I am willing to accept that the Cruz/Hawley etc. attempts were part of an attempt at a bloodless coup, but have a difficult time squaring that with eg the vote in joint sitting on Jan 6, 2005 with 31 Democrats in the House, and one in the Senate voting to reject Ohio's votes from the 2004 Presidential election. That didn't feel like an - admittedly destined to fail - coup attempt at the time, but should we think of it as one?
Thank you for the clarity. Great article. I am a Spaniard (now also a US citizen) and remember 23-F (I was a teen then), and what happened after, and J6 was a coup from the beginning in my book. I was positive on J6 that it would be 100% the end of Trump, bc he would go straight to jail.
Fun fact: our young king in full regalia, ordering the military to stand down, sitting behind a desk at a TV studio, was in full regalia only from the waist up. He was wearing jeans! That’s how improvised everything was!
There is just one definition of a coup: a sudden, violent, and unlawful seizure of power from a government. Donald J. Trump passively participated in a mob's sudden, violent, and unlawful attempt to seize power from our government. He lit the fuse and then sat and watched the coup attempt unfold from the safety of the Oval office dining room for about three hours
No, that's the Heritage Foundation's plan. Check out their Project 2025 playbook. Trump loves Banana Republic dictators and wishes, bigly, to emulate them.
the entire effort to overturn the election was an attempted coup.
So we might argue that this "coup" is ongoing and still a work in progress? A coup may fail but the conditions that made the attempted "coup" possible are still there. A coup can be seen as a sudden and dramatic attack on the legitimacy of the government in power. But the coup can also be a slow moving incremental erosion of the authority and legitimacy of the government.
Adding one other comment here. GOP leaders twist themselves into knots to avoid called January 6th an attempted coup because scores of their members were active participants, and if our political system wasn't so tribal, those members who supported the coup attempt would be expelled from Congress and prosecuted.
Clearly a coup attempt. It was a forcible attempt to throw an election that didn't belong in the House, into the House, where the presumption was that the actual Constitutionally legal result would be reversed.
No. Unless you massed a group of people to attack the House, illegally entered the House, and encouraged people to take action.
So, no. Just thinking about it is not a crime. It is a crime to attempt it - regardless of the success or quality of effort. Attempting a crime IS illegal.
There's a reason so many people thought the J6 Committee testimony indicating that DJT wanted the Secret Service to take him to the Capitol Building was so significant. Had he gone there and actively urged on his supporters - or even passively observed them from a safe distance - that image would have ended all debate about his intentions.
He actually DID passively observe them from a safe distance (on his tv in the Oval Office dining room). He made no attempt to call them off for almost three hours
This is a great piece. Thank you for your courage in naming what seems obviously to have been the case. This was a COUP ATTEMPT. I've been surprised at how there's been relatively little discussion about this term. Your argument is very sound and convincing, although I didn't need to be convinced. Yet I appreciate your nuanced argument. Hopefully it will convince others who might not be pre-disposed to think this way.
I am willing to accept that the Cruz/Hawley etc. attempts were part of an attempt at a bloodless coup, but have a difficult time squaring that with eg the vote in joint sitting on Jan 6, 2005 with 31 Democrats in the House, and one in the Senate voting to reject Ohio's votes from the 2004 Presidential election. That didn't feel like an - admittedly destined to fail - coup attempt at the time, but should we think of it as one?
Thank you for the clarity. Great article. I am a Spaniard (now also a US citizen) and remember 23-F (I was a teen then), and what happened after, and J6 was a coup from the beginning in my book. I was positive on J6 that it would be 100% the end of Trump, bc he would go straight to jail.
Fun fact: our young king in full regalia, ordering the military to stand down, sitting behind a desk at a TV studio, was in full regalia only from the waist up. He was wearing jeans! That’s how improvised everything was!
Based on your multiple definitions of what constitutes a coup, anti-trumpers like you ran a coup against the Trump administration for 4 years.
There is just one definition of a coup: a sudden, violent, and unlawful seizure of power from a government. Donald J. Trump passively participated in a mob's sudden, violent, and unlawful attempt to seize power from our government. He lit the fuse and then sat and watched the coup attempt unfold from the safety of the Oval office dining room for about three hours
This may be the only time I agree with a Cato Institute writer.
The only attempted coup was what the Dems did for all of Trump's term. They're still attempting to control the narrative. Dems are evil. All of them.
Let's see who goes to prison.
You voted for a potato. ROFL!
Well gosh, then President Spud is a marvel, getting done what Rumpy could not.
Proving your support of the U.S. becoming a Banana Republic. You're so very Useful. Bless your little shriveled heart.
No, that's the Heritage Foundation's plan. Check out their Project 2025 playbook. Trump loves Banana Republic dictators and wishes, bigly, to emulate them.
the entire effort to overturn the election was an attempted coup.
So we might argue that this "coup" is ongoing and still a work in progress? A coup may fail but the conditions that made the attempted "coup" possible are still there. A coup can be seen as a sudden and dramatic attack on the legitimacy of the government in power. But the coup can also be a slow moving incremental erosion of the authority and legitimacy of the government.
Adding one other comment here. GOP leaders twist themselves into knots to avoid called January 6th an attempted coup because scores of their members were active participants, and if our political system wasn't so tribal, those members who supported the coup attempt would be expelled from Congress and prosecuted.
Clearly a coup attempt. It was a forcible attempt to throw an election that didn't belong in the House, into the House, where the presumption was that the actual Constitutionally legal result would be reversed.
A coup attempt. Period. Full stop.
According to this since I was in DC and thought about a coup I must have attempted one.
No. Unless you massed a group of people to attack the House, illegally entered the House, and encouraged people to take action.
So, no. Just thinking about it is not a crime. It is a crime to attempt it - regardless of the success or quality of effort. Attempting a crime IS illegal.
Actually, no.
There's a reason so many people thought the J6 Committee testimony indicating that DJT wanted the Secret Service to take him to the Capitol Building was so significant. Had he gone there and actively urged on his supporters - or even passively observed them from a safe distance - that image would have ended all debate about his intentions.
He actually DID passively observe them from a safe distance (on his tv in the Oval Office dining room). He made no attempt to call them off for almost three hours
This is a great piece. Thank you for your courage in naming what seems obviously to have been the case. This was a COUP ATTEMPT. I've been surprised at how there's been relatively little discussion about this term. Your argument is very sound and convincing, although I didn't need to be convinced. Yet I appreciate your nuanced argument. Hopefully it will convince others who might not be pre-disposed to think this way.