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I watched as the president of the United States urged a mob to march on the U.S. Capitol and overthrow the American government.

On Jan. 6, 2021, I saw Donald Trump tell thousands of his most enthusiastic followers that the result of the November 2020 presidential election could not be accepted.

We will never give up, he told them. We will never concede. It doesnt happen. You dont concede when theres theft involved. Our country has had enough.

Watching on television, I turned to my wife and said, My God, hes urging them to overthrow the government.

I didnt need a congressional investigation. I had spent decades covering news events, political leaders at rallies and protest marches. I had sometimes seen peaceful gatherings transformed into a violent rabble. But nothing came close to this.

To use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal, the president said.

Just down the road, at the U.S. Capitol Building, congressmen and senators were gathering to ratify the electoral college vote that would eventually install Joe Biden into office, replacing Trump.

You will have an illegitimate president, Trump said. That is what you will have, and we cant let that happen. These are the facts that you wont hear from the fake news media. Its all part of the suppression effort. They dont want you to talk about it.

Trump was clearly urging supporters to overthrow the result of a legal election.

We will fight like hell, and if you dont fight like hell, youre not going to have a country anymore, Trump said.

Then Trump implied he was going to step down from the platform where he was giving his speech and march along with the crowd to the Capitol Building.

Were going to walk down, and Ill be there with you. We are going to the Capitol and we are going to try and give (the Republican lawmakers) the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.

And the mob began to march and chant and wave its Trump banners and Dont Tread on Me flags crashing through the barricades surrounding the Capitol Building,

Assaulting the Capitol police with pipes, breaking through locked doors, and smashing glass windows.

The insurrectionists were swarming through the corridors hunting for congressmen as if they were animals.

They were chanting Hang Mike Pence, Hang Mike Pence, because the Republican Vice President of the United States had refused to use his power as Senate President to try and negate the electoral college vote and keep Trump in power. There was a scaffold awaiting him outside.

Members of the mob mockingly chanted the name of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, daring her to show her face.

Inside the House floor, makeshift barricades were created to hold back the mob and cell phone calls were made to family members who elected officials thought they might never see again.

In other locations, offices were broken into and ransacked.

Fascism was in full bloom as thugs in military gear threatened to brutalize and replace the civilian authority.

Today there are people who say I did not see what I saw. There are Republican congressmen who claim it was just a typical visit by Washington tourists.

Senate Republicans have refused to approve a commission to investigate exactly what happened. They dont want an official record. They prefer to rewrite history.

I know what I saw. But the fact is that the truth is already being altered; twisted into some sort of patriotic display of free speech. A legitimate protest inspired by election fraud by the Democrats.

We must bear witness to the truth and repeat it as often as the falsehoods are shouted and tweeted on the Internet.

Only a handful of months have passed. But already, you can feel history shifting beneath your feet.

Send letters to letters@suntimes.com

See more here:
I saw what happened on Jan. 6 and will testify to the truth - Chicago Sun-Times

A Stop The Steal is posted inside of the U.S. Capitol Building after a pro-Trump mob broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Photo by Jon Cherry | Getty Images

There is way too much hate and way too much misinformation spreading across our political landscape.

Ive watched and written about politics for more than 55 years and have never seen anything that approaches this mess.At the top of the dreadful heap: a former president who seems to think he is still president and spends most of every day trashing everyone who disagrees.

It is like watching a comedy of errors. Each day dawns with a new series of attacks from Trump land. Seven months after voters elected Joe Biden president, Trump is still trying to count and recount votes in various places, despite rulings from many courts that have confirmed that Biden won the election.

In the beginning, I thought Trump was merely a buffoon who liked to grab unsuspecting women in sensitive places, a practice he boasted about that was captured on tape and broadcast for all to hear.

I thought Trump was just plain wrong when he said he could shoot someone in the middle of Manhattan and get away with it. Now Im not quite so sure.

In daily statements from his Save America operation and We Love Trump newsletter published several times a day, Trump spreads rumors denigrating COVID-19 vaccines, promoting visions from ministers saying he will regain the presidency any day now, and calling all efforts to investigate his conduct and connections to the Jan. 6 raid on the U.S. Capitol just part of another witch hunt.

