A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
Good God, It Was Even Worse Than We Knew
Bombshell: Gen. Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, prepared for the absolute worst after Trump refused to accept his defeat in the 2020 election, according to a new book by Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker.
- Milley reportedly likened Trump’s rhetoric and that of his supporters to the rise of Nazism in Germany, telling aides that the U.S. was experiencing a “Reichstag moment” and that Trump was preaching “the gospel of the Führer”
- Milley was reportedly determined to prevent Trump and his allies from a Nazi-like power grab. “They may try, but they’re not going to fucking succeed,” he reportedly told aides. “You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with guns.”
- He directly compared Trump’s supporters, who were similarly peddling the then-president’s lies about the election, to Nazis, reportedly calling them “brownshirts in the streets.”
Swift Fallout To The Milley Bombshell
Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling during a CNN appearance praised Milley for preparing to take action against Trump, saying it was “so frustrating” to see Trump administration officials normally “debating what they should do or abrogating their responsibilities to do the right thing to support the Constitution.”
But amid the horrified reactions to the news of Milley’s private fear of a potential Trump coup, former national security officials and prosecutors are slamming the Pentagon leader for not speaking out publicly on what he privately compared to literal Nazism. They’re also demanding that Milley testify in front of the House’s Jan. 6 select committee:
Milley should resign. He should speak openly before the 1/6 Select Committee. He can not straddle the "I saved America" and "I don't do politics" anymore. It is not good for the military. It is not good for us. We can find other Chairmans. It is time. He has served well. https://t.co/koqf3deGF9
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) July 15, 2021
It's disturbing that this wasn't presented as testimony during Impeachment II. It could have disrupted Trump's narrative & spared the country much of it's current pain, as well as the prospect of having the still-unconvicted former president win a future election. https://t.co/j5qcsjAemH
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) July 15, 2021
My view-It’s time for Milley to speak. In public. If this all is true, the American people must know. Silence makes him-again, if these accounts r true- complicit in the continued degradation of our democracy. Because his voice would mean something in trying to restore sanity. https://t.co/HdLIZIRvro
— Marc Polymeropoulos (@Mpolymer) July 15, 2021
Why did the generals not speak out then? Even if they had to resign to do it, they should have spoken out at the time. https://t.co/Ym3AQbTTvM
— Elizabeth de la Vega (@Delavegalaw) July 15, 2021
Another One Bites The Dust
Jason Roe, the executive director of the Michigan Republican Party who was brought aboard in February, resigned on Wednesday after getting Cheney’d for telling Politico in November that the GOP ought to steer away from Trump, who had freshly lost the election at the time.
- Roe didn’t hold back in that interview, asserting that Republicans were playing along with Trump’s anti-democracy crusade “at their own expense” and that “[f]rankly, continuing to humor him merely excuses his role” in losing the election.
- He also said that Trump could only blame himself for losing the election, that the then-president “blew it” and “[u]p until the final two weeks, he seemingly did everything possible to lose.”
- Roe refuses to say why he resigned, but he’s been under fire for months by Trump loyalists.
A Villain Origin Story
The Washington Post lays out Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s rise as arguably the most notorious TV spokesperson for white resentment.
- At several points of the Post’s story, Carlson’s accounts of being victimized as a white man or interacting with a hysterical white guilt-ridden liberal were fully disputed by the antagonists: The alleged hysterical liberal, Carlson’s first-grade teacher, told the Post that the Fox News star’s story was “the most embellished, crazy thing I ever heard.”
Don’t Look Away
Fatal drug overdoses hit a record of more than 93,000 in 2020, a staggering 30 percent surge from the previous record in 2019.
Happening Today
The first monthly child tax credit payments are going out.
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