Those who aided and abetted Trump’s lies are equally deserving of "suspension" for events of January 6.

By election day, The Washington Post had recording nearly 30,000 false and misleading statements by Donald Trump since he took office, including over 500 the day before the election. By the end of the year, Trump had told more lies in 2020 alone than he had the previous three years. By December it was almost impossible to keep track of all the lies he was telling minute-by-minute. Among the lies he would tell four days ago were that Mike Pence just needed to show “extreme courage” and order states to do a “redo” of the election, because despite all the states certifying their votes, “The States want to redo their votes.” He made false claims about ballot dumps and more votes than voters; he claimed, for example, that the turnout in Detroit was 139 percent, when in fact it was only 51 percent of registered voters—which indicates that Detroit voting significantly underperformed than the country as a whole. 

Trump also repeatedly insisted that he won by a “landslide” and no one should believe that Joe Biden received 80 million votes—purposefully ignoring the fact that his own vote count was vastly inflated over 2016’s numbers because he also benefited greatly from the voting changes brought on by the pandemic. And probably his biggest lie of the day was that he was going to march with his mostly white supremacist rally attendees in Beer Hall Putsch fashion; instead he just returned to his White House bunker, where it was reported that he watched the ensuing attack on the Capitol Building. 

A poll reported by The Hill didn’t provide much hope for this country; 42 percent actually “approved” of his handling of the insurrection, including 21 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of “independents.” What??? Trump instigated and directed what he wished the insurgents to do for him, and five were killed.  After it had begun he did not even try to put a “handle” on anything until he was forced to by aides, and even then he only made things worse with more lies and telling the rioters how much he “loved” them. This is Trump “handling” the situation, according to a story in the UK’s The Daily Mail with reporting by the AP and Reuters:

Cocooned in a small private dining room next to the Oval Office, Trump watched on cable news as his followers ransacked the Capitol building, but appeared disinterested in the insurrection. Instead, he grew increasingly agitated and raved furiously that his own vice president had not backed his attempt to overthrow the election, insiders say. As the television showed scenes from the Capitol that shocked the nation and the world, increasingly desperate aides pleaded with Trump to intervene, but he resisted and insisted that nothing was wrong, the sources say…”My people are peaceful. My people aren't thugs,”…“He was a total monster today,” an official said of Trump's reaction. “He didn't want to condemn his people.”…

As the violence escalated and Twitter locked Trump's accounts for inciting the insurrection, he reportedly whined that he was unable to tweet, venting fury at aides when he tried to post to the platform but was blocked…a White House official says that the president appeared disengaged and disinterested as scenes emerged that shocked the conscience of the nation. Instead, the official says, most of Trump's attention was consumed by his ire at Pence for defying his demands and acknowledging he did not have the power to unilaterally choose the next president….Aides say they pleaded with Trump to intervene as the situation at the Capitol raged out of control, but that he showed little interest in stopping the insurrection….

At 2.55 pm, one of Trump's supporters was fatally shot in the melee at the Capitol…Trump then reluctantly issued another tweet and taped a video encouraging an end to the violence. The posts came at the insistence of staff and amid mounting criticism from Republican lawmakers urging him to condemn the violence being perpetrated in his name, according to the official. And even as authorities struggled to take control of Capitol Hill after protesters overwhelmed police, Trump continued to level baseless allegations of mass voter fraud and praised his loyalists as 'very special' in the video message…Trump has surrounded himself with an ever-smaller group of loyalists who cater to his whims, including digital director Dan Scavino, personal aide John McEntee, trade adviser Peter Navarro, speechwriter Stephen Miller, and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, one source said. “It's sad. These are the people around him and egging him on.”

This is not “handling” the situation, let alone a display of leadership during a time of crisis;  we have seen, time and time again, Trump inventing his own “crisis” to get around the law, but when it comes to a real national crisis, he treats it as an annoyance meant to discomfit him personally. Why should we wonder why major social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have suspended his accounts permanently for inciting violence both literally and through endless false claims? However, it should be observed that these actions—which many people thought should have been taken long ago—were only done after a final, outrageous act that had every appearance of a coup attempt. Many Republicans and all through the right-wing media denounced this attempt by “big tech” to silence Trump’s “free speech” rights, but many of these people were as culpable as Trump, promoting his falsehoods which also inspired this act of treason against the Constitution and democracy.

Who is to blame for “Millions of Americans sincerely believe the last election was fake”? Yes, people like Tucker Carlson. For two months the likes Carlson, Hannity, Bartiromo, Dobbs and most of the rest of the Fox News crew promoted every conspiracy theory no matter how crackpot or insane, as if it was Trump's "unofficial" Ministry of Propaganda. If Fox News had any shred of pretending to be a credible source of facts, it would have reported Trump’s efforts to overturn the election through falsehoods as “news” items and nothing more. It would have simply reported the courts repeatedly rejecting the Trump’s claims as having no basis in fact, and it would have noted that recounts had found no irregularities. If it had done so, if would have taken the air out of Trump and most of his supporters, reducing him to nothing more than a ridiculous little man. Instead, Fox News repeatedly towed the extremist line of baseless election fraud conspiracies. And because of this, Fox News also has blood on its hands.

There are a lot of people and organizations who could have shown they had a modicum of ethical and moral character, and could have kept Trump under control when he saw he had almost no support for his lack of civility, decency and contempt for facts. Instead, there were those like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes who continuously showed that they are not statesmen, but traitors to the Constitution and democracy; that someone as corrupt as Trump is actually awarding the Medal of Freedom to Jordan and Nunes for their efforts to shield him from his crimes only diminishes them further, not “enhancing” their stature. These are the kind of people who brought civil discourse to a level of uncertainty that people were forced to confront the fact that there has to be a line that ultimately cannot be crossed.

The events of January 6 were the inevitable result of the “freedom of speech” to promote falsehoods and conspiracies without restraint or responsibility by our alleged “leaders.” The fact that it was a president who was ultimately silenced for promoting insurrection and sedition against this country was not just the fault of Trump himself, but everyone else who aided and abetted him. Social media platforms were forced into their actions because of the abject failure of right-wing politicians and media to control Trump’s worst and darkest impulses, refusing to simply tell him the truth. Nearly all of 140 House Republicans—unlike half of the original 14 Republican Senators--were unmoved by the attempted coup by Trump supporters, and they are equally as worthy of censure as he is.