Democrats in the House have now gathered over 140 names on new articles of impeachment against Donald Trump that will be introduced on Monday. If all goes well, they’ll be voted on the same day. At the same time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer continue to press Mike Pence to act using the 25th Amendment. However, as more Cabinet members resign and Pence huddles in silence, the odds of that happening seem ever smaller.
Meanwhile, the Twitterless Trump is casting about for one last desperate act. In addition to Trump, Twitter has been hacking down accounts that have suggested another, even more violent, assault on the capital on Jan. 17 or Jan. 20. Over on Parler, they’ve very definitely not been taking down any efforts to organize an attack on either those dates or Jan. 19. And if there’s one thing that Trump has made clear to his remaining staff, it’s that he’s sorry. Not sorry about arranging and inciting a violent assault on the nation. But sorry that he ever ever told the insurgents to leave the Capitol building.
Trump was ecstatic to see his supporters shoving through barriers, overwhelming an unprepared police force, and taking the Capitol by storm. As the insurrectionists prowled through the halls of Congress in hopes of turning legislators into hostages, and Trump supporters cast down the American flag to raise his own banner, Trump strolled around the White House in excitement. The fact that other people weren’t seeing this as a good thing completely baffled him. It was, after all, exactly what Trump had been wanting for years.
As The New York Times reports, after a stunned nation recoiled in disgust, and Joe Biden came out to demand that Trump end this rampage by his followers, Trump did take to Twitter to deliver a brief statement—one in which he told the insurrectionists they were “very special” and assured them “I love you.” Even so, Trump did include a statement that the violent criminals who were even then smearing human excrement along the halls of Congress should “go home in peace.”
It’s that last part that Trump regrets. The part where he told them to leave, and gave some hint that he would allow an orderly transition—though without naming Biden or including the word “peaceful.”
At the end of a week in which his followers attempted a violent overthrow of the American government, the only thing that Trump regrets is that it didn’t work. And that after planning it, bringing in every white supremacist he could find, and shoving them toward Congress, he didn’t do more to cheer for their victory.
Posted with permission from Daily Kos.
