re: #123 Belafon

I think that they were honestly surprised to be met with resistance. If the Park Police hadn’t been disarming them for the speech in the park, there likely would have been a LOT more violence as many of them would then have been armed. Remember Trump complained about taking their guns because he KNEW he wasn’t in danger. Then when they got there, with the reduced numbers of the Cap Police on duty, I think they suspected that they would be welcomed as liberators and the fact that there was no lethal force used against them probably made the ringleaders feel that they just had to press the issue and they would capture MOC and Senators and then the real fun could begin.

The idea that once they had the Capitol captured and Trump having the high hand on the forces to be sent to assist or not, for arrests to be made or not, they could have tried to bum rush the false elector scheme and they already had Thomas on the inside to guide that effort. Would the rest of SCOTUS go along? I dunno, but they gutted the VRA and Dobbs, so I think that depending upon SCOTUS to do the “right thing” is not something I would feel great about.