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Visiting Texas to see border wall, Trump takes no responsibility for Capitol riot

65 Comments
By JILL COLVIN and ZEKE MILLER

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65 Comments

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For those who claim that Donald 'learned his lesson,' or that he has somehow been cowed by the reaction and that no use of impeachment or the 25th Amendment is necessary... read the man's own words. Listen to what he says.

He feels no guilt, no responsibility for what happened. He thinks his words were, as always, 'perfect.' He believes he is, as always in his mind, right.

And as such, he cannot be expected to rationally act or to fulfill the oath he took. He should be removed from office either via the 25th Amendment, or impeachment. Failure to do so would be a weakening of the country, and an open endorsement of sedition by those who support him or fail to punish him.

22 ( +28 / -6 )

“People thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump said.

especially those who smashed up the Capitol and were then disowned by you the next day

“Respect for law enforcement is the foundation of the MAGA agenda," 

another throwaway line not born out by the facts

As I suggested before, this boorish clown should start his own comedy channel when he leaves office

21 ( +26 / -5 )

He is not responsible for anything, his pants, his tax, his humpty dumpy wall, he just isn't mentally capable of being responsible for anything, and he is/was the president. So who is responsible?

21 ( +25 / -4 )

nostromoToday  06:48 am JST

As I suggested before, this boorish clown should start his own comedy channel when he leaves office

Conservatives don't have a great track record when it comes to comedy.

17 ( +20 / -3 )

25th Amendment him now! Trump's a clear and present danger. And his supporters the most subversive and dangerous group a democratic nation has seen since the 1930's brown shirts of Germany and blackshirts of Italy.

13 ( +18 / -5 )

Trump's "perfect phone call" a year ago got him impeached. His "totally appropriate speech" on 1/6 is going to get him impeached again.

Seriously, this has all the ear marks of a wounded presidents last stand. Remember the Alamo!

15 ( +18 / -3 )

Conservatives don't have a great track record when it comes to comedy.

Yes, your right. Good comics must be able to laugh at themselves - something conservatives are incapable of

10 ( +14 / -4 )

Trump' visiting the Trump Wall wall he got his followers to believe Mexico would pay for in another photo op opportunity, one more advertisement for himself. The advert is paid for, just like the Trump Wall, by US taxpayers.

11 ( +15 / -4 )

“People thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump said.

People who swallow your lies, yes.

13 ( +17 / -4 )

Funny how trump has not visited the wall until now. Like he is showing his fan base his accomplishment. His promise to divide the country with a wall of hate.

9 ( +14 / -5 )

Conservatives don't have a great track record when it comes to comedy.

Some of the shapes they have bent themselves into to defend Trump over the past 4 years or so have been funny in a grotesque way, but it a case of laughing at rather than laughing with.

9 ( +12 / -3 )

More business for ladders and shovels

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Yes, your right. Good comics must be able to laugh at themselves - something conservatives are incapable of

it’s a shame really because there’s so much great material.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

“Respect for law enforcement is the foundation of the MAGA agenda,"

Republicans and Trump, maybe because of their supposed respect for "conservative" values, always use these rhetorical get out of jail free cards when their actions violate all standards of moral conduct:

" How could we have caused the deaths of innocents and law enforcement? We're the party of law and order and safety!"

"How could we pay off porn stars/ engage in infidelity/cover up child abuse? We're the party of God and Christmas!"

One of their greatest strengths is the full weaponization of hypocrisy and double-think.

8 ( +12 / -4 )

I think the rioters in DC in summer should be held equally accountable, don't you?

I see zero equivalency.

I don't recall the US capitol being attacked by a violent mob intent on overthrowing the government to install Trump as authoritarian, carrying bombs and other weapons while setting up a gallows while chanting hang the vice-president.

9 ( +13 / -4 )

“The 25th Amendment is of zero risk to me, but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration,” 

An idiot talks to his minions about nothing.

Trump is filth. He has no redeeming value of any kind.

