Book on Capitol attack cracks bestseller lists
The first fully-sourced, detailed book on how the January 6 Capitol riot occurred cracked several Amazon bestseller lists on March 24.
Operation Chaos: The Capitol Attack and the Campaign to Erode Democracy reached 61st on Amazon’s bestseller list for books on political campaigns and elections. It was 70th for books on political corruption and misconduct and 87th for media studies. It later reached as high as 28th on one list.
Veteran journalist Kevin James Shay, who has worked in the Washington, D.C., area for almost two decades, poured over public documents from the FBI, police departments, federal, state, and local governments, and other government agencies. He reviewed hundreds of news articles, videos, broadcasts, studies, and reports, and interviewed sources himself. He analyzed posts on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media feeds. Approaching this story as a true crime tale involving chaotic deceit and deception that have been ongoing for years, he pieced together the underlying story that helps readers better understand how and why the Capitol attack occurred, uncovering fresh details and writing the story in a moving narrative that gives behind-the-scenes perspective.
“On January 6, the Trump team's plan was chaos, martial law, making Trump pretty much a king, and blaming it all on Antifa,” said Shay, 61, who has covered politics and business for The Washington Post’s Gazette newspaper chain, The Dallas Morning News, and Minority Business News USA, among others. “American democracy survived by some courageous responses that day, but not by much.”
Though Trump and his insatiable urge to hold onto power were largely to blame for the Capitol attack, a variety of factors coalesced that day leading to an all-too predictable result, according to the book. Shay attempted to go beyond engaging in a blame game to help figure out a path forward in hopes that a coup attempt by a sitting president doesn't happen again.
Shay traced the past several years, particularly 2020, to show what occurred that led to the Capitol attack. In early 2020, Trump and party activists resurrected a dirty trick called Operations Chaos from the 2008 playbook used by the late Rush Limbaugh to attempt to subvert the Democratic Party's primaries. When that didn’t work, he and his team increased bold plans for chaos that culminated with Operation Occupy the Capitol, which was a real campaign employed by grassroots GOP operatives at the general incitement of party leaders.
The book shows how some Trump allies like Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona did more to incite the violence that eventually occurred than many thought, while others like Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri didn’t do as much as generally thought. Another trend was for leaders to use code words to instruct followers to avoid legal prosecution. For instance, all Trump had to do in April 2020 to get chaotic protests organized was issue the cryptic Twitter message, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” He targeted Minnesota and Virginia with similar missives. Followers understood those tweets as battle orders, while they were vague enough to likely be protected under the First Amendment and not cause Trump to be charged with incitement of a riot. An account by the militia Oath Keepers tweeted, “All he has to do is call us up. We WILL answer the call.” That method was employed not just by Trump, but by leaders of groups like the Oath Keepers and right-wing extremist Proud Boys. So the followers risked arrests, not the leaders, which was what later occurred with the Capitol attack.
Democrats played a role in inflaming Black Lives Matter protests, with many Republicans charging that they used the protests to get more supporters to vote. Right-leaning groups also infiltrated those protests, seeking to further societal chaos. The book also details how there were worse instigators than Trump, including former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, longtime aides Roger Stone and Steve Bannon, and attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Lin Wood. In meetings with Trump during the 2020 post-election battle, these individuals lobbied for martial-law schemes, which Trump would eventually not pursue. While Trump was not the main instigator in several meetings, he hired these people and then listened to them.
The signs pointed to January 6 involving a dark plan in which right-leaning Trump supporters would fight left-leaning Antifa activists at the Capitol, leading to the implementation of martial law and Trump retaining power in the chaos. “But that plan backfired when Antifa didn’t show up and most military leaders didn’t support martial law,” Shay noted. “So Plan B was to storm the Capitol and try to find Congress members to personally intimidate, if not kidnap and kill.”
In the aftermath, Trump and many supporters blamed Antifa for the Capitol attack, even though the FBI reported that was false. In addition, numerous Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol admitted it was not instigated by Antifa.
As far as what to do about the situation, Shay suggests to start by holding planners of the Capitol attack accountable, not just foot-soldiers who answered the call. Since the trend of leaders inciting followers by code words will likely continue, the legal definition of incitement should change to include cryptic, coded messages that inflame a situation, he said.
Beyond that, recommendations by others in the book include abolishing the Electoral College, reducing the time between the election and inauguration, implementing ranked choice voting, having the U.S. Supreme Court chief justice oversee ratifying presidential elections in Congress, and improving the election certification process in states and voter access.
Operation Chaos contains profanity that is not bleeped out to maintain the subject matter's realism. It may not be suitable for those under 18. The 321-page ebook contains numerous pages of source notes and costs $2.99, the lowest amount possible on Amazon. There were other books on the Capitol riot published before this one, but they were not substantive, being either photography or pretty much chronological lists on what occurred.
The book is available at Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, and other retailers.
