Politico got its mitts on some of the documents Trump’s lawyers tried to keep from the January 6 committee, including a draft executive order authorizing the secretary of defense to seize voting machines and a document titled “Remarks on National Healing.” Hoo boy. First up, the EO:

The order empowers the defense secretary to “seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention under” a U.S. law that relates to preservation of election records. It also cites a lawsuit filed in 2017 against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Additionally, the draft order would have given the defense secretary 60 days to write an assessment of the 2020 election. That suggests it could have been a gambit to keep Trump in power until at least mid-February of 2021.

The draft EO, which can be read in its entirety here, also authorizes:

“The appointment of a Special Counsel to oversee this operation and institute all criminal and civil proceedings as appropriate based on the evidence collected and provided all resources necessary to carry out her duties consistent with federal laws and the Constitution.”

Emphasis mine. He meant Sidney Powell, fellow citizens, the Kraken lady. This slobbering lunatic:

The Trump administration beclowned this country every day for what seemed like an eternity, and maybe we should be thankful that even some of Trump’s otherwise shameless enablers had a vestigial sense of professional self-preservation that motivated them to stop this ridiculous plan. That allowed the nation to dodge the democracy-dispatching bullet that would have been the Kraken lady ranting about election fraud under the international klieg lights. Good gravy!

But in a sense, it’s the “Remarks on National Healing” that really punch the ticket to Crazytown, revealing that even as the Kraken lady and others pursued their mad scheme to overthrow the election, other White House operatives were frantically constructing coup offramps:

“I would like to begin today by addressing the heinous attack that took place yesterday at the United States Capitol,” it opens. “Like all Americans, I was outraged and sickened by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem. I immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders. America is, and must always be, a nation of law and order…”

The draft remarks go on to describe emotions running high after an intense election. “But now, tempers must be cooled and calm restored.”

Trump “vigorously pursued every legal avenue to contest the election results,” the remarks add, and still urges election “reform” so voters could be confident about future contests.

“But as for THIS election, Congress has now certified the results,” the remarks say. “The election fight is over. A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation.”

Whaa? Of course, Trump never gave that speech either, never admitted he lost and never condemned the supporters who attacked the Capitol under his tacky-ass banner. But that someone in the White House wrote something in a category adjacent to a concession speech shows just how rudderless and chaotic the administration was in its final weeks.

Sometimes, the whole thing still seems so surreal. I don’t think I’ll ever quite wrap my head around it.

Open thread.

The Machines (Open Thread)Post + Comments (149)

The revelations in this CNN reporting aren’t totally new — we knew Republican operatives put forward fake slates of electors for Trump; they did so openly. Cooper’s description of the effort as a “clown car on fire” is apt in the context of Giuliani’s idiotic post-election loss stunts, including the “Four Seasons” fiasco, and the ridiculous antics of deranged Trump cultists like Sidney “Kraken” Powell, the Pillow Guy, etc.

As we also know, Republican establishment figures were involved in the plot, including Federalist Society members like John Eastman who’ve been embedded in Republican administrations for decades. The new reporting confirms what we’ve long suspected — top campaign officials were up to their eyebrows in the plot to overturn the election by submitting fake slates of electors, and Pence, Trump, etc., all knew it and directly reacted to it as the plot unfolded.

What’s critical now is to ensure broader public understanding that this wasn’t just a vanity project to spare a demented egomaniac blushes over his humiliating defeat. It was a bona fide attempt to overturn the people’s right to choose their president by removing the rightful victor and substituting the twice-impeached, two-time popular vote loser:

Washington (CNN)Trump campaign officials, led by Rudy Giuliani, oversaw efforts in December 2020 to put forward illegitimate electors from seven states that Trump lost, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the scheme.

The sources said members of former President Donald Trump’s campaign team were far more involved than previously known in the plan, a core tenet of the broader plot to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory when Congress counted the electoral votes on January 6.

Giuliani and his allies coordinated the nuts-and-bolts of the process on a state-by-state level, the sources told CNN. One source said there were multiple planning calls between Trump campaign officials and GOP state operatives, and that Giuliani participated in at least one call. The source also said the Trump campaign lined up supporters to fill elector slots, secured meeting rooms in statehouses for the fake electors to meet on December 14, 2020, and circulated drafts of fake certificates that were ultimately sent to the National Archives.

There were seven states that submitted fake electors. In two of those states — Pennsylvania and New Mexico — the certificates included hedging language stating that the fake electors were “electors in waiting” in case a court or process overturned the legitimate electors. But in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin, the certificates falsely state that the Trump operatives were the legitimate electors.

That’s a massively consequential lie on an official document, and the people involved should be prosecuted under any applicable state and federal law for forging those documents. Maybe they will:

“Under state law, I think clearly you have forgery of a public record, which is a 14-year offense, and election law forgery, which is a five-year offense,” Michigan Attorney general Dana Nessel, a Democrat, told MSNBC last week, about the fake certificates signed by pro-Trump electors.

Meshawn Maddock, co-chair of the Michigan GOP, is one of the people who should be charged. State party leaders are already meeping about “political prosecution,” even though Maddock and her fellow forgery enthusiasts haven’t been charged yet.

It’s possible that the sheer clownishness of the plot — from the “carnival barker” former POTUS on down — makes it harder to take the attempt to subvert democracy seriously. Let’s hope that doesn’t enter into the charging decisions of state and federal officials, and let’s hope the upcoming January 6 committee hearings air every bit of dirty laundry — in context — to underscore the stakes. It was a clown car on fire, as Cooper noted, but it was also deadly serious, and the consequences must be commensurate.

Open thread.

‘Clown Car on Fire’Post + Comments (151)