Retiring Senator Romney confirms Pentagon, Congress knew Trump planned violent coup days before January 6

Republished in full from wsws.org

By

Jacob Crosse

15 September 2023

On Wednesday, 76-year-old US senator, multi-millionaire venture capitalist, and 2012 Republican nominee for president Mitt Romney announced he would not seek re-election in 2024.

Coinciding with his announcement, the Atlantic published select excerpts from a soon-to-be released biography of the senator, revealing that Romney and several of his colleagues, Pentagon officials and police agents knew that then-President Donald Trump would be leading a violent coup on January 6, 2021, yet said nothing publicly.

Romney’s statements that it was well known among members of Congress and those charged with protecting it that Trump was instigating an attack on the Capitol were made in hours of interviews, emails and journal entries shared by the senator with Atlantic reporter McKay Coppins, author of Romney: A Reckoning.

Sen. Mitt Romney, Republican-Utah, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, heads to a vote before a national security briefing on Ukraine at the Capitol in Washington, March 16, 2022. [AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite]

In his interviews with Coppins, the senator said that on January 2, 2021, four days before the attack on the Capitol, he received a distressing text from Senator Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, requesting that Romney urgently call him. January 2 was the same day that Trump and top coup lawyers, including Cleta Mitchell, called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and demanded that he “find” the 11,780 votes Trump needed to overtake Biden.

Speaking with Romney, King relayed that an unnamed “high-ranking Pentagon official” confirmed to him that police agencies had been tracking, online, Trump paramilitaries who were planning on attacking Congress on January 6. Coppins wrote that King told Romney: “There’s talk of gun smuggling, of bombs and arson, of targeting the traitors in Congress who are responsible for this travesty,” by which King was referring to Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

King told Romney his high-level Pentagon source had informed him that Romney’s name was circulating in right-wing circles on the internet and that he was not sure if “Romney will be safe.”

Coppins wrote that after the call with King, Romney immediately sent a text to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“In case you have not heard this,” Romney wrote to McConnell, “I just got a call from Angus King, who said that he had spoken with a senior official at the Pentagon who reports that they are seeing very disturbing social media traffic regarding the protests planned on the 6th. There are calls to burn down your home, Mitch; to smuggle guns into DC, and to storm the Capitol. I hope that sufficient security plans are in place, but I am concerned that the instigator—the President—is the one who commands the reinforcements the DC and Capitol police might require.”

According to Romney, McConnell never replied to his text.

None of the official investigations into the January 6 coup, including the multiple hearings held by the now defunct House January 6 Select Committee, made any mention of the fact that some 96 hours before the siege, leading members of the Senate, high-ranking Pentagon officials and police agents knew that Trump and his allies in the Pentagon would be blocking the dispatch of military reinforcements to defend Congress in the face of a fascist attack.

Instead, both Democrats and Republicans have claimed that so-called “intelligence failures” led to the Capitol being overrun. In its final report, the bipartisan Select Committee sought to exonerate the Pentagon for refusing to authorize the deployment of the D.C. National Guard by ludicrously claiming “miscommunication” issues prevented D.C. troops from arriving at the Capitol for 199 minutes. The House committee was led by Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and then-Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the Republican daughter of Dick Cheney, vice president under George W. Bush and leading war criminal in the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.

The Democratic Party and the Biden administration have sought throughout to present the attack on the US Capitol as the work solely of Donald Trump and a narrow circle of co-conspirators—downplaying or concealing the complicity of the Republican Party, the Pentagon, the FBI and at least two Supreme Court justices (Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas). This systematic coverup is designed to protect the institutions of the capitalist state as US imperialism wages war against Russia, prepares for war with China and confronts a growing insurgency by the working class, which is being made to bear the costs of wars and bailouts of the corporate elite.

Romney’s revelations underscore the deadly seriousness of Trump’s failed coup, which the Republicans, the pseudo-left and right-wing libertarian journalists such as Glenn Greenwald have sought to downplay as simply a “riot” that got out of hand.

Trump’s coup nearly succeeded due to the deliberate stand-down of security forces and the refusal of the Democrats, desperate to protect the state apparatus from an aroused working class, to call for popular resistance.

In his interviews with Coppins, which serve as a parting shot before he exits public life, Romney admits that “A very large portion of my party really doesn’t believe in the Constitution.”

As the Republicans transform into a fascist party, the Democrats continue to do everything in their power to uphold its legitimacy. In an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe following Romney’s revelations, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who announced earlier this month she would be seeking re-election in 2024, characterized Romney’s pending retirement as “bad news.”

“He is such an example of courage in the United States Senate and the Congress,” Pelosi gushed. “The country needs a strong Republican Party. I say that all the time.”

* this, my friends, is the death knol for US imperialism, monetary hegemony in world markets, and inability to progress on solutions that should benefit all of mankind to eradicate poverty and lack of access to health care, education, and all other rights as humans that conservatism would eliminate. 

Just so you know...

