Below begins an opinion column by retired CBS news reporter and anchor Dan Rather and longtime collaborator Elliot Kirschner. It concerns then-President Donald Trump’s actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol. Originally published on July 12 on Substack, it was reprinted by the Justice Integrity Project. Readers may click HERE or HERE for the complete column. — MCM

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Perfidy Personified: The More We Learn, the Worse It Gets

By Dan Rather and Elliott Kirschner

Anger and concern well up. Anger and concern that are fueled by love for a country that has been violently transgressed. By a president of the United States no less. And with stunning complicity from those who actively participated in an attempted coup, and those who stood by and did nothing while their country teetered on the edge of chaos. Unbelievable. But believe it we must. Because true it is.

We struggle to keep the mantra: steady, steady, steady.* But in doing so may we follow the lead of the January 6 committee whose methodical, steady — admirably steady — pursuit of the facts has brought into the light a perfidy perhaps unmatched in the modern history of this nation. 

When one must reach for comparisons to the Civil War to bring context to our current moment, it is to acknowledge the gravity of what we are learning. 

Another day of hearings, and yet more details in a tableau of rampant law breaking. It is at a scale that is beyond what anyone could have imagined. Those who screamed into the void about what this man did and what he was capable of were often dismissed as histrionic. But even the most outrageous of suppositions have turned out to have been too restrained. The truth now has far outpaced the speculation. And the probability is that we have more to learn. 

Take the news that ended today’s [July 12] hearing, that there is new evidence raising questions about witnesses and a Trump telephone call. Did the president of the United States directly engage in witness tampering? It is impossible to be shocked anymore, yet it remains shocking to even have to ask the question. I’ve said something of this nature many times before; it only becomes more accurate with each new revelation.

And let us note with emphasis the new revelation that the president indicated that he wanted the U.S. military to seize voting machines as a means of keeping him in power past an election which he had clearly lost.

Perhaps if the reality of what took place was less abhorrent we might be able to process it more easily, and thus be less stunned.

Can this really be happening? Did all of this . . . READ MORE . . .

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* The title of Rather and Kirschner’s Substack website is “Steady,” and their declared purpose  is “to build a safe harbor amidst a sea of noise.”