This will “shock” everyone, I’m sure, but Rolling Stone has multiple confirmations that several White House officials and congressmen were involved with the January 6th insurrection. Republican congressmen and congresswomen were meeting with the terrorists and helping to plan and incite the assault on the Capitol Building. Of course, we knew/assumed this all along, and there has been reporting all year that various white supremacist terrorists were part of “tours” of the Capitol ahead of the 6th. We’ve also seen various congressmen and senators minimize the terrorist acts and defend the insurrectionists. Quelle surprise!
As the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack heats up, some of the planners of the pro-Trump rallies that took place in Washington, D.C., have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Two of these people have spoken to Rolling Stone extensively in recent weeks and detailed explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.
Rolling Stone separately confirmed a third person involved in the main Jan. 6 rally in D.C. has communicated with the committee. This is the first report that the committee is hearing major new allegations from potential cooperating witnesses. While there have been prior indications that members of Congress were involved, this is also the first account detailing their purported role and its scope. The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence.
The two sources, both of whom have been granted anonymity due to the ongoing investigation, describe participating in “dozens” of planning briefings ahead of that day when Trump supporters broke into the Capitol as his election loss to President Joe Biden was being certified.
“I remember Marjorie Taylor Greene specifically,” the organizer says. “I remember talking to probably close to a dozen other members at one point or another or their staffs.”
These two sources also helped plan a series of demonstrations that took place in multiple states around the country in the weeks between the election and the storming of the Capitol. According to these sources, multiple people associated with the March for Trump and Stop the Steal events that took place during this period communicated with members of Congress throughout this process.
Along with Greene, the conspiratorial pro-Trump Republican from Georgia who took office earlier this year, the pair both say the members who participated in these conversations or had top staffers join in included Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).
“We would talk to Boebert’s team, Cawthorn’s team, Gosar’s team like back to back to back to back,” says the organizer. And Gosar, who has been one of the most prominent defenders of the Jan. 6 rioters, allegedly took things a step further. Both sources say he dangled the possibility of a “blanket pardon” in an unrelated ongoing investigation to encourage them to plan the protests.
“Our impression was that it was a done deal,” the organizer says, “that he’d spoken to the president about it in the Oval … in a meeting about pardons and that our names came up. They were working on submitting the paperwork and getting members of the House Freedom Caucus to sign on as a show of support.”
Believe it or not, this doesn’t sound like the smoking gun? The plausible deniability is that the terrorists were simply planning rallies and demonstrations, and it all went sideways in the heat of the moment, and that there was never a concrete plan to breach the Capitol. Of course, I don’t believe that. Of course, I know in my soul that Trump and his congressional allies were actively inciting violence and assassination attempts. They wanted Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi hanged. They wanted to kidnap and/or murder members of Congress.
EXCLUSIVE: Jan. 6 Protest Organizers Say They Participated in "Dozens" of Planning Meetings With Members of Congress and White House Staff https://t.co/zlNIXW0hk8
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) October 25, 2021
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
The ones really planning the breech used the others as cover. That was the plan. They have to find the small group that infiltrated with the others. It’s a challenge. But Bannon likely knows, hence his refusal to respond to his subpoena.
I don’t even have to read the post to think “Yep, of course.” OF COURSE they were involved.
This is for all the “let it go, time to move on” folks like Condy Rice.
It was a dry run and if we don’t round all of these folks up and expel the congresspeople that helped they’ll be another 1/6 in 2024 and again in 2028 if some folks don’t like the elections results.
I’m guessing we will lose the Senate at midterms and the presidency (not to Trump, but someone similarly bigoted and authoritarian) in the next election. We will have lost all three branches of government. I am really scared for this country. I’m lucky personally to live in a deep blue state.
Living in a deep blue state is a plus and a minus (ftr, I live in DC): you are secure in knowing that your ideals are supported by the local politics, but your vote has little impact. I’m hoping liberal and progressive voters made Covid-moves into areas with a lower cost of living, which tend to be more conservative. Those are the areas that need to start reflecting the majority of people in this country and the changes that are in process.
