There Is No Remaining Christian Case for Trump

“Now we’ve seen who he is, we know his impact on our nation, and we’ve seen his influence on the church. This isn’t the 2016 primary, it’s not the 2016 or 2020 general elections. There is no more ‘binary choice,’” - David French

Discussion

[Joel Shaffer]

Trump had also, four days prior to the demonstration, offered the National Guard to protect the Capitol, and was turned down.

I really find it fascinating for someone who is usually logical and factual will believe the narrative from the Trump camp about the National Guard but refuses to testify under oath about it (Meadows) but is so quick to dismiss fellow Republicans who testified under oath that it wasn’t the case such as Chris Miller.

Also, you seemed to deflect Ken’s observation about Trump’s inaction and lack of leadership on January 6th. If we ignore Trump’s 3 hr. inaction while the Rioters sacked the Capitol, We have truly set the bar at one of the lowest point for our nation’s leadership in our nation’s history. Trump’s inaction demonstrates that he isn’t qualified. Just in case you might respond and bring up Biden, I don’t think he’s qualified either due to his mental state.

Don’t seem to remember saying anything about Chris Miller, Joel. Just sayin’. But since you bring him up, well, he seems to have said something different to the committee than he said previously said to Sean Hannity. Had the GOP actually been allowed to place adversarial representatives on the committee, cross examination of Miller would have been highly unpleasant for him.

Regarding his failure to act on January 6, I don’t know exactly what was going on. I would guess, if the Nat’l guard story is true, part of his thought pattern might have been “they didn’t want help then, everybody’s interrupting what I want to do, what can I do now?”. That said, whatever the truth about the Nat’l Guard story, yes, he was wrong not to call a reporter or whoever and say “guys, knock it off.”

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

No one should be surprised that the Jan 6 Committee has been politicized. My big concern about Trump and January 6th is that he did not have the foresight to see the potential for this to be used against him and his party regardless of the outcome. Many of us were worried that his opponents would do some sort of shenanigans and blame it on his supporters or that some of his supports would be so upset that they would do something stupid and then he and all his supporters would get blamed for it.

I personally do not think the events of January 6th were nearly as dramatic as many are making them out to have been, but Trump should have recognized the danger of having a rally in that location at such a volatile time in history. I do not feel like he encouraged a riot that day- others did- but his lack of prudence in holding the rally concerns me and I expressed that concern even before it happened. I hope we have a different option to vote for in 2024 and I hope others see through the sham of the January 6th committee now.

Lest anyone put words in my mouth (accidentally or whatever), I remember hearing about the demonstrations planned to the election and (given my position that the vote changes were problematic, but they weren’t going to be able to reverse the election due to secret ballot) thinking “this is not going to turn out well”. Regarding Trump’s response, I think at least a “knock it off” would have been appropriate.

On the flip side, his speech that day encouraged peaceful demonstration, not violent, and the conduct of the investigation—many people contradicting previous testimony, solicitation of hearsay evidence, no credible cross examination—suggests it’s a kangaroo court. Hence my overall position “a pox on both their houses.”

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

[Ken S]

Trump watched the insurrection for 3 hours and did absolutely nothing. I can’t think of any other president who would not have taken immediate measures to bring the insurrection under control. I don’t believe the Jan 6 committee can portray Trump in a bad enough light. My opinion only, of course.

Where do you get 3 hours? Until they wrongly entered restricted areas of the capitol building, it was a protest - and protesting is FINE. I myself felt VERY unhappy about the way the election was handled last year (before the dubious stories about cheating started coming) and I am very supportive of a protesting of that. Enter private offices in the capitol, no. But WAY more people should be protesting the way voting was handled.