Alan Zendell, November 13, 2021

Donald Trump continues to try to undermine our Constitution and deepen the divisions he exposed and exacerbated. He continues to do everything he can to undermine President Biden both at home and by eroding our allies’ confidence in the stability of our government and its ability to keep its commitments. It’s one hell of a news story. It’s been going on for a year and nine days, since the people elected Biden, with tension growing as the clock runs down on his legislative agenda.

What an incredible ratings boom for the news media. What a boon for Facebook and Twitter, whose posts and feeds explode with every new hyped development. What could possibly stir up America and keep us on the edge of our seats more than the impending horror that a minority who represent the worst of us could win and turn the Republican Party and the future of the country over to Trump? What network executive and news producer could resist throwing fuel on that fire?

But not all of us buy the hype. Not all of us believe that Trump’s political strength is growing. Some of us understand that a process as massive as an investigation of a direct attack on our Congress and a constitutionally valid election takes time. Every “i” must be dotted, every “t” crossed, every legal procedure and protocol scrupulously followed, because when the guilty parties are identified, there can be no possibility they will get away with their crimes. January 6th isn’t a sensationalized celebrity murder case. There’s far more at stake than whether the next O. J. Simpson who kills his wife goes to prison.

The tide is beginning to turn. Last week, representatives Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Liz Cheney (R-WY) announced that they would vote to censure one of their own, Paul Gosar (R-AZ) for tweeting an anime video in which he kills representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). A small victory, a no-brainer, but it sent a message to everyone involved in the January 6th insurrection that the House Committee investigating the event means business. It was the first serious step in pulling our country back from the edge.

Cheney also let it be known that in the corridors of the House and Senate office buildings, safe from the eyes and ears of the media, Republicans are quietly expressing their disgust with their colleagues who support Trump and the Big Lie. It doesn’t take an “expert” talking head to discern that many in the Republican caucuses are waiting for an opportunity to escape the Trump extortion game.

Today, in the most delicious of ironies, the Department of Justice sent a stronger message, when a federal grand jury indicted former Trump adviser Steve Bannon for ignoring a Congressional subpoena to testify. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who Mitch McConnell blocked from a seat on the Supreme Court that ultimately went to Neil Gorsuch, is now in a position to fight Trump with all the resources of his department. Garland has quietly made it clear that he will “show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law.”

Bannon’s indictment is a warning to the other players in the planning of January 6th. Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) declared that his Select Committee investigating the insurrection will use every legal and administrative tool at its disposal to get to the truth of what happened that day and the days before when it was being planned.

As the Trump ship begins to take on water, the rats that inhabit it will start leaping off to save themselves. They always do when a soulless sociopath hires sycophants to do his dirty work. They subscribe to the same moral code as their leader, who has never failed to betray a colleague or subordinate when it was in his self-interest to do so.

The group of people scheduled to testify or be deposed by Thompson’s committee include Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, advisors Stephen Miller and Jason Miller, retired general Michael Flynn, and Trump lawyer John Eastman. Each of them was either present in the “war room” during the insurrection or deeply engaged in planning it. They each now face the same fate as Bannon, and collectively, they know where the bodies are buried.

That could result in a criminal indictment of Donald Trump, and his legal jeopardy doesn’t end there. The city and state of New York are concluding years-long investigations of his business activities which could bring charges of money laundering, fraud, and racketeering, and Georgia is investigating his illegal attempts to reverse the 2020 election results.

The first shot in the war to reclaim the integrity of the presidency and remove the influence of Donald Trump from our political scene has been fired. The weasels responsible for creating the crisis all know they have no defense, and that’s not good for Trump.