We Still Don't Know Why The National Guard Was Late On January 6
But man are they trying to blame Nancy Pelosi.
Last night's first hearing by the House January 6 Select Committee clarified several aspects of the attack on the Capitol, including the moment when Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) confirmed what had seemed pretty obvious all along: Donald Trump never lifted a finger to send law enforcement or the National Guard to stop the invasion of the Capitol. But there was a surprise: Mike Pence was way more "presidential" than Trump, not only because he finally decided he couldn't try to steal the election, but also in taking steps to get rampaging Trump supporters out of the Capitol.
Cheney said,
Not only did President Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he placed no call to any element of the United States government to instruct that the Capitol be defended. He did not call his secretary of Defense on January 6. He did not talk to his attorney general. He did not talk to the Department of Homeland Security. President Trump gave no order to deploy the National Guard that day. And he made no effort to work with the Department of Justice to coordinate and deploy law enforcement assets. Vice President Pence did each of those things.
As historian Heather Cox Richardson points out, Pence's actions appear to be part of "an unexplained breakdown in the usual chain of command." Pence was acting like a president, and the military leadership acted like generals, but the White House couldn't be bothered to think about the security of Congress — and why would anyone in Trumpland want to defend a branch of government full of enemies?
The important thing to Trump's people — a group that no longer included Pence — was how it all looked:
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley testified that Pence was very clear that the military needed to turn up and fast to “put down this situation.” In contrast, [White House Chief of Staff Mark] Meadows talked to Milley not about protecting the Capitol, but to say “we have to kill the narrative that the vice president is making all the decisions.” Milley said he saw this as “politics, politics, politics.”
Even now, it's all about the narrative: The hearings can't possibly matter to Republicans, because the facts make them look bad. So right before the start of yesterday's hearings, Republicans were right back to presenting alternative "facts" about the insurrection.
At a presser a few hours before the hearings, Rep. Jim Banks (R-Indiana), who thank Crom is not actually on the select committee, Just Asked some Questions that have in fact already been answered, although that hasn't diminished Republicans' zeal in trying to shift blame away from Trump and his people. Banks wanted to know,
Was Speaker Pelosi involved in the decision to delay National Guard assistance on Jan. 6? Those are serious and real questions that this committee refuses to even ask. Speaker Pelosi doesn’t want to answer those questions because she knows that the answers to those questions leave a trail of bread crumbs right back to her office, underscoring her negligence, her lack of leadership as the speaker of the House.
The idea that Nancy Pelosi gave a stand down order at Capitolghazi is one of Donald Trump's favorite lies, although in his telling it's usually accompanied by a second lie in which he insists he ordered 10,000 Guard troops to protect the Capitol, which Pelosi foolishly rejected. Multiple fact checks debunk this, such as the one above by PolitiFact, as well as others from the Washington Post and the Associated Press — the latter one specifically regarding the idea that Pelosi blocked a request for troops.
If you enjoy Hollow Mordant Laughter, the AP factcheck points out that the claim that Pelosi stopped the National Guard was pushed by a tweet from (drum roll please) Rep. Jim Banks himself back on July 20, 2021:
“@SpeakerPelosi, why did you block the National Guard from protecting the Capitol?” Indiana Rep. Jim Banks tweeted.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy posed a similar question on Fox News saying, “Was there a decision by the Speaker not to have the National Guard at the Capitol that day?”
As the AP explains, the actual decision, prior to January 6, had been made by
the Capitol Police Board, which is made up of the House Sergeant at Arms, the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Architect of the Capitol. The board decided not to call the guard ahead of the insurrection but did eventually request assistance after the rioting had already begun, and the troops arrived several hours later.
The House Sergeant at Arms reports to Pelosi and the Senate Sergeant at Arms reported to McConnell, a Republican who was then Senate Majority Leader. There is no evidence that either directed the security officials not to call the guard beforehand, and [Pelosi spokesperson Drew] Hammill said after the insurrection that Pelosi was never informed of such a request.
We're looking forward to next week's hearings to learn more about what exactly went so wrong inside the Pentagon once the insurrection was underway, and why the Guard took so long to deploy. Maybe it was lizard people!
[CBS News / Heather Cox Richardson / Politifact / WaPo / AP fact check / Photo: Virginia National Guard, Creative Commons License 2.0]
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New York Passes Stricter Gun Laws, Just Like That
Now you gotta be 21 to buy most popular murder weapons, how is that even fair?
