In the Spirit of Jefferson Davis (part six)

  

 

 

Part six.

On the first sunrise of the glorious new year, soon to be the dawn of the post-Trump era, the President continued to promote “Stop The Steal” and the upcoming January 6^th rally, which would prove to be an incompetent Coup attempt.

 

Maybe starting as early as the previous August, Trump had been pressuring Vice-President Pence to refuse to certify the Electoral Votes if the January 6^th if vote went against him, those, presumably, sending them back to the States, and several swing-States that went for Biden were controlled by Republican-dominated legislatures, thereby stripping the people of their say in the election. But that was not a power Pence actually had, so as Trump had done with the Georgia Officials, he was pressuring Pence to break the law.

 

But as Pence’s Chief Counsel, Greg Jacob, explained to Trump personally, it would be an explicit violation of the Electoral Count Act, a piece of legislation designed to codify Election procedures and same this Nation from descending into a second Civil War.

 

This debate internal became public only days before, when Pence’s legal team felt forced to ask a Federal Judge reject a lawsuit filed by Representative Louie Gohmert that was trying to use further Eastman’s scheme and pressure Pence to break the law. This public rebuke was unmendable between President and Vice President, and prompted a New Year’s Tweet by Lin Wood to Tweet that Pence should be “executed by firing squad.” Tweet by Lin Wood to Tweet that Pence should be “executed by firing squad.”

 

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Eastman continued to try to court Pence.

 

The Certification vote on January 6^th, was usually a pro forma affair, but never without some drama. In every election, there are Representatives and Senators of one party of other was consistently refuse to vote consistently with their State’s Certifications. These tantrums are rarely of any consequence, even in hotly contested elections. On January 2^nd, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Tweeted, “We’re now at well over 100 House members and a dozen Senators ready to stand up for election integrity and object to certification. It’s time to fight back.” Those numbers are shocking, but it will later prove he was not exaggerating.

 

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Eastman continued to try to court Pence.

 

The Certification Vote on January 6^th was usually a pro forma affair, but never without some minor drama. In almost every election, there are Representatives and Senators of one party of other was consistently refuse to vote consistent with their State’s Certifications. These tantrums are rarely of any consequence, even in hotly contested elections. But 2020 would be different, on January 2^nd, White House Chief of Staff Meadows Tweeted, “We’re now at well over 100 House members and a dozen Senators ready to stand up for election integrity and object to certification. It’s time to fight back.” Those numbers are shocking, but it will later prove he was not exaggerating.

 

 

That same day, Trump made another incriminating phone call to a Georgia official, this time Secretary of State Raffensperger, who, like Governor Kemp, had been a Trump supporter until Election Day. Trump pressured him to change to vote-count so Trump would win the state by a single vote. "The people of Georgia know that this was a scam, and because of what you've done to the President … All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. Flipping the state is a great testament to our country. It's a testament that they can admit to a mistake. A lot of people think it wasn't a mistake, it was much more criminal than that. But it's a big problem in Georgia, and it's not a problem that's going away …

 

“[You say] your numbers are right. But your numbers aren’t right. They’re really wrong, and they’re really wrong, Brad ... Look, ultimately, I win, okay? Because you guys are so wrong. And you treated this. You treated the population of Georgia so badly. You, between you and your Governor, who is down at 21, he was down 21 points. And like a schmuck, I endorsed him, and he got elected, but I will tell you, he is a disaster. The people are so angry in Georgia, I can’t imagine he’s ever getting elected again, I’ll tell you that much right now. But why wouldn’t you want to find the right answer, Brad, instead of keep saying that the numbers are right? ’Cause those numbers are so wrong? … There's nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you've recalculated."

 

Trump brought up a false claim regarding a video 18,000 fake ballots being snuck into a counting location in the dead of night, all fake ballots going to Biden.

 

Raffensperger reminded Trump that Bobby Christine, acting US Attorney for Northern Georgia, whom Trump appointed, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and Raffensperger’s own office, had investigated those claims and determined the video, which was real, simply didn’t show what Trump supporters said it showed.

 

One Election conspiracy after another was brought up, and shot down. Trump insisted that the investigators in Raffensperger’s office were, "either dishonest or incompetent.” He called the failure to find fraud was a criminal offense and a “big risk.”