12 ( +17 / -5 )

The dangerous fraud currently occupying the White House has never taken responsibility for his actions.

The nation has been under an undeclared state of emergency since the day he was elected and he continues to cause have to the country and the world at large.

Enough!

5 ( +10 / -5 )

WTF?

4 ( +8 / -4 )

Unrepentant until the very end.

6 ( +10 / -4 )

What a surprise. Unscrupulous moron doesn’t take responsibility for the things he does. Fortunately the legal system is designed to hold people accountable for their actions regardless. Hope it still works.

7 ( +10 / -3 )

He should be paying for a wall around the Capitol.

At any rate, I'm sure now Mexico is willing to pay for the wall to keep Americans out of Mexico. Heck, I'm pretty sure Canada wants to build a wall to keep crazy right-wing white supremacist lunatics out of their country too.

7 ( +11 / -4 )

What’s next? Another imminent caravan?

5 ( +8 / -3 )

All that wall is is a monument to some white people's pathetic insecurities, and the staggering insecurities of one orange fellow. The face of illegal immigration to the US is Asian (mostly Chinese) and African. These immigrants aren't crossing the US-Mexico border. They come by air and overstay their visas. The biggest most beautiful wall in the world on any border won't stop that. Complete waste of money. And the days of couriers running big wads of cash back over the border to pay the narcos is long over too. Now the money transfer is accomplished on line through Chinese banks who don't have anti-laundering laws to worry about using throw away untraceable cell phones.

9 ( +13 / -4 )

If the Democrats wish to succeed, they should get on with the job the next four years and win people over by the job they’re doing.

Democrats have already "won people over" by winning the last elections.

Coincidentally, after last week, Trump's approval rating stands at 33%, meaning that the vast majority of Americans want him gone asap.

10 ( +14 / -4 )

Just think if the 52 invertebrate Eunichs who voted against impeachment last February (it really feels longer ago...) had grown a pair and voted to hold him account the first time around for offenses he was obviously patently guilty of.

They could have managed the pandemic rationally and rebuilt the Party around someone who wasn’t a sociopath. I don’t support them, but I have to realize that they might have won

Its amazing how having people try to kill you (not to mention having your nemesis banned from Twitter) helps one to grow a spine...

7 ( +10 / -3 )

Trump is a loser. Who cares what he says.

11 ( +15 / -4 )

The best thing to do with President Trump is to ignore him. He'll be gone in less than a week. He craves the public eye. Ignoring him would be the best vengeance.

-5 ( +5 / -10 )

I always wondered if the caravans were created by the far-right to promote their not so awesome leader. The timing was just too precise.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

History-challenged Trump's choice of the Alamo to make a theatrical appearance posing as a heroic leader might not be the best symbol of his refusal to concede the presidency since the Mexicans famously made guacamole out of the garrison's defenders. Trump's absconding from Washington for his swan song (paid for by Mexico) might cost him dearly as when Julius Caesar imperiously ignored the warning of "The Ides of March" and while sitting in the Senate was stabbed in the back by a bunch of Senators. The distant but unmistakable sound of knives sharpening in the US Senate suggests a similar fate might befall America's wannabe Caesar, "Orange Julius", who should now beware the "Ire of Mitch" as Republicans prepare to gangplank him before jumping ship.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

When people feel powerless and their legitimate concerns are not being heard or outright rejected

I agree but specifically what legitimate concerns do the people attacking political buildings since January 6th this year have?

9 ( +10 / -1 )

Those men in the picture ought to be explaining the differences between this type of unfinished border wall and the completely circular and enclosed wall in a federal penitentiary in order to prepare him for life after January twentieth.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

First public appearance since the failed insurrection. No mask.

trump fans “why are there no other trump supporters here? Our voices will not be silenced!”

The ratio of pro-trump and anti-trump posts just reflects reality. Ain’t no censorship.