While Republicans in Congress promise they won't allow any meaningful new regulations on guns, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul yesterday signed a package of new bills that will close loopholes in the state's gun laws and raise the age to purchase a semiautomatic rifle from 18 to 21. The new laws follow the horrible mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, both committed by shooters who legally bought their AR-15 rifles even though they were only 18.
In a speech prior to signing the bills, Hochul said the hell with thoughtsandprayers:
It just keeps happening. Shots ring out. Flags come down, and nothing changes. Except here in New York. In New York, we are taking strong bold action.
Hochul urged Congress to pass similar legislation; the House this week is likely to pass the Protecting Our Kids Act, which includes a measure increasing to 21 the federal age to purchase semiautomatic rifles and shotguns, but it's likely DOA in the Senate, even though polling shows nearly three quarters of Americans support making 21 the legal age to buy guns. But 40 percent of Republicans are OK with their fellow Americans dying for the sake of precious, precious guns, and that percentage is way higher in GOP primaries in red states. So it goes.
New York already has pretty strong gun laws, passed after the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. The new laws, in addition to raising the age to buy semiautomatic rifles to 21, will also require owners of such rifles to get a license, as is currently required for handguns in New York. Eighteen-year-olds will be able to own other types of long guns, such as shotguns and bolt-action rifles. Or muskets — which should be the only firearms allowed under the Second Amendment. Where are those strict textualists when you need them?
The new legislation also expands the state's "red flag" law so that more people, like health professionals, can file a request for a judge to take guns away from people likely to hurt themselves or others. It also makes it mandatory for law enforcement to seek such an order if they get credible information of such a threat, and directs state police agencies to make sure law enforcement agencies throughout the state are clear on when officers should seek protective orders.
Other measures in the package would require that new semiautomatic pistols sold in New York be microstamped, which allows law enforcement to quickly match spent ammunition cartridges to the particular gun that fires them, and would limit purchases of body armor to people in law enforcement and other designated professions (the bill doesn't appear to include "grocery cashiers" or "elementary school teachers," however).
And in another area that might have helped in the case of the racist mass shooting in Buffalo, social media companies will be required to improve their policies regarding hateful conduct on their platforms, including providing a way for users to report hateful speech to moderators. (As far as we can tell, though, that wouldn't obligate the companies to notify law enforcement, which we suppose would be in iffy First Amendment territory.) The Buffalo shooter posted long racist rants about his plans to social media, as well as descriptions of how he modified his AR-15, purchased in New York, to allow the attachment of a 30-round magazine, which is illegal in New York.
In an executive order issued shortly after the shooting in Buffalo, Hochul also ordered the state's Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services to set up a new unit dedicated to preventing domestic terrorism, and for the state police to establish a unit that would focus on tracking domestic extremism on social media.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, New York Attorney General Tish James said that the state would be ready to defend these laws against challenges, pointing out that "the Second Amendment is not absolute." She clearly had in mind an upcoming US Supreme Court ruling that seems likely to gut New York's concealed weapon law, which requires that people show "good cause" to get a concealed carry permit.
Research hasn't supported gun humpers' claim that more concealed weapons reduce crime, but it also hasn't shown that relaxing concealed carry laws necessarily results in more violence either. That said, the eight states that, for the moment, require people to show they need a concealed weapon do indeed have lower homicide rates, although the exact reasons for the correlation haven't been determined. With the Court ready to throw out those state laws, we suppose we'll have eight laboratories ready to look at what the effects on murders and shootings will be. New York lawmakers are already planning to craft new legislation to limit the availability of concealed carry permits if the existing law is overturned.
[AP / Politico / New York Governor's Office / WaPo]
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Steve Scalise Still Can't Bring Himself To Say One Mean Word About A Gun
Yes, that Steve Scalise. It's your Sunday Show rundown!
Consider us surprised that we are still talking about guns in the wake of the Uvalde tragedy. Not because we shouldn't be, but because we usually move on due to a combination of lack of media attention span and governmental inaction.
But that doesn't mean some aren't trying to make that happen. This week we focus on GOP congressman and House Minority Whip, Steve Scalise, who even after being a victim of a politically motivated shooting has always dutifully read his NRA/GOP script.
On Fox News Sunday, host John Roberts played a clip of President Joe Biden urging a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, or at least universal background checks, to help prevent tragedies like Uvalde, Buffalo and others.
But Steve Scalise would not blame the guns.
