I’ve reported on Trump for years. Spare me your hand-wringing about ‘how this could happen’

I saw this coming — but even I underestimated some of the people involved

Un manifestante ondea una bandera de Trump dentro del edificio del Capitolio de los Estados Unidos frente a una pintura del siglo XIX el 6 de enero de 2021. (Getty Images)

“This is not who we are.” That was House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday speaking with Fox News, the sounds of traitors rioting inside the United States Capitol building almost drowning out his words.

Allow me to deliver a reality check, Mr Leader: It very much is who we have become.

To further deny that the insurrection that unfolded in Washington after being fomented by the 45th president of the United States is not “who we are” would be willing – and dangerous – delusion.

Spare this correspondent your shock and your surprise and your hand-wringing about how and why this happened. Having covered the Trump White House and his political movement for its entirety, I cannot be shocked or surprised.

For several years, I have privately referred to Trump’s following as a noisy but harmless cult that was all words backed by little action. I must confess: I was wrong.

Wrong because I did not believe his conspiracy theory-fueled cult of aggrieved Americans who blame everyone else for everything had the collective initiative to become a violent mob of traitors to the country they claim to “love” more than the rest of us.

But they received their orders from the cult leader-in-chief around midday, as lawmakers were preparing to meet in a rare joint session to certify the 50 states’ Electoral College result that Joe Biden will become the 46th president of the United States on January 20.

First came these words from an angry, insecure and seemingly delusional Trump at a rally protesting his election loss during which he repeated his baseless claims of a stolen election and urged his followers to storm Capitol Hill to “fight” on his behalf.

“Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. It's like a boxer. And we want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. And we're going to have to fight much harder,” Trump said, from behind the safety of bulletproof glass. “And Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. And if he doesn't, that will be a sad day for our country because you're sworn to uphold our Constitution.”

“We're going to walk down to the Capitol. And we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them,” he then said to wild and angry cheers. “Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”

Strength. Strong. Take back our country. Fight.

That’s just what the dog-whistler’s cult members thought they were doing (fighting) and showing (strength) once they charged up the Capitol stairs and busted out windows to criminally gain entry. 

He has manipulated them for so long and so succeeded in the con of making them believe his personal goals and grievances are also theirs that they take his “take back our country” remark at face value and will do anything he asks – no, demands. 

They have become so warped and consumed by their leader that they cannot see beyond his words. They cannot understand that the true roots of those words lie in his intense need to stay in power to assuage his bruised ego and avoid possible criminal prosecution once a mere citizen in two weeks.

Trump shocked many of us nearly four years ago when he began floating the word “treason” on Twitter and at his raucous campaign rallies about his political enemies who dared question him. His loyalists praised his use of the word on Twitter and cheered madly at the rallies.

I confess to chuckling the last few years at their robotic and mindless “lock her up” chants anytime he mentioned his 2016 general election foe, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It all seemed so ridiculous and petty.

But it’s suddenly not so funny.

What happened inside the building where this correspondent spent so many days and nights was certainly sad and disheartening. What is happening right now also is both: The traitors that composed Trump’s coup-minded insurrectionists are going to get away with it.

They milled around downtown Washington hotels taking pictures and videos for their social media accounts, just as they had done while ransacking the Capitol – some with zip-ties apparently meant to take hostages. They did not fear arrest nor accountability because Trump has for so long been allowed to escape it.

When they look at him, they see themselves. When they hear his endless grievances, they hear their own complaints about “rigged” systems and “radical” forces they believe have made their lives harder than they should have been.

Trump always gets away with it — why wouldn’t they?

So McCarthy and other Republicans who have coddled this president’s ego and defended him for their own personal and political gains might say things like Confederate flags being paraded through the halls of a Capitol meant to represent all Americans is now “who we are,” but why should any of us agree?

Many Democratic lawmakers and a few former Republican officials are calling for this lame-duck commander-in-chief to be given a dishonorable discharge as soon as today. But not McCarthy and other top GOP leaders.

They know, to save their own political hides, they cannot risk angering the very “Trump base” that stormed the Capitol and attacked the democratic system. That might sound crazy after such a “dark day,” as Pence called it once the Senate reconvened Wednesday night. But it’s not. It’s reality.

“I think politics has made us crazy,” Florida GOP Senator Marco Rubio said on the chamber floor a short time later. “Everybody in the country has lost their minds on politics. We have forgotten that America is not a government. America is not a president. America is not a Congress. America is your family, your faith, your community. That is how we are going to rebuild this country.”

Sadly and disturbingly, we have forgotten all of those things. Why? Because Trump and his angry mob of traitors embody “who we are.”