Was always a minority, and getting smaller and smaller by the minute.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

That being said, since last spring, unlike the Left, President Trump has not promoted riots nor described looting as a “nonviolent act”

The false equivalency of a BLM movement vs. the domestic terror of the Trump supporters at the capitol is completely wrong.

BLM happens due to things like police treating blacks unfairly and outright shooting them. They're trying to defend their rights, and right a wrong.

The domestic terrorists at the Capitol, led by Trump, are doing the opposite. They're invading the Capitol to try and cheat America out their rights of a fair election, thus being traitors to the constitution of the United States of America, and attempting to wrong a right.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”-- President Donald J Trump

-14 ( +2 / -16 )

However, this does not excuse President Trump for not speaking more clearly last week once the mob began running amok.

Actually he spoke very clearly, crystal clear actually. As the mob rampaged through the Senate Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani were making phone calls to Senator Mike Lee's phone, by mistake as it turned out, they were trying to call newly elected Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama to beg him to help stop the vote counting. This is the message Mr. Giuliani left on Senator Lee's phone by mistake, saying this during the middle of the capital riot:

"Sen. Tuberville? Or I should say Coach Tuberville. This is Rudy Giuliani, the President’s lawyer, I’m calling you because I want to discuss with you how they’re trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you,”

I know they’re reconvening at 8 tonight, but it … the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow — ideally until the end of tomorrow.”

I think that speaks volumes about what the President was interested in as the nation's capital was invaded and legislators huddled in safe rooms.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Raw BeerToday  10:13 am JST

“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”-- President Donald J Trump

He wasn't quite right about that, was he. With all the stuff that was going around about militant white supremacist and extreme right-wing groups supporting him, why didn't he know who was in that crowd or what they were going to do?

7 ( +8 / -1 )

When people feel powerless and their legitimate concerns are not being heard or outright rejected, they will engage in unjust acts, such as mob violence, because we are all morally imperfect and unjust.

The domestic terrorists that stormed the Capitol do not have legitimate concerns. They were trying to overthrow democracy, execute duly elected officials, and install Trump as a dictator.

That being said, since last spring, unlike the Left, President Trump has not promoted riots nor described looting as a “nonviolent act”. Quite the opposite. However, this does not excuse President Trump for not speaking more clearly last week once the mob began running amok.

He called for the rally that would become an insurrectionist mob that killed a police officer shortly after a private meeting with a representative of the fascist street thug group the Proud Boys. He knew what he was dojng.

Hopefully, President pro tem Biden will help end the American national pastime of riots and violence by condemning those who support it.

Biden (who is not a "pro tem" President) has already condemned Donald Trump.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Why do GOP fans think that killing a police officer is fine and dandy and should be celebrated, but think that being banned from social media for breaking the terms and conditions you agreed to is bad and terrible? I would have thought that the "Blue Lives Matter" crowd would be against cop killers and those who support them. But I guess I'm wrong.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

Coincidentally, after last week, Trump's approval rating stands at 33%, meaning that the vast majority of Americans want him gone asap.

And yet congress approval rating hasn’t been above 20% since 2009. So who should go first?

-13 ( +1 / -14 )

And yet congress approval rating hasn’t been above 20% since 2009. So who should go first?

Moot question - Trump's gone.

11 ( +12 / -1 )

And yet congress approval rating hasn’t been above 20% since 2009. So who should go first?

While Congress as a whole has had a low approval rating for a long time, people generally rate their own representatives highly: it's always a sense that "it's those other guys" who aren't good. This statistic, therefore, is not as meaningful as you are trying to make it out to be.

As to who should "go first", Trump is going first. In a week. Congress has just been sworn in, so the first opportunity for many to leave will be in two years (though I believe supporters of the insurrection should be expelled first).

If you're suggesting that there should not be a Congress due to that approval rating, then you're asking for an entire branch of government, and one of the most crucial aspects of the checks and balances of power, to be eliminated, making the President a dictator. Would I be right in assuming, therefore, that you supported last week's attempt to overthrow democracy in the US?