I live in a deep blue state also and it isn’t going to matter once they get complete control of this country and all three branches of it. They are going to make life so hard for us in blue states by withholding federal money for instance. And they are going to punish us for voting blue and they will let us rot. Remember what evil Jared Kushner tried to do during the early stages of the pandemic? He tried to kill us by withhold ppe from the federal government (no shocker there) and thank god my governor purchased his own for our state and then joined with other surrounding blue (and some friendly red states – Iowa and Covid Killer Kim Reynolds not being one of them) and purchased more and used that group purchasing power.
@ollesmom: Those of us who live in DC already live that way (withholding federal funding, making us pay for the demonstrations held here, denying us statehood and representation, etc.)
We really need to get organized and make sure that doesn’t happen. It’s to Trump’s advantage to scare all of us and see him as inevitable. he was beaten once and can be beaten again.
Same with the Senate. We need to push back and try our hardest to win.
@PeacefulParsley. I’m in VA and was so hoping that the first thing that would be done when Bident took office was to make DC a state. Suffice to say, there are a lot of things that haven’t been done yet while he tries to negotiate with the 2 right wing terrorists in the dem party.
I think that calling them right wing terrorists is even too high praise for those two agenda-wrecking boobs. These two are just bought and paid for, and that is somehow worse to me.
They have been quietly infiltrating lower level elected positions in cities, townships, counties and school boards and now they have succeeded in getting two of their own elected into the Democratic party. Where will it end?
Thanks, and if it’s any consolation, we realize that statehood is not gonna happen anytime soon. It’s sort of a local joke, in fact.
It’s really 50 republicans and 2 democrats that are holding things up. 60 votes are needed for most things.
I mean, people have been capital punished for less. In this country. For less treasonous acts than this. If there is no punishment, they will all do it again. And likely be successful. That is a FACT.
I don’t understand how this wasn’t immediately labeled as terrorism?
Fully agree on this. It was terrorism and it was treason!
I’m horrified but in no way shocked by any of this. These investigations have got to continue and there need to be consequences or your democracy will continue to teeter on the brink for the foreseeable future.
My brother is an alt right political operative. He knew this was going down bc he talked about it for months leading up to it claiming it was what he foresaw in his crystal ball. I’m not in contact w him but he def knows something and was in the district on jan 6 . My parents pay his legal fees bc he’s always getting subpoenas for his machinations. Shits straight out house of cards
Yikes. Have you reported him the the FBI, or are you afraid that might implicate your parents? Sorry you are going through this.
This is treason. People have been executed for far less
Unfortunately, because I agree, it doesn’t rise to the legal definition of treason.
I don’t know, given the GOP’s treasonous relationship with Russia – and that one absolutely does rise to the level of treason – I have to wonder if there was also some foreign involvement in the plot to overthrow the US at the behest of various actors in the GOP. It’s definitely sedition and I would not be surprised to see it also be treason; there’s so much we don’t know yet.
Any other Americans feel like we are living in the end times for our country? I’ve never been a pessimist but MAN. I think of 7th grade civics class in the mid-90s and learning about our seemingly unshakable, stable government with its balance of powers… turns out it was a house of cards and elected officials are the ones smashing it all down.
Yes. My friends and I have been talking about this feeling like the end for awhile now. I am distraught, terrified for my young adult kids, and also just kinda numb.
Definitely. As a child and young adult I had no idea that the adults in charge were actually not working in my/our countries best interest. I am going to encourage my kids to get the hell out of this country as soon as they are able and make a life elsewhere. I have no confidence that my daughters will be afforded the rights I have right now when they are grown.
Nope, I’m raising my kids to stay and fight like hell. And I will, too.
