The truth of the matter is: They all knew they had lost the election ....

[kentuck]

...but they all believed they could steal it for Donald Trump, none moreso than Donald Trump himself.

In a brazen act of criminality, they were ready to lie and cheat at every level of government. They were ready to throw 81 million votes into the trash heap. There was nothing they would not try if it kept Donald Trump in power.

The majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives voted not to certify Joe Biden as the President, even after the US Capitol was attacked by a violent mob. Many of them had received more votes than Donald Trump in their Congressional districts. And not one of them believed that their own election was corrupt.

There were no laws they were not willing to break. Their contempt for the law and the American people was unprecedented.

They must now be held accountable. The people have to know that we are a nation of laws and not crooked politicians.

The DOJ must save this Constitution and this democracy. There is no other choice.

[Lovie777]

1. The truth is they all planned his before the 2020 elections - plan B,C.....

[ProfessorGAC]

17. And, It Was Plan B

Plan A was rigging the election in the first place.
But, they failed to anticipate the massive turnout prompted by the loathing for TFG.
They figured on a close vote that their rigging guranteed an EC win.
When that failed, they went to Plan B, which was an attempted coup.

[kentuck]

18. More and more...

I am of the opinion that it worked against Hillary. However at that time, we never imagined they had the capability to pull such a scam.

In hindsight, I think they stole the election from Hillary Clinton.

[PatSeg]

40. Yes, cheating is what they do

It appears to be their default mode and when they lose, they accuse their opponents of cheating. Democrats have to beat them by huge margins, otherwise republicans will steal the win. It is absolutely shameless that they have the nerve to accuse Democrats of doing the same thing.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

61. Seems to be a popular sleazy propaganda tactic.

Accuse your opponents of the crimes you've committed or plan to commit.

[PatSeg]

66. Yes and they have perfected it

Their ill-informed supporters fall for it every time.

[ProfessorGAC]

48. To Your Last Sentence

I, too, am greatly suspicious that they cheated in '16.

[ZZenith]

49. They got away with it in 2000, why wouldn't they do it again?

Fuck these people. They value power over anything else and couldn’t care less about the general welfare of the country.

[MyOwnPeace]

56. As unpopular/hated as Pat Toomey was/is in Pennsylvania,

there's NO WAY IN HELL he was 'fairly' re-elected in 2016....

'SOMETHING' happened with that election in PA......

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

62. Hard agree.

As is now even more clear than ever, they will stop at nothing to get their way.

[soldierant]

57. Today certainly, any tiime the Electoral College vote does no

go to the wimmer of the popular vote, that's a stolen Presidency.

I believe REagan was the last Republican who won the popular vote.

There''s a reason Eric Holder is working on the National Popular Vote Compact.
https://www.nationalpopularvote.com

My state's in. is yours? (It is getting close)

[ProfessorGAC]

58. Yes, My State Is On Board

Illinois is green on that map.

[soldierant]

60. Good for you!

[Maraya1969]

55. tfg said the same thing before the election with Hillary. He would decide after the election

if he thought there was voter fraud.

It all depended on if his plans worked out.

And remember also the the Mueller report came to the conclusion that Russia worked on tfg's account to put him in as president. They just couldn't prove he worked directly with them.

[erronis]

26. Strange that they had to try and steal the 2020 election when their guy was such a good pres.

You'd think that after four years that tfg could have done such a great job that he'd be easily re-elected.

But no, they knew he did a lousy job (on purpose) and they prepared to cheat the Americans once again.

[rubbersole]

45. And the saddest thing...

If tfg had just responded to the pandemic with a little less buffonery and denial - the asshole would probably have been reelected. We are not a smart population.

[ZZenith]

50. We are a distracted population, trained since birth to follow the next shiny object.

Manufacturing consent is very easy to do once you convince the majority to ignore their best interests.

[captain queeg]

2. Throw in the SC trying to distract from the rethug crimes

At this point I can believe some of them have been in on it for a long time.

[kentuck]

3. Yes, even the Supreme Court was included in the criminal scam.

...and the wife of one of them worked tirelessly to overthrow the election. All indications are that her husband knew about it and worked with her toward her objective.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Sterilizing the Supreme Court would also seem in order.

[RicROC]

32. There was a coup at SCOTUS

We need to call it a coup...just like the other shenanigans by the Republican party.

