Worth a long read - from WSJ (Wall Street Journal) - a long time cheerleader of Trump.
Fueled by lies about a stolen election, protesters overran police and stormed Americaโs seat of government on Wednesday, forcing a lockdown of the U.S. Capitol and a 6 p.m. city curfew. This sounds like a dispatch from some foreign correspondent in an unfortunate land. Instead it was President Trumpโs parting gift to Washington, and the country, for denying him a second term.
Wednesdayโs joint session of Congress was supposed to be a ritual of American democracy, memorializing Joe Bidenโs Electoral College victory. As lawmakers met, Mr. Trump was speaking at a โSave America March,โ where he vowed never to concede. โWeโre going to the Capitol,โ he urged the crowd, to โtry and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.โ
There the protesters marchedโand then some. After Rep. Paul Gosar and Sen. Ted Cruz objected to the counting of Arizonaโs 11 electors, the two chambers retired to consider it. The Senate debate lasted less than an hour. Rioters breached the building, and the Vice President was suddenly whisked from the floor. In the House, lawmakers said they were given gas masks and told to lie on the floor. A woman was shot and killed, and police officers were injured.
What a disgrace. The trespassers should be arrested, and the maskless ones can probably be identified long after the fact. Where was the police presence in Washington? Once the mob was inside, the call went out for backup from Virginia and Maryland, and the National Guard was activated. But itโs a scandal that the U.S. Capitol wasnโt better protected on such a significant day.
To the extent that the congressional debate was allowed to happen, it went in the right direction. Mr. Trump has been publicly pressuring Mr. Pence, the presiding officer of the joint session, to invalidate Mr. Bidenโs electors. As Congress gathered, Mr. Pence released a statement saying he would refuse to do so. โMy oath to support and defend the Constitution,โ he wrote, โconstrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.โ
This is correct in law. Anything else from Mr. Pence would have been a power grab, precipitating a constitutional crisis. Donโt forget, as our friends at the New York Sun point out, that the Vice President is his own duly elected constitutional officer, not the Presidentโs lackey.
But Mr. Trumpโs vision of loyalty consists of loyalty only to himself. โ Mike Pence, โ he tweeted soon after, โdidnโt have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.โ
Senator Cruzโs effort to defend objections to Mr. Bidenโs electors was woeful. โRecent polling shows that 39% of Americans believe the election that just occurred โwas rigged,โโ he said. โWhat does it say, to the nearly half the country that believes this election was rigged, if we vote not even to consider the claims of illegality and fraud?โ
Mr. Cruz laments the fire as he wields a flamethrower. To the extent that Mr. Trump has made fraud claims in court, theyโve been dismissed. Yet without evidence, he keeps saying that thousands of ballots were faked or shredded or altered by hacked Dominion voting machines. The correct response is to push back against conspiracy theories, not to fan the anger and fund-raise off the credulous.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was right on point. โWe are debating a step that has never been taken in American history: Whether Congress should overrule the voters and overturn a presidential election,โ he said. โI have served 36 years in the Senate. This will be the most important vote Iโve ever cast.โ The November election, Mr. McConnell added, was done under โbizarre pandemic proceduresโ that shouldnโt be repeated. That said: โIf this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral.โ
Sen. Pat Toomey stepped up as well. What the objectors are asking, he said, is โto federalize electionsโ by โhaving Congress select the President of the United States instead of the American people.โ As for Mr. Cruzโs idea of an Electoral Commission to do an emergency audit: โA commission? Really? Itโs completely impractical, and we all know it, with 14 days to go before a constitutionally mandated inauguration.โ If Congress is going to reject state electors, every losing party will want to do it every four years.
Mr. Trumpโs refusal to accept his loss, and the false hope he gives to his supporters, is validating the worst things his critics have said about him. He is being enabled by Rudy Giuliani and Peter Navarro, but also by people like Mr. Cruz and Sen. Josh Hawley, who surely know better. The 74 million Trump voters have genuine concerns about the country, and they deserve better than to be misled. The proper response now is for all Republicans to drop their objections to the state electors and ratify themโand Joe Bidenโs electionโby acclamation.
Mr. Biden will become President at noon on Jan. 20, and until then the police need to restore order with as much force as necessary. Republicans especially need to speak against trespass and violence. As for Mr. Trump, to steal some famous words deployed in 1940 against Neville Chamberlain : โIn the name of God, go.โ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-disgrace-on-capitol-hill-11609979276?mod=hp_opin_pos_1
