Amidst the sea of lies, omissions and half-truths offered by ABC’s David Muir and Vice President Kamala Harris Tuesday night on the subject of January 6, one highly consequential deception stands out – Harris’ absence from the Capitol.
“I was there,” said Harris. Well, no Kamala, you were not. And Harris’ absence speaks to what remains Harris’ greatest unspoken liability.
The exchange began with a question from Muir loaded with a false premise: “Mr. President, on January 6th you told your supporters to march to the Capitol. You said you would be right there with them. The country and the world saw what played out at the Capitol that day. The officers coming under attack.”
In her turn, as if on cue, Harris amplified the charge, “And on that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation’s Capitol, to desecrate our nation’s Capitol.”
Responding to Muir, Trump pointed out a significant omission from his question, namely that he asked the protesters to march “peacefully and patriotically.” He then made a surprisingly strong assertion that went unchallenged.
“And nobody on the other side was killed. Ashli Babbitt was shot by an out-of-control police officer that should have never, ever shot her. It’s a disgrace.” (To learn more, see “Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6.”)
Trump was correct on both counts. In her turn, Harris finessed the lie that the media have been feeding their audiences for the last three years: “On that day, 140 law enforcement officers were injured. And some died.”
Some died, yes. One officer died of a stroke the following day – not by a blow from a fire extinguisher as the media claimed for months – and four others committed suicide in the subsequent year.
In his rambling way, Trump made another solid observation, “When are the people that burned down Minneapolis going to be prosecuted or in Seattle?”
Muir then asked Trump, “Is there anything you regret about what you did on that day? Yes or no?”
Trump responded accurately that he did not organize the day’s rally, but expecting a big crowd, he asked Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the House, for 10,000 National Guard troops.
“They rejected me,” he said. “Nancy Pelosi rejected me. It was just two weeks ago, her daughter has a tape of her saying she is fully responsible for what happened.”
More accurately, it was Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser who rejected the White House offer, but Trump’s claim about the tape is accurate.
In fleeing the Capitol on January 6, a panicking Pelosi said, “We take responsibility, Terri [McCullough, her chief of staff]. We did not have any accountability for what was going on there, and we should have. This is ridiculous.”
The House speaker is ultimately responsible for the security of the Capitol. Pelosi knew this. “Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?” She asked. “[The Capitol Police Board] clearly didn’t know. And I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more.”
Trump was in no position to respond. He was speaking at the Ellipse, a 45-minute walk from the Capitol. The Ray Epps-led attack on the Capitol began at 12:53 p.m., 20 minutes before Trump finished his speech.
Trump did not “incite” these people to riot as Harris claimed. They did not hear a word of his speech.
At 1:38, Trump tweeted, “Please support our local police and law enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful.”
At 2:13, Trump tweeted, “I am asking for everyone at the Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember WE are the party of law and order.”
In a rare honest moment, Muir conceded, “You did send out tweets,” before adding, “but it was more than two hours before you sent out that video message telling your supporters to go home.”
Muir might have added that when Trump posted this video at 4:17 p.m. – “You have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt” – Twitter promptly applied a warning label.
The label read, “The claim of election fraud is disputed, and this tweet can’t be replied to, Retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence.” Facebook blocked the post as well. Needless to say, ABC avoided the issue of FBI-directed censorship.
Most relevant, however, was Harris’ claim that “she was there.” She wasn’t. She was at the DNC when, at the 1 p.m. witching hour, a pipe bomb was found. She was not at the Capitol during the riot for a minute.
As early as the Jan. 17, 2021, edition of “CBS Sunday Morning,” Harris had clearly been instructed not to talk about the DNC or her alleged proximity to an assassination attempt.
“I was at the Capitol that morning,” Harris told Jane Pauley, “and then I was in a meeting, and I was told that I should leave. And then I was taken to a secure location, with my husband.”
Nearly four years later, Harris continues this deception. For those who prefer video to print as an explanatory medium, Los Angeles filmmaker Joel Gilbert and I compressed the whole of “Kamalagate” into a 3-minute video.
Whatever Harris’ role, the evidence continues to mount that there was a plot underway on January 6 – yes, an “inside job” – to incite enough chaos to shut down the certification process.
The launch hour seems to have been 1 p.m., the time when the certification process began at the Capitol, when Epps and crew breached the perimeter and when the bomb was discovered outside the DNC.
The question Harris needs to answer is this: What did you know about the plot and when did you know it?
Jack Cashill’s new book, “Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6,” is now available in all formats.
