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Since 1797, when George Washington voluntarily handed the power of the presidency to John Adams, every American president had fulfilled his solemn obligation to guarantee the peaceful transfer of power—until Donald Trump.
When our nation was tested after the presidential election of 2020, an alarming number of elected Republicans in Congress failed to do their duty. This is the story of how that happened, and why. It is a story that every American deserves to know.
Like other aspiring autocrats, Donald Trump cannot succeed alone. He depends upon enablers and collaborators. Every American should understand what his enablers in Congress and in the leadership of the Republican Party were willing to do to help Trump seize power in the months after he lost the 2020 presidential election—
Trump was taking something he knew to be a routine feature of the counting process and making it seem criminal.
Article II [of the Constitution] says the electors are appointed “in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct,” but I don’t think that entitles the Legislature to change the rules after the election and appoint a different slate of electors in a manner different than what was in place on election day.
Here was Rudy Giuliani, the lawyer for the president of the United States, standing in a strip-mall parking lot making wild and false claims of election fraud. Giuliani had led New York City as our nation recovered from the attacks of 9/11. I had visited the remains of the World Trade Towers with him in the weeks after the attack. Now, as I watched the press conference, I kept thinking how far Rudy Giuliani had fallen. How had we gotten to a point that a spectacle like this was being held on behalf of the President of the United States?
“This is getting very serious, very dangerous, and very worrisome, even for folks who are disposed to remain calm.” Esper believed he had been fired in part because he had made it clear that he would not stand for any use of the military to contest the outcome of an election.
Krebs had issued a joint statement with other state and federal election officials explaining that “the 2020 election was the most secure in American history” and that “there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” Trump fired Krebs via tweet,
Ultimately, all three of the lawyers who spoke at the press conference—Giuliani, Powell, and Ellis—would be sanctioned by courts, censured, or have their license to practice law suspended. And each would be indicted because of their lies about the election.
Sidney Powell responded to a defamation lawsuit against her by arguing that “no reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly statements of fact.”
Ronald Reagan quote: To a few of us here today, this is a solemn and most momentous occasion; and yet, in the history of our Nation, it is a commonplace occurrence. The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place as it has for almost two centuries and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every-4-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.
Far too many people were hearing only Donald Trump’s lies. I was spending hours on the phone and in person talking to constituents about what was really happening. Conspiracy theories were everywhere, and they stretched beyond what was happening in the election.
It was becoming clear that the truth no longer really mattered.
Gohmert was suggesting to people that their country was being stolen from them and there was only one way to save it.
Barr told the Associated Press that the Department of Justice had been investigating the allegations of fraud, and “we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.” This made Trump so angry that he reportedly threw his lunch at a wall in the White House. Undeterred, the next day Trump posted a 45-minute speech to Facebook, repeating his false claims of election fraud.
Furious with the Supreme Court, Trump continued to launch assaults on justices, judges, and elected officials across the country.
This was no longer about getting his day in court. He’d had his day, and he lost.
Katrina Pierson, a senior adviser for the Trump campaign, took the stage. She exhorted the crowd to “fight like patriots,” claiming that the courts and all the institutions of government had been “weaponized against us.” She said:
“The courts do not decide who the next president of the United States of America will be. We the people decide.”
General Mark Milley, had said several months earlier: “There is no role for the US military in determining the outcome of an American election.” The DOD statement—which was factual and should have been unobjectionable—enraged Donald Trump. He instructed the director of White House personnel, Johnny McEntee, to call Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, apparently to convey the message that if any further statements like this were made, the officials would be fired.
News of the highly contentious December 18 meeting broke the next day. Flynn had been at the White House, along with Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, and it was clear that an angry fight had broken out in front of Trump.
In the early hours of December 19, when the meeting finally ended, Donald Trump summoned his supporters to Washington, DC, tweeting: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Trump’s behavior that night was increasingly erratic. He had posted a video calling the Covid relief package, which his administration had supported, a “disgrace” and detailing what he called “wasteful and unnecessary items.” Many of the line items that Trump attacked were the same ones he had asked Congress to fund in his official budget. Now he was using them as justification to threaten to veto the bill.
I believe that Donald Trump’s decision to attack the lawfully certified Electoral College results and to ignore the rulings of our courts was an assault on the structural constitutional safeguards that keep us free.
Kevin was advising them to object and telling them the vote really wasn’t a big deal. Objecting was the safe thing politically. It would keep Trump happy, and, besides, what harm could it do? McCarthy was also describing the potential political cost to members who refused to object—telling them he would be unable to protect them from primary-election challenges.
Kevin McCarthy was essentially telling members of Congress to ignore their constitutional obligations and, instead, do what Trump wanted. It was no wonder he preferred to deliver this message in small groups only.
A lot now rested in Mike Pence’s hands. It was clear he was under enormous pressure from Trump to violate the law and the Constitution. Would he withstand the pressure, or would he fold? I didn’t know if we could count on him. Paul Ryan summed up the situation this way in a text shortly after midnight on January 5: “I worry he breaks but think he will not.”
A few hours later, shortly before 4:00 a.m., Congress completed the counting of electoral votes: Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump by a count of 306 to 232. The mob had not prevailed, but the danger wasn’t over. The January 6 attack was an assault on our constitutional republic. As Congress finished our work early on January 7, President Trump still had not condemned the attack or committed to leave office.
