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Notes -
Presumably, their plan was to force Congress to certify Trump as the election winner at gunpoint.
All coup attempts seem silly until they succeed. Hitler marching on the Feldherrenhalle was far more silly than J6.
Take the vote for the Enabling Act. I would argue that the presence of the brownshirts during the vote was a clear factor in persuading Zentrum to vote for the act which turned Hitler into a dictator. If anything, the surprising thing was that the SPD showed balls of steel by voting against it.
Is it possible that Mike Pence would have stared down the barrel of a gun and certified Biden? Sure.
Is it possible that the SCOTUS would have overruled a certification for Trump under duress? Sure.
Is it possible that the military leadership would have arrested Trump on the spot? Sure.
So while Trump was unlikely to succeed, I would not claim that his coup attempt was totally absurd -- more like shooting with a handgun at someone 80m away than trying to shoot the Moon.
With zero guns? My god man. There's a slight problem with your theory.
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