 

Raffensperger continued to refute the already investigated and debunked fraud allegations.

 

Trump said it was "dangerous for you to say that."

 

Trump's Chief of Staff, Meadows, was part of the same call. He told Raffensperger he’d hoped in a "spirit of cooperation and compromise" there would be some way to find a path forward to overturn Georgia's already election results, which, by this date, had already been confirmed by both a full hand audit and a machine recount.

 

It is impossible to believe that Trump was unaware what legal jeopardy the December 5^th call put him in; could that knowledge have motivated this even more brash act? As President, Trump was immune from prosecution (this is not actually law, but a policy decision made with in the DoJ during the Watergate crisis of the 1970s that has been followed ever since), but that immunity disappears once he leaves, or is removed, from office. Trump was facing an array of legal problems, some of which would expire because of the Statutes of Limitations, should he get four more years of immunity, or hit him like a tsunami if he was forced to step down. It may have been his continuing to commit more and more crimes was a desperate attempt to escape jail.

 

Raffensperger, just as Kemp did before him, refused to break the law for Trump. "Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong. We have to stand by our numbers. We believe our numbers are right."

 

This call became public knowledge almost immediately.

 

By the next morning, a Sunday, Trump was railing against Raffensperger on Social Media, accusing him of being "unwilling, or unable, to answer questions" about alleged election problems in the State.

 

Other than the whining, the White House didn’t respond to questions regarding the incriminating phone call, though Jason Miller, a Trump Campaign Adviser, Tweeted that Raffensperger is a "hack" and that Trump "is spot-on in his criticisms of the terrible job Raffensperger did."

 

That same Sunday, Jennifer Lynn Lawrence, of Women for America First, Tweeted, “The globalists will not win! We the People are showing up to defend our way life & our President who has put America First!” Trump replied to her personally, assuring her he would attend the protests.

 

Also, the same day, there was an interesting posting from a Politician who was about to be sworn into office based on the results of the same Election he was agitating to overturn. Federal Representative David Madison Cawthorn Tweeted, “There is an ongoing battle for the soul of this nation, and I am prepared to fight for freedom. It’s time to conquer our fears and retake our republic.”

 

Senator Ted Cruz, who proved a staunch Trump supporter despite Trump repeatedly, tauntingly, accusing him of being a liar in 2016, publicly insulted his wife’s looks, and insanely accusing his father of being involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, had joined those objecting to the Biden Certification and, on this date, spoke at a Stop the Steal rally. “We will not go quietly into the night. We will defend liberty.”

 

But the greatest drama to unfold on the un-quiet Sunday was took place inside the offices of the DoJ. It seems no one in the DoJ had gone home for the weekend.

 

Jeffrey Rosen the acting AG, and he knew his head was on the chopping block. He was in his conference room when he was interrupted by another ranking DoJ official, Jeffrey Clark who had already been agitating for bizarre legal actions to further the Big Lie but were, in fact, illegal.

 

Clark informed Rosen that Trump offered him the AG job, effective immediately. It should be made clear that Biden was to take office in only eighteen days, so Clark would be expecting a historically short tenure – unless there was a Coup of course. Rosen was offered to resume his duties as Assistant AG, which was what he was doing until previous AG, Barr, was forced out weeks earlier.

 

Rosen told Clark that he wouldn’t be fired by a subordinate, and he would take the matter directly to Mr. Trump.

 

Among the things Clark was clearly expected to do, and Rosen had refused to do, was have the DoJ send the officials a letter stating that the allegations of Voter Fraud were legitimate grounds to invalidate the State’s Electoral College results. There was nothing in the law that allows unproven, unprovable, and disproven allegations to overturn an election.

 

Rosen managed to keep his job when Trump realized that his firing would’ve triggered mass resignations-in-protest.

 

On the 4^th, TheDonald.win, a popular pro-Trump Social Media site, had more than 50% of its top posts containing calls for violence and among the top five responses was, “Stop the steal and execute the ‘stealers,’”

 

Jeremey Liggett of the Florida Three Percenters Militia posted a video wherein he’s dressed in tactical gear and offering advice about carrying weapons during the Jan. 6 protests in D.C. Much of his advice was explicitly illegal in D.C. itself.