It was UNCONSTITUTIONAL for McConnell to refuse to hold hearings of vote on a Presidential nomination as prescribed by the Constitution. Therefore, that Justice must be removed from SCOTUS because of the improper partisan action and a new nomination be received from the current President.

[sop]

42. Couldn't agree more.

[2naSalit]

38. +1

[TheRickles]

5. Excellent point, that they didn't contest their own election victories:

"Many of them had received more votes than Donald Trump in their Congressional districts. And not one of them believed that their own election was corrupt."

[Novara]

30. Yes, my counter to the "stolen election" bullshit has always been ...

... if Democrats stole it, then why the hell didn't we steal 60 Senate seats? More governorships? A bigger majority in the House? If we're so good at stealing elections, why the hell didn't we go for the whole enchilada?









(Mmmmmm, enchiladas. Now I'm hungry.)

[TheRickles]

33. Great points! And now my stomach is growling too.

[Beachnutt]

6. They all knew it when trump vs Clinton,

they all knew when Bush vs Gore too..
Its their way of life, DON'T EARN IT STEAL IT OR CON YOUR WAY INTO IT !
My whole rethug family have the same mentality.

[NanceGreggs]

7. All of us here ...

... are aware of the GOP's penchant for engaging in "projection" - i.e. accuse the Democrats of doing what you know the Republicans are doing.

The minute they yelled Stop the Steal!, it was an admission that that's exactly what they were attempting to do.

[gab13by13]

9. Absolutely,

they tell us what they are going to do and we need to listen.

[gab13by13]

8. Contrary to what a lot of people think,

this coup was well planned and well coordinated. The only reason that people believe it was haphazard was because it failed.

This well planned coup attempt could have easily worked if any number of people had capitulated, starting with Bill Barr. If Barr capitulates it's game over for democracy. Go down the line of the attempted coup and so many Republican officials did not capitulate.

[kentuck]

12. I tend to agree...

It was planned and coordinated right down to a gnat's ass. It could very easily have worked. And still they have not given up.

[NanceGreggs]

13. It wasn't well-planned ...

... and well-coordinated for the simple reason that it never took into account that there would be people who would never capitulate, and they were at all levels of government.

A successful coup depended on everyone being on-board, and that was an impossibility.

[kentuck]

14. But when Pence failed to cooperate...

..they thought they could go around him, and have Charles Grassley do the dirty work. And get the Republicans in the battleground states to send in fake electoral votes. In my opinion, they were covering all the bases.

Even when some politicians balked, they were relentless in their pressure upon them, as they did with Raffensberger in GA.

It was too big to be perfect but it came as close to working as it could possibly do, in my opinion.

[NanceGreggs]

23. And how did the Grassley thing turn out?

Apparently they didn't "cover all the bases". If they had, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

They never counted on any opposition anywhere from anyone - and that was their undoing.

[kentuck]

25. Naturally, they thought it was going to work...

That is the criminal mind.

Just the idea that they had Grassley ready to go shows us the amount of planning and thought that went into it. They had planned on the fake electors being counted if Pence had not returned to the scene of the crime.

In my opinion, if Congress had not returned in the early morning of the 7th, they had a plan to take over the Capitol and bring in their weapons they had stashed across the river in Virginia.

It didn't work, but not because it wasn't well-planned.

[NanceGreggs]

34. If it was "well planned" ...

... it would have worked.

But it didn't, because it wasn't well planned.

When can we stop pretending that Trump's coup attempt was perfect - except for all of the imperfections?

[kentuck]

37. It came too close.

It probably would have worked in any other country in the world.

There was plenty of reason to be concerned.

[NanceGreggs]

39. Not saying ...

... there wasn't reason to be concerned.

Just sayin' that those with reason to be concerned spoke up - and the attempted coup failed because its participants were too stupid to realize that they would.

[kentuck]

41. I found it interesting that the Congressmen started looking for pardons...

...after they realized that the coup had failed. They were in it all the way. And it's hard to argue they are not stupid when they have Louie Gohmert in their midst.

[ultralite001]

52. Still waiting for the rest of the story on Grassley...

That is all...

[gab13by13]

15. Starting with Bill Barr,

I was surprised he resigned. Everyone did not have to be on board, just one, just one lie by any election official would have thrown the election results into chaos. Everyone had to not capitulate. That's a lot of Republicans who chose country over party which to this day amazes me.

