Never Forget That Trump Purged the Pentagon Leadership Between the Election and January 6

[AZProgressive]

One of the relatively unexamined pieces of the January 6 disaster is the delayed deployment of the D.C. National Guard to the Capitol. Politico had a look on Monday at some explosive allegations from former D.C. National Guard official Colonel Earl Matthews, "who held high-level National Security Council and Pentagon roles during the Trump administration." Matthews sent a memo to the House committee looking into the events of January 6 in which he offered detailed recollections of what happened inside the security apparatus that day. In it, he said the Pentagon's inspector general assembled a report on the Department of Defense's response to the attack on the Capitol that was riddled with errors and, in Politico's words, "protects a top Army official who argued against sending the National Guard to the Capitol on Jan. 6, delaying the insurrection response for hours."

The main takeaway seems to be that two top Pentagon officials, General Charles Flynn—who happens to be the brother of Trumpist fanatic Mike Flynn, though Matthews' memo does not seem to cast aspersions on this front—and Lieutenant General Walter Piatt, opposed deploying the Guard on conference calls that afternoon. That included a 2:30 p.m. call in which then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund "pleaded" for the National Guard to be deployed in order to aid his officers under attack. In Matthews' telling, both Flynn and Piatt said on the call that they opposed the move because "the optics of having uniformed military personnel deployed to the U.S. Capitol would not be good."

These "optics" were not a concern during the George Floyd protests the previous summer, when the Guard was frequently deployed alongside police. It's absurd on its face. What worse "optics" are there in a democracy than people storming your seat of government in pursuit of elected officials, hoping to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power? "Optics" has been the party line throughout, but there's reason to believe this is all a sideshow. Check out what else Politico found.

In addition to Matthews’ memo, POLITICO also obtained a document produced by a D.C. Guard official and dated Jan. 7 that lays out a timeline of Jan. 6. The D.C. Guard timeline, a separate document whose author took notes during the call, also said that Piatt and Flynn at 2:37 p.m. “recommended for DC Guard to standby,” rather than immediately deploying to the Capitol during the riot.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a38439573/january-6-national-guard-delayed-trump-pentagon-officials/

[mahina]

1. This

[Pachamama]

2. Premeditated

It was all planned

[marble falls]

3. As well as he booby trapped the DoJ.

[world wide wally]

4. He also made questionable military appointments.

[brush]

5. trump purged the non-loyalist in prep for Jan. 6.

He put in people he knew would be complicit when his attempted coup came about.

It didn't work because the actual patriots in Congress, Democrats and handful of republicans, insisted on staying, despite the attack on the building, to finish certifying the election results.

[doc03]

6. I lived one block off of Columbia Pike in Arlington back in 1966-1968. During the peace protests

back then it looked like WWIII had started there were tanks, armored personnel carriers and 2 1/2 ton trucks
lined up on Columbia Pike. If there were BLM protesters on Jan 6th DC would have looked like an armed rebellion
was taking place and there would have been dead bodies on the steps of the capital. If there were a handful of
foreign terrorists attacking the capital there would have been a thousand troops there within minutes.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. There were dead bodies on the steps of the Capitol. The mob killed two of their own. . . . nt

[doc03]

9. That's pretty bad when your own mob is more dangerous than the people that

were supposed to protect the capital.

[Hoyt]

10. Think that is a mistake by Capitol Police. Think they and perhaps Congress

did not want National Guard troops on the steps because of earlier protests where troops were lined up like storm troopers.

Of course, if troops were there, the Capitol wouldn’t have been breached and trump’s rubes wouldn’t have been exposed.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. It began w firing DefSec Espers Nov 9, 2020. He had defied tRump on using military agains BLM. .nt

[Lonestarblue]

11. General Lloyd Austin needs to weed out the military leaders elevated by Trump.

Determine whether they are Trumpists and willing to support a future coup. If so, get them out of the military. We all know that Republicans will try to instate Trump as president even if he loses the vote in 2024 and they’re unable to kick out enough ballots to make it appear legal. Republican attempts to disqualify votes will certainly result in court cases.

Perhaps I’m borrowing trouble, but I think Democratic voters will not just stay home and say “Oh, well” if we believe Republicans have thrown out legitimate votes, which we know they are likely to do, especially in states like Georgia and Wisconsin where they’re replacing election officials with Trump loyalists.

We can expect multiple lawsuits, but I do not trust the Supreme Court to rule against Republican cheating. Unrest could erupt in the streets, and we know that most of the police are Republicans and would not necessarily protect Democratic protesters. The military might be the only option to prevent civil war, and we sure do not need Trump lovers like Flynn directing action.

[Corgigal]

12. And someone

also sabotaged the emergency radio frequencies for law enforcement. I remembered reading an article about this a few months back. This is where Flynn and his brother came in, in theory.

[Escurumbele]

13. It was part of the plan, there is plenty of proof, why isn't the buffoon in jail already?

And then we, who complain about the delay in prosecution, are told to have patience.

If these thugs are not made accountable very soon, and I mean in the next three months, more thugs are going to come out from under their rocks and things will get very ugly.

Eliminate the "Electoral College", add more judges to the Supreme Court, finish the investigation and throw the criminals behind bars. Enough already!

[Hekate]

14. I stood in my California home watching the Capitol of my country be overrun by a fascist mob...

… just praying, begging, for the National Guard to show up.

Optics?! There’s your optics!

“Optics” my rosy Irish ass.

[Evolve Dammit]

16. Millions felt the same way, all over this country. The lack of prosecution is appalling.

[ancianita]

15. I love the headline, but nowhere in the article are there FACTS about the Pentagon's Purge

Where in the article is a timeline of who was purged from the Pentagon and replaced?

Where are the names of the purged?

This is simply a rehash of Politico's look at the Matthews memo, "optics" lingo, and the Piatt/Flynn behavior.

Here I was expecting to see a timeline of Trump purges of "Pentagon Leadership" between election day and Jan 6.

[DownriverDem]

17. It was clear

that trump was putting his loyalists into place many of whom had no experience for their positions. They were to do trump's bidding.