• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Not all heroes wear capes.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

The words do not have to be perfect.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Let’s finish the job.

The willow is too close to the house.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

We still have time to mess this up!

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

“woke” is the new caravan.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Insurrectionists Open Thread: A Night At the Willard

Insurrectionists Open Thread: A Night At the Willard

by Anne Laurie|  October 25, 20219:19 pm| 41 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Trump Crime Cartel, Violent Insurrection at the Capitol

FacebookTweetEmail

Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon, former NYC police chief Bernard Kerik, conservative lawyer John Eastman, One America News reporter Christina Bobb, retired Army colonel Phil Waldron, Boris Epshteyn, and others met in a “war room” to overthrow the election. https://t.co/JE2UEfbX0v

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) October 23, 2021

Hunter Walker is a reputable reporter, and I truly hope his latest scoop results in further investigation and meted consequences. But let’s not overlook the investigation the Washington Post dropped over the weekend — “Ahead of Jan. 6, Willard hotel in downtown D.C. was a Trump team ‘command center’ for effort to deny Biden the presidency”:

… The Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse and the ensuing attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob would draw the world’s attention to the quest to physically block Congress from affirming Joe Biden’s victory. But the activities at the Willard that week add to an emerging picture of a less visible effort, mapped out in memos by a conservative pro-Trump legal scholar and pursued by a team of presidential advisers and lawyers seeking to pull off what they claim was a legal strategy to reinstate Trump for a second term.

They were led by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani. Former chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon was an occasional presence as the effort’s senior political adviser. Former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik was there as an investigator. Also present was John Eastman, the scholar, who outlined scenarios for denying Biden the presidency in an Oval Office meeting on Jan. 4 with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

They sought to make the case to Pence and ramp up pressure on him to take actions on Jan. 6 that Eastman suggested were within his powers, three people familiar with the operation said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Their activities included finding and publicizing alleged evidence of fraud, urging members of state legislatures to challenge Biden’s victory and calling on the Trump-supporting public to press Republican officials in key states.

The effort underscores the extent to which Trump and a handful of true believers were working until the last possible moment to subvert the will of the voters, seeking to pressure Pence to delay or even block certification of the election, leveraging any possible constitutional loophole to test the boundaries of American democracy…

In seeking to compel testimony from Bannon, the congressional panel investigating Jan. 6 this week cited his reported presence at the “ ‘war room’ organized at the Willard.” The House voted Thursday to hold Bannon in contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with the committee’s subpoena.

The committee has also requested documents and communications related to Eastman’s legal advice and analysis…

The three people familiar with the operation described intense work in the days and hours leading up to and even extending beyond 1 p.m. on Jan 6, when Congress convened for the counting of electoral votes.

In those first days in January, from the command center, Trump allies were calling members of Republican-dominated legislatures in swing states that Eastman had spotlighted in his memos, including Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona, encouraging them to convene special sessions to investigate fraud and to reassign electoral college votes from Biden to Trump, two of the people familiar with the operation said.

On Jan. 2, Trump, Giuliani and Eastman spoke to 300 state legislators via a conference call meant to arm them with purported evidence of fraud and galvanize them to take action to “decertify” their election results. “You are the real power,” Trump told the state lawmakers, according to a Washington Examiner report. “You’re the ones that are going to make the decision.”…

After the violence began, Trump used his Twitter account to ask his supporters to “Stay peaceful,” but notably did not tell them to go home until 4:17 p.m., when he tweeted a video of himself addressing the Capitol rioters. “I know your pain. I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us,” he said. “We have to have peace. So go home. We love you, you’re very special.”…

The Willard isn’t cheap & this story reports the campaign paid $55K in bills for the Trump war room. This is campaign activity, not covered by executive privilege unlike the work of the presidency. The Jan 6 Comm is entitled to info about who knew/who paid https://t.co/UdcGIssCF4

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) October 23, 2021

Additionally at the Willard Hotel, InfoWars and Roger Stone both booked suites with large common rooms. Both of these photos are from the suites they booked on January 5th and 6th.