[deelee]

27. By resigning

Barr enabled the possibility of the coup working. That is a cowardly move that some people are trying to give him credit for. The brave move would have been to serve out his last two weeks and continue to rebuff the would-be tyrant...or force him to fire you

[kentuck]

35. Agree.

Barr agreed to step aside and get out of the way and let the others try for the coup. Too bad he didn't come forward sooner. All along, it was about protecting his own ass. He knew what was happening and said nothing.

[yardwork]

16. I fear it is not impossible.

Next time it might succeed.

[Skittles]

53. CORRECT

sorry, I thought it was fucking clown show

[Novara]

31. THIS:

"The only reason that people believe it was haphazard was because it failed."

Yes.

Thank jeebus they're incompetent!

[dalton99a]

10. The terrorists who hijacked the court must not be allowed free rein

to carry out their agenda

[Marcuse]

11. Morality is for suckers.

“For us, to live any other way was nuts. To us, those goody-good people who worked shitty jobs for bum paychecks and took the subway to work every day, worried about their bills, were dead. I mean, they were suckers. They had no balls. If we wanted something, we just took it. If anyone complained twice they got hit so bad, believe me, they never complained again.” —Henry Hill

[Novara]

19. To this day, it still astonishes me that they did this ...

... for a criminal piece of shit. There has never been one single redeeming characteristic of that orange motherfucker. Not one. Everything he touches goes to shit. His spawn are all pieces of garbage. He hasn't done anything for ANYONE other than himself his entire life. He has no kindness, no generosity of spirit, no positive attributes at all. He is nothing but grievance and utter selfishness and a complete lack of regard for people, traditions, laws. He exploits laws until they break. He steals, he cheats, he misuses people.

I will never understand it.

But then, I don't understand how anyone willingly subverts themselves to cults, either.

[kentuck]

21. They are a corrupt Party.

They were very much like Donald Trump. They are not in politics as a public service.

[NanceGreggs]

28. Agree 100%!

The GOP sacrificed everything - not for a statesman, not for a leader of men, not for someone who inspired the entire world with his vision and intellect - but for an orange-faced buffoon whose only real claim to fame is wearing a crop-circle on his head.

[TheRickles]

36. "Wearing a crop-circle on his head"! Best description I've ever seen (and I love crop circles!).

[erronis]

29. The orange mf - a perfect foil for a group that wants to take over and destroy democracy

They searched for an amoral and dumb mf that they could lead down any path with a trail of hambuggers.

[mrsadm]

64. Well said, agree

[Klondike Kat]

24. The only time Trump didn't lie

was when he said the election was rigged. It *was* rigged and it was rigged by the Republicans. Fortunately (for us) they failed in their attempt to steal the presidency.

[lees1975]

43. The fact that many of those in Congress who claim to believe the election was stolen from Trump

aren't contesting their own election victory which happened on the exact same ballots is clear evidence of corruption. If we had an electorate that was intelligent and voted based on integrity and honesty rather than on what they think they'll get from their favorite politician, every member of Congress who failed to vote for Trump's impeachment and for President Biden's certification would be voted out of office.

[Joinfortmill]

44. Yup, a blatant coup d etat

[H2O Man]

46. Recommended. (#99)

You nailed it! I agree 100%

[Baked Potato]

47. I think a lot of it depended on last minute

“Jumping on the bandwagon.”

[Evolve Dammit]

51. And he survived another impeachment. As this unfolds we need to hope

DOJ will indict and prosecute those responsible. All of them. Or this happens again in a more refined and potentially much more violent series of "events". GOP has largely become a criminal enterprise.

[peggysue2]

54. Even those Republicans now testifying against Trump . . .

were and continued to be Trump supporters. After everything they saw and heard and witnessed, they still wish he'd won the election, presumably for all the 'good things' he'd done for the country.

Wut???

Sorry, that simply doesn't compute.

[shrike3]

59. Trump knew he lost. He just didn't care. n/t

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

63. The truly scary thing is that Trump had shown himself to be

totally incompetent in his first term.

I can't even begin to fathom why those around him would want him to remain in power, given how (at the risk of repeating myself) he'd already shown himself to be completely incompetent in the first four years.

And as much as I'm grateful for Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony, I really want to know why she was such a loyal Trump supporter in the first place.

I don't get why any woman, any person of color, any LGBTQ person of any kind would give support or sustenance to any kind of Republican at all. What in the world are they thinking?

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

65. K&R