Peril

by Bob Woodward

“Your patience is commendable,” Biden said. “But look, we feel good about where we are. We really do. I’m here to tell you tonight, we believe we’re on track to win this election.”

“This is a fraud on the American public,” he said. Trump’s tone was dismissive, indignant. “This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.” He added, “So we’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

There were two ways to look at the returns. On one hand, Biden had won by 7 million votes—81 million to Trump’s 74 million. On the other, a switch of 44,000 votes in Arizona, Wisconsin and Georgia would have given Trump and Biden a tie in the Electoral College.

A Washington Post analysis noted Biden ended up doing what Hillary Clinton could not in 2016: pick up some support from working-class Americans who rarely participated in politics. Some previously voted for Trump. In addition, Biden had generated strong turnout among traditional Democrats nationwide.

House Republicans had won a net of 10 seats, flipping 13 Democratic seats, and losing just three GOP seats, Jack said, running through the numbers. A record number of Republican women had been elected, bringing the total number of GOP women to over 25 in the House.

One of them was Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and Trump’s personal lawyer. Once the hero of the Big Apple after the 9/11 attacks, he was now a combative regular in Trump’s orbit who regularly smoked cigars. He told the president that he needed a better strategy. He offered to help. Trump stopped privately saying he lost the vote. And he gave Giuliani his blessing to start poking around.

Morgan asked what Giuliani was doing there. His legal team had a plan. They were already filing lawsuits in states and working with several outside law firms. The campaign’s post-election strategy had been in place for months with the president’s approval.

Giuliani said the Trump campaign’s observers were barred from tabulation rooms. “They kicked them out because they were cheating! This is all part of a coordinated effort by the Democrats.” He held up a sheaf of papers. “I have eight affidavits,” he said. “I have eight affidavits that say observers were kept out of Michigan. Bad things are happening.”

Trump asked, how do we get these abuses that Rudy is talking about before the court? It would not be easy, the lawyers replied. You need standing, a legal threshold demonstrating a party’s right to sue. Being upset is not legal grounds.

“Well, why don’t we just get up to the Supreme Court directly?” Trump wondered. “Like, why can’t we just go there right away?” There was a legal process to follow, the lawyers repeated.

Inside, Trump’s campaign lawyers and White House counselors had a tense, basic, law school 101 discussion about what they should tell Trump.

“I have 27 affidavits!” Giuliani said, rattling off election claims in various states. Strange, Morgan thought. Just an hour earlier, Giuliani had claimed he had only eight affidavits.

Giuliani raised his hand. “If you just put me in charge,” he told Trump, we could fix this. “I have 80 affidavits,” Giuliani said with certainty.

On Saturday, November 7, the Associated Press declared Biden the winner at 11:25 a.m., after they concluded that Biden had won Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes, pushing him over the 270-vote threshold necessary to win the White House.

Adopting a theme Gerald Ford used 46 years earlier when he assumed the presidency in August 1974 after Nixon’s resignation, Biden said, “This is the time to heal in America.”

“(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher,” the classic Jackie Wilson R&B song, started playing as the cars started honking again. Supporters jumped into the back of pickup trucks and onto trunks, waving flags and signs. Fireworks exploded in the dark sky.

The Biden family embraced onstage. Jill Biden. Hunter Biden. Ashley Biden. The grandchildren. Kamala Harris and her family joined in. They all looked to the sky, the glow of the colored sparks on their faces.

Every time somebody in her neighborhood put up a Trump sign, she put up another Biden sign in her lawn. She eventually had 17 Biden signs.

The first person he thought of calling to explain they had heard from President Biden was his mother. Biden later sent the three boys a personal letter.

“I’ve got no problem with you. But Joe, if Mike Pence’s son or a Trump person did what Hunter did, it’d be game, set, match.”

For Biden, anything relating to family was deeply personal. Graham, who had no children, had crossed a red line. Biden and Graham would not talk again for months—and if Biden had anything to do with it, they likely would never talk again.

Hope Hicks, a former model who in 2017 had become Trump’s White House director of strategic communications at age 28 and was the closest aide to Trump during the 2016 campaign, had rejoined the White House in February 2020, after a stint as Fox’s chief of communications. Due to their history and close working relati...

Photographs of Giuliani and serious-looking Trump advisers standing in a random parking lot soon ricocheted around Twitter and news outlets. Standing outside the small company’s garage and a building with faded green paint, and next to a self-proclaimed poll watcher who news reports later identified as a convicted sex offender, Giuliani rambled at length, with conspiratorial claims and one-liners.

When a reporter told Giuliani the election had been called for Biden, he laughed. “Come on, don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “Networks don’t get to decide elections. Courts do.”

“How do we find the 10,000 votes that we need in Arizona? How do we find the 12,000 that we need in Georgia?” Trump asked. “What about the military ballots? Are they all in?”

Powell was a peddler of “concocted bullshit,” he thought. And he could not stop her. She and Giuliani were now the ones inside the room.