In attendance: Michael Flynn, Owen Shroyer, Roger Stone, among others. pic.twitter.com/jXF30DSIhG

— The Sparrow Project (@sparrowmedia) October 20, 2021

ICYMI:

Two sources who planned the Jan. 6 rally in DC and related events say members who participated in "briefing" conversations or had staffers join included Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, Mo Brooks, Madison Cawthorn, Marjorie Greene, Andy Biggs, and Louie Gohmert https://t.co/HfpcnB1TwN

— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) October 25, 2021

“anonymous goon says they talked to paul gosar who said maybe he talked to trump about pardons” is a game of idiot telephone that all very well may be true but is effectively useless information in the absence of many layers of difficult to obtain corroboration

— kilgore trout, defective towel (@KT_So_It_Goes) October 25, 2021

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: «Cold and Wet and No Energy – It Must Be Fall. Cold and Wet and No Energy – It Must Be Fall (Open Thread)
Next Post: I Feel Personally Attacked »

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  1. 1.

    Alison Rose

    October 25, 2021 at 9:26 pm

    I hate these people and I hate them even more for making me feel such hatred.

  2. 2.

    debbie

    October 25, 2021 at 9:27 pm

    Anyone recognize the three chicks on the couch?

  3. 3.

    debbie

    October 25, 2021 at 9:29 pm

    Also, Gosar’s talk about a blanket pardon shows he knew the insurrection was a criminal act, not some righteous defense of the Constitution.  ?

  4. 4.

    Alison Rose

    October 25, 2021 at 9:30 pm

    @debbie: the entertainment

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    October 25, 2021 at 9:32 pm

    Everyone who was in that room is an enemy of the Constitution of the United States.  Indict, try, convict and imprison every last one of these fucking traitors.

  6. 6.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 25, 2021 at 9:33 pm

    @debbie: The Weird Sisters?  “By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes.”  Except, in this timeline, he’s dumb and tacky too.​

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 25, 2021 at 9:33 pm

    @debbie:

    Really hard to tell on the iPhone, but the middle one (blonde) looks a lot like Greene, and the brunette in the white watch cap on the far end bears a resemblance to Boebert. But possibly I’m throwing out those names just because I so desperately want there to be incontrovertible evidence that they were active participants.

  8. 8.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 25, 2021 at 9:33 pm

    @Alison Rose: *ouch*

    The anti-misogynist in me winces, but the American Patriot laughs.  Those “chicks” were no angels.

  9. 9.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 25, 2021 at 9:34 pm

    @debbie:

    Yes, excellent point.

  10. 10.

    bbleh

    October 25, 2021 at 9:36 pm

    Contra Kilgore Trout, this is very useful stuff.  Gosar et al. will be asked repeatedly about it, which will embarrass them.  And when (certainly) they deny it, it’ll feel like a betrayal to the goons.  It’s a club and a wedge.

  11. 11.

    Mart

    October 25, 2021 at 9:36 pm

    Stephen K. Bannon still a Republican thought leader with an influential podcast after being arrested on a billionaire Chinese expats yacht for stealing money from rubes who donated to a bullshit privatized border wall grift. Planning the soft coup while out on $5M bail. And later pardoned by Trump for his work to start the steal. And the lame-stream news still reports on his fascist brain farts like they mean something.

  12. 12.

    Another Scott

    October 25, 2021 at 9:38 pm

    @debbie: As one might expect, Seth Abramson has a 100,000 word SubStack about it with some IDs.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  13. 13.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 25, 2021 at 9:39 pm

    @debbie: Gosar may have either Parkinson’s or Lewy Body Dementia based on his inability to control his physical movements. It would also explain his general and specific incoherence.

