Trump didn't say the only words that mattered about the Capitol coup
Stephen H. Provost
He called it the Capitol invasion and riots a “heinous act.”
True.
He said, “The demonstrators who have infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy.”
True.
“And to those who broke the law,” he said, “you will pay.”
True.
Donald Trump appeared to say many of the right things in his too-little, too-late reversal after inciting his followers to storm the Capitol. But he didn’t say the only words that mattered, the only words he almost never says.
I’m sorry. I apologize. It’s my fault. There were many variations from which to choose, but Trump, true to form, chose none of them. Instead, he did what he always does: He threw his supporters under the bus. He blamed THEM for Thursday’s “heinous act” and vowed that they would pay. The sad thing is, they either don’t seem to know it, or they simply don’t care.
He didn’t take responsibility for summoning these extremists to Washington for a “wild” rally and shutting down the city. Nor did he issue a mea culpa for telling them to “walk down to the Capitol” and telling them, “You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”
“If you don’t fight like hell,” he said, “you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
So they did what he said. They fought like hell and invaded the nation’s seat of government, hijacking it through intimidation, the same way Trump himself had hijacked the Republican Party and the nation. It was nothing less than a terrorist act, and Trump was the one who enabled it. Not just enabled, but provoked it.
And yet he could not, would not, say “sorry.” It’s part of his psychosis to never apologize for any of the damage he causes. It would actually be comforting to believe he was doing so to shield himself from lawsuits. But it’s not just that. It’s that he can’t bring himself to ever admit he’s done anything wrong, even when it’s as wrong as inciting a riot.
Instead, he blamed his followers for doing what he wanted them to do.
THEY were the ones responsible for this heinous act. THEY were the ones who needed to pay.
Not Donald Trump. Never Donald Trump.
An apology was the bare minimum that was necessary in Trump’s speech Thursday. Without it, everything else was just white noise and bovine excrement.