At his first public event since last Wednesday’s riot, Trump callously dismissed his own role in the mayhem.
At his first public event since last Wednesday’s rally and riot in Washington, D.C., President Trump judged his own remarks at the rally “totally appropriate.” From Politico:
“If you read my speech — and many people have done it, and I’ve seen it both in the papers and in the media, on television — it’s been analyzed, and people thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, en route to Alamo, Texas.
“And if you look at what other people have said — politicians at a high level — about the riots during the summer, the horrible riots in Portland and Seattle and various other places, that was a real problem, what they said,” Trump continued.
“But they’ve analyzed my speech and my words and my final paragraph, my final sentence, and everybody — to the tee — thought it was totally appropriate.”
I’m sure Trump has been briefed on analysis from his lawyers and in the press about whether he could be charged with criminal incitement. And it’s true that it would be a very difficult case to make in court.
But “non-prosecutable” does not equal “totally appropriate.” Donald Trump’s lie, the lie that the election was stolen from him, drove or provided a pretext for violence. Lots of people trust the president, or think there is a cover story in doing so. The president accused his own vice president and the Congress of essentially overthrowing the American form of government in front of a large crowd, and encouraged them to go to the Capitol.
I think it very likely true that Trump simply hoped for a “show of strength” and a photo-op, maybe a visual that could be used to scare and cajole more Republicans into objecting to the vote. He wanted a set piece. But the words he used tapped directly into the deep revolutionary strain of American rhetoric, and Trump knew, or should have known, that some number of attendees wanted to get involved in a direct confrontation with senators and House members.
What Trump did last week involves real moral culpability in five needless deaths, in the physical-property destruction to the Capitol, and the tremendous national and international disgrace and damage of seeing the U.S. Capitol temporarily sacked during the transition of power. The tremendous new barriers erected in Washington, D.C., and going up in state capitols around the country are just the tiniest part of the bill coming due.
Anything that was good in Trump or Trumpism will be overshadowed by this disgrace. And even his devoted followers, fellow-travelers, or simply those who are ideologically anywhere near his neighborhood will face consequences for his reckless behavior. Losing their Parler accounts is just the start of the de-Trumpification to come. It’s not going to be pretty, and there will be collateral damage.
All the lies from Election Day up to that speech and even the tweets afterward led to that scene at the Capitol. None of it was appropriate. Trump’s habit of self-exculpation and self-aggrandizement, which was so often treated as a kind of endearing handicap, is, after these events, entirely repulsive.