Trump declared a supposedly peaceful transition while the notices of death were still rolling in.
In his vanity, he denied his country and his successor such a transition.
L ast night, Donald Trump read a speech from a teleprompter. After condemning the violence of the last day, he acknowledged the certification of the 2020 election. “My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power,” he said.
Too late. Maybe delivering a real-estate project or paying off an angry creditor a few weeks late can be rewritten as “seamless.” But governing is different. After two months, five dead souls at the Capitol, a national disgrace broadcast around the world, and a significant portion of his remaining administration resigning, Donald Trump’s concession and promise of civic comity came too late.
Donald Trump’s name will be associated with the words “peaceful transition of power” for the rest of our lives. Because, in his vanity, he denied his country and his successor one. The phrase was a kind of cliché or ceremonial utterance in American politics — a civic liturgical phrase repeated so often that we were in danger of forgetting what it meant. Now every news-conscious adult in America will think of that scene at the Capitol when they hear it.
The image of protesters bursting through the Capitol gates and the strange horned figure Q Shaman calling out for Mike Pence to show himself will be played over and over again before presidential inaugurations.
We should have seen it coming. Trump refused to promise a peaceful transition during the election and for more than two months after the result was clear. He lied to his supporters about the nature of the election and the operation of our Constitution. He knowingly and falsely accused his own vice president of conniving to overturn the American form of government. His supporters stormed the Capitol searching for Mike Pence, one of them died in the affray, and a police officer died as well. Others died of “medical emergencies” they may have survived if emergency vehicles could have reached them more quickly.
The other side is contributing in its own ways. Joe Biden has been nowhere until he gave a speech amid the chaos that was moderately helpful, even dignified. But incoming Vice President Kamala Harris intervened yesterday to say that the events at the Capitol demonstrated America’s racism. She implied, falsely, that tear gas wasn’t used on the MAGA rampagers because they were white. In fact not all of them were white, and many of them were tear-gassed. My guess is that unlike this summer, she’s not going to promote a bail fund for the MAGA people arrested in the coming days. Thanks, Kamala.
But who can even focus on the incoming Democrats? Trump’s statement contained no concession that he lost, only that his focus was changing. He offered no congratulations to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. In fact, he did not even say their names.
Those omissions will be pondered and reinterpreted by the QAnon crowd. But his statement struck many of his diehards from the Capitol as a form of abandonment and betrayal. They had spent weeks reminding themselves that he hadn’t actually conceded. They understood perfectly that he had called for them to “show strength” at Congress. What else could he have meant? Now the gambit was over. Now they understood perfectly that he was encouraging their arrest and prosecution. Probably because he had been talked into doing it. That’s pathetic. Taking him seriously or literally was a crime. Trump said so. They were suckers.
Trump declared a peaceful transition while the notices of death were still rolling in.
But there is still hope. Our House and Senate finished their work despite the interruption. America’s partisan divide — which is painful and a source of fear for a great many — is reflected in the roughly balanced composition of the House and Senate. And the operation of our laws and customs, such as they are, give us an opportunity for renewal. Or at least for taking a deep breath.