One of the more puzzling aspects of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and members of Congress by Donald Trump’s deluded minions is something that, for all intents and purposes, shouldn’t be puzzling at all. What exactly did they expect to happen if their plans—to “hang Mike Pence,” to attack, kill (and probably rape) Nancy Pelosi, to “zip-tie” and presumably torture and kill other Democrats they found—had actually panned out? Did the insurrectionists see themselves running the country from that point forward, issuing broad edicts that would refashion it in their image? Did they expect Trump, their unquestioned leader, to wave a magic wand and transform the nation into a white supremacist paradise, with every nonwhite person summarily shoved to the back of the bus? One nation, under MAGA, with them on top?
Seriously: How did they view their own roles in the aftermath of this apocalyptic event? Would they contentedly return to their fields, beat their swords into plowshares, and settle back into their (presumably) 9-to-5 humdrum day jobs? Or did they fancy themselves stepping into the more menacing future role of Trump’s private policy enforcers—a “Christian” militia with Gestapo-like powers—imposing their brave new social order at gunpoint on other Americans, maybe even going house to house? Clearly their scenario included no pushback from law enforcement, the military, or the criminal justice system. Perhaps those were to be refashioned in their image as well?
We’ll never really know, because their fantasies (thankfully) went unrealized. And since then, reams of ink have been spilled explaining how the events unfolded on Jan. 6. But the arrogance, audacity, and staggering, simplistic immaturity exhibited by these people as they swaggered through the Capitol, prepared to inflict violence on the country’s elected representatives, is seldom noted. These traits should be discussed because they say a lot about the MAGA population in this country—and the nature of what motivates them.
For all the planning and calls to action spread on their social media sites, the events of Jan. 6 were, in essence, incredibly stupid, spoiled toddler behavior writ large, motivated by infantile impulses with little to no thought about consequences. Helpfully many proudly recorded themselves that day for posterity, and what they recorded amounts mostly to a piqued desire to kill, maim, or break things without sparing any thought whatsoever for what would or could occur thereafter.
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In that respect, it was a day of dangerous adults acting like babies.
There’s Guy Reffitt, the first Jan. 6 defendant to be convicted of the criminal acts he committed that day. Reffitt was arrogant enough to affix a 360° camera on the helmet he wore to protect himself on Jan. 6., which helped prosecutors immensely in securing his conviction. His comments on camera included:
“We’re taking the Capitol before the day is over. […] Ripping them out by their hair. Every fucking one of them.”
“I just want to see Pelosi’s head hit every fucking stair on the way out … and Mitch McConnell too.”
“One way or a-fucking-nother, they’re coming out.”
“I’m packing heat and I’m going to get more heat.”
“Whatever it takes to get ‘em out of that building and empty it out.”
You don’t hear much in terms of “strategy” from Reffitt, and the hundreds of others like him, whose statements on Jan. 6 and immediately afterwards have come to light in their criminal prosecutions. You never hear about what they plan to do after the Capitol is “emptied out,” after they’ve “ripped” everyone out of Congress “by their hair.” What you do hear, mostly, are people who wanted to throw a huge, public tantrum and stumbled on a golden opportunity to satisfy themselves with a handy target, along with a couple thousand like-minded goons and thugs. Other than miraculously reinstating Trump and satisfying some deep-seated desire for revenge on the rest of the country for rejecting him, there was no planned follow-up evident, no end goal to their behavior. They knew they weren’t getting their way, and this was how they intended to act out.
Which makes the sheepish, pathetic statements of these folks when they plea for leniency at their sentencing hearings all the more telling. Here’s Reffitt, for example, doing his best facsimile of contrition:
“I did want to definitely make an apology,” he said. “In 2020, I was a little crazy, everything went a little stupid.”
“Everything went a little stupid” is an utterly meaningless statement, of course. All it means is that things didn’t go his way. In other words, his tantrum didn’t work.
Immediately after the assault, James Rahm, 63, bragged on Facebook about allegedly invading House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, writing, “I should have shit on her chair.” During the attack itself he was equally clear as to his intentions: “We’re taking our fucking house back. Time to find some brass and kick some friggin’ ass.”
During his sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan, however, a less rhyme-conscious Rahm suddenly saw the errors of his ways.
“When I put my foot over that threshold, my stomach dropped to the floor,” he said. “I knew only a terrorist should be in there.”