Esper had always set his own course and had recently written a classified letter opposing the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. In Meadows’s view, Esper had not learned how to play the necessary politics that went with the job of being Trump’s secretary of defense.

“My oath is to the Constitution,” Esper replied. “I recognize that the president has this authority.” About eight seconds later at 12:54 p.m., Trump tweeted that “Mark Esper has been terminated” as secretary of defense. “I would like to thank him for his service,” Trump wrote.

Kathrin Jansen, head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer, told The New York Times she learned of the results the day before, Sunday, at 1 p.m., and maintained the election had no influence on the release of the information. “We have always said that science is driving how we conduct ourselves,” she said, “no politics.”

“The @US_FDA and the Democrats didn’t want to have me get a Vaccine WIN, prior to the election,” he later tweeted, “so instead it came out five days later – As I’ve said all along!”

Vice President Mike Pence, ever a team player, also refused to publicly accept that Biden had won. He had banked his political future on being embraced by Trump’s voters as the president’s reverent second in command and most logical successor.

“The crazies are taking over,” Pompeo said. He was increasingly worried as he watched Trump meet with Giuliani’s traveling circus act. Now Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn and the My Pillow Guy—Mike Lindell, the outspoken former drug addict and millionaire CEO of My Pillow, a mattress and pillow company—had Oval Office access.

“I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the bikers for Trump. I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”

As they sat in the Quarters 6 kitchen, Milley confided that he believed Trump was in a mental decline. Anyone who sought the presidency already had a large ego. Trump’s ego was even more outsized, he noted. And Trump had just suffered the most painful rejection possible. It’s got to hurt in ways others will never fully understand.

“Yesterday was appalling,” Haspel told Milley. “We are on the way to a right-wing coup. The whole thing is insanity. He is acting out like a six-year-old with a tantrum.”

“We’re going to be steady,” Milley repeated his mantra. “Steady as a rock. We’re going to keep our eye on the horizon. Keep alert to any risks, dangers. Keep the channels open.”

Trump was still president, and they were subordinates, constitut...

“My people expect me to fight, and if I don’t, I’ll lose ’em,” Trump said. “I know this is hard,” Hicks said. “It’s really hard. I don’t like to lose. Nobody likes to lose. But there is so much to be gained by moving forward.”

Chris Miller was not invited to join. Milley was also suspicious of Meadows, who seemed to be part of the group supporting Trump’s claims that the election was stolen.

“We’ve got to land this plane,” Milley said cautiously on one of the early calls of the new power troika. “We’ve got to make sure there’s a peaceful transfer of power.”

“We do not take an oath to a king, or a queen,” Milley told the crowd, “to a tyrant or a dictator. We do not take an oath to an individual. No, we do not take an oath to a country, a tribe, or a religion. We take an oath to the Constitution.” He added, “Each of us will protect and defend that document, regardless of personal price.”

“I hereby direct you to withdraw all U.S. forces from the Federal Republic of Somalia no later than 31 December 2020 and from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan no later than 15 January 2021. Inform all allied and partner forces of the directives. Please confirm receipt of this order.” It was signed “Donald Trump,” with large, thick strokes of his celebrated black marker. “Did you have something to do with this?” Milley asked Patel. “No, no,” Patel said. “I just saw this, Chairman.” “Are you the one behind this?” Milley asked the acting secretary of defense. “No, no, no,” Miller said.

On one hand, it was suspect because the format was wrong and not in the style of a traditional “NSM”—National Security Memorandum—which were often long and formal. On the other hand, Milley doubted that he would be presented with a forgery in the office of the secretary of defense, even though Miller was new and only the acting secretary of defense.

“How did this happen?” Milley asked. “Was there any process here at all? How does a president do this?” O’Brien looked at the memo and read. “I have no idea,” he said. “What do you mean you have no idea? You’re the national security adviser to the president. You’re telling me you didn’t know about this?” “No, I didn’t know about this,” O’Brien said. “And the secretary of defense didn’t know about this? And the chief of staff to the secretary of defense didn’t know about this? The chairman didn’t know? How the hell does this happen?”

“This is fucked up,” Kellogg said. “The header is wrong. This wasn’t done right. This wasn’t the president.” “Keith,” Milley said to Kellogg, “are you telling me someone forged the president of the United States’ signature on a military directive?”

“Mr. President, you’ve got to have a meeting with the principals,” O’Brien said. The president did not say the signature was a forgery. He had signed it. But he agreed to have a Principals Meeting before any formal policy decision was finalized.

“The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. “All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors.” In bold it added, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

Milley added, “Climb Suribachi,” a reference to the 554-foot mountain on Iwo Jima where Marines raised an American flag in 1945, depicted in an iconic photograph. Nearly 7,000 Marines died and 20,000 were wounded in the celebrated battle.

Trump and Graham continued to talk on the phone. Graham was trying to ease Trump toward acceptance of defeat even while voicing understanding for Trump’s legal fight.

“Rudy Giuliani’s hair dye melting off his face was the least crazy part of his batshit-crazy press conference.”