Commentary

SILENCE … CRICKETS – It was of utmost urgency that President Trump be impeached over the breach of the Capitol, but have you noticed there has been no further discussion of the evidence that it was pre-planned?  No word on those who were arrested? And no word on the mysterious death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick?

The FBI is sitting on a number of affidavits against accused participants in the breach that show evidence of pre-planning, reinforcing an argument made by critics of the impeachment trial that they couldn’t have been incited by the president if they had earlier planned to do so, according to Tom Ozimek of The Epoch Times.

“Steve Sund, the U.S. Capitol Police Chief, called for National Guard backup two days before the breach, but his request was declined … declined by whom?” said Dinesh D ‘Souza in a podcast. The sergeant at arms?  Nancy Pelosi?

Even the Washington Post reported of the advanced warnings.  Yet no one did anything.

In a February 1, 2021 interview on Fox News Channel, Sen. Lindsay Graham indicated that there was mounting evidence that some of the people who came to Washington preplanned the attack.

Why were law enforcement agencies like the U.S. Capitol Police so ill-prepared when they had been warned of online talk of “war?”  Messaging that included maps of the Capitol’s tunnels and rallying points.

WE WERE LED TO BELIEVE that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died from “brain injuries sustained after Trump loyalists, who overtook the complex, struck him in the head with a fire extinguisher,” in New York Times coverage.  It was reported that he had bloody gash on his head and was rushed to the hospital and placed on life support. One report indicated that Sicknick had been “bludgeoned.”

Weeks later, however, police investigators were at odds over whether he was hit by an extinguisher, and it was revealed that Sicknick had texted his family that he had merely been pepper sprayed, but that he was in good spirits and in good shape.

In addition, the medical examiner “did not find signs that officer sustained any blunt force trauma … and early reports that he was fatally struck by a fire extinguisher are not true.”  All of this caused the Times to publish a revision of its earlier coverage.

While the District of Columbia medical examiner’s office told Julie Kelly of American Greatness that they “will release the cause and manner of death when his information is available,” Congress remembered the officer by allowing his cremated remains to be honored in the Capitol rotunda, with speeches by House and Senate leaders before receiving a police escort to Arlington National Cemetery for burial.

As Glenn Greenwald said recently, “there is no circumstance or motive that justifies the dissemination of false claims by journalists.  The more consequential the event, the less justified, and more harmful, serial journalistic falsehoods are.  Yet, this is exactly what happened and continues to happen.”

He was particularly upset with the New York Times headline over the Sicknick story: “He Dreamed of Being a Police Officer, He Was Killed by a Pro-Trump Mob,”

Cuomo’s Failure That Led to the Deaths

The focus has been on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s order regarding the handling of Covid-19 patients and their return to the State’s nursing homes is thoroughly justified; it led to the deaths of thousands of elderly citizens.

However, nothing is being said about his failures leading to those deaths.

Despite the mutual dislike between Cuomo and President Trump, the president went above and beyond to provide Cuomo what he needed.  Cuomo held his daily press briefings with cases of face masks, ventilators and other supplies behind him as a backdrop.

The president expedited the preparation and deployment of the Navy’s hospital ship Comfort to New York harbor.  The 1,200-person crew and 1,000-bed hospital was considered a Godsend.

Originally, the mission of the ship was to accept non-coronavirus patients to alleviate the burden on local hospitals, but so few patients were admitted, the Comfort began accepting Covid-19 patient, requiring an extensive reconfiguration of the vessel.

The Comfort was sadly underutilized, having handled only 182 patients of which approximately 70 percent had the virus.

President Trump also provided assistance in preparing the Javits Center for non-Covid patients, converted later to handle virus patients.  This 2,500-bed facility treated just 500 patients at its peak.

In addition, Franklin Graham’s Samaritan Purse Foundation opened a field hospital in New York’s Central Park consisting of a 14-tent, 68-bed respiratory care unit, and 10 ICU units equipped with ventilators, especially designed for the coronavirus response.  It, too, was underutilized.

I remind you of these underutilized facilities that were at the disposal of Governor Cuomo as evidence that there was no reason to return Covid-19 patients to ill-equipped nursing homes, where so many died.

That governor had the audacity to author a book subtitled, “Leadership Lessons from the Coronavirus Pandemic.”

May God continue to bless the United States of America.