Disorder of Succession: Regime Change
This is Part 5 of the Disorder of Succession series, but you should be able to enjoy it without having read Parts 1 through 4.
00:30 hours, 1 March 2017
“Good morning, my fellow Americans,
“For those who do not recognize me, my name is Colin Powell. I was Secretary of State under President George W. Bush. Before that, I capped off a long Army career as a four-star general and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a role I held under the first President Bush. More importantly, I am a natural born United States citizen and a patriot.
“I realize you did not expect to hear from me when the dust settled from the night’s events, no matter what news or rumors you’ve picked up over the past several hours. Please allow me a few minutes to explain how it has come to pass that I am addressing you now from the Oval Office, and what lies ahead for our great nation.
“Yesterday here, or earlier tonight for those of you out West, it became my solemn duty to step in as Acting President of the United States, at the request of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. These six four-star generals and one four-star admiral acted unanimously to stop a host of crimes already underway at the highest levels of government. Numerous top officials are implicated, both in Congress and in the Trump administration, including Mr. Trump himself.
“To complicate matters, one of the crimes the Joint Chiefs uncovered was a plot to assassinate the President and the next five men in the order of succession in order to transfer the presidency to Defense Secretary James Mattis.
“Since every agency with investigative or enforcement powers was under the authority of various criminal suspects, the Joint Chiefs intervened Tuesday afternoon, detaining Secretary Mattis and several of his co-conspirators in the intelligence community. At 8:25 p.m. local time, the Joint Chiefs explained the situation to Mr. Trump right here in the West Wing, just before he was to leave for the Capitol to address a joint session of Congress.
“After revealing the foiled plot to kill him, the Joint Chiefs presented Mr. Trump with the overwhelming evidence implicating him in serious crimes, including treason. In the face of these charges, Mr. Trump resigned from office unconditionally at 8:42 p.m. That video will be released to the public at the conclusion of this speech.
“The Joint Chiefs brought me to the White House, where I was sworn in as Acting President at 8:56 p.m.
“The following men were removed from the Capitol and the Presidential Motorcade and arrested under the authorization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
Vice President Mike Pence
Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
Attorney General Jeff Sessions
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus
Presidential Advisor Stephen Miller
Presidential Advisor Jared Kushner
“The following men were detained and charged with obstruction of justice, though we expect other charges may be added:
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes
“Others were captured in connection with the Mattis plot, and both lists are likely to grow.
“Throughout this operation, hastily as it had to be carried out, the Joint Chiefs and the men and women in their command took a heroic interest in public safety. Nevertheless, I regret to announce that Mr. Trump’s Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon evaded capture. He was last seen here at the White House Tuesday night. As long as Mr. Bannon remains at large, he will be the focus of an interagency manhunt. Thankfully, his hands have been removed from the levers of power and he no longer poses a threat to our society and world.
“The depth and array of destructive enterprises that were underway inside the Trump administration is difficult to fully comprehend upon first learning of them. Documented acts of treason for backdoor dealings with Russia are not the worst offenses committed by Mr. Trump and his administration. Their longer term goal — also very much in tune with Russian interests — was to destroy key institutions of our great republic.
“We have proof of an elaborate scheme to erode ballot access nationwide over the course of Mr. Trump’s time in office, ensuring larger and larger swaths of eligible citizens be effectively disenfranchised. Those most likely to vote against Trump and his allies in the future were to be disproportionately impacted.
“In early February, Mr. Trump’s Justice Department refocused the few federal resources devoted to monitoring and infiltrating rightwing extremists, including white nationalist hate groups and anti-government militias. We have learned that this was done in order to free such groups up to openly recruit and train for a terror campaign targeting Muslims, the LGBT community, nonviolent protesters, and others. This was a blatant violation of the President’s responsibility to provide for the general welfare of the people, and I consider it one of the gravest crimes committed in the past six weeks.
“In the meantime, Mr. Trump redirected national security resources such as the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to focus repressive operations against many of the same groups as are targeted by homegrown, pro-Trump militants. Mr. Sessions’s office was also drafting a legal framework for ICE agents to collaborate with civilian vigilantes to patrol the borders, pursuing immigrants and even US citizens providing them safe haven.
“Mr. Trump’s closest advisors developed a strategy to intimidate federal judges likely to rule against the various other crimes and Constitutional violations the administration was committing. Under the coordination of Mr. Bannon, White House personnel were expanding their use of powerful surveillance and counterintelligence technologies. They were using these tools to develop harmful dossiers on countless administration opponents and allies alike, including lawmakers from both parties, career civil servants, wealthy and famous Americans, dissidents of all stripes, and even Mr. Trump’s own political appointees.