Banned from Facebook and Twitter for spreading misinformation, Trump now uses various other ways to spread even more misinformation.

In one publication of the Daily Truth Report called We Love Trump, he even accused former Vice President Mike Pence of having a gay lover. There is just no limit to what he and his followers have been willing to do: Witness the noose at the Capitol to hang U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Witness those who were chasing Pence to keep him from certifying the results of the 2020 election.

It would be laughable if it werent so damaging to our country. Its clear that some people believe him and continue to support him. Its also clear that other many of the Republicans in Congress are so afraid of him they are voting against their own interests to avoid his wrath.

From the Senate floor, then-Senate President Mitch McConnell denounced Trumps role in the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol after his fellow senators failed to remove the president from office for sparking the raid. But McConnell, now the U.S. Senate minority leader, wouldnt cast a vote against Trump. Instead, he has fought efforts to authorize a formal investigation of the raid.

McConnell and many other members of Congress line up and kiss the ring, flying down to Mar-a-Lago to get their pictures taken with him playing a round of golf or greeting a crowd.

One of the prizes for idiocy in Congress should go to U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Georgia. He compared the raid which killed five people and injured many others to a normal tourist visit to the Capitol. A day later someone produced pictures of Clyde helping barricade the doors of the House as the invasion was under way.

Many Republicans in Congress have completely ostracized U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, for speaking out against Trump. She has pledged to do everything she can to ensure that the former president never gets anywhere near the Oval Office again, a quote Trump and his minions have widely circulated in an effort to damage her future political possibilities.

Supporters responding to one of the Daily Truth Reports, recently suggested Pelosi should face a firing squad. And Trumps daily newsletter refers to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as Joe and the Ho and asked supporters to recommend punishment if they are found guilty of rigging and stealing the election.

His supporters took the bait, with hundreds responding: hang them, firing squad, life in prison, guillotine, death by fire ants, Castration, Electrocution, a life sentence at Guantanamo Bay and 60 days of a continuous loop of Trump rallies.

The suggestions went on for more than 50 pages of venom, which Trump emailed in his daily report.

The newsletters are sprinkled with ads from financial companies being touted by former U.S. Rep Ron Paul: CBD painkillers, portable air conditioners, Ben Carsons over the counter smart pills that allegedly will triple your memory and retention in 21 days; a potent CBD line being promoted by Tucker Carlson of Fox News as well as cures for all sorts of problems.

Serious people in the world of politics would ordinarily ignore all this blathering, but the path back to sanity is not so clear.

We have many miles to go before our world can be repaired.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Lucy Morgan was chief of the St. Petersburg (Tampa Bay) Times capital bureau in Tallahassee for 20 years, retiring in 2006 and serving as senior correspondent until 2013. She is a contributor to the Florida Phoenix, which first published this essay.

Excerpt from:
The path back to sanity is not so clear: Hate, venom and a former president who seems to think he's still president - ncpolicywatch.com

Have Americans still got the guts for democracy? In light of recent events in Washington, youd have to say its doubtful.

Last week, the Senate voted 54-35 to establish an independent commission to investigate the seditious Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol the most violent attack there since the War of 1812. The House had previously approved the measure 252-175.

If the Senate vote were a football score, youd call a 19-point win decisive. And yet, the measure failed to survive a Republican filibuster, a quaint Senate rule requiring a supermajority of 60 votes to become law.

Created during racial segregation and used for decades to block civil rights reforms, the filibuster is found nowhere in the U.S. Constitution. Its neither a law nor a Supreme Court ruling. Its merely a Senate custom and an openly undemocratic one which could be eliminated tomorrow by a simple majority vote.

The Senate is a conservative institution by definition. It gives far more power and influence to small rural states than to large, metropolitan ones where most people live. Citizens of Wyoming, population 579,000, for example, have about 70 times the influence in the U.S. Senate as citizens of California, population 39.5 million.

Only major constitutional surgery can change that, so its never going to happen. No point even talking about it.