  14. 14.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 25, 2021 at 9:40 pm

    @bbleh:

    Gosar’s siblings were so, so right. Too bad voters in his district didn’t listen to them.

  15. 15.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 25, 2021 at 9:41 pm

    Walker’s reporting is important, but…

    The real issue with what he is reporting is actually getting the subtext right. What he’s reporting is clearly conspiring  by these people, the question is conspiring to do what? Protest the electoral count in the House and Senate? Have protestors provide support for that? Or where the members of Congress and staff fully aware of what Trump, Giuliani, Meadows, Eastman, the nebbish at DOJ who wanted to be named Attorney General, etc were really up to?
    If I had to guess, I’d say Biggs, Brooks, and maybe Greene might have been deeply involved. I’m pretty sure Boebert is too dumb to fix a sandwich. And you couldn’t include Cawthorne because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut to save his life.
    Walker’s reporting is important, but it raises as many questions as it answers.
  16. 16.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 25, 2021 at 9:41 pm

    @bbleh:  It’s a club and a wedge.

    Wow, a sandwich and a salad.

  17. 17.

    Suzanne

    October 25, 2021 at 9:43 pm

    Gosar is THE WORST.

    Just a side note: When you’re wondering why the fuck Kyrsten Sinema just may be the best you can expect out of Arizona, remember that Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs are also from there and she has to compete in those places.

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 25, 2021 at 9:43 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: It’s neither of them. The blonde’s hair is too long, the wrong shade, and her body shape is different from Greene’s flabby fit. The brunette isn’t Boebert.

  19. 19.

    Suzanne

    October 25, 2021 at 9:46 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: A floor wax AND a dessert topping.

  20. 20.

    Almost Retired

    October 25, 2021 at 9:47 pm

    I am sure there were similar meetings held in the luxury suites at the Hotel Adlon 88 years ago.

  21. 21.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 25, 2021 at 9:47 pm

    @Another Scott: I thought the blonde was Kristin Davis. That makes sense. She pretty much goes everywhere with Stone.

  22. 22.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    October 25, 2021 at 9:51 pm

    I am with Killgore there is not going be a wow smoking gun in this. As with Russiagate, these clowns are so fucked in the head that they are just doing random shit that only shockers calling what they did “planning” is a overstatement and the sheer amount of prescription drugs taken in that hotel room. And then people died because of their bullshit.

  23. 23.

    Chetan Murthy

    October 25, 2021 at 9:51 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Images check out.

  24. 24.

    MagdaInBlack

    October 25, 2021 at 9:53 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Had to look that one up. Yeah

    Eta: Ick. Both of them.

  25. 25.

    Jeffro

    October 25, 2021 at 9:55 pm

    I want to know who lined up the Oath Keepers and 3 Percenters for 1/6.

    I want to know who told the Oath Keepers and 3 Percenters exactly where the weak points were in the Capitol’s defenses (the un-reinforced windows).

    I want everyone who funded the 1/6 rally publicly named, shamed, and wherever possible, banned from public service and/or their places of employment.  A Supreme Court justice’s wife was one of the major funders and organizers!  And that same justice feels free to lecture the country about partisan attacks on the Court!

    I’d also like our more imaginative columnists, pundits, and reporters to remind the country (frequently!) that given the assortment of violent, well-armed goons that attacked our Capitol, 1/6 could easily have ended with the executions of the VP and Speaker on the Capitol steps…all at the incitement of the outgoing POTUS.

  26. 26.

    debbie

    October 25, 2021 at 9:59 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    The chin’s not pointy enough for Boebert and I doubt MTG would wear false eyelashes. I was thinking they were Stone’s escorts.

  27. 27.

    debbie

    October 25, 2021 at 10:03 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    As a trophy or as a co-conspirator?

  28. 28.

    Mike in NC

    October 25, 2021 at 10:04 pm

    I’m pretty certain that Boris Epshteyn reports directly to Putin.