Kevin McCarthy went to Mar-a-Lago because his ability to raise money had dried up after January 6 when nearly every major corporate donor announced it would stop making campaign contributions to Republicans who had voted to object to the Electoral College votes. Kevin’s strength in our conference was derived largely from his fundraising ability. He was not a policy expert or a natural leader. And now his strength was gone. Kevin needed money. Trump had lists
thought of what Kevin’s mentor, former Republican Congressman Bill Thomas, had said after January 6. Thomas, a legend in the United States House of Representatives, had represented Kevin’s district for 28 years. After January 6, he was not shy about criticizing Kevin: Thomas called McCarthy a “hypocrite.” “You never know what’s inside [him] really,” Thomas said later. Kevin basically is whatever you want him to be. He lies. He’ll change the lie if necessary. How can anyone trust his word? The
“We cannot become the party of QAnon,” I said. “We cannot become the party of Holocaust denial. We cannot become the party of white supremacy. That can never be us. We are the party of Abraham Lincoln and of Ronald Reagan. We believe above all else in fidelity to the Constitution.”
The conservative policies and principles that had once defined what it meant to be a Republican were being replaced by complete allegiance to one man—who wasn’t actually a conservative.
Our nation needs this Republican Party as a strong party based on truth so that we can shape the future. To do that, we must be true to our principles and to the Constitution. We cannot let the former president drag us backward and make us complicit in his efforts to unravel our democracy. Down that path lies our destruction—and potentially the destruction of our country.
What Donald Trump accomplished was this: Despite mountains of hard evidence to the contrary, he persuaded tens of millions of Americans—some 40 to 50 million in all—that their nation had been stolen from them by election fraud. And Donald Trump convinced some of them to believe it absolutely. As if it were a tenet of faith.
Today Donald Trump poses a threat that many in Washington simply fail to grasp. He can move Americans to action based on total dishonesty. I can tell you from my time working to support democracy overseas that the power to rally a mob must never be underestimated. Nor should the fear that a mob can instill in people of reason. A person with that kind of power—to intimidate and threaten and motivate others to carry out violent acts—does not just slowly fade into the background. He must be defeated.
“I’m proud of you,” he said. My dad understood what was at stake. He knew how dangerous it would be for the country if the Republicans whitewashed what had happened, or succeeded in blocking an investigation into the events of January 6. He believed that serving on the Committee was the right thing—the only thing—to do.
The American people deserve to know what happened. The people who did this must be held accountable. There must be an investigation that is nonpartisan, that is sober, that is serious, that gets to the facts—wherever they may lead. And at every opportunity, the Minority Leader has attempted to prevent the American people from understanding what happened, to block this investigation.
I pray that we all remember, Our children are watching. As we carry out this solemn and sacred duty entrusted to us, our children will know who stood for truth, and they will inherit the nation we hand to them—a republic, if we can keep it.
Court documents including deposition testimony, as well as email and text exchanges, appear to indicate that Fox News hosts and executives knew the election-fraud claims were false, despite what Fox News was broadcasting to its viewers. Sean Hannity, for example, had reportedly testified that he never believed Trump’s claims that Dominion machines had stolen the election from Trump: “I didn’t believe it for one second.” In a text exchange with Tucker Carlson about Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, Laura Ingraham allegedly said, “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with
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The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy. I’m a Constitutional conservative, and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge.
Not too long ago, the Republican Party had been the party of Ronald Reagan. George W. Bush and my father were the last Republican candidates to win the popular vote in any presidential election, and that was two decades ago, in 2004. And it was no wonder why.
In the choice between the Constitution and Donald Trump, the leaders of the Republican Party were turning away from the Constitution.
Dr. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history. Their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower—it was a coup in search of a legal theory.…
What President Reagan called “nothing less than a miracle.” The sacred obligation to defend this peaceful transfer of power has been honored by every American president—except one. As Americans, we all have a duty to ensure that what happened on January 6th never happens again, to set aside partisan battles, to stand together to perpetuate and preserve our great republic.
In the nearly three years since January 6, 2021, no genuine evidence has come out that could substantiate Trump’s stolen-election claims. It was all a lie.
the “red mirage” happens in every presidential-election cycle: Republicans tend to vote in person in greater numbers on Election Day, whereas Democrats increasingly vote early or absentee, so it is not unusual for states that count their Election Day votes first to show an early Republican lead that diminishes as mail-in votes are counted. “Happens every time,” Stirewalt said. But until Donald Trump, who falsely claimed that the red mirage proved the election had been rigged, no presidential candidate had ever lied about it.
“The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives,
open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President.”
But Donald Trump would not accept the truth.
One key point about the fake electors slates is this: Even after no state had attempted to reverse its lawful election outcome, even after no court of law had ruled in a way that could overturn any election, Donald Trump and his team still sent the false slates to the executive branch and to Congress, intending that they be utilized in Congress’s official proceeding to count electoral votes. The slates were knowingly false, and the action was intended to obstruct the legitimate count of certified state electoral votes. It was all part of a larger conspiracy to steal the election. Donald Trump
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