Add the filibuster, however, and its a recipe for legislative paralysis: to wit, a government that refuses to defend itself against violent insurrection because it might hurt Citizen Trumps feelings.

Or might put Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in a tight spot. Not to mention Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. These two heroes spoke out decisively in the immediate aftermath of the January coup attempt, but now the wind has changed and theyre busily hunting cover.

If you cant get a Republican to support a nonpartisan analysis of why the Capitol was attacked the first time since the War of 1812, then what are you holding out hope for? asks Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

What, indeed?

Former Obama White House aide David Plouffe put it even more bluntly on Twitter: Democracy dying so the filibuster can live would seem a terrible way for this experiment to end.

Polls have shown that Americans support the establishment of a Jan. 6 commission by 56% to 30% a clear majority. Even 28% of Republicans would be interested in finding out, for example, how many of those tours given by right-wing members of Congress on Jan. 5 comprised pre-riot reconnaissance. Or who gave the stand down order preventing the National Guard from arriving on time, and why.

Just how organized was the conspiracy that resulted in uniformed Proud Boys running through the halls of Congress chanting Hang Mike Pence! while the vice presidents security team hustled him into hiding?

Did the Proud Boys keep it a secret from their pal Roger Stone? Did he neglect to tell his pal Donald J. Trump?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Senate Republicans, not so much.

Look, under current circumstances, 54-35 equates to a thunderous majority. The filibuster, however, equates with doing nothing, and with political cowardice.

Indeed, the filibuster is arguably more responsible than anything else for the disdain with which most Americans view Congress congenital inability to act. Thats certainly how Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., sees it.

If they block the Jan. 6 commission, we will have to abolish the filibuster, Markey told The Washington Post. If the Republicans block climate action, we will have to abolish the filibuster. If Republicans block voting rights, well have to abolish the filibuster. If Republicans block gun control legislation, we will have to abolish the filibuster. So I think that its just continuing to move towards the inevitability of the unavoidable necessity of repealing the filibuster.

And yet, preserving the filibuster is seemingly more important to certain moderate Democrats specifically Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. than all of those things. See, something else the filibuster does is enhance the power and visibility of individual senators one reason President Joe Biden, a 30-year Senate veteran, is himself iffy about abolition.

The argument is that the 60-vote Senate requirement somehow fosters bipartisanship, although nobody ever says how. Mostly it now fosters Manchins televised imitations of Maines GOP Sen. Susan Collins routinely regretting this and deploring that, before falling quietly in line. (In fairness, Manchin and Collins both voted for the Jan. 6 commission.)

On the day after voting to drop the filibuster, Manchin would return to being just another of 50 Democratic senators. So theres that.

Others argue that should Republicans retake the Senate come 2022, Democrats could come to regret it. Could be, although does anybody think the GOP wont ditch the rule whenever its convenient?

In the foreseeable future, theres no chance of either party securing a 60-vote majority. The choice is between majority rule and paralysis.

Gene Lyons is a columnist for the Arkansas Times.

Send letters to letters@suntimes.com.

Link:
Blame it on the filibuster | Lyons - Chicago Sun-Times

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A man was arrested in Arizona on suspicion of entering the U.S. Capitol during theJan. 6 riot and yelling and striking two officers.

James Burton McGrew faces multiple federal charges in a complaint made public this week, including engaging inphysical violence in a restricted building and assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer.

A federal complaint with arrest warrant was issued May 27 fromWashington, D.C. McGrew was taken into custodyin Glendale on Friday, according to the FBI.

It was unclear whether McGrew is also an Arizona resident; his hometown was not available from the FBI.

The list: These are the Arizonans arrested so far after rampage at U.S. Capitol

The federal complaint said video footage from a body camera worn by police officers shows McGrew inside the U.S. Capitol shortly before 3 p.m. on Jan. 6 and captures him lifting his white T-shirt to display a large tattoo across his stomach that says"King James."

The FBI says a 2012 booking photo shows that James Burton McGrew has a tattoo across his stomach that says, "King James."(Photo: FBI)

The complaint saidMcGrew aggressively approached law enforcement officers, yelling Were coming in here, whether you like it or not and Fight with us, not against us. Body cameras reportedly show McGrew inside the Capitol Rotunda at 3:05 p.m. whilelaw enforcement tried to push the rioters back.