No, it didn’t, and no, he didn’t. If Rahm thought that, he wouldn’t have bragged about his antics afterwards. His tantrum simply didn’t work out for him the way he planned.
Former Marine Jesus Rivera, who declared in a message just after returning home from the Capitol that he’d “had a great time,” also exhibited a remarkable change in tone, telling the court during sentencing: "If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't have been there that day." Troy Faulkner, sentenced to five months for smashing through a window at the Capitol, intoned at his sentencing that he “wasn't in my best state of mind. [...] I've been remorseful every day." What these folks are actually saying is that they’ve been remorseful every day since they were caught. Notably, immediately after his hearing had concluded, Faulkner shouted bizarre conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein to reporters.
In the month before she joined the mob assaulting the Capitol, Reva Vincent, age 57, posted on Facebook: "A LAST WARNING TO THE LEFT IN AMERICA Dear Leftist/Progressive, Your [sic] life is in severe danger. That wasn’t a threat: It’s a fact."
Later, in the same post, Vincent wrote, “The real America is tired of being TREAD ON and doesn’t have much left to lose besides ammo.”
According to court documents, once in the Capitol Rotunda, Vincent had shouted at police officers, "Leave our house, we're done with them." But at her sentencing hearing, once again, it was a different story:
"I am so sorry that ANYONE was hurt that day. I didn't know of what was going on in other places on these grounds," she wrote to the judge. "I am sorry for being there, I realize now that should have went to rally and left for home. Or with the events that happened, not gone at all if I had known what I know now. Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20."
“[N]ot gone at all if I had known what I know now.” Again, this is the stammering excuse reminiscent of a sixth-grader who’s been hauled in front of the principal. The long and short of it is Vincent’s tantrum didn’t lead to the result she wanted.
Most recently we have Richard “Bigo” Barnett, the 60-year-old construction sales employee from Arkansas, famously photographed with his feet on Nancy Pelosi’s desk. On the day of the attacks, Barnett was unequivocal about his sentiments.
“Nancy, Bigo was here, you b----,” he said he wrote in a note, leaving it on the desk before departing with an item that didn’t belong to him: an empty envelope addressed to a House Democrat and bearing the digital signature of Pelosi (D-Calif.). “I put a quarter on the desk even though she ain’t f----ing worth it,” he shouted hoarsely outside the Capitol, displaying his souvenir for video cameras.
This week, however, “Bigo” was singing a far different tune.
“Because of all the controversies,” he testified. “I probably shouldn’t have put my feet on the desk. And my language.”
[...]
“I’m a Christian,” he said. “It just wasn’t good. It wasn’t who I am.”
This is someone who is struggling to sound like a thoughtful adult. “Because of all the controversies” he shouldn’t have put his feet on Pelosi’s desk? What “controversies” should have dissuaded him, in hindsight? He’s “a Christian?” Please.
Of course, what all these people are obviously doing with these supposedly heartfelt statements of regret and contrition is trying to save their own asses; their statements after the fact must be taken with a grain of salt. Prison is an unpleasant place, and once the reality of a criminal conviction has settled in, the first thing their lawyers advised was a show of some semblance of remorse to the court to try and get their sentence down. There’s little doubt that if they’d actually succeeded in overturning the 2020 election through some miraculous means, most if not all of them would be bragging about and embellishing their Jan. 6 stories right now.
Calling what these people displayed to the nation on Jan. 6 a product of a “mob mentality” or excusing them as being “caught up in the moment” when they stormed the Capitol misses the point. These people knew fully well that breaking down doors to enter a government building—particularly one as hallowed and historically significant as the U.S. Capitol—and ransacking it was illegal; they knew that clubbing police officers was a crime, and that attacking members of Congress could get them thrown in jail. These were adults—most if not all of them holding down jobs, some with professional licenses and running businesses that presumably required some type of emotional maturity to sustain. Yet they allowed themselves to be goaded by Donald Trump and their MAGA-loving peers into performing senseless and ultimately self-destructive acts, all with no real plan for the aftermath of their actions. Trump offered them an opportunity to throw a no-holds-barred tantrum, and like the emotional toddlers most of them were, they seized that opportunity.
Some Jan. 6 defendants appear to have harbored some dystopian, Red Dawn fantasy of good versus evil motivating their behavior, while others simply saw an opportunity to act out on their worst anti-social and racist impulses.
They all had an option to behave like adults and to weigh the consequences of their actions before crossing that fateful threshold.
They just chose not to.
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