I feel this way and have basically since trump got elected. After Charlottesville I’ve had a sense that we are heading towards civil war and every year since that feeling has only gotten stronger. When I tell people this the response is always I’m being too dramatic or catastrophic. I’m not being any of those things. I’m being an attentive, civic citizen who is watching our democracy crumble.
this is the beginning of the end, I believe.
said to my bf and other family, since just around when 45 was installed, that we are witnessing the start of the (next) split of the union. The country is going to split into red/blue territories, it’s just a matter of how quickly it happens. not likely in the next few years, but maybe in the next 10.
I haven’t felt safe since the 2016 elections and after a brief respite w Biden’s elections, I’m feeling really anxious again. The war on women in particular seems to be intensifying. What to do though? Emigrate? But where and how? Anyone have ideas?
@Sue Denim. No. You stay here and fight the Republicans for the rest of your life. Why should we give over our country to the traitors? What kind of sense does that make? Many other countries are wonderful but this is our home.
Thing is, the Blue states TOTALLY SUPPORT the Red states financially. The Reds take, take, take. It will be like the South after the Civil War, but without the North’s help to rebuild. They are just too stupid to think that far ahead.
Wake me up when someone faces an actual consequence!!!
I know, right. I have zero faith that justice will prevail at this point.
Exactly. Those are the names people were mentioning immediately after it happened, it’s not like it’s any surprise.
The only surprise would be them actually facing consequences.
Any government employee involved in the treasonous uprising should be removed from office immediately. Period.
I am not against stripping them of their U.S. citizenship and deporting them to whomever will take them.
Second your thought Merricat.
Afghanistan would be a good place–anti vaxx, anti-abortion, pro-gun, anti-women’s rights.
🎯
The January 6 insurrection reminds me of the episode of The Handmaid’s Tale where June is having a flashback of the the Capital. Builing being destroyed. The Republican party has become a treasonous gang of fascists.
I’ve thought about that was well. The Handmaid’s Tale showed society (including June) alarmed but largely shrugging over the attack during the State of the Union. It didn’t start to sink in until they started losing rights.
I had lunch with my left-leaning sister over the weekend. She hated Trump but voted for him in 2016 because she couldn’t stand the idea of Hillary being president. She voted Libertarian in 2020 because she disliked both Biden and Trump.
She also admitted she doesn’t follow politics at all because she thinks all of them are corrupt. When I pressed her for examples and she couldn’t give me any.
I then detailed all of the checks and balances Trump, etc broke and she had no idea what most of them actually meant or were
Sometimes I feel as though as a while, we don’t deserve the freedom we have because most simply take it for granted.
Your sister and the people like her fill me with rage. As does the mainstream media for continuing to paper over the fascists like they’re just folks. LOTS of people don’t tune in to politics often and what filters in is whatever pablum the mainstream media shovels in. That they continue to jolly along the GOP is maddening.
Your sister is an ass.
I just recently re-watched season one, and yep, the religious right group are the ones that attacked the capital, etc. and they blamed it on “terrorists” and then used that excuse to take away rights before they knew what was happening.
I finally watched the Handmaid’s Tale a few months ago (still need to catch the latest season) but it was after 1/6 had happened, and I had the same thought. It was, and is, really upsetting.
Glock Barbie is my representative and she stood for absolutely NOTHING during the election except trying to look sexy and wearing a gun, her big slogan was “mother of sons”….but she basically ran unopposed and so here we are…
Run for her seat!
First of all, Same, I want to say I’m sorry that she is your representative because she’s not doing anything for you or your fellow constituents. It seems like she does nothing but stir the pot and show off her guns. She’s there for herself.
Why bother investigating….nothing happens to them or Trump.
Why have laws, since people are just going to break them? It’s people like you, Carol, who makes this kind of thing possible.
Lol. American laws were created by rich white men for rich white men. America has a legal industry, not a justice system.
And your point is what? Nihilism? Lol. That’s the point of view of a sullen child.
Yes, nihilism. Humans are trash. Notice I’m not insulting you for your naive optimism. And my point of view is that of a person that wasted twelve years of their life in that dumpster fire profession.
Super. Nihilism is not helpful to anyone.