I'm a sextagenarian Marine vet. I'm also an anarchist. Not one of those pussy, black block pricks running around creating mayhem. A real anarchist. First, do no harm (except in self defense or the defense of others). Otherwise, do as you will with a view of helping others.

But I'm not posting this to school anyone on anarchism. If you're curious, don't be lazy. First, take the test at The Political Compass. And if you're not a fucking fascist head on over to the Marxist Internet Archive and school yourself. You may be surprised. I know I was! (There was a time that I thought I was a republican! I'm glad I fixed that!)

What I am stressing in this post is that I have very little patience for stupid! I have little to no filter on a good day. But when someone engages with me with stupid, I lose any filter at all. I WILL say shit that you don't want to hear.

I don't do religious fanatics, fascists, right wingers, alt right, anti maskers, anti-vaxxers, propagators of war, advocates of misinformation or their stooges, nor any other such nonsense. It's all stupid and I don't do stupid. I am antifascist, I AM antifa.

I don't have the time nor energy to be "diplomatic" while dealing with a moron. So, if I don't block your stupid ass first, please, by all means feel free to block me. I don't gauge my self worth by my follower count. And if blocking me isn't enough, feel free to pay me a visit in person. But I promise that you won't like the outcome.

Imagine who a grumpy old jarhead is, where they may have been, and what they may have done, and you might begin to get the picture. You will be outmatched.

You have been warned.

That being said, I do enjoy the healthy exchange of ideas (that aren't stupid). So, please don't let this warning repell you. Antifascist anarchists are not the same thing as antisocial.

So, please DO engage if you feel so inclined. And thank you for your time.

Criminal Intent

I've been limiting my exposure to news for the past several weeks for reasons I won't go into here, now.

Events of the past few days has penetrated my self-imposed news diet. I'd rather be sharing my own words but I find myself with a lack of them.

However, the whole article which I quote below is well worth a read. 

He knew, and because he knew, my mind is reeling with questions. How many times has he put his own supporters in danger, as they gathered by the thousands without protection, while knowing he was putting them in danger? How many times has he golfed while knowing the pandemic was killing so many people city officials had to dig mass graves? How many times has he ridiculed people for wearing masks, thereby insulting the memory of the dead, while knowing the virus was airborne. How many times has he attacked public officials, whose job is serving the public’s interest, while knowing their service prevented the death toll from being even bigger? Most important of all, how many Republicans understood that a man who commits treason is the kind of man who stands by while Americans die in droves—if that’s what it takes to win?

Give the whole article a read. It feels good to know you're not alone.

Mō-ron

From Webster's Dictionary~

moron, (mō-ron): anyone who votes a straight Republican ticket, in spite of ethical violations or criminal activity, charges, or verdicts simply because they think Democrats are somehow the root of all evil.

Here's a tip, my fascist supporting friends:

The vast majority of what you perceive to be "the American Left" are in fact WAY RIGHT of center. So, either you've been deceived, brainwashed, or are so far right YOU are a fascist.

It's really quite that simple.

• No one is coming for your job. It sucks.

• No one is coming for your money. You may think you have some but you really don't. Not enough to warrant talking to you.

• No one is coming for your healthcare. You don't have any of that either.

• No one is coming for your guns. They can buy their own.

•No one is coming for your daughters. They're as screwed up in the head as you are.

Screw it. I'm wasting my time here. Everyone knows morons can't help it, they're just born stupid.

Actual alt-left

An image of actual alt-left attacking Nazis.

Anyone who can't understand that supremacy and nationalism is evil is simply a pin head and needs to be re-educated.

Trump Sends Federal Agents Into Chicago!

by Carl Dix

The fascist in chief, Donald Trump, tweeted, "Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help" He has been threatening to send the feds in to fix the violence in Chicago since his inauguration. Now 20 additional agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have been assigned to Chicago to work with the police to deal with gun violence.

The Trump regime blames Black people for the violence in Chicago. When asked what's driving this violence at a press briefing, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "I think that the problem there [Chicago] is pretty clear that it's a crime problem. I think that crime is probably driven more by morality than anything else." A representative of a president who wakes up in the morning to spew out women-hating tweets and lies on an almost daily basis, and more, has no basis to question anybody's morality.

And even worse, they're blaming Black people for what the system is responsible for. It's the capitalist-imperialist system that creates the conditions that have young Black people caught up in killing each other. The system has segregated Black people into torn-up communities with few legitimate ways to survive and raise families. The system has geared the educational system to fail the youth. And it has given the police a green light to brutalize and even murder Black people. This leaves people with no way to be somebody except to take up the street life and its code of revenge and retaliation.

The role of the police is not to serve and protect the people. It is to serve and protect the system that rules over the people. To enforce the relations of exploitation and oppression, the conditions of poverty, misery and degradation into which the system has cast people and is determined to keep people in. The law and order the police are about, with all of their brutality and murder, is the law and the order that enforces all this oppression and madness.

