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These Two Big Lies live on to this day: "The Election of 2020 was stolen;" and, "the Capitol was not violently attacked on January 6." All available evidence completely refutes these baseless fabrications.. But don't tell that to Congressmen Glenn Thompson and Dan Meuser. Most of of their supporters don't want to hear it and they don't want to lose their jobs.
It is hard not to wonder if Proverbs 12;19 got it backwards in declaring: "Truth will last forever. But lies last only a moment." The Two Big Lies of 2021 appear capable of lasting forever. They are so stubborn because they are instances of denial or, better yet, of hard-to dislodge lies we tell ourselves. These Two Big Lies have disastrous consequences. They are so big that they have divided what should be the United States of America.
That's why I suggest that at every appearance during the 2024 election campaign, Congressmen Glenn Thompson and Dan Meuser be asked these four questions: 1. "Why did you vote to nullify the votes of Pennsylvania voters in the absence of evidence that any fraud sufficient to change the results of the 2020 election existed in Pennsylvania…or any other state?" 2. "Why should I vote for you when you voted in Congress to nullify my vote?" 3. "Why was a vote for you valid, but not a vote for Biden? 4. Why have you minimized the attack of January 6? Voters should ask these questions because we should never forget the exact empirical truth of what happened on January 6, 2021 and in the elections of 2020.
On Wednesday, January 6, a mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol before the eyes of the world. The attack disrupted and delayed a joint session of Congress convened to federally certify the state certified and validated results of the 2020 Presidential election. President Donald Trump was among the estimated 17 million viewers who watched on live television as the trespassers assaulted the police and injured over 130 of them. The rioters sought to kill Mike Pence and Nancy Plosive, and Lord knows whom else. They terrorized and threatened the lives of our legislators and their largely young staff, who fled seeking safety. Many of them called their loved ones saying they feared they were going to die. Congressmen Thompson and Meuser may well have done so too.
Five people associated with the attack died January 6 or soon after.
Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran and QAnon conspiracy theorist, was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to breach the Speaker's Lobby Door in the Capitol building. Among those barricading the door she and other attackers were trying to break into was Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga.
Brian Sicknick, a 42-year-old Capitol Police officer died the day after the riot from injuries sustained while physically fending off attackers.
Rosanne Boyland, a 34-year-old Georgia resident, was trampled to death by fellow assailants during the chaos inside the Capitol building.
Benjamin Phillips, a 50-year-old Army veteran and Pentagon employee, suffered a stroke while participating in the riot. His wife believes that the stress of the situation caused his death later in a hospital.
Kevin Greenstone, a 55-year-old Alabama resident, died of a heart attack while on the Capitol grounds. His son later stated that his father's death was unrelated to the attack itself.
Some of the rioters vandalized the buildings, damaged, destroyed and stole equipment, documents and personal effects of the legislators. Some defecated and urinated in the Capitol....the building Thomas Jefferson called the People's House, our Founding Fathers called the Temple of Liberty, and historians call the Cradle of Liberty. The estimated physical damage to the Capitol was between $1.5 and 2.5 million. The temporary fencing around the Capitol complex through March 31 and supporting National Guard troops stationed in the building cost another $30 million. Long-term security measures to protect the Capitol are estimated to cost far more. The Capitol was closed to the public for six months. There have more than been 1,270 people charged with offenses related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Approximately 900 have been incarcerated. It is impossible to put a dollar figure on the cost of the attack on our democracy.
At a May 12, 2021 hearing, Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga. said: "Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall, showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes taking videos and pictures. If you didn't know the TV footage was a video from Jan. 6, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit." Tens of millions of voters continue to say they agree with Congressman Clyde?
Between election day on November 6 and January 6, challenges to the election results had included over 60 lawsuits. About 50 of the cases were dismissed without a full hearing on the merits and about a dozen lawsuits had their facts heard. In addition, there were many risk-limiting audits, post-election audits, and recounts in a significant number of key states. Not a single lawsuit, recount, or audit in any state where challenges were lodged has yielded evidence supporting Donald Trump's claim that he won the 2020 election, or that any issues in the voting process would have changed the official election results.
Arizona and Pennsylvania were among the states where challenges were lodged. No challenge in these states found any evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities that would have significantly affected the election outcome. There was no reason to reject the election results or the electors chosen by any of the states in the country.
These widely publicized facts were available to every member of Congress and the Senate including Congressmen Glenn Thompson and Dan Meuser. Yet when both Houses of Congress convened after the deaths, causalities, damage and threats to the life and limb of members of both houses and the desecration of the Capitol by Trump's followers, Congressmen Thompson and Meuser joined 145 other Congressmen in questioning the electors from Pennsylvania and Arizona. Theirs was an attempt to accomplish through an irresponsible vote what the mob sought and failed to bring about through violence.
By voting to contest the Presidential electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania, Thompson and Meuser and 145 other House Members officially challenged the validity of the official 2020 Presidential election results. Many have gone on to reject not only the 2020 official election results, but also to deny a violent attack on the Capitol occurred on January 6. There is compelling evidence to the contrary.
A deeply held conviction cannot be true when it is contradicted by tangible, observable evidence. Relentless repetition does not make an untruth true.
None of the House Members have retracted these two false denials. None has provided anything close to sufficient evidence that proves the election results were wrong. Neither have the tens of millions who agree with them, after four years of deceiving themselves and the public.
I think it is time for us to shape our convictions in accordance with what is plainly evident and in full sight and not by what is the opposite to the views of our political opposition, to what we see and hear, and not to what fits comfortably with our partisan opinions. The 2020 election was NOT stolen and the Capitol WAS violently attacked on January 6, 2021.
A vote for Donald Trump, Dan Meuser and Glenn Thompson is a vote for the "Two Big Lies. Abraham Lincoln fatefully reminds us. "A nation built on lies cannot stand." If the two Big Lies prevail this time, our Republic will be pronounced dead at the scene. And Dan Meuser and Glenn Thompson will still be employed…under the "Constitution-less" dictatorship Donald J. Trump has explicitly and repeatedly said he intends to establish.
Tim Mannello is a retired hospital system executive and business consultant residing in Williamsport.