Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein spoke via a World Economic Forum podcast. He said:
"Nothing was ever done that's meaningful in life without somebody providing some resistance to it," says Rubenstein. "You've got to plow through that resistance if you're actually going to accomplish anything."
Yesterday Rubenstein said the following on CNBC's Squawk Corner:
"I don't think that condemnation today is the most important thing. It's easy to condemn somebody...what we really want to do is protect our democracy. The most important thing we should do is worry about what we should do for the next 13 days."
So much for rising to the occasion. Everyone involved was "trying to protect our democracy." The violent rioters did it on the basis of President Trump's serial lies. The Capital Police were trying to protect our democracy but couldn't see the threat because the Trump team doesn't consider his rabid followers to be problematic. President Trump was trying to protect and extend his Unitary Executive version of democracy.
Condemnation is in order, not mealy statements that ensure Carlyle can continue catering to politicians of both stripes. Rubenstein wants to keep access to Uncle Sam's wallet and preserve billionaire policy making, a feature of our democracy for more than a decade.