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 25, 2021 at 10:06 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Okay. I said it was hard to tell on my small iPhone screen. And I didn’t even mention my dim, dull, 79-year-old eyes.

  30. 30.

    Adam L Silverman

    October 25, 2021 at 10:15 pm

    @debbie: He ran her campaigns for office and they’ve been thick as thieves for a long time. He’s also a submissive swinger, so…

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 25, 2021 at 10:17 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Gosar may have either Parkinson’s or Lewy Body Dementia based on his inability to control his physical movements. It would also explain his general and specific incoherence.

    According to Wikipedia, it’s arthritis and a couple of compressed discs. Article says nothing about LBD or Parkinsonism Dunning-Kruger.

    Gosar has arthritis and has had two compressed vertebrae in his back that have required surgery to correct.[133] He cites years of hunching over for long periods while a dentist as the cause, as well as genetics and a history of playing rugby.[133]

    In my most horrific nightmares, I can’t imagine having Paul Gosar as my dentist. Even if Laurence Olivier played him.

  32. 32.

    debbie

    October 25, 2021 at 10:30 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    It bears repeating: Ick.

  33. 33.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 25, 2021 at 10:38 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I think it is completely unfair of him to blame rugby.

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 25, 2021 at 10:40 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It’s Paul Gosar. What do you expect?

  35. 35.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 25, 2021 at 10:54 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Good point.

  36. 36.

    dww44

    October 25, 2021 at 10:56 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Their incompetence makes them no less guilty of planning to overthrow an election and subvert our democracy and they should pay for it.  Maybe be a lesson to other dummies in their ranks that being dumb is no excuse and doesn’t grant an automatic get out of jail card free either. And, if Stone and Bannon end up undoing those ill gotten pardons of theirs, then so much the sweeter the revenge.  Makes up a bit for what we’ve endured for 5 years.​
    ​
    ​
    ​
    ​

  37. 37.

    Mike G

    October 25, 2021 at 11:06 pm

    If they uncover all this dirty stuff then no punishment comes of it, it will embolden the worst and piss off the rest of us even more.

    Comity-General Garland needs to find a backbone stat.

  38. 38.

    Chris T.

    October 26, 2021 at 1:25 am

    Arthritis and compressed vertebrae won’t cause the symptoms Gosar displays. For those you need full blown brain-level neurological issues. I can’t say what they are without seeing test results, but any of several kinds of dementia would fit.

  39. 39.

    Leslie

    October 26, 2021 at 4:00 am

    @Chris T.: Neurological issues stemming from chronic pain and accompanying drug abuse, perhaps?

  40. 40.

    Regnad Kcin

    October 26, 2021 at 5:58 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:  hear, hear — it’s a ruffian’s game played by gentlemen. in this case, we’re talking a poltroon’s game, played by chowderheads

  41. 41.

    evodevo

    October 26, 2021 at 7:05 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: It was January, granted, but why are they all bundled up to the eyeballs in a HOTEL ROOM?  Looks like they knew they were involved in a shady meeting to me…

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Recent Comments

  • NotMax on Late Night Open Thread: Schadenfreude Shots All Round! (Mar 21, 2023 @ 3:27am)
  • 🐾BillinGlendaleCA on Late Night Open Thread: Schadenfreude Shots All Round! (Mar 21, 2023 @ 3:18am)
  • Frankensteinbeck on Late Night Open Thread: Schadenfreude Shots All Round! (Mar 21, 2023 @ 3:18am)
  • NotMax on Late Night Open Thread: Schadenfreude Shots All Round! (Mar 21, 2023 @ 3:17am)
  • Baud on Late Night Open Thread: Schadenfreude Shots All Round! (Mar 21, 2023 @ 3:12am)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
Classified Documents: A Primer
State & Local Elections Discussion

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice Events

5/14  The Apocalypse
5/20  Home Away from Home
5/29  We’re Back, Baby
7/21  Merging!

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!