“Separately, a campaign was underway to terminally damage our struggling system of public education. The Trump administration’s intent was to accelerate privatization schemes. Mr. Trump’s education plan involved pushing poorer, mostly black and brown pupils — ‘urban youth’ in Mr. Trump’s parlance — out of crumbling public schools and into programs that amount to heavily commercialized day care. This scheme was cynically designed to ensure the children of the growing poor and shrinking middle class would have dramatically fewer opportunities to compete against more privileged young people for increasingly scarce desirable jobs. In other words, they were scuttling the American Dream for the majority of America’s children.
“A similar scheme was afoot to build hundreds of new private prisons over Mr. Trump’s term, filling them with nonviolent drug users and dissidents. America already has the highest proportion and overall number of its people locked up behind bars. Turning another 750,000 Americans into prisoners would fill the coffers of major GOP donors — the same ones who also sponsor new laws and harsher penalties in state legislatures as well as here in Washington. This would also, according to one uncovered White House memo, ‘improve unemployment figures’ by taking Americans out of the workforce. We will not be crunching the numbers on that idea.
“The Trump administration was well on its way to removing global climate disruption from the national agenda entirely, including the national security priorities, where it has long been listed as perhaps the greatest threat to our civilization going forward. There is overwhelming evidence that devastating climate disruption is underway and indeed accelerating, mainly due to humans.
“We can debate how to curb the warming. We can debate how to deal with the inevitable sea rise, severe weather events, refugees by the millions, and the plethora of problems we have guaranteed ourselves and our grandchildren through our inaction. The rest of humanity is sensibly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But Mr. Trump and the Republicans in Congress think they know better than the rest of the world. They would have had us become even more dependent on the dirtiest fuels available, not to mention more ignorant of the ways forward-looking nations are developing to survive generations into a sweltering future.
“While every other nation, including the poorest, is gearing up for what will be the true fight of the 21st century, Mr. Trump, Mr. Pence, Mr. Bannon, and several other insiders wished to escalate what they consider a war between the West and Islam. Their intentions have terrified senior military officers who will testify they feared having to refuse orders or else expand conflicts and escalate tensions exponentially.
“As the case against the Trump administration is presented in the coming weeks, you will see that Mr. Bannon and his associates have far more in common with the Taliban and ISIS than they do with American values you and I would recognize.
“These men turned out to be more than opportunists; they were a criminal cabal of epic proportions, and they came to power through flaws in our electoral system, and manipulation of public opinion by Russian hacking. However, thanks to the swift action of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the damage of our grave national error has been limited. That terrible turn for our country can be forgiven and moved past, so long as we are willing to unite around new solutions to our common problem of poor governance.
“One thing that was clear from the 2016 election campaigns was that the vast majority of Americans unite over the place where equality has decreased most markedly. That place is your bank account, or the shoebox you now struggle to save in since you decided the bank’s penalties for being poor were harsher than the check-casher’s cut. That place of unfairness is your supper table, which competes with your furnace and your gas tank. Even if you’re doing okay, you see your neighbors are losing their jobs. Banks are evicting them only to leave the house empty while more than half a million Americans live in cars or on the streets.
“I publicly supported Secretary Clinton in the last election, but Mr. Trump’s campaign had hers dead to rights on one issue: the Obama administration and Clinton campaign heavily exaggerated the so-called economic recovery from the crisis we’ve endured since 2008. Democrats touted the standard statistics the best way they could be spun, but sluggish economic growth and frighteningly hollow jobs figures were a distraction from the increasing pain and despair of ordinary Americans, whether they work three jobs or spend all day job hunting, not to mention those who’ve given up hope of employment.
“Our economy and major corporations are propped up for the time being, but you, the American worker, no longer are. Siding with Wall Street over and over again, bailing them out while hanging Main Street out to dry, it sure looked like Mr. Obama abandoned the American worker and that Mrs. Clinton was determined to accelerate that trend. The truth is, they simply know no other way. Frankly, neither do I.
“Our peril would be much less immediate had the election gone the other way, but both parties are thoroughly owned by moneyed interests. The least nefarious of these powerful interests are committed to a strategy of helping the poor by enriching the wealthy even more. The worst among them care only for the wealthy. That seems to be the range of empathy and imagination in this town.