Sending the feds into Chicago won't do anything good for Black people, or anybody else. This is the fascist Trump/Pence regime seizing on the way so many Black people are caught up in killing each other to make Chicago ground zero for an overall offensive against Black people. These ATF agents are the advance guard of an overall program that will bring a reign of terror down on Black people. Along with sending in federal agents, the Trump/Pence regime will dole out a few jobs to enlist people as enforcers for their fascist program, destroy the public schools, and send students to schools that will turn them into Christian fundamentalist drones who are unable to think or resist.

This reign of terror will be on top of the centuries of oppression this system has already perpetrated against Black people. This country built up its wealth and power on the basis of enslaving generations of African people. It continued to brutally exploit and oppress Black people for decades as sharecroppers on the same plantations where many had been slaves, subjecting them to Jim Crow segregation and lynch mob terror. In cities like Chicago, Black people have been bled dry thru cruel and perverse new forms of exploitation and oppression. Now Trump has a program that would take all this to a whole other level, speeding up the slow genocide this system has already been inflicting on Black people.

The fascist threats and measures of the Trump/Pence regime have reached epidemic proportions--the Muslim travel ban; deporting even more immigrants than the deporter in chief, Barack Obama; tweets that drip with hatred of women and attacks on women's rights; destroying the feeble measures the U.S. had taken to address the devastation of the environment; military aggression and threats of even more aggression; intensifying the War on Drugs and taking the gloves off the police, who have been getting away with murdering Black people again and again. And now, beginning to send the feds to Chicago. All this calls for resistance that is commensurate to the horrors being perpetrated--resistance that aims to drive this regime from office.

And as part of doing that, everybody who hates injustice has to call out Trump sending federal agents to Chicago for what it really is--part of an overall offensive that aims to beat Black people down so far, they could never do anything about the oppression this system enforces on them. And everybody MUST firmly oppose this!

The complete list of American cities where neo-Nazis are known to operate

March 3rd, 2017 — Fascism

Via: Getty Images

By Eric Lutz 4 days ago

The number of neo-Nazi and other radical right-wing hate groups increased during President Donald Trump’s ascent to power, according to a recent report from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

From 2015 to 2016, the number of hate groups rose from 892 to 917, as fringe groups worked their way into the mainstream through Trump, whom white nationalists see as an ally to their cause.

“2016 was an unprecedented year for hate,” Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the SPLC and editor of the organization’s Intelligence Report, said. “The country saw a resurgence of white nationalism that imperils the racial progress we’ve made, along with the rise of a president whose policies reflect the values of white nationalists.”

Of those 917 hate groups, 99 of them are classified as neo-Nazi organizations, according to the SPLC’s Hate Map. They exist all across the country, and cities both big and small have experienced neo-Nazi and white nationalistactivity.

Residents of Whitefish, Montana — the 7,000-person town where alt-right poster boy Richard Spencer has a home — said they experienced anti-Semitic trolling and threats from neo-Nazis after the town issued a proclamation denouncing Spencer, the Guardian reported. Business owners in the resort town said they faced messages like, “Your time is up, you leftist faggot” and “Hitler Claus is coming to town.” The Daily Stormer, the neo-Nazi hate site that may have influencedCharleston church shooter Dylann Roof, called for a 200-person armed march through the town to be held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, according to the Guardian. The march did not happen — Standing Rock veterans and anti-fascist demonstrators turned up instead — but the harassment and threats made international headlines and put the small town on edge.

In California and Washington, neo-Nazi literature and recruitment posters have been found on college campuses.

And two Jewish cemeteries — one in Philadelphiaand another in St. Louis — were vandalized in the same week amid a spike in bomb threats against Jewish community centers.

We appear to be seeing a re-energizing of neo-Nazi and other hate groups in the United States.

Here is a complete list of cities home to neo-Nazi groups, according to the SPLC:

A neo-Nazi rally in 2010.Source: Mark Ralston /Getty Images

Alabama

Cullman

Arizona

Phoenix

Tucson

California

Los Angeles

Mountain View

Santa Cruz

Santa Monica

Colorado

Denver

Florida

Brandon

Orlando

Georgia

Villa Rica

Illinois

Bloomington

Canton

Lyons

Taylorville

Wood River

Indiana

Indianapolis

Warsaw

Iowa

Amana

Kentucky 

Louisville

Louisiana

Converse

Maryland

Baltimore

Massachusetts

Cambridge

Lowell

Michigan

Detroit

Grand Rapids

Westland

Wyandotte

Missouri

Grovespring

St. Louis

Nebraska

Fairbury

Lincoln

Nevada

Carson City

Las Vegas

New York

Astoria

New York City

North Carolina

Asheville

Charlotte

Raleigh

Ohio

Columbus

Worthington

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia

Pittsburgh

South Dakota

Rapid City

Tennessee

Laurel Bloomery

Nashville

Texas

Austin

Dallas

San Antonio

Wichita Falls

Vermont

Burlington

Washington

Seattle

Spokane

West Virginia

Hillsboro

Wisconsin

Milwaukee

There are also a number of statewide neo-Nazi groups that are not affiliated with a specific city. In addition to the states listed above, there are statewide groups based in Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.

14 Characteristics of Fascism

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections- Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.