In his letter of Sept. 9, writer Bruce Peterson exonerates former president Donald Trump of any blame for the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol and trots out thoroughly debunked claims of evidence of election fraud.
There is a mountain of evidence that shows Trump to be at the center of the planning for the Jan. 6 violence. Trump tweeted in December 2020, “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 election. Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild.”
The Jan. 6 House of Representatives committee heard sworn testimony from numerous Trump Administration employees and officials that revealed Trump’s culpability. That the full extent of Trump’s involvement is not known to the general public is due to his successful efforts to delay any court proceedings pursuant to his indictment on the matter and a compliant Supreme Court majority. And yes, the government (the people) also have a right to a speedy trial.
Mr. Peterson’s claims of election fraud have been debunked numerous times. Trump’s claim that he was 0 for 60 in his court cases alleging election fraud was due to “technicalities” doesn’t hold up. In one of the court cases in Pennsylvania, the judge asked Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani “where is your evidence of election fraud?” Giuliani, realizing he was in a courtroom where his lies could be punished and not in front of FOX “News” cameras, replied, “we have no evidence of election fraud.” Not a technicality.
Trump’s ongoing claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” and that 2024 will be rife with fraud if measures are not implemented to prevent that are bogus. American elections are exceptionally clean. Trump’s own election security chief Chris Krebs describes the 2020 U.S. presidential election as the “cleanest in history.”
Trump and Peterson’s ongoing lies about American voting systems and elections seek to undermine America’s faith in our system and do a great service for our enemies such as Vladimir Putin. They sow the chaos in America that Putin is counting on.
The German philosopher Hannah Arendt, who wrote in the post-World War II era, said of the Nazis and all would be dictators, “This constant lying is not aimed at making people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that cannot distinguish between truth and lies can not distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge , is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such a people you can do whatever you want.”
Trump’s lies are intended to plow and fertilize the ground for his ascension to power. Again.
Mark Twain knew scoundrels like Trump in his time. He said of one of them, “You take the lies out of him and he shrinks to the size of your hat. Take the malice out of him and he disappears.”
Marty Ansley
Cinebar