“This phenomenon of always needing to yield ever more to the powerful in order to get anything for the weak fortifies the highest offices against people with new ideas and admirable principles, especially the Oval Office. No one can get here without being super rich or appealing to the super rich. Even the Democratic Party has shown itself to have a strong filter against such a prospect. Candidates who think differently were appealing to those among you who wisely scoffed at supporting a mainstream Republican or Democrat after their performances so far in the 21st century.
“This is another way we know the Trump phenomenon was not an aberration; it was not a fluke. Too many interests with too much power are constantly vying for more. Some are willing to kill for it. Both parties have been effectively torn asunder or held hostage by these forces.
“It took lifelong public servants like me and the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff too long to appreciate the disdain in which you hold the Washington elite and the status quo, but we have heard you. I am open to new ways of thinking, and I intend to invite many innovators from outside of the Washington establishment to help me guide the course of our nation with ideas powerful interests may dislike.
“Toward these ends, I intend to convene a Second Constitutional Convention for these United States. Over the course of this undertaking, delegates will derive a Constitution from the spirit of our beloved founding document, re-envisioned to incorporate lessons learned about government, economics, and the world over the past 230 years since ink on the original dried. An organizing council will set a high bar for approving the new Constitution, and all of the states will be appropriately represented.
“That Convention will also set the date of the next elections, which my administration will facilitate, and the results of which I will abide and enforce. I will not run for office in that government, but I will pledge my allegiance to it as soon as it is formed.
“Until then, my duties are foremost custodial. I will defend this nation’s borders and protect the rights of all its citizens, residents, and visitors. I will sign reasonable bills put before me by Congress, but only what is required to maintain a stable government, ensuring benefits to all those who need them, and equal protection for all under the law. The courts will function normally, though the Supreme Court will remain without a ninth member for the time being, as all of Mr. Trump’s nominations will be discontinued and his political appointees dismissed.
“Since I know many will be understandably concerned that what you are witnessing is a coup, let me state plainly that my administration is not run by the Pentagon nor hidden interests in the Deep State. These institutions and interests very much do exist in the recesses of our national security apparatus. They conspired to assassinate a president and up to five other leaders just because Mr. Trump hurt their egos and frustrated their operations, and because Mr. Mattis — one of their own, to be sure — promised them impunity if they would put him in power. You are right not to want such men in charge. So while the vast majority of the US intelligence community are honorable patriots — in fact heroes — we will hunt down those remaining elements lurking in the recesses of government, and we will stop them.
“One final thing I know many are already wondering about is my oath of office. I took an oath earlier in the presence of the Joint Chiefs and several White House staff, but I will repeat it here, with my hand to this Bible, while looking my fellow Americans in the eyes.
“By sitting here, I am in violation of the United States Constitution. But I feel so strongly about protecting the values embedded in that document that I risked my life to reclaim them for our country. I will not dishonor the Constitution that we have known and cherished all our lives by swearing an oath directly to it while also technically violating it. Instead, because the Constitution derives its authority from you, I hereby hope to derive mine from that same source, as the Founding Fathers would have had it.
I, Colin Powell, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the people, territory, and welfare of the United States of America.
“To our friends around the world, we appreciate your support during this difficult time, and we thank you for the patience and restraint you showed these past months. I look forward to repairing any strained relations.
“To our true enemies abroad, know that America never lost its footing. I have every intention of defending our national interests through diplomacy or force if necessary.
“To those who felt marginalized or threatened over the course of the campaign and Mr. Trump’s brief tenure in this office, know that my message to foreign enemies carries just as well at home. Purveyors of hate and fear, no matter your driving beliefs or country of origin, this moment is not yours. We hereby reclaim this moment for all living in peace between our shores.
“I know this has been a lot, and it will take a long time to digest not only what has occurred but what is to come. On that front, I have some good news: I hereby declare Wednesday, the first of March to be a federal holiday. If you are not considered an ‘essential employee’ of a vital public service, I urge you to take the day off. Sleep in, gather with your families or perhaps in a civic space, and prepare to heal and continue onward as a reunified country.
“Soon enough, you will have more information than you can possibly process, so let’s all pace ourselves. Our shared nightmare has ended, and a terrific challenge lies ahead. I firmly believe that despite the unfortunate circumstances, this may be the opportunity we’ve all longed for, to put our great nation back together again.
“Goodnight, and God bless America.”
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