The Conspiratorial Hub Part III
or why "The Whole World is Watching" should have been a lesson for Mark Meadows
For four years, Trumps fuming rants and meltdowns were reported pretty quietly. The West Wing and White House staff rarely put their names to what was a common occurrence.
That said, the three Chiefs of Staff to President Trump before Mark Meadows had ringside seats to the definitive PPV event. Obsessed by his public persona, the media’s portrayal of him, and his Twitter account, Trump vexed Priebus1, undermined John Kelly2, and put “acting Chief of Staff” Mick Mulvaney in a perpetual state of damage control3. The reported fuming and ranting by Donald Trump were just symptoms of a bigger problem — Trump could not handle not losing no matter how miniscule the loss was.
A quick thing about White House Chiefs of Staff — averaging 2 per term is the norm. Carter had 2, Reagan had 4, GHW Bush had 3, Clinton had 4, Bush had 2, and Obama had 5 (one acting CoC). Donald Trump had 4 (one acting — Mulvaney by his insistence). Grinding through them like the latest car model is a sign the Article II chief executive is a problem.
After the November 3rd election in 2020, Trump’s meltdowns were a daily occurrence. He fumed, he ranted, and he lashed out. He refused to acknowledge his political loss, and Trump and his legal entourage went to court 60 plus times trying to overturn an all but certain result.
Then December happened.
December 3, 2020 - Attorney Lin Wood and disgraced former General Mike Flynn suggest Trump declare martial law and try a redo of presidential election4. Another Trump attorney Sidney Powell endorsed this idea.
December 11, 2020 - The US Supreme Court denied the complaint in Texas v Pennsylvania.
December 14, 2020 - Electors met in the 50 State capitals (and DC) to elect Joe Biden President.
December 17, 2018 (or so) - A draft Executive Order is prepared to have the military seize voting machines in key Biden states put the election outcome in doubt5.
December 18, 2020 - A memo is penned to use the NSA to claim foreign powers interfered in the 2020 election.
December 24, 2020 - The first of 2 memos by Attorney John Eastman suggesting that Vice President Pence could stop Joe Biden from being President during the official count of Electoral ballots on January 6th6.
A decision was hatched at some point to send alternate slates of state electors.
December 31, 2020 - Second Eastman memo is put out.
None of these plans went very far largely, because the Attorney General, the Office of White House Counsel, and a myriad of military officials and lawyers nixed the ideas as unconstitutional and illegal. Worse still, much of the above was known. The veil of secrecy for the conspirators was more akin to a revealing negligee than a widow’s shroud.
The Eastman memos were critical insofar as the 10 Republican conspirators revealed in Mark Meadows texts had bought in to the idea of having Vice President Pence not count certain state slates of electors and deny Biden the presidency7. The plan from there was then to use the delay to force a new presidential election, jigger certain state election results, and/or simply have Trump declare martial law in the wake of the failure to certify Joe Biden’s win.
The problem with the plan was not that it was unconstitutional, illegal, or even that it was ridiculously stupid. And it wasn’t that the institutionalists within the GOP weren’t going to “go along with it”.
The problem was that time after time, Vice President Pence rejected the idea and after the Trump/Raffensperger phone call of January 2, 2021 (in which Donald Trump attempted to literally change the election results in Georgia by having Brad Raffensperger8 fraudulently coming up with “new” 11,800 votes), Pence’s hand was forced — he was not going to “take one for the team.”
And just like the infamous attack on anti-Vietnam protesters at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Pence knew the “The World [was] Watching9” and Meadows and his conspirators seemed oblivious to that fact.
Tomorrow: Part IV and how political optics upended the coup.
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/politics/state/inside-donald-trumps-tumultuous-first-100-days/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/20/mick-mulvaney-trump-impeachment-doral-syria
https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/lawyers-condemn-michael-flynn-and-lin-woods-breathtakingly-morally-treasonous-call-for-trump-to-declare-martial-law-and-hold-new-election/
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/31/politics/trump-executive-orders-seize-voting-machines/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastman_memos
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/state-lawmakers-ask-pence-for-more-time-to-address-election-results-301201577.html
Brad Raffensperger was the GA Secretary of State and had oversight over the state election.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_whole_world_is_watching