To the Editor:

Fox News was silent last Thursday about the televised hearing that day of the Jan 6 Bi-partisan House Select Committee. The evidence presented showed that the violence was not spontaneous chaos, or demonstration of an honest belief in a stolen election, or about a president who unwittingly set afire the brutality of the day. It was a deliberate, intentional, and premeditated effort by Trump to overturn a duly conducted election, effect a coup, and prevent the peaceful transfer of power in America.

Trump knew he lost (“I don’t want people to know we lost”). Trump and his operatives agreed that he would claim election fraud and victory and would not relinquish power no matter the decision of the electorate. He knew that many in his base would reflexively rally to the “Big Lie.”

Some of the notable revelations:

1)The Secret Service and FBI knew on December 27th, 2020 – and did not disclose to appropriate law enforcement until over a week later– that large contingents of heavily-armed Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and other violent white nationalists were planning to congregate in DC on January 6th, 2021. “Their intent is to literally kill people,” said one internal Secret Service email.

2) On a MAGA-favored website where users commonly issued death threats to elected officials was the comment,"Our 'lawmakers’ in Congress can leave one of two ways: 1. in a body bag. 2. after rightfully certifying Trump the winner.”In a subpoenaed video, Trump henchman Roger Stone said, "f*ck the voting, let's get right to the violence."

3) To exact revenge and cause havoc after he left office Trump, on November 11, 2020, signed a directive to the Joint Chiefs to change the Afghanistan withdrawal date of May 1, 2021, under the Trump-Taliban Peace Agreement(without the participation of the Afghani government) to January 15th, 2021,one day after Biden’s inauguration. The horrified Joint Chiefs finally convinced him to withdraw the catastrophic directive. Trump’s shameful “Peace Agreement” remained in place, unknown to Biden until after his inauguration, giving the new president 4 short months to prepare for the monumental withdrawal or escalate the war.

4) On Jan 6th, both McCarthy and McConnell declared that Trump was responsible for the insurrection, and Ted Cruz recently admitted that “not one Republican Senator thought he wasn’t guilty.” When Trump threatened them, they recanted, choosing power over principle once again.

Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore

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To the Editor:
I was Chris Gurrola’s Humanities teacher when he was in the 8th grade at Fillmore Middle School. I remember him as one of the bet students I ever had. Chris impressed me with his intelligence, work ethic and creativity. He told me that his ambition was to become an Air Force pilot, a goal he accomplished.
I was very impressed with his answers to questions recently posed by the Ventura County Star to the candidates for Fillmore City Council. His responses were articulate and showed understanding of the issues and suggested intelligent, doable solutions. Fillmore would be blessed to have Chris Gurrola on the City Council.
Mary Ford,
Fillmore