The Presidency of Donald J. Trump, Episode XIV: T-minus 97 Hours

Does it sound a little like there was a real coup attempt and not just a stupid coup attempt? Didn’t the DoD not respond on purpose? Did the commanders for the Capital police actually literally want Pence killed by the mob? (video reference: apply to congress/VP rather than Trump) DC police knew what was coming, right? Did they just not want to fight with Trumpiots because they are also Trumpiots, or did they literally want congressmembers executed in the square?

2 Likes

I think there was a real coup attempt. Too much happenned that can’t be ascribed to mere incompetence. I can construct a plausible scenario where Trump seizes power after Pence declares him the president and a mob takes the capitol and gets hostages. I think Pence’s refusal to play along and declare trump president was one of the things that went wrong.

6 Likes

The coup would not have been successful, but it would have led to hundreds of more lost lives.

If Pence objected and McConnell refused to certify the EC votes do you think Trump would just stay in office for four more years?

Remember that federal judges have invalidated acts of acting agency heads who stayed beyond their alloted time. What happens to acts of Trump if he tried to stay in office without legal authority? Keep in mind, he’d no longer be commander in chief.

2 Likes

Boy, I dunno, Trump appears to have law enforcement and at least some of the military on his side, so what do you think happens when he responds to the sacking of the capitol after he’s declared president by declaring an emergency and going with the Flynn martial law plan?

1 Like

I wish I could peep into the alternative universe where this happens and see how much stonks stonked.

14 Likes

Between the Defense Department purge, Capitol Police lies and refusals to accept prior help and the deliberate delay of the national guard deployment, all evidence points to a coordinated coup attempt. Jesus fucking Christ. I am not conspiracy guy, ever, but this is nuts.

3 Likes

In 10 days, no matter what, he would not have been the legal head of state, and everything flows from there

2 Likes

Where everything means (liberal) blood in the streets.

1 Like

Trump even said he had a backup plan on the phone call with Raffensberger a few days before(when he didn’t know that phone call would get out). Add that in with everything else we know and the odds of this being a real coup are pretty high.

17 Likes

His term of office would expire Jan 20 and the first armed force with a clear shot, or secret service, would have killed him.

If the coup snowballs enough that rank and file cops and military join in, it doesn’t matter much who’s the legal head of state. Threats to the lives of SCOTUS justices might help seal the deal.

That was my point in saying on Tues it was all over on Dec. 9. EC choses the president. The rest is theater.

it’s why the coup wasn’t really a coup, because it was impossible for it to work.

1 Like

Laws work when the people with the guns respect them.

3 Likes

What did the last 10 secretaries of defense have to say about the situation?

OMG, coups don’t succeed or fail based upon the fucking laws of the country experiencing the god-damned coup! What do you think successful coups have looked like throughout history? Because as a history major, I’m here to tell you that they look a fucking lot like what happenned on Wednesday.

19 Likes

I haven’t seen this posted yet. But Trump going back to the well with Rudy means there must literally be no one else willing to work with him anymore. And why would they.

Biden is probably thinking “shit, I thought the mess GWB left us was bad, WTF”. Doesn’t seem possible that the past four years can be fixed in the next four years.

Might be time for the the military to drop the “we don’t get involved in political disputes” line and drop the fucking hammer. Jesus Christ.

1 Like

So you think the military and judiciary and all the states just line up and pretend he’s president? The US isn’t a one city banana republic.

The best outcome for Trump would be civil war. By far the most likely outcome would be a bullet to the head.

No, I don’t, but i think the poster pointing out a civil war might have been possible was right.