A Coup Conspiracy

[David Morris]

It looks like there WAS a conspiracy, Trump’s Coup Conspiracy.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/1/10/2007919/-Trump-s-Secretary-of-Defense-is-either-incompetent-or-a-traitor-He-must-be-removed

As we learn the true events of last Wednesday's attempted coup, the true
nature of both the attack and the horrific lack of federal response are
becoming clear. We now know that the attack was not spontaneous; within the
larger crowd of willingly violent Trump allies, a subset was armed, knew
where they were going, and intended to execute Vice President Mike Pence,
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other Trump opponents. As calls for backup
from Capitol Police, lawmakers, and congressional staff went unanswered, the
assassins came very close to succeeding
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-capitol-siege/2021/01/09/e3ad3274-5283-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html>
.

We also know that top Trump administration officials knew in advance of the
threat to the Capitol, but downplayed threat assessments given to the
Capitol Police and to Congress so as to justify a far weaker law
enforcement presence than for any other major (or even minor) planned mass
protest. This lack of preparation comes after a Trump administration gutting
of Department of Homeland Security intelligence officials
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-capitol-siege/2021/01/09/e3ad3274-5283-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html>,
part of a larger purge of officials deemed insufficiently loyal to Donald
Trump.

[…]

According to the timeline of the Wall Street Journal, officer injuries were
reported at 1:18pm. By 1:41, Capitol Police were overrun. Capitol Police
chief requested National Guard support at 2:22pm, one of *numerous* officials
to do so—many hiding inside the building awaiting immediate help.


It was not until 5:45pm [that Trump’s Secretary of Defense Christopher
Miller] formally approved the dispatch of the Maryland National Guard [more
than three hours after the first requests for help].


It is difficult to imagine that, after two decades of security theater and
an unending list of curtailed public freedoms after 9/11, the federal
response to an actual terrorist assault on the U.S. Capitol could consist
of exactly nothing, for hours, as congressional security forces fought by
themselves to protect national leaders from execution. It is impossible to
imagine—and yet it happened.