Some might scoff at the idea of comparing the terrorist attacks of 9/11 with the Trump Insurrection of January 6th, 2021 that saw a mob attack the U.S Capitol. Granted, there are differences in the nature and degree of the two attacks, but there are many startling parallels to include the drastic but necessary actions that must be taken to defend our nation going forward. Both the attacks on 9/11 and 1/6 targeted key nodes of national authority in our capital city resulting in deaths, albeit very different in scale. Both were attempts to subvert our democracy, and both resulted in causing immense physical and moral harm, in part, because of a “failure of imagination.” As the 9/11 Commission Report stated, America failed to imagine the type of attacks in 2001 could possibly occur despite the many warning signs to the contrary. The same is true of the attacks on 1/6. Most importantly, just as in the aftermath of 9/11, strong, bipartisan, sweeping measures must be taken to secure our democracy, to include executing Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to remove President Donald J. Trump from office.
When I initially heard of the idea of removing the President via Section 4 in the wake of the attacks of 1/6, I thought it was preposterous. But if we apply the lessons of 9/11, the necessity of the action becomes clear. It starts with examining the warning signs and then imagining the extreme measures Trump might take to stay in power during his remaining time in office, albeit short.
When Trump failed to concede after election day, and talked of continuing to fight, I thought he was simply posturing. Trump is a showman at heart - not a businessman, not a politician, or someone inherently born to govern - he’s a showman with a knack for seizing the stage. Like many, I thought Trump’s actions were simply a stunt to lay the groundwork for his plans after office, maybe a TV network or another run in 2024. But Trump’s recent actions are actually a bright, blinking warning signal for what might come if he stays in office until January 20th. In addition to the 60 plus court cases Trump supported to overturn the election, he’s put significant extrajudicial pressure on several state and local officials to include Republican Governors. Reportedly, the White House switchboard placed 18 calls to Georgia state officials prior to his recorded call with the Georgia Secretary of State on January 2nd, 2021. When you listen to Trump on that call, you don’t hear a showman. You hear a desperate man, grasping at straws, rambling, vaguely threatening, and unable to make a clear, cogent argument to people in his own political party. Toward the end of the call, one of his lawyers speaks, for what seemed like the first time, and makes an ostensibly solid recommendation for the two sides to meet and share data to clarify a particular point of contention. The Georgia officials agree to do so, a small sliver of hope for Trump, but not something that will result in overturning Georgia’s result. But Trump can’t help himself and interrupts his lawyer before the underlying point of contention can be fully articulated. He butts in and continues to dominate the call with aimless chatter. This was 18 days before he is scheduled to leave office and during a global pandemic for which a life-saving vaccine is stumbling out of the blocks. Trump’s erratic manner on the call and the urgency of his misguided focus given these circumstances was completely startling to me and should be a warning sign to all of us. If he’s willing to go to such lengths, at this late stage, what else might he do?
The final and most critical warning signs came on 1/6. Trump eviscerated arguably his most loyal and most senior supporter, his own Vice President, Mike Pence. Trump tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution…”. Just prior to the tweet, during the “Save America Rally,” Trump told the crowd gathered in front of the White House that if Mike Pence does the “right thing” Trump could win. Most astonishingly, Trump incited the crowd to violence by saying:
“We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
The Trump Insurrection began soon after.
If the President of the United States, with his enormous official and informal power to direct world-changing violence on command, is unable to comprehend the life-threatening implications of such words from a man in his position, spoken to an angry crowd while Congress is literally sealing his electoral fate just steps away in the Capitol, he is, to quote Section 4, “…unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office…” and therefore must be removed. This sounds drastic, but it is necessary; and just like many of the laws and steps taken after 9/11 to protect our country, we must take this decisive, Constitutional measure to secure our way of government after the attacks of 1/6. The warning signs are there. Arguably, they have been there for over four years. Ask John Bolton, Retired Generals Mattis, Kelly, McMaster, and a host of others. Once again America, to quote the 9/11 Commission Report, “The System is Blinking Red.” We can no longer assume the showman is just trying to seize the stage, and we cannot risk the growing potential he may try to seize our democracy.
