Leading Up to the Attack on the Capitol
What did you know and when did you know it?
J. Michael Luttig, the former United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit:
“I was honored to advise Vice President Pence that he had no choice on January 6, 2021, but to accept and count the Electoral College votes as they had been cast and properly certified by the states…. I believe(d) that Professor Eastman was incorrect at every turn of the analysis in his January 2 memorandum.”
Quote taken from “Letters From An American – September 22, 2021,”
Two questions and maybe three.
What? Why is Circuit Judge J. Michael Luttig feeling so honored when Vice President Pence asks a question about decertifying the nation’s Electoral vote and overthrowing the nation’s government? Is this the correct response and/or feelings to be having?
Should not the correct response have been at a minimum, I was surprised the Vice President, a degreed lawyer achieved at the University of Indiana, would ask me such a question knowing what he knows about the law and the processes of certification of the Electoral Vote.
And then there is former Vice President Mike Pence. Here is what The Federalist Society has to say about Mike Pence.
After his grandfather immigrated to the United States when he was 17, his family settled in the Midwest. The future Vice President watched his Mom and Dad build everything that matters – a family, a business, and a good name. Sitting at the feet of his mother and his father, who started a successful convenience store business in their small Indiana town, he was raised to believe in the importance of hard work, faith, and family.
Vice President Pence set off for Hanover College, earning his bachelor’s degree in history in 1981. While there, he renewed his Christian faith which remains the driving force in his life. He later attended Indiana University School of Law and met the love of his life, Second Lady Karen Pence.
After graduating, Vice President Pence practiced law, led the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, and began hosting The Mike Pence Show, a syndicated talk radio show and a weekly television public affairs program in Indiana. Along the way he became the proud father to three children, Michael, Charlotte, and Audrey.
Growing up in Indiana, surrounded by good, hardworking Hoosiers, Vice President Pence always knew that he needed to give back to the state and the country that had given him so much.
Taken from The Federalist Society, Hon. Michael R. Pence, Vice President of the United States
Unfortunately, the family values, Christian faith, and a law degree from the Indiana University of Law did not teach Mike Pence or give him the fortitude to stop this before January 6th when a mob of simple-minded people attacked the Capitol to block the certification coming from the Electoral Vote. Pence had to know all of this was going to happen as Trump depended on Mike Pence to do as he said.
Mike Pence telling Trump on the day of the attack he will not decertify the Electoral Vote is looked upon as being the action of a patriot. Here is how this unfolded leading up to his refusal.
They spent days in a futile bid trying to convince Pence that the vice president had the power to reject electors from battleground states that voted for Biden, even though the Constitution makes clear the vice president’s role in the joint session is largely ceremonial, much like a master of ceremonies.
Pence defies Trump, affirms Biden’s win (apnews.com)
Ok, so Pence kept saying he would not do it to Trump and he remains silent to others. He never says anything to anyone until just before the certification. In Milner Georgia the day before.
“I promise you, come this Wednesday, we’ll have our day in Congress. We’ll hear the objections. We’ll hear the evidence.”
The vice president didn’t say anything about a potential attempt to reject electoral votes.
In latest colossal lie, Trump falsely claims Pence has power to “reject” electors | Salon.com
Didn’t sound like he was voicing any objections and has “vocalized his support.”
The difficult part of this? Not only did Pence know this was wrong, so did Eastman, and where the hell was senior Bush’s former VP Dan Quayle? And no one said a word about decertifying the Electoral vote count or a plot to attack the Capitol.
When I read this last night I gave thought to the over-production of law graduates, there’s more supply than meets the demand, with Pence just another example of the quality of end-product law-schools are turning out, but that gets away from your opening challenge: where were you and what did you know? Foremost 6 January I was at home in my once a vacation cottage on the Atlantic coast, hundreds if not a thousand miles away, and I made comments at my blog and elsewhere to the effect that the mythical “antifa”, BLM and even the Anarchists, in a rare perhaps spontaneous display of solidarity, are not slash will not be within a thousand miles of DC. And they were not.
What I’d be happy to see a re-investigation into Benghazi!, the spectacularly successful cover-up even into the highest halls of congress of Mitt Romney and the Republican campaign’s spectacularly failed attempt to stage a Reaganesq October Surprise hostage taking and subsequent White Guy Riding To The Rescue The Black Guy In The White House Could Not that rather resulted in the deaths of an American ambassador and three service members abroad.
Was it a rehearsal for the January 6th insurrection? Somebody stirred up a riot, that then overran a government compound, with hostage-taking and murderous intent. Someone released that inflammatory video, that stirred up that riot – why didn’t Muslims riot, overrun government compounds ’round the world? Who released the video, who stirred up the riot? We know the insurrection was an inside job, was Benghazi! a rehearsal?
Well that’s just ugly …
Ten Bears:
If the judge, Pence, or Quayle had said something beforehand, would they have been believed?
Thanks to the blogosphere, then the republic will be saved and proper use of language will be lost forever.
According to the Woodward/Costa tome ‘Peril’, it is reported
Mike Pence consulted with former VP and fellow Hoosier
(Indianian) now residing in Arizona, who had the honor
of announcing George Bush Sr’s loss to Bill Clinton, about
refusing to certify the 2020 election. Quayle informed
Pence that this would be improper misuse of authority.
The only role of the VP in the matter is strictly formal.
Fred:
Clearly the points being made in your comment are not the argument.
These are Republican and lifetime political leaders of power, all of which are attorneys, and steeped in the practice of law. Not one of them reported the efforts of trump and his close supporter’s plan to attempt to overthrow the government before January 6th. They were, are, and still a part of a conspiracy in support of trump. By being silent, they assisted trump in his attempt.
They should have reported the conversations with Pence. January 6th was not just another day as the plotter Pence described it.
I can give a sh*t what Woodward thinks based upon this lone point. I will assume he sees more. Woodward has a series of reveals he will do to promote his book. He fails to see the greater danger the country is in as he pursues $dollars.
Nixon decided to resign from the presidency.
Trump believes he is still the president and he will attempt to return in 2024 by what ever means possible. Republican actors are working even now to suppress the vote in 2022 and in 2024. The McConnell and Manchins in Congress believe they can control a rogue president. They can not.
It is a few such as Colonel Alex Vindman and Fiona Hill who have called it right.
“Fiona Hill says January 6 was a “dress rehearsal” for future political violence” Face The Nation
Even now and after all of what has taken place, there are those on the right who would support another attempt.
If your point is that one never has to worry overmuch
about the people who are wimpy/meek/law-abiding
but must worry a lot about those who are violent/arrogant/
mean/egotistical/vengeful/overbearing/law-breaking/
relatively-well-armed then I whole-heartedly agree.