The 6th January 2021: The day that shook the foundations of American democracy, where hundreds stormed the seat of government. And tried to overturn an election result. This assault didn’t come out of the blue. It was by people that were carrying out the wishes of the sitting president, wishes they felt he signalled to them loud and clear. BBC News: Storming the Capitol, Aleem Maqbool reporting, BBC 9th January 2021
‘I call on President Trump to go on national television now and demand an end to this siege.’ ibid. Biden
He was caught pressuring an official to re-calculate the votes in a state he lost in the November election. ibid.
But Wednesday 6th January was always going to be the day it came to a head. Congress was due to do what’s normally procedural – formalize the results of the election. ibid.
Fight for Trump: At his [Trump] request thousands of his supporters had gathered from all over the country … ‘You’ll never take back our country with weakness; you have to show strength and you have to be strong.’ It was all his supporters wanted to hear. ibid.
Many point to the relative restraint shown by the security forces as compared to some of the scenes we saw as the Black Lives Matter protests law summer. ibid.
Many Americans described feeling numb at the events the previous day. ibid.
Democrats are adamant Donald Trump needs to leave office immediately … ‘an armed insurrection against America.’ ibid. Pelosi
It was a hard American winter. A tough time for Americans. But out there under the ice something big was stirring. An awakening of the unruly animal American democracy. This presidential election isn’t like other elections … a nationwide loss of faith in government. The American Future: A History by Simon Schama 2/4, BBC 2008
The world has got into the habit of thinking of America as the tough guy empire, trigger-happy cowboys’ addiction to the rush of military power. But that’s not the way America sees itself. ibid.
There’s no escaping American fervour. You could feel its heat right across the country burning into politics … Evangelical Christians suspect the Republican nominee John McCain isn’t really their man. The American Future A History by Simon Schama 3/4
‘I want all of you to pray I can be an instrument of God.’ ibid. Obama
When the American revolution began in 1775 most Jews threw in their lot with the Americans against the British. ibid.
Here religion has provided a haven for many whites whose lives have been blighted by poverty. A sense of community, something to lean on. And it was in this world that conservative evangelicalism had its roots. ibid.
Billy Sunday preached hard work and obedience to the bosses. ibid.
Fannie Lou Hamer: So began a career as a civil rights activist that would inspire millions. ibid.
What kind of a nation are we? Who can take us to a better place? The American Future A History by Simon Schama 4/4
Barack Obama has stretched beyond anything that was thought possible the definition of who can be an American president. ibid.
‘I will secure our borders.’ ibid. John McCain
The Chinese: today they are so much a part of America’s success story. ibid.
It was a day that stunned and shook a nation already on edge. Provoking a mob of his supporters, President Trump upended America’s long tradition of peacefully transferring power. Last week’s deadly siege at the Capitol raised urgent questions about the health and security of our democracy. American Reckoning: PBS Newshour 2021
Here in Washington, security has been fortified around the Capitol complex, the White House and much of the centre of the city. More than 25,000 members of the National Guard are being called up to ensure there will be no further riots or attacks. ibid.
Watergate, the worst political scandal in American history, finally destroys Richard Nixon. The president who opened new doors to Russia and China, quits the White House in disgrace. He resigned rather than face impeachment for ordering illegal acts. Two years before he resigned, the president’s re-election committee had broken into his opponents’ headquarters in search of damaging intelligence. The break-in team were caught, and the White House launched the cover-up that ruined Nixon. Nixon’s closest advisors now give evidence that the Watergate break-in was just one in a series of crimes instigated by the president himself. Watergate I: Break-In, BBC 1994
‘When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.’ ibid. Nixon
In May 1970 President Nixon’s America was in uproar. He had won the election, pledged to end the war in Vietnam but now he escalated it. Thousands of demonstrators lay siege to the White House. ibid.
These new powers to spy on Americans at home were in fact outside the law. ibid.
Nixon decided the White House would have to do its own dirty work. ibid.
The New York Times [Sunday June 13th 1971] led with the Pentagon Papers, a massive leak of top-secret documents tracing three decades of growing US involvement in Vietnam. These were the secrets of earlier administrations. ibid.
Two years later Dean would bring down the Nixon administration by exposing its conspiracies, including the one that was now brought to him. ibid.
The man Nixon wanted punished was Daniel Ellsberg who he feared had opened the floodgates. ibid.
Instead of a few ex-cops, he [Nixon] now set up a full-time unit within the White House. Their first task was to deal with Elsberg. ibid.
Gordon Liddy set up a double-act with Howard Hunt that President Nixon would come to regret. ibid.
Not Traceable meant that others would have to do the break-in [Ellsberg’s psychotherapist). Howard Hunt knew where to recruit them. It was the tenth anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the CIA’s attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. In Miami a group of Cuban exiles were sought out by their former CIA commander, Howard Hunt. ibid.
Liddy was impatient to get on with his intelligence operation … Liddy promptly produced a million dollar plan … Liddy presented his plan codenamed Gemstone. ibid.
Larry O’Brien’s offices as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee now became the key target of the bugging operation. It was located in the huge luxury complex called The Watergate. ibid.
To photograph the documents Liddy rehired the Cubans who had handled the Ellsberg job. ibid.
Three plainclothes policemen discovered the break-in team crouching under some desks and ordered them to come out with their hands up. ibid.
While Nixon was away, five of his men were arrested in Washington. They were caught red-handed inside Democracy Party headquarters in a building called The Watergate. The same team had already committed a succession of crimes for the White House. The President and his inner circle saw no option but to organise a cover-up. Watergate II: Cover-Up
The Watergate break-in had been planned, paid for and executed by Nixon’s election campaign committee. ibid.
The newly sworn-in attorney general ordered that Watergate should proceed like any other case. Yet he sat on the information that could have cracked it open on the first day. The chief law enforcement officer of the United States was turning a blind eye to the cover-up. ibid.
For Nixon’s men keeping Watergate away from the president was going to be a nightmare. ibid.
‘It was the most foolish, useless political caper of all time.’ ibid. Nixon, interview Frost
When Dean got back to his office he discovered the crime he would have to cover up didn’t end with the campaign committee. The guilt extended far into the White House. ibid.
On Day 3 of Watergate the White House was already up to its neck in the obstruction of justice. There would be no going back. ibid.
To keep her from talking about Watergate, Martha Mitchell was forcibly sedated and held incommunicado. ibid.
The President’s conversations with his aides which were automatically captured by his secret taping system proved that he devoted hour after hour to Watergate. ibid.