An FBI “red cell” report predicted that law enforcement action and a “lack of coordination” between groups would prevent widespread violence in response to a disputed election.
One week before Election Day 2020 and just over two months before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, an internal FBI analysis concluded that domestic violent extremists were “very willing to take action” in response to a disputed election but that “law enforcement preemption” and the “disorganization” of extremist groups “likely would hinder widespread violence.”
The so-called red cell report — the type of exercise that became widespread after the federal government’s Sept. 11 intelligence failures and are meant to challenge conventional wisdom and encourage outside-the-box thinking — was titled “Alternative Analysis: Potential Scenarios for Reactions of Domestic Violent Extremists to a Disputed 2020 US Presidential Election.” NBC News obtained a redacted copy of the report through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Pointedly, Pence refused to let the Secret Service evacuate him from the Capitol, and he hasn’t given a straight, full, and honest answer explaining why he refused. And there’s a LOT of unconfirmed speculation that he refused because he was suspicious that Trump has co-opted his detail, and he had no idea where they’d take him or what they’d do, which is pretty fucking insane if there’s even a shred of truth to it.
Reminds me of the scene in Goodfellas where De Niro’s character tried to lure Karen into the warehouse to look at some dresses and she runs away scared because she knows she’s going to be killed. I really hope Pence felt like that.