Ross: A look inside how January 6 was planned, and what might have been

One of the big questions about January 6 was whether the attack was planned, or just developed on its own.

So I want to play for you some clips from a scratchy phone call, just released by the New York Times.

The Times described it as a conference call that included members of a militia group called “The 1st Amendment Praetorian” made up of former soldiers and former police officers.

It took place one week before the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

The main speaker was a communications expert named Jason Sullivan, who was promising his listeners that Joe Biden would never be president.

“Biden will never be in that White House,” he vowed. “That’s my promise to each and every one of you.”

He said that the way to achieve that was to gather at the Capitol as the electoral votes were being counted and make a lot of noise.

“Descend on the Capitol — make those people feel it so they understand the people are breathing down their necks, and we’ve had it,” he declared. “Now I’m not inciting violence, but we need to be loud, and I can promise you, I can make that go so viral so fast across the globe. I know people, trust me.”

So, no violence, just noise.

But as for what would happen if they actually did keep Trump in the White House, Sullivan predicted that riots would erupt and cities would burn, because that’s how the left operates.

That prompted a question about what Trump would then do.

“Can I ask you a quick question, is he going to declare an insurrection or martial law?” Sullivan was asked.

“There very well may be some limited form of martial law, and I don’t see any other way around it,” he responded.

He said the president would have to declare martial law, because if the U.S. military didn’t take control of the cities, his own group, the 1st Amendment Praetorian, would!

“Our militia would step up, and meet them with great force, and we would find ourselves in a civil war,” he predicted. “Does anybody doubt that?”

Not only did nobody on the call doubt that, one participant seemed to be looking forward to it.

“We’re down here in the South, trust me, everybody’s ready,” she said.

And Jason Sullivan was pretty sure which side would win that battle:

“The deep state thinks that they control everything and they practically do, but they picked on the wrong president in his case,” he claimed.

Sullivan’s lawyer told the New York Times that his client was merely “sharing some encouragement with people who all felt their votes had been disenfranchised.”

At the same time, he clearly knows he’s talking to a group that is ready to take up arms, and those “people” he knows.

But what people does he know? Who are these people who would want to see the U.S. descend into Civil War?

I can’t answer that question, but I sure hope we find out.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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