SCALISE: When we have a shooting instead of sitting down and going "what is really causing this? Why do we see these happening more and more in the last few years?", it immediately becomes a debate about taking away guns. [...] It immediately pushes everyone to their corners instead of sitting down and saying, "why don't we look and see if we can find some tell-tale signs so that there could be intervention." We need to focused more on stopping things before they happen [...] It immediately becomes about Democrats wanting to take away guns. [...] Why don't we talk about the root causes of these problems?
As if it's some big mystery why these things happen. For instance, the easily availability of guns. Also for instance things like the dangerous "great replacement" conspiracy theory, which we know has inspired mass shootings.
Before the Uvalde mass shooting, Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott was urging Texans to buy more guns and making it easier to get them.
\u201cHere is Greg Abbott encouraging Texans to buy more guns, & a shout out to the NRA to make sure he gets brownie points.\u201d— Yombe (@Yombe) 1654268326
Roberts noted that President Biden's proposals include "red flag" laws and raising the minimum age for gun purchases to 21. What did Scalise have to say to these moderate proposals?
SCALISE: In a lot of these school shootings, there was somebody in the school who knew they were gonna take action before the shooting. [...] We have to get kids more engaged in alerting authorities if they see something that they are concerned about and let the authorities take action, if necessary. And try to intervene and stop something before it happens...
Well, so far this seems reasonable, other than the light victim-blaming of people not being "more alert." Seems we can find common ground, as Scalise basically describes the type of things that would help if "red flag" laws were in effect. Good for him.
SCALISE: ...instead of immediately after going after the rights of gun owners away.
Just kidding.
Scalise continued talking about "hardening schools" and "provid[ing] more resources for students to let authorities know," because again, it's up to the victims to be more alert.
Roberts showed how the United States far and away leads all other developed countries in gun violence:
Roberts asked what seems to be causing that, and Scalise gave a reasonable response:
SCALISE: In America, you've seen in the last couple of years this crazy 'Defund The Police' movement. But you've also seen a movement that's been going on for a few years in big cities where DAs aren't even prosecuting criminals until there is a shooting.
Just kidding.
Instead, Scalise offered bullshit about police that were never actually "defunded," and right-wing myths about cities being some post-apocalyptic hellscape. Roberts again tried to show how the majority of Americans support sensible policies like "red flag" laws, but to no avail:
SCALISE: Under the guise of 'red flag,' they take away due process [...]
ROBERTS: [...] But if that had happened in case of Buffalo shooter, 10 people would be alive today.
SCALISE: Well again, due process is a constitutional right.
So is "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," which are kinda hard if all these innocents are getting murdered with guns.
We wish Democratic Senator Chris Murphy all the luck negotiating bipartisan gun reform, but GOP leadership shows it's basically futile. He's a victim of gun violence who was saved by a member of the LGBTQ community, but that can't stop him from being a gun-defending anti-LGBTQ asshole.
That NRA money and bigotry is too strong, apparently.
Have a week.
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Uvalde School Shooting Investigation Clusterf*cked Beyond Belief, Yet Again
Oh, that door wasn't propped open by a teacher when the gunman came in?
As has become a daily ritual, investigators yesterday issued yet another correction to the timeline of events in last week's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Last Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said in a press conference that shortly before the shooting began, a teacher at Robb Elementary School had left a door to the school propped open, even after seeing the gunman crash his truck near the school. The gunman was able to enter the school because the door was propped open, McCraw claimed.
Tuesday, Texas DPS walked back that part of the story after the teacher's attorney told a Texas newspaper that the teacher had very definitely closed the door when she saw the 18-year-old shooter headed for the door. The state police agency now says the door closed, but didn't automatically lock as it was supposed to. What went wrong with the lock is still under investigation.
Gee, we remember thinking last Friday that it seemed awfully convenient to claim the shooter got into the school because a teacher supposedly had no regard for safety.
So Maybe Let's Not Execute The Teacher
In Friday's presser, McCraw said that the door "wasn’t supposed to be propped open, it was supposed to be locked. And certainly the teacher that went back for her cellphone propped it open again. So that was an access point that the subject used."
The teacher's attorney, Don Flanary, told the San Antonio Express-News (story paywalled) that shortly before the gunman crashed his grandmother's pickup truck near the school grounds, the teacher had used a rock to prop open the door so she could bring food from her car to her classroom while her students were at lunch. (The teacher isn't being identified, because Jesus Christ on a Segway, people would be trying to murder her.) The details about why she'd propped open the door at all and what was holding it open hadn't previously been clear.
Flanary emphasized that the teacher did not leave the door propped open once it became clear the situation was dangerous.
