Pat Nash: Trump's lies about election led to sedition on Jan. 6

The events in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, certainly fit that description. That day, a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to prevent Vice President Mike Pence from certifying the election of President Joe Biden. They were inspired and encouraged by Trump who, during his rally that day on the Ellipse when he repeated his false claim that the election had been stolen, urged them to go to the Capitol and stop the peaceful transfer of power and overturn the election.

To his credit, Pence ignored Trump’s order to refuse to certify the 2020 Presidential election — an election that showed Biden won with 51.3% of the electoral votes to Trump’s 46.8%. Despite his life being threatened, Pence did the right thing on Jan. 6.

Even though dozens of court cases (several overseen by Trump-appointed judges) had determined President Biden won fair and square, the “make America great again” crowd still did what Trump asked and marched to the Capitol where they broke windows and entered the building as many of them chanted, “Hang Mike Pence” while Pence was preparing to formalize the results of the election.

As a result of the events on Jan. 6 five people died. About 140 Capitol police officers were injured and, as of July 7, 2022, monetary damages were estimated to be more than $2.7 million. Pence and members of Congress had been escorted by Capitol police to safer locations, but that didn’t stop the mob from vandalizing the building. Meanwhile, Trump was watching it all on television. It was hours later that finally, in a Twitter video, he told the mob to “go home in peace.” He never did admit that the election was fair and that the majority of Americans had voted for Biden. Talk about a sore loser.

The entire event has been investigated by the House Select Committee that was given footage of a security video that recorded the insurrection attempts. That video shows the location of security cameras in the Capitol Building and, according to a Feb. 23, statement given to the Guardian newspaper by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., “other details of security arrangements.” Yet Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has given a copy of the video, which contains 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage, to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

For those who aren’t familiar with him, Carlson has a long history of dispersing conspiracy theories or anything he’s felt would bring him more viewers and wealth. Wikipedia has a very detailed entry that describes how he has changed his views over the years to attract and keep his audience of right-wing conservatives. He has called Donald Trump a “demonic force,” but has supported him when it was convenient.

According to a Feb. 25, article on Yahoo News, “he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a ‘destroyer’ — the same word Carlson used in private to describe Donald Trump after he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election.”

Carlson is also quoted extensively in a Feb. 17, Huffpost article by Ryan Grenoble that describes and quotes the comments and text messages of senior Fox News executives and the network’s star hosts about the $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems.

The article states, “in a message to someone whose name is redacted in the court document, Carlson allegedly said it was ‘shockingly reckless’ to claim that Dominion rigged the election if there was no actual evidence or documentation ‘showing they did it.’ Carlson added, “As you know there isn’t.”

So, his own words prove he’ll say anything that will bring him more viewers or fame, even if he knows he’s lying. Yet he’s the most-viewed cable talk-show host. That tells us all we need to know about him and his faithful viewers.

The people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 were just a few of the many who still support the former president and believe all his lies. No number of facts or hard evidence have dissuaded them from their beliefs, and that’s what should concern Americans who believe in truth and honesty.

Because many Germans believed the lies of Chancellor Adolph Hitler, more than six million Jews were killed during his reign. Roma, Poles, Ukrainians, Soviet civilians and prisoners of war were also exterminated, as well as many Jehovah’s Witnesses, Black Germans, disabled people, communists and homosexuals.

History has shown us that’s what happens when ordinary people believe a tyrant’s lies. Thankfully, in 2020, the liar didn’t win.