Article and snippets
and constant updates from Bob Woodward’s and Robert Costa’s new book “Peril” from
a fine analysis from the Business Insider with this headline:
“Trump ignored pleas to intervene
during Capitol riot and kept watching the violence unfold on TV instead, new
book says”
· Trump ignored pleas to intervene on January 6
and call off rioters, according to a new book.
· The authors said Trump instead “kept watching
television” where the violence was being broadcast.
· The anecdote was published by CNN in extracts of a new book by Bob
Woodward and Robert Costa.
A national security official pleaded with Trump to intervene
and stop his supporters attacking the Capitol on January 6, but was ignored
while Trump watched the violence unfold on TV (according to extracts of a new book).
In the new book “Peril,” veteran reporters Bob Woodward and
Robert Costa describe the chaotic final months of the Trump administration.
At the time, the president was trying to overturn his defeat
by Joe Biden, pushing baseless claims of electoral fraud which inspired his
supporters to attack the Capitol.
According to extracts of the book published by CNN Tuesday,
Trump watched the chaos unfold on live TV in the White House.
He was there with retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, who served as
Vice President Pence's security advisor.
Kellogg urged Trump to intervene by sending a message on
social media telling his supporters to back down according to the authors
saying: “You really should do a tweet. You need to get a tweet out real quick,
help control the crowd up there. This is out of control. They're not going to
be able to control this. Sir, they're not prepared for it. Once a mob starts
turning like that, you've lost it.”
The authors wrote that Trump replied: “Yeah” then “He blinked
and kept watching television.”
According to the extracts, Ivanka Trump also urged him to
intervene three times, saying: “Let this thing go. Let it go” (also according
to extracts from CNN).
Insider has contacted a spokesperson for Trump for comment
on the claims.
Trump was banned from Twitter and Facebook in the aftermath of the riot, after
the platforms said he used his pages to encourage violence.
Trump also was impeached for the second time in the
weeks after the riot, charged with directly inciting supporters with a speech
he delivered to them just ahead of the violence. He was acquitted in February, after
the Republican-majority Senate did not reach the two-thirds majority (67) votes
required for conviction and removal.
Read the
original article on Business Insider.
------------------------------------------------------------
More in the book from various media reporting:
Also, here from Business Insider:
· Paul Ryan studied up on how to deal with someone
with narcissistic personality disorder after Trump won the 2016 election.
· According to a new book, Ryan also spoke with a
New York doctor about it and read about it for weeks.
· Ryan, then the House Speaker, was reportedly
caught off guard when Trump defeated Clinton.
According to the book, Ryan was caught off guard when Trump won the election in an enormous upset over Hillary Clinton. Republicans controlled the House and Senate, and Ryan, realizing that he would have to work with Trump, started researching how to deal with someone who is “amoral and transactional.”
A wealthy doctor in New York, who was also a Republican
donor, contacted Ryan later and told him: “You need to understand what
narcissistic personality disorder is.” Ryan asked: “What?” At that point the
doctor sent him an email detailing his “thoughts on how to best deal with a
person with anti-social personality disorder.”
The email
also included links to articles about the topic in The New England Journal of
Medicine, and information from the International Statistical Classification of
Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th edition. Further, from the book: “Ryan
studied the references for weeks, convinced Trump had the personality
disorder.”
------------------------------------------------------------
The top general in the country believed that Trump was in significant enough mental decline that he took countermeasures to ensure Trump didn't start a war with China on his way out the door. That actually happened, according to the book.
Here's
the relevant passage:
“Joint Chief (JCS) Chairman General Mark Milley, deeply
shaken by the January 6 assault, was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental
decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic,
screaming at officials and constructing his own alternate reality about endless
election conspiracies. Milley worried that Trump could go rogue.”
Milley told his senior staff: “You never know what a
president's trigger point is.”
Milley wasn't the only person who noticed a change in
Trump's behavior in the wake of the election.
GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), a loyal
ally of Trump felt the same way: “The book details a private
call McCarthy had with Trump the night before Biden's inauguration. According
to Woodward and Costa, McCarthy told Trump: “I don't know what's happened to
you in the last two months. You're not the same as you were for the last four
years.”
McCarthy then repeatedly pleaded with Trump to call Biden,
saying: “You've done good things and you want that to be your legacy. Call Joe
Biden. Do it for me. You've got to call him. Call Joe Biden.”
So, not only the top general in the country but also one of
the two top Republicans in Congress, and staunch Trump ally, believed that the
election had changed something in Trump. And, at least in the case of Milley,
believed that Trump's mental health had declined to the point where he needed
to intercede with China so that a war didn't get started by an unhinged Trump.
That is, in retrospect, terrifying. Because it's not as
though Trump has been the picture of consistency and normal mental behavior for
the bulk of his first term. Quite the opposite. But that Milley and McCarthy
believed that things had worsened in the final months of his presidency
suggests that we may well have been closer to a catastrophe than anyone even
thought. (And there were plenty of people – particularly after January 6 – that
believed the potential for more disastrous outcomes was very real!)
But, it's more than terrifying in retrospect. Because Trump isn't gone. Not even close. Gov. Gavin Newsom (who survived his recall vote attempt) said in his victory speech: “I said this many, many times on the campaign trail: We may have defeated Trump, but Trumpism is not dead in this country.”
That is not a partisan statement – it is a fact.
Further, for example: Trump still has never conceded the 2020
election to President Joe Biden (an American presidential first).
He continues to push his “Big Lie” that the election was somehow stolen despite there being zero actual evidence to back up that belief, and he used that same blueprint to sow doubts about in Newsom’s recall campaign in California, saying in part: “Does anybody really believe the California Recall Election isn't rigged?”
Trump further asked in a statement sent from his Save America PAC: “Millions and millions of Mail-In Ballots will make this just another giant
Election Scam, no different, but less blatant, than the 2020 Presidential
Election Scam!”
Other examples:
1. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) enlisted the
help of various parties to prevent Biden from calling Trump because he thought such
a call would enrage Trump. He asked Sen. John Cornyn from Texas to ask Sen.
Chris Coons, from Connecticut and a friend of Biden to tell him not to call the
president.
2. Former VP Mike Pence, called former VP and also Indiana
native, Dan Quayle, for guidance on whether he was able to stop the
certification of the election on January 6, as Trump wanted. Quayle rejected
any such idea saying: “Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero.
Forget it. Put it away.”
My 2 Cents: First of all, Bob Woodward and Robert Costa deserve a Pulitzer for this book.
Second, Woodward has to be considered the greatest journalistic reporter of all time – not only for this new book, but of course for Watergate and the book (later a movie, too): “All the President’s Men” co-authored with Carl Bernstein.
Plus, Woodward also wrote two best-sellers on Trump: “Fear” and “Rage.” His work is truly impeccable and that’s what America needs now: a clear record and solid proof of just how awful and dangerous Donald J. Trump was and remains to our entire democratic system. He must never be in any public office again, period.
In fact, with all that is still pending against Trump in various states and courts, he deserves to be in jail for the rest of his life. At least that’s my view.
I can’t wait to buy this new book. It seems to be a top seller and must read.
Thanks for stopping by.
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