“She saw the wreck,” Flanary said. “She ran back inside to get her phone to report the accident. She came back out while on the phone with 911. The men at the funeral home yelled, ‘He has a gun!’ She saw him jump the fence, and he had a gun, so she ran back inside.
“She kicked the rock away when she went back in. She remembers pulling the door closed while telling 911 that he was shooting. She thought the door would lock because that door is always supposed to be locked.”
He went on to say that she distinctly remembers pulling on the door's horizontal push bar to close it. An anonymous "enforcement source familiar with the investigation" confirmed to the Express-News that surveillance video from the school shows the teacher kicking the rock away and closing the door. The source said "she slammed it shut."
Texas DPS Chief Communications Officer Travis Considine confirmed to reporters — after the story was published — that Flanary's account was accurate.
“We did verify she closed the door. The door did not lock. We know that much and now investigators are looking into why it did not lock,” Considine said.
The 'Incident Commander' Goes Silent
Beyond correcting the claim that the teacher had acted improperly, Texas DPS also revealed yesterday that a key figure in the investigation had stopped cooperating with the state's investigation of the utterly fuck-tussled police response to the shooting. Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District chief of police Pete Arredondo had been the "incident commander" during the school shooting. DPS said Tuesday that, after an initial interview following the shooting, Arredondo had for two days failed to respond to requests for a follow-up interview.
At last week's presser, DPS Director McCraw largely blamed Arredondo for failing to immediately send officers after the shooter, saying the incident commander had incorrectly decided that the shooter was no longer a threat. The incident commander, McCraw said, had wrongly decided it was no longer an "active shooter" situation, which would call for any police on the scene to do everything necessary to confront the shooter and kill or disarm him. Instead, McCraw said, Arredondo had decided it was a "barricaded subject" scenario, because he was apparently unaware that children were still alive and locked inside two classrooms with the shooter. (McCraw didn't name Arredondo in the presser, but identified him by his job title.)
Read More:
Maybe Cops Let Uvalde Shooter Keep Killing, But At Least They Handcuffed Some Parents
Another Uvalde Lie Falls Apart: OF COURSE 911 Told Cops Kids Were Calling From Classroom
Arredondo's alleged decision meant that no police confronted the shooter for over an hour, until a Border Patrol tactical team entered the classrooms and shot him. During that time, at least 19 Uvalde city police were inside the school evacuating children and teachers from other classrooms, even as children locked in with the shooter called 911 over and over and over again to ask for police to come and help them.
McCraw had also said it wasn't clear whether police at the scene knew of the 911 calls, although video released by ABC News Monday recorded the voice of a 911 dispatcher saying a child in the classroom reported being in a "room full of victims." The recording was consistent with 911 call logs showing the child had also told 911 that eight or nine children were still alive in the room.
That said, given how other parts of the official narrative have needed near-daily corrections, contributing in part to all sorts of baroque conspiracy theories and disinformation, we can't rule out the possibility Arredondo looked at the false claims made about the teacher and wants to make certain he's extremely well-lawyered before saying another word.
Police Union Says Non-Awful Thing For First Time In History Of Police Unions
Also on Tuesday, the Tribune reports,
Texas’ largest police union — the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, or CLEAT — urged its members Tuesday in a statement to “cooperate fully” with investigations into the police response to the Uvalde massacre — though they didn’t name Arredondo.
So there's one to write home about: A police union for once is telling all its members to cooperate with an investigation, although the union also said in a statement that state officials were responsible
for “a great deal of false and misleading information in the aftermath of this tragedy,” some of which “came from the very highest levels of government and law enforcement.”
“Sources that Texans once saw as iron-clad and completely reliable have now been proven false[.]”
OK, make another note: Yr Wonkette for once mostly agrees with a police union, except for the bit about considering Texas government officials reliable.
We haven't trusted anyone in Texas government since Ann Richards was governor, thank you very much. Let us briefly remind you that she lost her 1994 bid for reelection to George W. Bush, at least partly due to a whisper campaign that Richards was a lesbian. Texas journalist Lou Dubose wrote that the ratfucking was generally believed to be the work of Bush's infamous campaign operative/political hitman Karl Rove, noting that "No one ever traced the character assassination to Rove. Yet no one doubts that Rove was behind it."
In conclusion, we can only hope the Justice Department review of the police response in Uvalde is more credible than what we've been told so far by Texas officials. At this rate, we half expect those meddling teenagers from Scooby Doo to pull a rubber mask off Greg Abbott, revealing he was the killer the whole time. Like, literally, and not just because his gun policies have been so terrible.
[Texas Tribune / AP / San Antonio Express-News (paywalled)]
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