We can than Judge Luttig, Dan Quayle, and Pence’s son for convincing him of his duty to the country.
Great reporting Josh Kovensky!
17 Likes
“Legal giants like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee” is pretty hilarious.
13 Likes
Also Ron f***ing Johnson.
12 Likes
More than a month before the 2020 election, the Republicans were already “chaos coup curious.” In a Sept 25th episode of Steve Bannon’s ‘War Room’ podcast, former Trump Cabinet Secretary Bill McGinley came on the show to describe a scenario for the House of Representatives to settle a disputed election in Trump’s favor. [Archived WaPo article]:
“What happens on January 6th, let’s say for whatever reason, there is a complete meltdown in the process in one or more states, it’s still tied up in the courts and litigation has maybe gone up and down to the Supreme Court, there is no clear winner … and there’s just serious questions about which candidate or the electoral college slate won the vote,” McGinley, who declined to comment on the record, said on the show. “You trigger what’s called a contingent election. And that means that the House of Representatives is to immediately take up the question: Who should be president of the United States?”
The next day, Trump first raised the idea of a House vote for president during a rally outside Harrisburg, Pa. “We have an advantage if we go back to Congress,” he said. “Does everyone understand that?”
It was the Throw-Tons-Of-Shit-At-The-Wall-And-See-What-Sticks Plan.
13 Likes
It’s basically Steve Bannon’s “flood the zone with shit” thinly dressed in some legalese. Or underpants gnomes: 1) Create chaos 2)…? 3) Have SCOTUS declare Trump the winner!
Still, there are enough horrible Republicans in congress and on SCOTUS that it might have worked.
7 Likes
There was never any way it was going to work. trump needed solid electoral majorities in both the House and Senate to overrule the inevitable objections to counting any of the fake electors, and he simply did not have that. He only had a majority of the minority, which meant that the certification of Biden’s win was inevitable.
The Underpants Gnomes indeed.
6 Likes
Sure, Chesebro conceded in the email, people would complain (“Any effort to extend scrutiny of the election returns past January 6 would be met with the objection that the process of electing the President might not be complete before January 20”), but there was no need to worry: if the “dispute dragged on, on January 20, Nancy Pelosi (upon resigning as Speaker) would become the Acting President — unless, of course, the Senate decided to resolve the impasse by electing Pence as Vice President, so that on January 20 he would become Acting President.”
I still don’t fully understand how this might work. The joint session of Congress certifies the Electors’ votes and if there is no actual winner, the House will “elect” the President. So, I guess the thinking was that if they just didn’t count the “true” votes, the House and Senate would then come into play? With 1 vote per state, Trump likely would have won the House “election,” so how would the VP even come into play?
I guess we should just be thankful it never came to this, and dammit Trump must be defeated soundly in '24. *&^%$#@!
4 Likes
It was treason and if there was any justice in the universe, the ringleaders would die for it.
6 Likes
In a world where DT is elected, commits crimes out in the open and then has the next nomination locked up before the primaries even begin, the word “ridiculous” kinda loses some of its sheen.
4 Likes
Neither did Chesebro, because the Senate does not elect anybody. The only way Pence would become Acting President would be if he was certified as the winner of the EC vote for VP and Congress decided trump was not qualified for the presidency.
I cannot emphasize quite how unbounded from reality Chesebro’s spitballing is on all this stuff.
13 Likes
So, basically, the conspiracy was to obstruct Congress from certifying the electoral college votes. Got it. Now, where is the Federal prosecutions of the conspirators?
4 Likes
Chesebro remains one of Jack Smith’s unindicted co-conspirators so unless Trump is reelected he can expect years in prison. Same holds true for the others.
3 Likes
It seems that Smith is not holding the lesser lights accountable now. The strategy for that seems misplaced. Folks like Chesebro and a few others might possibly plea out if actually indicted now, just like Chesebro did in the Georgia indictments case.
1 Like
Thanks, so it would have been almost impossible to pass new laws.
Why aren’t these muthafckers in jail? Starting with the tRump, the muthafcker-in-chief?
1 Like
It’s a big question and one that probably concerns SCOTUS as they muse upon the 14th Amendment, Section 3. How tedious for them if a large chunk of the GOP is barred from Federal or State office. prosecution would be difficult however as MTGrene showed: forgetfulness on one hand, Speech and Debate immunity on the other.
2 Likes
I wouldn’t mind as an alternative: It means I leave you in anguish, wallowing in freakish misery forever.
3 Likes
The more out there the legal theory, the more opportunity there is for slowing things down, right? That was probably the ultimate goal.
3 Likes
Delay is trump’s default litigation strategy, but this wasn’t litigation. What Chesebro was proposing was to create a systemic political breakdown, and he needed it to be both fast and thorough in order to somehow give SCOTUS cause to step in and reinstall trump as preznit.
trump himself also viewed J6 as time-sensitive, since he whipped up his mob to somehow prevent the certification from happening.
7 Likes
7 Likes