At the January 31–February 2, 2024, Rancho Mirage Writers Festival, archconservative Karl Rove voiced thought about the January 6, 2021, assault on America’s Capitol, Congress, and Constitution.  Donald Trump’s fans might find the Republican icon’s transcribed comments instructive:

“If (Biden’s campaign) were smart, they would take the January 6 and go hard at it.  And they would say, ‘He wants to pardon the people who attacked our Capitol.’

“I worked in that building as a young man.  To me the Congress of the United States is one of the great examples of the strength of our democracy and a jewel of the Constitution.  And what those people did when they violently attacked the Capitol in order to stop a Constitutionally mandated meeting of the Congress to accept the results of the Electoral College is a stain on our history, and every one of those sons-of-bitches who did that, we ought to find them and send them to jail.

“And one of the critical mistakes made in this campaign is that Donald Trump has now said, ‘I’m going to pardon those people because they’re “hostages.”’  No they’re not!  They’re thugs!  Those people, some of them had automatic weapons at a hotel in Virginia hoping to  be called up.  We had people saying, ‘Where is Nancy Pelosi?’  We had people who were, you know, taking desks and siting at the desk of the Speaker of the House, and attempting to find people to bring them to justice, and saying, yelling at the police, saying, ‘Kill them.  Kill them all!’

“And so, what Trump has done is beyond me.  He could have said, ‘You know what?  I trust our jury system.  I trust law enforcement.  Anybody who assaulted the capital ought to be’—I mean he said it once or twice—but now he’s got, he’s appearing in a venue with people who assaulted police officers with an intent to take the Capitol by force.

“So, you know what?  I‘m a Republican.  I don’t want a Democrat President.  I want to have a Republican President.  But, we’re facing as a country and as citizens.  And you know what?  Everybody gets to make it, as to what kind of leadership we’re going to have, and to me it is a mistake on the part of the Trump campaign to allow the President’s impulses to identify himself with the people or assaulted the Capitol rather than people who stand for law and order.”

Behind Karl’s sincere and high-minded respect for America’s Capitol and Institutions, and his puzzlement at Trump’s failure to call for the rule of law to hold the rioters accountable—the cockroach in Rove’s rational soup—is his failure to appreciate that President Donald J.  Trump orchestrated and ordered the “sons-of-bitches” to attack our Capitol, Congress, and Constitution!

Footnote: Every January 6 “hostage” was tried in a court of law and found guilty by a jury of their peers.