Good morning! Today at 1 PM the January 6th committee resumes, with a focus on the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, and their involvement in the insurrection. Let’s talk about that.
What was the plan – and who pulled the trigger?
The story of these two groups has gotten scarier as the details have been revealed.
It appears, at this point, that the Proud Boys were to lead the way into breaching the Capitol ahead of the mob. They advanced on the Capitol before Trump even started speaking, and then urged the crowd that showed up to follow them into the building. Their place in the plot was to put pressure on Pence to “do the right thing” and carry out the plan to either reject certain states’ electors, or to at least delay the count.
But what of the Oath Keepers? The DOJ says they brought explosives to D.C. They were seen using a “stack formation” when they entered the Capitol – a technique used by the military. In contrast to the mob around them, the Oath Keepers were obviously organized, with military gear and earpieces. They had a plan. What was it? Arrest Pence? Kill members of Congress? Perhaps we will learn more today.
But here’s my question: Who gave the orders to these groups? Or did they come up with these plans on their own? We know Roger Stone was involved with the Oath Keepers; they even provided him a security detail on January 5th and 6th. We know the leaders of both groups met in an underground garage before the 6th. We know Trump reached out to Stone on the night of the 5th.
It seems to me there are a number of possibilities here:
- The two groups came up with their plans on their own, with little to no direction from higher up the "chain of command."
- They got orders from Roger Stone and others to go to the Capitol to pressure Pence and Congress, but decided on their own to expand the plan.
- Trump told Stone to have them go to the Capitol, but Stone expanded the plan.
- Trump knew the entire plan, and used Stone to execute it.
Or, some variation of any of the above.
In the beginning, we assumed that all Trump did was encourage people to go to the Capitol, and it got out of control from there. What if, instead, Trump knew of a/the plan, and watched the riot to see if things were going as expected? What if Trump or Stone actually planned on kidnapping Pence, or killing various lawmakers? What if the culpability for not just what happened, but what was planned to happen, goes all the way to Stone, Giuliani, or Trump himself?
Obviously, the January 6th committee has planned their hearings carefully. They have already shown Trump’s leadership of the coup plans involving Pence and the DOJ. Are they now going to also show Trump’s leadership of the attack on the Capitol – and worse?
More must-see TV today at 1.
Miscellanea
- The Kentucky Democratic Womens Club is having their summer meeting this weekend in Berea. I'm going to Berea on Saturday to cover their program. Just got a notice that it is sold out. Speculating to myself as to why (program, overturn of Roe, Dem activist enthusiasm?).
- Daniel Cameron was out-raised by Ryan Quarles nearly 2-to-1 in the recent fund-raising report. Nick Storm over at KY Fried Politics says this puts Quarles in the driver's seat for now -- but Kelly Craft is going to declare in September, and she brings her own millions to the race.
All for today. Thanks, as always, for reading – and for supporting the work.
Bruce
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15 Jun 2022
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The Daily Take is a newsletter containing observations and thoughts of publisher Bruce Maples, and is only available to Partners of Forward Kentucky. It is available via email, and is also available on the web site to logged-in Partners. The email version is sent to Partner members who have opted-in to receiving it via the Newsletters section of their profile.
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