Trump Definitely Wanted Pence Dead - The Thursday AM Quickie 10/3/24
Fat Bear Week turned absolutely brutal this year. RIP bear #402, you deserved better. - Corey
ON THE SHOW TODAY
10/3: It's an EmMajority Report Thursday!
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Thanks again paid subscribers!
Today you'll read about how Hurricane Helene has left FEMA short on funds, the airborne toxic event headed for Atlanta, and the massive neo-Nazi gang bust in California.
Tell your friends to sign up for this M-F newsletter at AMQuickie.com!
THE BIG NEWS
DOJ Makes Its Case Why Trump Is a 'Private Criminal' with No Immunity for Jan. 6 Conspiracy
Defending his "damning nonanswer" as to whether Donald Trump lost the 2020 election in Tuesday night's vice presidential debate, JD Vance remains desperate to change the subject. "The media's obsessed with talking about the election of four years ago," the Republican weirdo complained to reporters at a Michigan campaign event yesterday. "I'm focused on the election of 33 days from now."
For his own good health, though, Vance might want to pause and reflect.
In a detailed 165-page court filing unsealed yesterday by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith makes clear that Trump was directly involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 coup attempt that sought to overturn President Joe Biden's electoral victory. Vance should pay particular attention to Trump's words to an aide on that day, upon being informed that former Vice President Mike Pence had been taken to a secure location while a MAGA stormed the Capitol. That mob, you will recall, was chanting "Hang Mike Pence!" "Where is Pence," and "Traitor Pence" because he refused to go along with Trump's scheme to block Congressional certification of Biden's Electoral College victory.
The aide "rushed to the dining room" near the Oval Office where Trump was watching TV and posting inflammatory Tweets, "in hopes that the defendant [Trump] would take action to ensure Pence's safety."
"Instead, after [the aide] delivered the news, the defendant [Trump] looked at him and said only, 'So what?'"
So what.
So what, JD?
What's your plan, here? Are you betting that the fast food diet of a 78-year-old man who's already survived at least two close-call assassination attempts will elevate you to the presidency without a vote? Are you planning to avoid Pence's fate by meekly going along with whatever mad, violent schemes Trump has in mind for a second term? Or do you simply imagine that the lessons of history don't apply to you?
The full Justice Department brief placing Trump at the center of the Jan. 6 conspiracy will take some time to digest. But the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Politico have helpfully pulled out some choice excerpts. The filing represents the Justice Department's best attempt to counter the Supreme Court's bogus "presidential immunity" ruling by pointing out the many ways Trump's coup attempt represented the work of a private individual and candidate as opposed to the "official acts" of a sitting president. "At its core," Smith writes, "the defendant's scheme was a private criminal effort," in which Trump relied upon private co-conspirators, including private attorneys, private political operatives, and other private agents. Among them: Steve Bannon, who is implicated for the first time in court documents, although the grotesque and currently imprisoned Trump adviser has not been charged in the Jan. 6 case.
Trump is still a long way from facing trial for his violent bid to overthrow democracy in the United States. But now, at least, the public has a more complete set of facts about what the prospect of Trump returning to power means. And though he'll continue to deny and deflect on this subject, you can bet JD Vance is also taking notes.