Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

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

White supremacy is terrorism.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

The revolution will be supervised.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

You are here: Home / Jan 6: Hearings / Important (Horrifying) Jan. 6 Read: ‘I Was Betrayed by President Trump’

Important (Horrifying) Jan. 6 Read: ‘I Was Betrayed by President Trump’

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As one of the Capitol Police officers who defended the United States against the mob on Jan. 6, 2021, I felt it was important for me to be in the committee room on June 28 to hear the former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony. Along with three colleagues, I went, even though I knew it would be difficult to relive the horrors I witnessed. Although I experienced the brutal onslaught of the insurrectionists, I was shocked to hear Ms. Hutchinson explain the extent to which President Donald Trump incited the people who almost killed me.

I am an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, a U.S. Army veteran and a sergeant who has worked on the force for 16 years, but I’ve never witnessed anything like the Jan. 6 attack — even in combat in Iraq. I was sure I was going to die that day, trampled by the hordes of Mr. Trump’s supporters trying to stop the official transfer of power on his behalf…

I don’t know what part of Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony enraged me most: that Mr. Trump wanted to be driven to the Capitol to lead the vicious riot, that he’d spurred his supporters on knowing they were armed or that he ignored some of his advisers and even his daughter, who told him to call it off, allegedly fighting with his own Secret Service agent after he refused to let the president be driven there.

Or maybe it was the fact that Mr. Trump eventually told the rioters who’d criminally assaulted my colleagues and me while trying to bring down the U.S. government: “Go home. We love you. You are very special.”…

I have spent a year and a half in physical therapy for chronic pain that I have been told will never go away. My young son almost lost his father, and my wife had to quit medical school because of the stress and demands of my ongoing recovery…

The enabling of Mr. Trump needs to stop now. He should not only be barred from running for any other government office; he should never be allowed near the White House again. I believe he betrayed his oath to defend the Constitution, and it was to the detriment of me, my colleagues and all Americans, whom he was supposed to protect.

Reader Interactions

39Comments

  2. 2.

    japa21

    I would like to see added to the last sentence, “as did every Republican office holder at any level who aided and abetted him.”

  4. 4.

    TS

    @germy shoemangler:

    According to wapo

    A committee aide said on a conference call with reporters Monday that the hearing will lay out the way that far-right militant groups such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and others took cues from Trump and his allies. Particular attention will be paid to his Dec. 19, 2020, posting on Twitter: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted. “Be there, will be wild!”

    …….

    Tuesday’s hearing, led by Reps. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) and Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), will also address the conspiracy theories, like QAnon, that ultimately radicalized some of the Americans who stormed the Capitol. One of the live witnesses scheduled to appear on Tuesday is Jason Van Tatenhove, who served as national spokesman for the Oath Keepers and as a close aide to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes from around 2014 to 2018 — an era he said Rhodes considered “the golden years” for his group.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/11/jan-6-hearing-expected-focus-link-between-militants-white-house/

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    Raskin told one of the networks that Patsy Baloney corroborated Hutchinson’s testimony, and I think he also said we’d see some of that deposition today. Also, I heard that the Thursday primetime hearing was punted to next week, which probably means they got even MORE damning goods on Tangerine Baal.

  6. 6.

    The Moar You Know

    The enabling of Mr. Trump needs to stop now.

    Wasn’t just him.  Bunch of Members of Congress involved in this thing as well.  Once again Trump is drawing attention away from the real problem, not a seditious president, but a political party and about 50% of the citizenry that has no problem ending democracy in the United States in order to get what they want.

  7. 7.

    ...now I try to be amused

    The enabling of Mr. Trump needs to stop now. He should not only be barred from running for any other government office; he should never be allowed near the White House again.

    Sgt. Gonell is too generous. Trump should be in prison.

  8. 8.

    CaseyL

    @The Moar You Know: This.  I want Trump barred from office, to be sure, but the main problem at this point is the Federalist Society takeover of the Judicial branch (notably SCOTUS), and the GOP state legislators ready to subvert elections.

    But none of that is part of the Committee’s brief, and unless/until they look into how the entire GOP Party apparatus enabled the delay in counting electoral votes, in order to facilitate Trump’s plot to overturn the election via Proud Boys/Oathkeepers threats, it will remain outside the Committee’s ambit.

