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The 60 Minutes story on Trump’s intimidation of Georgia's secretary of state and an election worker provides an alternative theory as to why the objecting GOP Senators gave credence to Trump's stolen-election theory and abetted the coup.
Thread. 1/n https://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-election-brad-raffensperger-60-minutes-2021-01-10/
Thread. 1/n https://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-election-brad-raffensperger-60-minutes-2021-01-10/
Trump’s tactic for getting what he wants, even if it means breaking the law or upending a fair election, must be understood as a mob boss: Either do what I want or I will unleash the white supremacist mob on you via a tweet, and who knows how that will turn out.
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Trump peddled a story about suitcases of ballots added by an election worker, which 60 Minutes exposed to be false, as the workers were originally told to go home at 10 pm and so stored the ballots under a table. The election worker, a woman, has been hiding ever since.
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This is not the first time that a Trump tweet has led to violence. As @jaketapper pointed out, the man who shot up the Tree of Life synagogue was acting under a Trump conspiracy that George Soros was funding caravans of Latin Americans coming into the U.S. to do harm.
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So I want to propose an alternative explanation for why the objecting GOP Senators abetted the coup, aside from the (very plausible) theory that they are also fascists: Trump threatened them, as he threatened so many others, including his own VP.
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This is not meant to excuse their actions, which are still despicable. But it would cast their complicity in a different light—namely, they went along because they were scared for their lives and their family’s safety.
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The Trump-as-mobster lens also justifies Twitter’s decision to de-platform Trump. When Trump outs a public enemy via Twitter, he signals to his band of white supremacists the target is fair game. Understanding that threat, his GOP partners are willing to engage in sedition.
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The Dems should hold hearings on the conduct of the objecting GOP Senators, with eye towards a censure vote or even expulsion. Those who lent credence to Trump’s election lies should be asked under oath if they were ever threatened by Trump or his staff, and if so, how.
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The objecting Senators would never admit these threats voluntarily. And if any do admit to being threatened under the bright lights of a hearing, then the evidentiary basis for pursuing Trump under criminal statutes would be bolstered.
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