DC Hunkers Down for Trump’s Seditious Coup and Insurrection on Wednesday, Jan.6

National Guard Deployed, Proud Boys Mobilized and Street Closures Are Matched by Warnings from 10 Defense Secretaries and Wall Street

The nation’s capitol is in hunker-down mode as the city – and the country – prepare for Wednesday, January 6 – the day Donald Trump has called for rioting in the streets. A seditious insurrection. Called by a sitting president – the most treasonous action since the Civil War.

The DC mayor, Muriel Bowser, has asked residents and other demonstrators not to come downtown and not to engage with those “seeking confrontation.” She also warned pro-Trump people visitors that local laws bar anyone from carrying firearms within 1,000 feet “of any First Amendment activity.”  City police have closed down many streets near the Capitol as preparations are made for a multitude of rallies, marches and demonstrations by pro-Trump supporters. The DC National Guard has also been called up – but in limited numbers and with more restrictions that previous engagements.

The Proud Boys and their friends are also mobilizing – called to action by Trump’s tweets – and they are coming packing. Many are expecting violence and plan to be part of an insurrection, as numerous platforms are indicating such actions. Trump said there will be a “riot.” They expect one. The far-right group, allied with White nationalists, is particularly upset that their leader, Enrique Tarrio, was arrested on Monday, for charges related to the burning of a historically Black church’s Black Lives Matter flag in a protest last month. Plus he was found with multiple belts of ammunition.

At least three groups are planning pro-Trump demonstrations. The Proud Boys have plans for its members to attend the pro-Trump rallies that day, along with Trump, who said he planned to take part in the “March for Trump” event scheduled for Wednesday. Roughly 5,000 people are expected to attend that event, which is also expected to feature Roger Stone and Rudy Giuliani. Other estimates say 10,000 to 12,000 people will turn out, but one organizer, James Epley, founder of The Silent Majority, claims the city will see hundreds of thousands.

And of course, this is all coming down the same day Congress meets to certify the election results and approve the electors’ votes, which normally is but a ceremony, but this week seditious Republican representatives and senators plan to question the validation of the states’ electors.

The DC mayor and police are not the only ones nervous. There is such concern about Wednesday that ten former Secretaries of Defense wrote a scathing op-ed in Sunday’s Washington Post that warned Trump and his allies:

“Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted.”

“The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.”

The bipartisan group of former Secretaries of Defense included Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney –  who is said to have instigated the move – , William Cohen, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta, William Perry and Donald Rumsfeld. Jim Mattis – who served under Trump and Mark Esper also signed it – Esper was just removed by Trump in November.

This extraordinary statement must spring from a deep concern about how Trump and his attorneys repeatedly asserted false claims of voter fraud, that his loss to Biden was due to widespread irregularities – without any evidence. The defense ministers are very concerned that Trump’s insistence that the election was stolen could somehow prompt him to use the military to remain in office past Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

The 10 signatories were clear – any effort to involve U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take the country “into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory.” They wrote, “Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.”

William Cohen, who also served as secretary of defense under Clinton, said in an NPR interview that he was okay with characterizing Trump’s efforts to reverse the election as a coup. “I am not troubled by the word ‘coup,’ ” Cohen said. “I think it means an extra-judicial, extra-legal action that opposes rule not by the people but by a select few.” A former senator from Maine for 20 years, Cohen said he is concerned that Trump will promote civil unrest as justification to deploy military forces in the streets.

“There are things taking place which pose, I think, a threat to our domestic tranquility and security, and that is the president encouraging some of the more right-wing extremists to march on Washington and to protest. And the indication is he’s urging them to – it’s going to be wild.”

The Pentagon is not the only institution rattled by the prospects on Wednesday. Wall Street and major capitalists have also stepped forward and in a public letter signed by more than 160 top executives asked Trump to immediately acknowledge Biden as president-elect. They said that Trump’s refusal to accept the election results is hurting the country and the economy and they are ready to work with Biden.

Signatories to the letter included the chief executives of Mastercard, Visa, MetLife, Accenture, the Carlyle Group, Condé Nast, McGraw-Hill, WeWork, American International Group, Goldman Sachs; BlackRock – and more. The group, which includes major Republican and Democratic donors, is demanding that the head of the General Services Administration release funds to begin the presidential transition. The letter said:

“Every day that an orderly presidential transition process is delayed, our democracy grows weaker in the eyes of our own citizens and the nation’s stature on the global stage is diminished. Withholding resources and vital information from an incoming administration puts the public and economic health and security of America at risk.”

It’s doubtful Trump is listening to these warnings. And neither are the Proud Boys.

The Washington Post reported today:

Far-right online forums are seething with references to potential violence and urging supporters of President Trump to bring guns to Wednesday’s protests in Washington — in violation of local laws — as Congress meets to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

Many of the posts appear to be direct responses to Trump’s demands that his supporters pack the nation’s capital in support of his bogus claims that November’s national vote for Biden resulted from election fraud. Congress’s largely ceremonial role in confirming Biden’s victory has emerged as a catalyst for expected unrest that has D.C. police and the National Guard deploying on city streets to quell potential trouble.

Talk of guns and potential violence is rife on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, the conservative social media site Parler and on thedonald.win, an online forum that previously operated on Reddit before the company banned it in June after years of racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism and calls for violence.

Trump’s tweet last month pushing baseless fraud claims and promoting the “big protest” on Jan. 6 — “Be there, will be wild!” — has become a central rallying cry. It was the top post on thedonald.win Tuesday morning, and anonymous commenters saw it as a call to action: “We’ve got marching orders,” the top reply said.

Discussion in the thread followed about how most effectively to sneak guns into Washington, laced with occasional references to using them. D.C. has some of the nation’s strictest gun laws: Openly carrying guns is banned, concealed-carry licenses from other states aren’t recognized, and all firearms in the District must be registered with local police.

Of carrying guns in D.C., one poster in the thread wrote, “Yes, it’s illegal, but this is war and we’re clearly in a post-legal phase of our society.” Wrote another: “LIVE AS A FREE AMERICAN AND BRING YOUR ARMS!”

At last year’s demonstrations in Washington, there were a number of skirmishes between anti-Trump protesters and Trump supporters of the President, with at least 20 people arrested during a demonstration in mid-November in which two officers with the DC Metropolitan Police were injured. During a pro-Trump rally in December, Black Lives Matter signs at two historic Black churches in DC were torn down and set on fire. Four people were stabbed by a suspected Proud Boy. The Hill

These unprecedented warnings from the establishment and the rumblings of civil war and insurrection from the extreme far-right about Wednesday, January 6 forces the rest of us to to awake up and take notice. We must not abide any coup. The insurrection will wither – and there will be a deep accounting of who tried to destroy American democracy.

It is still time for America to stand up and stand by.