  9. 9.

    Ohio Mom

    I truly feel for Officer Gonell and am very grateful for his service in defending democracy. I hope his family is getting the financial and other support they need and deserve.

    Then I remember that most law enforcement across the country are rabid Republicans and start to wonder if stories like these about their peers would penetrate their thick skulls. Probably not.

  10. 10.

    bbleh

    Alas, most Republicans (including most Good Germans Republicans) will stop reading at “immigrant.”

  11. 11.

    David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch

    Dump could shoot a white police officer on 5th Avenue and still retain his cult

  13. 13.

    Jeffro

    I will have to forward that article around all day, just to make sure every last “Back the Blue” and “Blue Lives Matter” wingnut that I know squirms, if only for a moment.

  14. 14.

    danielx

    @Jeffro: 

    I will have to forward that article around all day, just to make sure every last “Back the Blue” and “Blue Lives Matter” wingnut that I know squirms, if only for a moment.

    God’s sakes, how many do you know?

  17. 17.

    BeautifulPlumage

    I thought the hearing today started at 10 ET? Shouldn’t they have started 30 min ago?

  23. 23.

    Brachiator

    A committee aide said on a conference call with reporters Monday that the hearing will lay out the way that far-right militant groups such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and others took cues from Trump and his allies.

    This is important, but we should always note that many of the January 6 crowd were from Trump’s base of ordinary people coming to Washington to do violence.

  26. 26.

    CaseyL

    @Redshift:  Two takeaways so far for me: Water is apparently much more prevalent in the cosmos than we thought; and, holy hell, we can actually see the binary star(s) in the ring nebula!!

  33. 33.

    There go two miscreants

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
    Also a reminder that although the belief in “gods” may have originated as a way to explain the natural world, religious rituals, like gang tattoos, are primarily a way of expressing the sentiment that “We” are superior to “Them”.

  35. 35.

    Steeplejack

    @Redshift:

    Something so beautifully human that the same people who can capture data-rich, high-definition images of celestial objects billions of light-years away will then share them with the world with all the awkward, off-kilter presentation of the Dunder Mifflin Infinity launch party.

    — zeddy (@Zeddary) July 12, 2022

  36. 36.

    Ruckus

    @Ohio Mom:

    Some of them, for sure not all of them, but some will see that they have been deceived, lied to, take this as a wake up call. But for change to happen it has to start somewhere. Officer Gonell sees the issues, others will also see them. The woman officer that already testified also gets it. Sure that may be the reason they are speaking out and others are not. But if some are, others may not say it out loud but they have heard and agree. That changes the concept of what and how they do their jobs. Sometimes things have to become rather apparent for many to change and at the same time some will never change, never recognize the danger, the illicitness of their “ideals” and their actions. When their “ideals” and actions are so false, pig headed, ignorant, wrong, dangerous, some will see the errors, as long as the penalties are severe enough. Most of the actual leaders won’t though, that’s what made them pig headed, ignorant, wrong, dangerous, deranged, – and the leaders. We see this with the people around SFB, SFB himself and this insurrection. The leaders still don’t understand. Or give a damn, they are too invested in this bullshit. But a portion of the followers/enablers will and some have seen this for what it is. That’s how a dangerous, deranged group is broken up, either jailed, killed or slowly woken up. The last is the best, and some will never change their tiny, tiny minds, and that middle group will take time to come around, but many will, over time. Of course the constant barrage of bullshit from all the far right side “news” organizations, websites and true disbelievers won’t change. That is one of the things that makes/made this bullshit possible in the first place. All the money, time, effort wasted upon hating will always be with the human race. All the racism, ignorance, and negative energy will be there in one form or another, this is after all humanity. That group that has had major wars most every generation of the last few hundred years, the very vast majority of which were caused by hate and racism of one sort or another.

  37. 37.

    randy khan

    This piece is a sharp rebuke to all the people who said that the insurrectionists posed no risk of harm to Senators and Representatives. If they had found Pelosi or Pence or Schumer, they would have been torn limb from limb.

  38. 38.

    debbie

    I want TFG to erase himself from everywhere since 1978 and then return. Can someone make that happen, please?

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