This is the final Presidential Events featuring Donald Trump. Unless Trump is reelected, readers won't see his name in the Events following January 20, 2021. While I may have a further interest in his impeachment, this blog does not. In honor of this final month, the Events of January are split into two articles, a Donald Trump article, and a Joe Biden article.
Trump spent his final two-thirds of a month consumed with The Big Lie and the events of January 6th. The United States will spend many more reckoning with the political and societal devastation.
The Presidential Events of January 2021 are here.
Foreign Policy:
As the Trump administration ended, Iran, freed from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, enriched uranium at levels it had achieved prior to the 2015 deal.
Relations between United States and Russia continued to deteriorate. Russia abandoned another agreement, the Open Skies treaty. Defense, State, and Homeland Security personnel concluded Russia was behind the massive cyber-attack discovered in December.
Despite Congressional action to end United States support for the Saudi bombing in Yemen, Trump labeled Yemen's Houthis as terrorists, deepening a humanitarian crisis (Biden reversed this decision in February). Trump also relabeled Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, partnering it with Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
Prisons:
This isn't solely Trump's fault, but a court in Britain ruled Julian Assange couldn't be extradited to the United States, because our prisons are criminally inhumane, citing solitary confinement as barbaric. A US appeals court allowed two federal executions to proceed. In six months Trump executed thirteen people, killing as many as the previous sixty-seven years combined.
And at ICE detention centers, immigrants were denied soap, a key tool to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The Environment:
Trump weakened environmental laws, wasting four desperately needed years to prevent global warming. 2020, his final year, tied 2016 for the hottest year on record. A judge allowed Trump's last minute plan to sell oil drilling in Alaska's ANWR to proceed.
The Coronavirus:
Covid continued its uninterrupted rampage, killing a record of 3,865 people on January 7th. The CDC warned the situation would worsen with the arrival of the more transmissible British variant. The last full day of Trump's presidency, the United States achieved a true record; 400,000 dead from the coronavirus.
Other:
The Senate overrode Trump's veto of the defense spending bill. It was the first, and only time, Republicans publicly rejected Trump.
In pursuit of the right's attempt to whitewash American History, Trump released his hysterical, absurd, and propagandist 1776 Report. It used to be readable here, but Biden already rescinded the report (it is still in the Presidential Archives). Trump also ordered the creation of a Garden of American Heroes (which won't be built), and would have included the founder of Walmart, the person who created modern fracking, and a gun maker.
While Trump didn't pardon himself and his children, he unjustly exonerated Steve Bannon, corrupt Republicans, a few former Democrats, and celebrities, issuing 73 pardons in all.
The Big Lie, January 6th, and the Fallout:
This will be the event historians remember as Trump's peak of depravity.
At the start of January, though a federal judge ruled that Pence didn't have to overrule the election (Republicans actually sued to try to compel him to do this), the VP welcomed Republican plans to challenge the Presidential Election. Fourteen Republican Senators planned to oppose certifying the results.
When they heard the tape of the phone call of Trump urging Georgia's Secretary of State to find votes to overturn the Presidential Election, Republicans ignored it.
The day before Congress confirmed the Presidential Electoral College Count, thousands of Trump supporters, including Roger Stone, rallied in Washington D.C.
On the morning of the vote, Trump organized and spoke at a rally. Many of the speakers were more inflammatory than he was. When he said:
“We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.”
“You will have an illegitimate president. That is what you will have, and we can’t let that happen. These are the facts that you won’t hear from the fake news media. It’s all part of the suppression effort. They don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to talk about it.”
“We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Trump was telling his supporters to stop the Senate and House from confirming Joe Biden as the 46th President.
Following the speech, Trump supporters stormed the capital. Even a month later, details are still coming out that remind readers of its seriousness. They forced their way into congressional offices, the Senate, and the House. I could, and many people have, written whole articles about it. I'm not going to do that. As they broke in to Congress in an attempt to capture or kill Representatives, Senators, or the Vice President, Trump defended the rioters. You can't watch the video in the article, because it was on Trump's Twitter, and I'm going to spoil something for you; he was banned from the service following January 6th. Hours after violent rioters carrying zip-ties forced officials to flee Congress, Ted Cruz objected to Arizona's electoral vote. At least nine Republican Senators and one hundred and forty-seven Republican Representatives voted against certifying the Presidential Electoral College vote.
With this support, Trump doubled down on the Big Lie, that Biden stole the election.
In the wake of the riot, some Cabinet officals resigned (too late!), while many social media sites banned Trump or Trump aligned groups (Facebook, Reddit, Shopify, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, and Stripe). The PGA reassigned a tournament originally intended to be held at Trump's Bedminster golf course.
Trump, continuing the lie, but under pressure to behave, supported the transition, but didn't attend the inauguration (Pence was there).
Democrats prepared, and impeached President a second time (Ten Republicans joined Democrats, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever! But only ten?). Initially Republicans expressed anger and contrition. Chris Christie said Trump was impeachable. The Republican Governor of Maryland said Trump was impeachable, after claiming that Trump denied his request to send the Maryland National Guard to quell the riot. Republican officials considered censure, impeachment, or the 25th Amendment, before deciding to support Trump unconditionally. This was after at least five people, including at least one police officer, died in the riot. Pence refused to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the President. Mitch McConnell initially blamed Trump for January 6th, but has since hinted he won't convict. Lindsey Graham asked Senators to reject an impeachment trial.
Republicans officials supported Trump, because he (and they) convinced fifty percent of Republican voters that Joe Biden won the election with fraud. Trump won't admit he told a lie. The lie compelled his most ardent supporters to attack Congress. Trump blamed Antifa for the riot (Data from arrests demonstrate this is a lie). Most Republicans believe Trump is not responsible for the Capital mob. Just like he isn't responsible for the Coronavirus, or the deterioration of the environment, or the worsening of race relations, or the increase in white supremacy. Trump and his elected enablers, and Republicans who said nothing until the last minute, convinced Republican voters that every one of these are a conspiracy. A lie.
So when the District of Columbia is surrounded by fencing, do Fox News hosts admit the reason? No, they say, “Why does Joe Biden fence himself off from “The People”?” instead of conceding that the fence was constructed because angry Trump cultists stormed the seat of American democracy. That's why 25,000 National Guard troops had to sleep on concrete. Not a Democratic conspiracy to install a dictatorship.
Many victims of the riot have told their harrowing tales. Even a month later details are still emerging. Here are three that were reported in January.
Grace Meng, the Democratic Representative from New York's 4th district, tweeted pictures of her hiding place in a bathroom.
Politico has a live video from inside the House chamber as it was attacked, with Delaware's Lisa Blunt praying.
A police officer recalled to CNN, rioters yelled, “Kill him with his own gun.”
That was the end of the Trump Presidency.
Next week, The Presidential Events of 2021, Joe Biden edition.
Recent:
Sunless Sea: The Dearth of Echos is the Greatest Mystery
Relevant:
The Presidential Events: December 2020
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