8 ( +9 / -1 )

I really hope they impeach Trump, even if it has to be after he leaves office for the sole reason of taking away his tax-payer funded benefits he would receive as a former president. He absolutely does not deserve a penny more from hardworking Americans.

12 ( +13 / -1 )

Visiting Texas to see border wall, Trump takes no responsibility for Capitol riot

Firstly, why should he, and secondly no matter what he said, the cartel media would distort it. And the cartel has take his public platforms away, so everything he say goes through the cartel media, who would turn it into propaganda anyway.

Interesting to see though that the media suddenly is against riots.... what a change of heart since last year.

-12 ( +1 / -13 )

Two great ironies of the last several weeks….

One: Repubs, who spent two years and untold volumes of hot air on Benghazi, where 4 US citizens were killed in an unstable war zone…to Jan 6th where an insurrection and coup in the US that killed, so far, five people…and the majority are silent…

Two: Trump supporters and so-called conservatives who used to fight for free enterprise and the rights of business…go apoplectic when a private company tosses them off for violating its rules.  And with the several hundred million they’ve donated to their Sainted Leader to "fight the steal" they could have funded their own platform…

Just more craziness that has defined the nightmare of the last four years……

7 ( +7 / -0 )

I love how posters on here who are clearly wildly successful and overachieving call the current POTUS and before that billionaire a loser.

He may be a jerk, but loser not so much.

-13 ( +0 / -13 )

Isn't it interesting, that there is now likely more fencing and walls in Washington DC, than there is at our southern border with Mexico...

Walls to keep out violent pro-Trump domestic terrorists and insurrectionists...as we saw last Weds, the real threat to our union and democracy...

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Firstly, why should he, and secondly no matter what he said, the cartel media would distort it. And the cartel has take his public platforms away, so everything he say goes through the cartel media, who would turn it into propaganda anyway.

Interesting to see though that the media suddenly is against riots.... what a change of heart since last year.

Your comment about the "cartel media" ignores the vast right wing media giants and all the money they make spewing conspiracy theories and hate. Rush Limbaugh, Carlson Tucker, Beck, and the other am radio and tv personalities make themselves, their sponsors and their networks vast profits spewing nonsense to the gullible. The wilder the conspiracy the better the ratings and the more everyone on the gravy train makes.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Since this is a story about Texas, here are a couple of noteworthy Texans' opinions of Trump:

I’m gonna tell you what I really think of Donald Trump: This man is a pathological liar. He doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth, and in a pattern that I think is straight out of a psychology textbook, his response is to accuse everybody else of lying.

--Ted Cruz

and

[Trump] offers a barking carnival act that can be best described as Trumpism: a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if pursued.

--Rick Perry

Oops. I mistook the past for the present.

The Republican Party took that road to perdition, with both Cruz and Perry along for the ride, and here they are today.

11 ( +11 / -0 )

As the political mayhem in Washington builds momentum, Trump flees to where many a wanted desperado heads: the Mexican border. But the walls he built are fast closing in on him.

Why do GOP fans think that killing a police officer is fine and dandy and should be celebrated, but think that being banned from social media for breaking the terms and conditions you agreed to is bad and terrible? 

According to the principles of the legislated cash cow, "Citizens United", branded with the unmistakable right-wing Republican imprimatur, plain ole folks like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram et al. had every right to eject from their premises a pathological liar and troublemaker like Trump who, wholly in character, instead of intervening to prevent the violence that led to the assault on the Capitol, drove off in his limo then ducked out of sight to sit ensconced incommunicado glued to his TV screens in his private quarters feeding his insatiable, needy narcissism with the live spectacle of "his people" trashing their symbolic "House of American Democracy".

5 ( +5 / -0 )

His whole life has been spent avoiding responsibility for his actions. The American people told him "enough!' in the election, and he refuses to accept it. Now it is up to Congress to hold him accountable.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

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