The federal complaint alleges McGrew was pushed back with the crowd and lungedforward to strike a law enforcement officer. He retreated as officers yelled at the crowd to move back.But within seconds, the complaint alleged, McGrew disobeyed thecommands and moved forward.

The FBI says police officer body camera footage showed a tattoo on James Burton McGrew's stomach when he raised his shirt while inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.(Photo: FBI)

He screamed at officers, according to the federal complaint. When one officertold him toJust leave, just leave man," McGrew screamed back,You leave. You leave. This is our house."

The federal complaint says law enforcement tried to move people toward the door, using batons and telling them to "move back." McGrew allegedly struck another officer and lunged for his baton.

McGrew could not be reached for comment by The Arizona Republic, and court records do not yet list his attorney's name.

Federal prosecutors continue to charge participants in the Jan. 6 riot, adding to dozens of arrests that took place in Washington, D.C., that day. More than 400 people face charges. Five people died. About140 police officers were injured.

Inside: QAnon,Patriot groups that stormed US Capitol have deep roots in Arizona

Many of the rioters came from PresidentDonald Trumps Save America Rally that began hours earlier ata park near the White House. Trump spoke to them for more than an hour, insistingthe presidential election had been stolen.

As Congress started to count Electoral College votes, thousandsof supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building, sending lawmakers scrambling for safety and prompting evacuations.Vice President Mike Pence had to be moved to a secure location.

The FBI said a tipster contacted federal authorities on Jan. 7 with information that McGrew had traveled to Washington to protest what he called the "stolen vote." The tipster claimed McGrew showed a video of himself inside the U.S. Capitol on the day of the riot.Another tipster provided the FBI with photos in February that purportedly show McGrew inside the Capitol.

The FBI said it matched photos of McGrew's tattoo across his stomach with a photo from a 2012 booking photo. It was unclear from the federal complaintwhere the booking photo was taken.

Reach the reporter atanne.ryman@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8072. Follow her on Twitter @anneryman.

Support local journalism.Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2021/06/02/james-burton-mcgrew-king-james-belly-tattoo-arrested-arizona-striking-2-officers-capitol-riot-jan-6/7499980002/

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Man arrested in Arizona accused of striking 2 officers in U.S. Capitol riot; identified by his 'King James' belly tattoo - The Arizona Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) What insurrection?

Flouting all evidence and their own first-hand experience, a small but growing number of Republican lawmakers are propagating a false portrayal of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, brazenly arguing that the rioters who used flagpoles as weapons, brutally beat police officers and chanted that they wanted to hang Vice President Mike Pence were somehow acting peacefully in their violent bid to overturn Joe Bidens election.

One Republican at a hearing Wednesday called the rioters a mob of misfits. Another compared them to tourists. And a third suggested the sweeping federal investigation into the riot which has yielded more than 400 arrests and counting amounts to a national campaign of harassment.

Its a turn of events that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, another target of the rioters, called appalling and sick, and it raises the possibility that the publics understanding of the worst domestic attack on Congress in 200 years an attack that was captured extensively on video could become distorted by the same kinds of disinformation that fueled former President Donald Trumps false claims of a stolen election. It was the lie about the election that motivated the rioters in the first place.

I dont know of a normal day around here when people are threatening to hang the vice president of the United States or shoot the speaker, or injure so many police officers, said Pelosi, who has pushed for a bipartisan commission to investigate the riots.

The hearing Wednesday was supposed to be the latest dive by congressional investigators into the chaos of Jan. 6 the missed warning signs, confusion and delays that allowed the rioters to terrorize the Capitol for an entire afternoon. But several Republicans used their rounds of questioning not to pepper the witnesses with questions but to downplay the brutal assault on Americas seat of democracy.

Lets be honest with the American people it was not an insurrection, and we cannot call it that and be truthful, said Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Republican from Georgia serving his first term.

