Eight takeaways from the Capitol insurrection — from possible impeachment to local reactions.

8 takeaways from the Capitol insurrection

President Trump, no stranger to provoking outrage, is said to be considering pardoning himself for any and all federal crimes that might be charged against him after he leaves office.

He most likely can’t, he shouldn’t try, and if he does, it would compel Joe Biden’s Justice Department to indict him rather than let so odious a precedent go unchallenged at the Supreme Court.

If Trump does try it, the crimes for which he would aim to escape judgment now include complicity in the death of a Capitol Police officer as well as four other fatalities from the violent insurrection at the Capitol.

The officer, Brian D. Sicknick, died in a hospital Thursday night of unspecified injuries he suffered when a pro-Trump mob ravaged the building in obedience to the president’s command to go there in protest of counting the electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden.

If indicted, as the acting U.S. district attorney seems to be considering, Trump likely would claim that he said only that they should “walk down there…” But he also told them to “fight like hell” and said, “You have to show strength and you have to be strong,” which were fighting words. At the same rally, his consigliere Rudy Giuliani called for “trial by combat.”

It’s settled in law that “words matter, and that the power of life and death is in the tongue,” as the Senate chaplain, Barry C. Black, said in prayer early Thursday morning. It would be a question for a jury whether Trump and Giuliani knew or should have known that their words would incite a seditious riot. There is clearly probable cause for prosecution.

In 1973, when Richard Nixon’s Watergate crisis was building, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel considered whether a president’s pardoning power extended to himself.

“Under the fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case, it would seem that the question should be answered in the negative,” wrote Mary Lawton, the office’s acting director.

Biden has been understandably unenthusiastic about the optics of criminal charges against his predecessor, even though the Mueller report outlined ample examples of obstruction of justice. In his position, Biden is like Abraham Lincoln, who hoped Confederate President Jefferson Davis would simply escape and trouble the nation no more. Wednesday’s tragic events cast that problem in a new light.

There are many other takeaways from the unprecedented insurrection at the Capitol. Among them:

— “How could they fail so miserably?” That’s Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, asking why the Capitol was so poorly defended and so easily overwhelmed. Good questions, and they’re not put to rest by the forced resignations of the Capitol Police chief, Steven Sund, and of the Senate and House sergeants at arms. Sund says he had prepared for a peaceful demonstration, which sounds incredibly naïve. Were no intelligence officers monitoring Parler and other right-wing social media where the possibility of armed violence was blatantly evident? Did Sund not know he would be dealing with the Proud Boys, who had been violent in earlier visits to Washington?

According to the Associated Press, three days before the riot, the Pentagon offered National Guard assistance but the Capitol Police turned it down. Even during the riot, an offer of FBI help was initially rejected. Why were the rioters treated so gently, compared to Black Lives Matter protesters elsewhere? During the riot, Congressional leaders sought help from Virginia and Maryland, where Gov. Larry Hogan said it took 90 minutes to get Pentagon permission to send his National Guard. Why so long? Why was the mob allowed to escape with only 14 arrests in the Capitol itself? There should have been hundreds. The possibility of collusion cannot be ruled out.

— The resignations. Those quitting Trump’s administration in disgust over the riot include two Cabinet officers: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (good riddance) and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, whose husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, helped secure Biden’s certification.

Regrettably, their departures will make it harder to muster a Cabinet majority to sideline Trump in favor of Vice President Mike Pence in the event that Pence should change his mind about invoking the 25th Amendment. They should have stayed to vote Trump out. He is a danger to the nation so long as he is president. Even the Wall Street Journal editorial board said he should resign.

— Impeachment? Time may be running short and many Republicans in Congress are resistant. Even Mr. Conservative Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, is against it. It should be pursued, though. Among the benefits: The Senate could bar Trump from running again.

— The coverup and the lies: Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Mo Brooks of Alabama and other Republican propagandists share blame for the lethal riot because of their persistent, baseless claims of election fraud. Now their absurd lies continue, purporting to identify the rioters as anti-fascist activists and other left-leaning people. In fact, every rioter identified so far, including the Air Force veteran shot dead by Capitol police, is a known, outspoken supporter of Trump and some are associated with the Proud Boys, QAnon and other far-right elements.

The Party of Trump has already done incalculable damage to our country. It must not be allowed to perpetuate yet another monstrous lie.

— The Electoral College. As even some Republicans correctly observed, the effort to discard Biden’s electoral votes was an assault on the system itself. It’s also true that what could have been a constitutional crisis was rooted in the Electoral College itself. To have the presidency depend on 51 separate elections instead of the national popular vote leaves every election vulnerable to mischief.

— The two Republican parties. More than half of House Republicans functioned as a personality cult for Trump and an echo chamber for his conspiracy theories. In contrast, all but 7 of 51 Senate Republicans voted to recognize the voters’ right to be rid of Trump. The face of a responsible Republican Party ought to be that of Mitt Romney, not Ted Cruz. The time seems right for genuine conservatives to break away, like the anti-slavery Whigs who formed the Republican Party in 1854.

— Opportunistic overreactions: Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies in Tallahassee wasted no time using the tragedy in Washington as a pretext for “anti-riot” legislation that is really aimed at criminalizing peaceful protests. It must be seen for what it is, and stopped. There are enough laws to deal with violence, there simply needs to be fewer politicians fomenting it.