WE SHOULD BE AFRAID
US democracy may fall—a successful GOP coup would be a world-changing event. This is a short interview with Norman Ornstein.
“The world will—if the next one succeeds—never forgive those who didn’t take the first coup attempt seriously enough.”
“The extraordinary danger is that there won’t be a major reaction to this coup attempt—a successful second strike would plunge our world into a chaos that we can’t imagine.”
“Be afraid—be very afraid.”
The world should respond to this coup attempt with profound fear and urgency—maybe there won’t be another coup attempt, but maybe there will be more where this came from.
And just imagine how the world will look back on a mild and timid and meek reaction to this coup attempt if the next one succeeds. The world will—if the next one succeeds—never forgive those who didn’t take the first coup attempt seriously enough.
The extraordinary danger is that there won’t be a major reaction to this coup attempt—a successful second strike would plunge our world into a chaos that we can’t imagine.
Norman Ornstein is a US political scientist who I previously interviewed about the state of the GOP. Ornstein is extremely busy—see below my short interview with him that I lightly edited and that I added hyperlinks to.
1) Will Merrick Garland charge Trump with anything serious?
The Justice Department is moving methodically up the chain, including the stunning charges of seditious conspiracy against the Proud Boys—I think that there’s a real chance that there will be charges against Trump and against many in his inner circle, along with Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and others.
2) How did the attackers on January 6th know exactly how to navigate the Capitol Building and how did they know exactly where the windows were that they wanted to break?
I hope that the committee will dig deeply into the inside information and how it got to the rioters—some of it will focus on the House members who did the tours and those who asked for pardons.
3) The hearings will obviously lay out what the exact plan was in terms of how the attack was supposed to result in Trump remaining president, right? And suppose that brave people hadn’t risked their lives in hand-to-hand combat in order to slow down the attack—how much more dangerous would the coup attempt have been?
Liz Cheney laid out the 7-point plan.
I believe that there were two paths that Trump explored. One was to delay the certification and have the House choose the president—26 state votes for Trump. Or—if that failed—have mayhem and deaths and then invoke the Insurrection Act to stay in power.
It would’ve been much worse if the Capitol Police hadn’t laid their lives on the line—many lawmakers killed and likely Pence hanged. Trump would’ve declared martial law and would’ve used his cronies at DoD to reinforce it.
5) Why does anyone care if Trump believed that the election was stolen? I'm not sure how that has any legal relevance at all.
The legal case against Trump is stronger if he knew that he lost—including the fraud of raising almost $300 million to challenge the election.
6) Why is everyone freaking out about the fact that certain GOP people were asking for federal pardons? This news has been explosive, but an uninformed person might not understand what the big deal is.
The pardon requests make it clear which members were most afraid that they would be prosecuted for crimes that they had committed.
7) How much should the world worry about further coup attempts in America?
Be afraid—be very afraid.