By Chris Satullo
What else did you expect?
When someone tells you who they are, believe them.
When someone’s actions shows you who they are, believe that.
For everyone who is professing utter amazement over what happened Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, I have a question: Why so shocked?
This was utterly predictable. Donald Trump told us he would not accept this election result. He didn’t even accept the popular vote tally back in 2016 when he won. Since his earliest campaign rallies, we’ve watched him court violence by his supporters. He has shown over and over that he has no grasp of, and even less respect for, how the Constitution works.
It should be clear to anyone with eyes half open that he is a pathological liar and titanic narcissist who could no more accept this defeat – or resist lying about it – than he could resist a come-hither look from a porn star.
Some of us have tried, over and over, for five painful years, to raise the alarm about this depraved and reckless man. For this, we have been called nasty, partisan, bed-wetters. Enemies of the people. We’ve been told, smugly, that we suffered from Trump Derangement Syndrome.
One last question: Who looks deranged now?
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Chris Satullo, a civic engagement consultant, is a former editorial page editor/columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and a former vice president/news at WHYY public media in Philadelphia.
Given all this, with which I agree, I’m still trying to get my head around your long-time position on turning Trump supporters by just having lunch with them (74 million of ’em) and listening respectfully to what they have to say (did you see videos of the insurrection?). If you want to take credit for knowing Trump from the beginning (“When someone tells you who they are, believe them”), how about his supporters? Bet you won’t answer. You don’t reply often when your positions are challenged. How is that civic engagement?