Straight line from "fringiest" October 31, 2020 report to January 6, 2021?
On 3rd anniversary of "January 6," our ailing American democracy needs answers now
On December 29, 2022, smart-as-a-whip Pasquale Scopelliti called me about my “Fringiest Hits the Bull’s Eye?” musings on Matt Taibbi’s Christmas Eve “THREAD: The Twitter Files; TWITTER AND “OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES.” My piece laser-focused on his point suggesting the intel community was concerned over The American Report trumpeting, on the eve of the 2020 presidential election, the transfer of a supercomputer from the CIA to the FBI with a powerful ability to manipulate elections, as revealed by whistleblower Dennis Montgomery. As Taibbi reported:
30. It seemed to strike no one as strange that a ‘Foreign Influence’ task force was forwarding thousands of mostly domestic reports, along with the DHS, about the fringiest material: (See below.)
Then Pasquale said something interesting. If, indeed, the intel community manipulated the election—and they certainly threw voters off the scent before the election when 51 intel officials, with a straight face, branded the “laptop from hell” “Russian disinformation”—they knew that the approximately 75 million Americans who voted for President Donald J. Trump on November 3, 2020, the most ever for an incumbent, would be angry and many would come to the U.S. Capitol on January 6 to vent. In other words, if “fringiest” did hit the “bull’s eye,” they were ready for the mobs—ready to exploit their anger. Which, if the theory is correct, could explain why, when President Trump asked Acting Secretary of Defense Christoper Miller to call up the National Gaurd to protect the U.S. Capitol on January 6, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hit the snooze button.
Then, at the official proceedings to certify the electors, Vice President Mike Pence balked at the idea of not certifying them. Yet the Electoral Count Act of 1887 makes provision for non-certification should there be objections in the face of election irregularities. To wit: “Upon such reading of any such certificate or paper, the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any. Every objection shall be made in writing, and shall state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof, and shall be signed by at least one Senator and one Member of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received.” And, there was an objection, signed by Congressman Paul Gosar (R-TX) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), as required.
Just minutes before a resolution was about to be introduced challenging the certification with a concisely articulated bill of particulars and a reasonable and timely remedy, the “insurrection” broke out, shutting down the process. Later that night, calm restored, ‘Emergency Certification’ suspended the requirements of the Electoral Count Act. And, out the window went the challenges.
One can be forgiven for thinking it was all just one neat and tidy end-run around the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which, if effectuated, would have uncovered the election irregularities, as the case may be.
Moments before this orderly process was suspended, Senator James Lankford (R-OK) was telling America on the floor of the Senate, that:
In America we settle our differences with elections. What happens if you don’t trust the election count, or you’re concerned that so many courts denied or dismissed cases within hours after they were given thousands of pages of evidence. The reason we have a Congress to settle our nation’s divisions — and the rules of the Senate make sure ty opinion in the nation is heard — is so that issues like this can be addressed. The constitutional crisis in our country right now is that millions of Americans are being told to sit down and shut up. Their opinions matter.
Then he reflected on how, four ‘January 6ths’ earlier, i.e., on the Jan. 6 that fell after the 2004 presidential election, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) “stood on this floor” and said it “would be an insult to democracy” not “to register our own protest against the obviously flawed voting process that took place in so many states…”
“I agree,” said Sen. Lankford, who continued:
The United State Constitution does not allow me to assign different electors to its state, nor should it. The United States Constitution does not give the option to the Vice President of the United States to just unilaterally decide which states are in and out. And, it should not. Each state decides its electors through its people. A small group of senators, including myself, have demanded that we not ignore the questions that millions of people are asking in our nation. So we have proposed a constitutional solution to pause the count, to get more facts through the states before January the 20th. We proposed a 15-member commission just like what was done after the failed election of 1876. We’re encouraging people to spend 10 days going through all of the issues, so states can have one last opportunity to address any challenges. Then the states, as the Constitution directs, would make the final decision on their elections.
Then he spoke to a counterproposal by “some colleagues” who said “a 10-day commission” was “not enough time” and suggested “ignoring the lingering question.”
But, Senator Lankford countered, “We need to do something. My challenge today is not about the good people of Arizona.”
After he said “Arizona,” one of the key states rife with election irregularities, and looked up and smiled, the presiding officer banged down the gavel and announced, “I will stand in recess until the call of the chair.”
To which, Senator Lankford said, “We’ll pause.”
Again, two Members of Congress, Gosar and Cruz, had just moved to suspend certification prior to Lankford speaking.
During the Oklahoma senator’s remarks, U.S. Capitol police and other officials informed members that their chambers were about to be breached, at which point, on cue, Vice President Pence, Speaker Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were all escorted out of the chamber.
So it was—viewed through the prism of the Electoral Count Act of 1887, since we are, after all, a nation of laws not of TV sets—that American democracy was derailed, and American freedoms were breached.
Something that, as my friend Pasquale suggested, was a fait accompli, if what The American Report wrote on October 31, 2020, which “other government agencies” found of keen interest, is true. On the Eve of the 2024 Iowa Caucuses, our ailing democracy cannot afford to be left in the dark on these important matters any longer. (For more, see “Key West Musings: Key to Unraveling the Coup.”)
Postscript: Pasquale Scopelliti died suddenly on January 25, 2023. The irony is, a month earlier, the day he called, my ailing father was having a difficult time and “Sal,” as I called him, helped me through it, and reflected that one of the biggest proofs of the existence of God is the dying process, and how beautifully and miraculously it unfolds. My father followed Sal into Heaven some six months later.
Mary Claire Kendall is author of Oasis: Conversion Stories of Hollywood Legends, published in Madrid under the title También Dios pasa por Hollywood. She recently finished writing a book about the life of Ernest Hemingway viewed through the prism of faith due to be published in late 2024.
Love reading your posts.
Thank you for this particular one.
Very informative. 👍