 

Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA promised that he’d arranged for more than 80 buses of students to D.C. for the protests.

 

Dustin Stockton, of Women for America First, arrived in D.C. and noted on Social Media of someone at the airport carrying a pitchfork. Jennifer Lynn Lawrence replied, “Of course! This is too perfect.”

 

And the Oath Keepers posted:

 

 

“All Patriots who can get to DC need to be in DC. Now is the time to stand. It’s not too late to go. Jump on a plane! Jump in your car! Just get there. Show the President you support him taking decisive action as both President and Commander-in-Chief. And show Congress that we the people will not stand for the election being stolen to plant an imposter Chicom puppet in the White House. Stand now, or kneel forever.”

 

Chicom refers to Chinese Communist. It was a reference to Trump’s 2019 evidence-free claim that Joe Biden "takes a billion-five" from China and "he goes on and he allows China to rip us off."

 

Georgia’s election headaches were not in the rear-view mirror yet. Both of its Federal Senate seats were held by Republicans, and both those incumbents were now trapped in run-offs against Democratic challengers, and that run-off would decide which party would control the Senate, if Mitch McConnell would remain Majority Leader, and if President Biden would be capable of advancing his legislative agenda or get his Judges appointed (things McConnell had proved remarkably skilled at obstructing President Obama on only a few years before). I’d argue that the revulsion that Trump engendered drove Georgia’s historically high turn-out, and without that, the jobs of these incumbents, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, would’ve been safe.

 

The run-off would be on January 5^th, so the day before the attempted Coup. As more and more Georgians registered to vote, it became obvious these new voters were overwhelemingly anti-Trump/Perdue/Loeffler. Perdue and Loeffler were already Trump supporters before Election Day, since then they’d embraced the Big Lie and both stated they would refuse to Certify the Biden’s Election on January 6^th.

 

Perdue, Loeffler and Trump attended a campaign event on January 4^th, the day before the run-off. It proved to be an extended rant against the non-existent Election fraud, saw Trump continuing to promote his January 6^th rally in D.C, and saying he would “fight like hell.” Also present was just-elected, not-yet serving, Federal Representative Marjorie Taylor Green, a Trump supporter and member of the QAnon movement. 

 

On January 5^th, both Perdue and Loeffler of Georgia were voted out of office. Though both would be voting on Biden’s Certification the next day, Biden had secured razor-thin majorities in both Houses of Congress. The run-off turnout, which some expected to be small, was three million in a State with a total population of about ten million.

 

Also on the 5^th, the Trump supporters start arriving in DC in large numbers and hosting an eight-hour event at Freedom Plaza. Trump posted on Social Media, “I hope the Democrats, and even more importantly, the weak and ineffective RINO section of the Republican Party, are looking at the thousands of people pouring into D.C. They won’t stand for a landslide election victory to be stolen.”

 

Among those speaking at Freedom Plaza was Bikers for Trump founder Chris Cox, who proclaimed America is on the brink of a revolution and that he would “take the first bullet.” Others talked of “Civil War” and declare themselves an “army.”

 

Ali Alexander Tweeted that the protesters should shut down the city until a “negotiated settlement” is reached.

 

Federal Representative Madison Carthorn, a Trump supporter, posted that the next day would determine “the fate of a nation.”

 

Nancy Campbell who ran the website Above Rubies which mostly glorified stay-at-home moms, arrived in D.C. with her husband and absolutely gushed as she said, “we must take action when the soul of our nation is at stake! We cannot sit idly by and allow the TREASON of a stolen election to go forward. We will no longer be the USA but another Venezuela. #stopthesteal”

 

 

Meanwhile in Texas, Politician Sid Miller, famous for his Conspiracy Masturbation and other false statements, posted on Social Media, “Legal gun owners have 300 million guns and probably a trillion rounds of ammo. If we were the problem, you’d know it … “Don’t make us be the problem. #StopTheSteal”

 

That evening, Marc Short, Pence’s Chief of Staff, contacted the Secret Service to warn about the Vice President’s safety because of his break with Trump.