Letters from an American - January 6, 2024

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

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January 6, 2025. In less than 40 minutes today in snow-covered Washington, D.C., a joint session of Congress counted the certified electoral votes that will make Republican Donald Trump President of the United States at noon on January 20. Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the ceremony in her role as President of the Senate, announcing to Congress the ballot totals. The ceremony went smoothly, without challenges to any of the certified state ballots. Trump won 312 electoral votes. Harris, who was the Democratic nominee for president, won 226. The Democrats emphasized routine process and acceptance of election results to reinforce

that the key element of democracy is the peaceful transfer of power. Before the session, Harris released a video on social media reminding people that the peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy. As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny. But at the session, the tableau and the dais itself illustrated that Republicans have elevated lawmakers who reject that principle. Behind the Vice President sat the newly re-elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike

Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, who was a key player in the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He lied about fraud, recruited colleagues to join a lawsuit challenging the election results from the key states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. And after the January 6th riot, challenged the counting of certified votes

from Arizona and Pennsylvania. After the session concluded, Harris told reporters, well, today was obviously a very important day, and it was about what should be the norm and what the American people should be able to take for granted, which is that one of the most important pillars of our democracy is that there will be a peaceful transfer of power. And today I did what I have done my entire career,

which is to take seriously the oath that I have taken many times to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, which included today performing my constitutional duties to ensure that the people of America, the voters of America, will have their votes counted, that those votes matter, and that they will determine then the outcome of an election. I do believe very strongly that America's democracy is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it. Every single person, their willingness to fight for and respect the importance of our democracy. Otherwise, it is very fragile and it will not be able to withstand

moments of crisis. And today America's democracy stood. Democracy stood in the sense that its norms were honored today as they were not four years ago, which is no small thing. But it is a blow indeed that the man who shattered those norms by trying to overturn the will of the American voters and seize the government will soon be leading it again. It did not seem initially as if any such a resurrection was possible. While MAGA lawmakers and influencers tried to insist that Antifa, or FBI plants, had launched the riot that made congress members hide in fear for their lives while Secret Service agents rushed Trump's Vice President Mike Pence to a secure location. That left at least seven people dead and at least 140 police officers wounded.

And that did about three million dollars of damage to the Capitol as rioters broke windows and doors, looted offices, smeared feces on the walls, and tore down an American flag to replace it with a Trump flag. There was little doubt, even among Trump loyalists, as to who was to blame. All four living presidents condemned Trump and his supporters. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram all suspended him. Members of his cabinet resigned in protest. Corporations and institutions dropped their support for Trump. Indeed it seemed that the whole Trump ship was

foundering. Trump advisor Hope Hicks texted Ivanka Trump's chief of staff that the Trump family was now royally f***ed. In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn't include speaking engagements at the local Proud Boys chapter, Hicks wrote. And all of us that didn't have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed. I'm so mad and upset. We all look like domestic terrorists now. Not being dramatic, but we are all f***ed. Even then, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican of Kentucky, delivered a blistering account of Trump's behavior and said, There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day. But McConnell appeared reluctant to see Trump impeached. He delayed the Senate trial

of the House charge of incitement of insurrection until Biden was president, then pressed for Trump's acquittal on the grounds that he was no longer president. Even before that February 2021 acquittal, then House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican of California, who had had a shouting match with Trump on January 6th in which he allegedly begged Trump to call off his supporters and yelled that the rioters were trying to kill me, traveled to see Trump at Mar-a-Lago to get him to support Republican candidates in the 2022 election. Their hunger to keep Trump's voters began the process of whitewashing Trump's attempt to overturn our democracy.

At the same time, those Republicans who had either participated in the scheme or gone along with it continued to defend their behavior. As time passed, they downplayed the violence of January 6th. As early as May, 2021, some began to claim it was less a deadly attack than a normal tourist visit. When the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the US Capitol began to collect testimony and evidence, Trump and fellow Republicans did all

they could to discredit it. As it became clear that Trump would win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, they worked to exonerate him from wrongdoing and accused the Democrats of misleading Americans about the events of that day. In February 2021, McConnell defended his vote to acquit Trump of inciting insurrection by promising the courts would take care of him. President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office as an ordinary citizen, he said, still liable for everything he did while in office and didn't get away with anything yet.

We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation and former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one. But while more than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes associated with the January 6th attack on the US Capitol and many of Trump's lawyers and advisors have been disbarred or face charges, Trump has managed to avoid legal accountability by using every possible means to delay the federal case brought against him for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. And now, with the help of a compliant Supreme Court stacked with three of

his own appointees, he has gained the immunity McConnell said he did not have. On July 1st 2024, the Supreme Court handed down the aptly named Donald Trump v United States decision, establishing that sitting presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for acts within the scope of their official duties. Before the new slimmer set of charges brought after this decision could go forward, voters re-elected Trump to the presidency, triggering the Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

As Republicans whitewashed January 6th and the legal system failed to hold Trump to account, the importance of Trump's attack on our democracy seemed to fade. Even the Trump v. U.S. Supreme Court decision, which undermined the key principle that all Americans are equal before the law by declaring Trump above it, got less attention than its astonishingly revolutionary position warranted, coming as it did just four days after President Joe Biden looked and sounded old in a televised presidential debate. As the 2024 election

approached, Trump rewrote the events of January 6 so completely that he began calling it a day of love. He said those found guilty of crimes related to January 6 were political prisoners and vowed to pardon them on his first day in office. Dan Barry and Alan Foyer noted in the New York Times today that Trump spokesperson Caroline Levitt, referring to the Left's fear-mongering over January 6, claims that the mainstream media still refuses to report the truth about what happened that day. And yet, today, Trump's lawyers wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding he prevent the public release of the final report written by special counsel Jack Smith about Trump's attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

They say it would disrupt the presidential transition by giving rise to a media storm of false and unfair criticism and interfere with presidential immunity by diverting Trump's time and energy. Having reviewed the two-volume report, the lawyers objected to its claim that Trump and others engaged in an unprecedented criminal effort, that Trump was the head of the criminal conspiracies, that he hatched a criminal design, and that he violated multiple federal criminal laws. They also took issue with the baseless attacks

on other anticipated members of President Trump's incoming administration, which are an obvious effort to interfere with upcoming confirmation hearings. They conclude that releasing Smith's report would not be in the public interest. Letters from an American was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dedham, Massachusetts. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.