I hate conspiratorial thinking, but something isn't right at the Secret Service.
The January 6 demonstration was no secret. Everyone got the word: "Be there. It will be wild." A huge crowed showed up. The Secret Service had plenty of warning that they had a job to do, and they didn't do it.
The Secret Service has experience handling mass demonstrations. In 1968 and 1969, when I was in D.C. for anti-war demonstrations, transit buses were lined up nose-to-tail surrounding sensitive spots.
The House January 6 Committee reported on Thursday that there was ample evidence sent to the FBI and Secret Service that armed people would be at the Stop the Steal rally. Well, of course. The mainstream media was full of stories about it. Trump had already directly spoken to the Proud Boys, telling them to "Stand back and stand by."
 |
| Oath Keeper. Ready for battle. |
People who follow Q-Anon and right wing social media chatter reported contemporaneously that the crowd would include people who praised 2nd Amendment power. On January 6 law enforcement agencies found and arrested people with explosives, handguns, and sniper rifles. People openly wore body armor and carried chemical sprays. Some Secret Service agents dispute the fine points of the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson. She said that the lack of screening for weapons was the specific doing of President Trump. She said he told them to turn off the magnetometers. She testified that Trump said,
Let my people in. I don’t fucking care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the fucking mags (metal detectors) away.
Maybe Trump grabbed the steering wheel of his vehicle to go to the capital, maybe he just lunged toward it. What is not disputed is that the Secret Service knew of the hazard, knew there were weapons. The Secret Service protects the Vice President and Speaker of the House. They were inside the Capitol carrying out a Constitutional duty.
The incident of Michael Pence's refusal to get into a Secret Service vehicle to escape the Capitol rioters takes on special significant in the context of the Secret Service failure. Pence appears to have had a premonition that the Secret Service was not just trying to protect him. It might be carrying out a plan to get him out of the Capitol.
I’m not getting in the car, Tim, I trust you, Tim, but you’re not driving the car. If I get in that vehicle, you guys are taking off. I’m not getting in the car.
Once he was out of the Capitol, ballot-counting would not take place as required by the Constitution. The transition of power would fail. Or, instead, Congress would be presided over by the Senate President Pro Temp, Charles Grassley, who might entertain the Trump's demand that electoral votes be discarded.
A new picture emerges of the Secret Service. They aren't--or at least were not--defending the president and the Constitution. They were carrying out the political agenda of Donald Trump, against the Constitution. In 2019 Trump made a very unusual appointment. The head of his protective detail, Antony Ornato, normally a non-political job, was appointed to be Trump's new Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. Washington Post reporter Carol Lessing described Ornato as "very, very close" to Trump and a "yes-man." After Trump left office Ornato returned to the Secret Service where he led training. He has been subject to questioning by the FBI and the House January 6 Committee. He resigned from the Secret Service in this August, amid that questioning.
Questions and doubts emerge--which is the basis for conspiratorial thinking. Perhaps Mike Pence knew something very corrupt was in the works, which is why he refused to enter the car. Was the Secret Service a Praetorian Guard of personal bodyguards loyal to the man, not the office? Is it still? If they are loyal to the man, not the office, which man?
Questions and doubt about our democratic institutions are the rot that undermines democracy. If institutions that employ armed agents aren't loyal to the Constitution then there is no reason to respect them. If democratic institutions aren't respected as legitimate, then democracy itself isn't respected. If democracy isn't legitimate then the will of the people gets expressed by people choosing to take power on their own. It's a dangerous line of thinking.
At the very end, Mike Pence held the line. He was prudent and loyal. Attorney General William Barr held the line. So did lawyers in the Department of Justice who threatened resignation. A great many voters don't seem to value that service. They are called RINOs now by Trump and apparently a majority of Republicans.
[Note: To get daily home delivery of this blog go to https://petersage.substack.com Subscribe. The blog is free and always will be.]
4 comments:
There is no need to disavow “conspiratorial thinking” per se, so long as the burden of production—enough to get it to the sober discussion table—is not confused with with the ultimate burden of persuasion. Concerted illicit group behavior is the baseline accusation.
The Secret Service is far from the only such agency properly under a 1/6 microscope. The Committee conspicuously failed in its initial promise to assess the performance and coordination of law enforcement, intelligence and armed forces before and during the riot.
What evidence was presented from the leaders primarily responsible arranging protection of the Capitol precincts, namely Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser? Maybe the written report will include issues of coordination and prevention.
Staying with Mr. Sage’s specific inquiry, though, one might expect a complicit Secret Service cadre to take Trump to the Capitol at some point, as he wished. The Praetorians were NOT bound to emperors personally, by the way, in contrast to their German bodyguards.
I hope those last four words meant this: Pence and Barr may be thought RINOs by the Trumpers, but the real RINOs are the ones who don't respect them. Along with Pence and Barr, may I suggest Cheney, Raffensperger, Murkowski, Sasse and even Sessions?
Crackpot conspiracy theories abound, based on crazy lies that are easily debunked: “Pizzagate,” the great CRT conspiracy, the “stolen” election, etc. On the other hand, people do hatch plots.
Mike Pence’s general counsel told the Jan. 6 committee that he didn’t get in the Secret Service car because he was determined to remain at the complex and complete his job. Based on the available facts, we’d be crazy not to suspect that whisking him away might be part of Trump’s plot to prevent Biden’s victory from becoming official.
What’s dismaying to those of us who take civics seriously is the GOP’s complicity in all this, embracing Trump’s lies and refusing to allow an independent commission to investigate his attempted coup. It isn’t “conspiratorial thinking” to assume the worst from people who have already shown it.
Also, Adam Kinzinger, Mitt Romney and Anthony Gonzalez. Going back further, Bob Corker. Justin Amash left the party and became a Libertarian.
Post a Comment