SENIOR REPUBLICANS LACK THE COURAGE TO CHALLENGE THE PRESIDENT

 

Trump pardoned Mike Flynn, who has recommended using the US Military to re-run the election

 

Trump’s final re-election efforts are expected to fail in Congress.

 

We should now understand that all over the United States, we will be in a danger zone until the formal certification of Joe Biden’s election victory on Jan. 6.  That is because potential domestic and foreign turbulence could give President Trump an excuse to cling to some level of power.

This threat is concerning senior US officials, including those Republicans who have supported Trump in the past.  But they also believe he is now going to overstep the limits of his presidential power. They described a campaign by die-hard Trump supporters to use these disruptions at home and perhaps some threats abroad to support his interests.

The big showdown will be on the Jan. 6 gathering of both houses of Congress to formally confirm the electoral college vote taken on Dec. 14, which Biden won 306 to 232.  The certification is usually an uneventful operation.  But a desperate Trump is demanding that House and Senate Republicans challenge the count and block this final, binding affirmation of Biden’s victory before Inauguration Day.

Trump’s last-ditch campaign is expected to fail in Congress. The greater danger is on the streets where pro-Trump forces are already threatening to riot.  A pro-Trump group called “Women for America First” has requested a permit for a Jan. 6 rally in Washington, and Trump is already beating the drum by tweeting: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”

Government officials fear that violence will spread, and that Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act to mobilize the military.  Then Trump might use the military to rerun the Nov. 3 election in swing states, as suggested by the man he pardoned, Michael Flynn.  Flynn was  Trump’s former national security adviser. Trump “could take the military and he could place them in those states and basically rerun an election,” Flynn told this to the Trump supporting  Newsmax channel in a Dec. 17 interview.

The Pentagon would be the focus of any such action, and some unusual recent moves suggest pro-Trump officials might be trying to secure levers of power.  Kash Patel, Chief of Staff to acting defense secretary Christopher Miller, returned home “abruptly” from an Asia trip in early December.  This is according to a Fox News correspondent.  Patel didn’t explain his return, but in mid-December Trump discussed with colleagues the possibility that Patel might replace Christopher Wray as FBI director, one official has said. But so far, Wray remains in his FBI job.

Another strange Pentagon issue was the proposal that Miller floated in mid-December to separate the code-breaking National Security Agency from US Cyber Command, which are both currently headed by General Paul Nakasone. That proposal died because of bipartisan congressional opposition.

But why did Trump loyalists suggest the NSA-Cyber Command should split in the first place? Some officials think that the White House may have planned to install a new NSA chief, perhaps Ezra Cohen-Watnik, the young conservative recently installed to oversee Pentagon intelligence activities.

With firm control of the NSA and the FBI, the Trump team might then disclose highly sensitive information about the origins of the 2016 Trump Russia investigation.  Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe tried to release this sensitive intelligence before the election, despite protests from intelligence chiefs that it would severely damage US National Security.  Trump retreated under pressure from then-Attorney General William Barr, among others.

Trump’s final weeks in office will also probably be in constant turmoil because of the danger of the actions abroad.  Iranian-backed militias fired more than 20 rockets last Sunday at the US Embassy compound in Baghdad, with around nine hitting the compound but inflicting no American casualties. The United States sent intense, high-level messages to Tehran, public and private, warning against any further provocation. The toughest was a Dec. 23 tweet from Trump warning: “If one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over.” State Department and Pentagon officials say Trump’s retaliatory threat is real.

Another potential flash point is just a week away. Jan. 3 marks the first anniversary of the US targeted killing of Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani and Iraq militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.  Any new violence could ignite an escalation that could bring direct conflict between the United States and Iran during Trump’s final weeks in office.

The heroes in preserving the United States’ hopes of a stable democratic transition have ironically been some courageous and principled Republicans.  They include the judges in state and federal courts, including Supreme Court justices nominated by Trump; secretaries of state and other election monitors.  Plus a small handful of GOP senators and members of Congress, and even a few members of Trump’s inner circle like White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.  He is said to have resisted some of Trump’s disruptive plans. They have all stood up in different ways for the rule of law.

Trump won’t succeed in subverting the Constitution, but he can do enormous damage over the next few weeks.  

Before Jan. 6, a delegation of senior Republicans should be visiting him at the White House and insist, emphatically, that: Biden has won and this must stop.

But will a delegation of senior Republicans have the courage and the commitment to actually stand up for the rule-of-law and the US Constitution?  To date, they haven’t shown that any of them have that level of courage and conviction.

Copyright G. Ater 2020