The Coup and the Jan. 6th Truthers

Starting the New Year off right...

Hi — Ari here and Happy New Year! I always like the spirit of this time—for resolutions and fresh beginnings, even as we face plenty of the same challenges as last year. (That’s not too surprising, considering it was just a few days ago…)

My new piece for you picks up on the “anniversary” of how last year began in American democracy, with a violent insurrection backed by people who aimed to literally stage a coup. It’s a dark but important topic, so I wanted to focus on it with you in my first piece of this year.

The coup that wasn’t

Americans are marking the New Year, a resurgent Covid and the “anniversary” of of the January 6 insurrection. Now, for those who don’t follow the news much, this may be the week that reinforces how “January 6,” like 9/11, is more than a date. The date is now shorthand for a national attack and trauma. It will all be unavoidable this week, as politicians and leaders mark it with memorial services, speeches and reflections.

We are covering the anniversary across MSNBC and on The Beat. We will keep reporting on the grisly facts from that day, and the ongoing investigations, and the long process of accountability for the perpetrators and planners. That’s all factual stuff.

Then there are the deniers. The 1/6 Truthers.

They began at the fringes of the insurrection itself, where people involved in a crime sought to downplay it, deny it, or blame someone else. (Legally, those are fairly typical stances of criminal defendants.) But they were soon joined by Trump’s most hardcore defenders.

The most documented, broadcasted domestic attack ever

So while recent reporting shows Trump allies secretly lobbied him to stop the violence—they knew this was bad and acted in real time—they would soon downplaying all of it in public. That includes Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, among others.

And people listen to them. People believe them.

Their audiences began to accept a lie about January 6—arguing against the violence caught on tape, against the reality of chants to “hang” Mike Pence—and to fuse support for that lie with being a Trump supporter. (It’s the same playbook for rallying around the lie that Trump didn’t lose the election.)

That’s put pressure on Republican politicians to join the lie, or get out of the way.

So now, within a year of the most documented, taped, broadcasted domestic attack in American history, a growing part of the American Right embraces the lie that there was no actual MAGA insurrection.

This is all being mainlined on the Right.

The U.S. has faced many conspiracy theories, from the John Birch Society to the 9/11 truthers. But they never took over one of the major political parties. They never dictated the storyline of a national news outlet.

Lies and Power

This is about more than information or “accurate history.” It’s about power.

It’s about propaganda that may be used in the next effort to steal an election, or stage an insurrection.

A failed coup without consequences can become a training exercise, (a point I’ve cited for you before).

Former Obama campaign aide Chai Komanduri, a frequent Beat guest, says the problem runs deeper than “covering up” January 6th, because he sees a GOP embracing a deeper current of authoritarianism. He makes some incisive points, so I’ll hand him the mic here:

Republicans are increasingly comfortable with the idea of winning by being a minority — they are comfortable with minority rule.

That goes very deep into our country’s history… the Electoral College, the way the Senate is set up, the way the House is set up, you can [legally] win with a minority of the popular vote. ‘Why can’t you just win with a minority of the popular vote in, say, Georgia?’

Look at something like Jim Crow… voter suppression that is a big part of our history. Republicans feel that they are the ‘Real America’ — even though they’re a minority — [they insist] ‘The White, Christian, Male rural voter is the authentic American; and somebody like Barack Obama is really an impostor.’ He’s a ‘foreigner,’ which is what Donald Trump claimed, and came to power with.

So this is.. very strongly rooted in GOP culture.

That is why the 1/6 Truthers seek to contest the date and significance of “January 6” itself.

Confronting liars may sound exhausting, but the alternatives are worse.

That is another reason why this week matters; and how we mark the insurrection matters; and how our nation protects democracy, against enemies foreign and domestic, matters a ton right now.

P.S. Here is our Beat Special Report on police responses to the insurrection and BLM protests:

And here’s my full conversation with Chai Komanduri: