“Two days after the 2020 presidential election, as votes were still being tallied, Donald Trump’s eldest son texted then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that ‘we have operational control’ to ensure his father would get a second term, with Republican majorities in the US Senate and swing state legislatures,” CNN says it has learned (see story here).
In other words, the lens through which Don Trump Jr. sees elections is not, who did the voters choose, but we have operational control. That’s how they think in Russia and other dictatorships.
This text message, dated Nov. 5, 2020, which CNN says was obtained by the House investigation committee and hadn’t previously been reported in the news media, also “lays out ideas for keeping his father in power” which are “nearly identical” to the strategy the Trump campaign actually used to try to overthrow the election. It specifically refers to, among other things, submitting slates of fake electors. Republicans in 7 states did so.
CNN says, “If all that failed, according to the Trump Jr. text, GOP lawmakers in Congress could simply vote to reinstall Trump as President on January 6.” This refers to a procedure in the Constitution for electing a president if no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, under which each state gets 1 vote.
In 2020, Republicans controlled 26 House delegations, while Democrats controlled 24. But Biden did have a majority of electoral votes, so that procedure could be invoked only by throwing out electoral votes. Trump and his allies pressured Pence to do that, but vice presidents don’t have such authority. Republicans should be glad they don’t, otherwise Kamala Harris could pick the next president regardless of what voters decide.
- stupid,
- doesn’t respect voters,
- or believe in following the rules, and
- encouraged his father to commit the crimes Judge Carter referred to.
- Therefore, he should never hold public office himself, because he can’t be trusted to uphold democratic principles.
He also praised stealing donations as “private enterprise at its finest” (see that story here). And parenthetically, Mark Meadows is being investigated for using a fraudulent address on his and his wife’s 2020 voter registration forms (read about that here). He’s another one who shouldn’t be in public office again.
I think if CNN‘s reporting is accurate, Don Trump Jr. committed a crime. You can be guilty of conspiring to rob a bank without actually robbing the bank. I also believe the plotters should be prosecuted.
What the Trump family, their allies, and lawyers like Eastman and Giuliani did was far worse than robbing a bank; they attempted to overthrow our democracy. Even the Confederates didn’t try to do that; they only wanted to go their own way.
Photo: I’d like to see a sentencing judge wipe that silly smirk off Don Trump Jr.’s stupid face
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