The Call Came From Inside the House

We’ve always known the terrorists were among us. Now everyone else knows too.

Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

As the horrid details of January 6, 2021, come into clear view, there is one thing we should all know for certain: These White domestic terrorists did not act alone. They were aided and abetted by an entire political party steeped in White supremacy and utter contempt for the Constitution of the United States. What else can be said of a party that has made it their sole mission over the last few months to disregard the results of an election because historic numbers of Black people voted? What else can be said about the 60 court cases introduced by the president of the United States as a way of silencing Black voters and nullifying the votes of millions of people?

For months, if not years, the Big Lie has been in the dress rehearsal phase. The Big Lie — that our election was insecure and would be stolen by Democrats — was of course able to persist with gusto because for years the president who cried wolf has largely gone unchecked, unbalanced, and unregulated by his party and by the media who covered him as their golden goose rather than the threat to national security they have now come to realize that he is.

Just hours before White domestic terrorists would murder a Capitol Hill police officer, smear feces throughout the sacred halls of our democracy, break into offices, break glass, carry zip ties and Confederate flags all to the symphony of chants of “Hang Mike Pence,” Donald J. Trump and his inner circle stood before them goading them into action. The president’s own disgraced attorney, Rudy Giuliani, drunk on the high that only greed and lies can provide, told the hyped-up crowd that there would be “trial by combat.” Meanwhile, the president told his angry mob that “you need to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

We are at a place that is so historic in nature that the joint chiefs saw fit to release a statement reminding those in all branches of the military that they swore an oath not to a person but to the Constitution.