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I’m still processing all the information we learned at yesterdays Jan 6 hearing. But it is clear to anyone who’s paying attention that Donald Trump led the charge to attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 elections to remain in power. The gaslighting is apparent, but there’s still a huge portion of the population that believes the lies they’ve been told by the former guy and right wing media, and they were willing to attack the Capitol to do what they thought was necessary to fight against what they were told was a stolen election. Except it wasn’t.
Instead it was the result of a massive disinformation campaign to foment insurrection. The House Select Committee investigating 1/6 did a great job of putting all the pieces together in a series of nine public hearings.
Since Trump went down those escalators some seven years ago, he’s been upending norms and challenging the pillars of this democracy– the hallmark of which is the smooth, peaceful transition of power. We know that the transition from the Trump to the Biden administration was anything but smooth and peaceful. I wondered if we’d be able to survive.
The good news is that we have before. Our guest will tell us about the two other transitions that were somewhat precarious!
Today’s guest is David Marchick. He was director of The Center for Presidential Transitions at the Partnership for Public Service, and hosted its Transition Lab podcast. The new book, The Peaceful Transfer of Power: An Oral History of America’s Presidential Transitions is based on that podcast series.
