But Kilgore may be right that he just incited the violence for the sheer, disruptive hell of it and sat back to see what would happen. I am also reminded of this from just before the election in 2018:

Days before the election, the president appeared to admit for the first time that Republicans might lose the House. “It could happen,” Trump said. “And you know what you do? My whole life, you know what I say? ‘Don’t worry about it, I’ll just figure it out.’” Trump said.

He may very well have had no idea what would happened when he sicced the mob on the Capitol. He just assumed he’d figure it out. He’s been winging it his whole life and it’s worked out for his so far.

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. It seemed all planned to me.

[GoCubsGo]

3. Yes. Trump didn't plan it.

Those around him did. That has been blatantly obvious to anyone who has been watching the J6 hearings. Trump was the one who set them into motion, and he was more than happy to go along with whatever they came up with.

[Ferrets are Cool]

4. '''

[The Magistrate]

2. There's Something To That, Ma'am

Resolve to improvise, and confidence in one's ability to do so, certainly can stand as a plan....

[tanyev]

5. He has complete confidence in his ability to talk his way out of anything.

[Bucky]

6. I think they were expecting, Lord knows why, for there to be antifa demonstrators there too

They were so ready to blame the riot on BLM and Antifa organizers. And I recall at least one mention from the hearings of them planning to street rumble with leftist counter demonstrators.

I suspect that they were to some extent betrayed by their own tendency to psychologically project their own radical proclivities (and general social purposelessness) onto others. They just assumed that a contingent of anti-trump demonstrators would show up to protest them, just so they'd have someone to street rumble with.

[BlueIdaho]

7. TFG is an immature vindictive jerk

He’s big on knee-jerk reactions. He’s also a “big picture” guy who depends on others to flesh out his often violent instincts. I suspect we will continue to learn about his out of control rages and insane rants as time goes on.

He is not a three dimensional chess master, he is a guy with an enormous war chest. You don’t need to be smart if you have enough money.

[Walleye]

8. Lots of scheming and plotting. Not much real planning. Nothing was thought through

[BlueGreenLady]

9. Seems they were throwing any conceivable, half-baked plot against the wall

to see how many would stick. Trump was definitely the spoke at the center of the evil schemes.

[Sneederbunk]

10. It was an extended ketchup on the wall thing.

[Cracklin Charlie]

11. He might've been winging it.

But, there were certainly others who were not “winging” a coup on the US government. I am sure lots of plans were made.

I don’t think Trump would’ve lasted through the coup, and that’s why he was so desperate to get to the Capitol. He needed to be perceived as in charge, before they threw him in the dumpster.

[LessAspin]

12. aNTiFa

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Midnight Writer]

13. "Some men just want to see the world burn".-Batman, I think.