Clyde said one video feed of the rioters looked like they were on a normal tourist visit. Those in the video, taken in Statuary Hall, were able to enter the building after rioters broke through glass, pummeled officers and busted through the doors as lawmakers were frantically evacuated. They were headed to the House chamber where they tried to beat down the doors with lawmakers still inside.

Clyde wasnt the only Republican making that argument. Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar portrayed a woman who was shot and killed by Capitol Police as she tried to break through a door next to the House chamber as a martyr. He said Ashli Babbitt was executed and noted she was an Air Force veteran who was wearing an American flag. The Department of Justice decided after an investigation not to charge the police officer who shot her.

The Justice Department, Gosar said, is harassing peaceful patriots across the country as federal prosecutors file charges against hundreds of people who stormed the Capitol and participated in the riot. The massive investigation, one of the largest in American history, remains ongoing with federal agents continuing to serve search warrants and attempting to locate dozens of other people still being sought for questioning.

Georgia Rep. Jody Hice also painted the rioters as the victims, noting that they were four of the people who died, including Babbitt. The other three suffered medical emergencies while part of the crowd laying siege to the Capitol. It was Trump supporters who lost their lives that day, not Trump supporters who were taking the lives of others, Hice said.

A fifth person, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed immediately after the insurrection and died the next day. Video shows two men spraying him and another officer with a chemical, but the Washington medical examiner said Sicknick suffered a stroke and died from natural causes. The men have been charged with assaulting the officers.

Two other officers took their own lives in the days afterward, and dozens more were hurt including one officer who had a heart attack and others who suffered traumatic brain injuries and permanent disabilities. The union that represents the Capitol Police said some of the officers may never return to work.

The attempt to defend the insurrectionists came on the same day that House Republicans voted to oust Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from their leadership team for repeatedly rebuking Trump for his false claims that the election was stolen. Cheney voted with Democrats to impeach Trump for telling his supporters hours before the Jan. 6 attack to fight like hell to overturn Bidens win. Trumps lies about widespread election fraud were rebuked by numerous courts, election officials across the country and his own attorney general.

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, who led the Democrats impeachment prosecution and sits on the Oversight Committee, said after the hearing that he believes that Republicans were emboldened and emancipated by Cheneys ouster earlier in the day.

They have declared themselves to be on the side of Donald Trump and the big lie, and the big lie now has spread outwards to include denial of what happened on Jan. 6, Raskin said.

Timothy Naftali, a professor of history and public service at New York University, says it is deeply cynical to set aside the insurrection as if it didnt happen. He compares it to political elites in Southern states after the Civil War who failed to examine its causes, which he says prevented racial reconciliation and healing and still affects the country to this day.

Political amnesia never helps, Naftali said. Its a source of poison.

Given the extensive record of the attack, captured in video and photos seen the world over, defending the insurrectionists required some creative omissions. One point Clyde emphasized was that the rioters never made it to the House floor even though they tried, only to be held back by police officers with guns drawn. Some lawmakers were taking cover in the gallery of the chamber as they tried to beat down the doors.

I can tell you the House floor was never breached and it was not an insurrection, Clyde said. This is the truth.

The mob did break into the Senate minutes after senators had evacuated, some carrying zip ties and tactical equipment. They rifled through desks and hunted for lawmakers, yelling where are they? They walked into Pelosis office, stealing a laptop and calling out her name while some of her staff huddled quietly under furniture.

Other Republicans some quietly, some publicly have made clear they dont agree with their colleagues.

I was there, said Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who was caught in security video being diverted away from the rioters by a police officer. What happened was a violent effort to interfere with and prevent the constitutional order of installing a new president. And as such, it was an insurrection against the Constitution. It resulted in severe property damage, severe injuries and death.

Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley, another Democratic member of the Oversight panel, says the Republican denials are wishful thinking that reverberates with their most partisan voters.

These folks passionately want what they want to be true, Quigley said after the hearing. So its no longer Ill believe it when I see it. Its Ill see it when I believe it.

____

Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Michael Balsamo and Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report.

Read more:
What insurrection? Growing number in GOP downplay Jan. 6 - AP 16 hours ago - The Associated Press