Humans are not perfect, but most of them are not evil.
They all love talking about original intent and the founding fathers except in this case where their silence is deafening. Remind me of the punishment for treason…
Hillary Clinton has said that she did not protest the 2016 election because she felt that it would rip this country apart and the orange menace came in and did that anyway. I’m always thinking “what if”.
TBH Al Gore had a much better case than Hillary. I always dream of the timeline where Gore didn’t concede. He may have paid attention to intelligence reports about Bin Laden, no 911, no forever war, no ultra conservative scotus, no great recession, no trump. Action on climate change. 2000 election was the actual stolen election and we just sat by and let it happen. That was when we lost democracy.
I totally agree aang! That was when it really started. The 2000 election was stolen also and the “hanging chads” were a distraction. We can only imagine a Gore/Lieberman administration. For one thing, we might not be on this runaway train of climate change mess that we are on right now.
This will seem like it’s off topic, but I assure you it’s not: Jack Brown has a body language break down on the person who placed the bombs at the DNC and near the RNC on 1/5 and that person’s familiarity with the RNC and the fact that it’s probably a woman. https://twitter.com/DrGJackBrown/status/1440875459445542926
Republican congresscritters were obviously involved in the plot to overthrow the government.
Where were these “sources” on January 7th. By not speaking up earlier, they are allowing the lies to gain in support and are allowing people to get by with no consequences.
“Our impression was that it was a done deal,” the organizer says, “that he’d spoken to the president about it in the Oval … in a meeting about pardons and that our names came up. They were working on submitting the paperwork and getting members of the House Freedom Caucus to sign on as a show of support.”
Oh for f-cks’ sakes. The fact that these bozos were stupid enough to believe that they’d be forgiven and PARDONED for their crimes is honestly just sending me. They really thought they’d be okay, they’d face no consequences, that the govt was on their side and whatnot. Unbelievable, and yet, so depressingly believable.
Endless screaming.
Yep. For about 5-6 years now.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I’m actually optimistic for the first time in many years. January 6 wasn’t the result of the 2016 election. This goes back decades. The Roger Stone “Brooks Brothers riot” to stop the vote count in Florida, the Clinton impeachment mess, the right wing/NRA radicalization in the 90s, Iran Contra, the Nixon crimes, the Goldwater campaign, the John Birch society. January 6th was the result of decades of anti-democratic efforts by the GOP. And it’s finally being exposed as the cancer that has been growing for a very long time.
Not all of the bad actors will be punished, but I really do think some of them will be imprisoned after getting away with crimes for so long. January 6th was a desperate effort by people who had no other paths to conceal their wrongdoing. They’re even more desperate now, which will benefit prosecutors.
And don’t forget to add the Tea Party from the Bush Jr and Obama years. They never really went away – they morphed into the MAGATS.
I agree with the extent of the problem, however, I don’t share your optimism. I don’t see this attack as desperation, simply that they are now emboldened. Like packs of snarling animals circling and growling, till one suddenly runs in and snaps its teeth on you.
TREASON. Without any apparent consequences. Of course that scarecrow scum MTG was front and center, who else is stupid enough to be the Republican “fall girl/guy”??
Everyone keeps talking about the republicans withholding money from blue states if they win. Everyone seems to forget you can sign papers saying you will not pay taxes. Now you won’t recieve social security or receive health care at an emergency room. But do you really believe that if all the blue states cut off their part of taxes the red states could survive? I think it needs to at least be brought up as a law while Biden is president that each state must support itself with its own taxes. See how many of their heads explode if this is even talked about.
Amen to that!
I really think US should just split, let red states be on their own and build a huge wall between blue and red states so that poor people from the south can’t enter north
Your rage is lacking an understanding of intersectionality, though …
I echo the sentiments here! This is truly a frightening time for our country. The investigations simply must continue. And PLEASE everyone do all you can to help out in New Jersey and Virginia now. It is essential that everyone that can vote blue does so. Please all, do what you can. This is not a game, there is too much at stake now.