Peril

by Bob Woodward

“What we are really dealing with here,” Powell said, “and uncovering more by the day, is the massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba, and likely China in the interference in our elections.”

Trump shrugged off calls of concern. “Yeah,” Trump told advisers, speaking about Giuliani, “he’s crazy. He says crazy shit. I get it. But none of the sane lawyers can represent me because they’ve been pressured. The actual lawyers have been told they cannot represent my campaign.”

McEntee was known as Trump’s favorite enforcer—and had the look. He was tall, fit, and could pass as a Secret Service agent. He had lost his White House job in 2018 for a security reason, which was later found to be concerns over his gambling habit, often betting tens of thousands of dollars at a time.

Farah, youthful and conservative, had been Pence’s press secretary and had worked for Esper. She had been friends with Hicks and had been one of Meadows’s first hires as White House chief. Trump was no longer listening. “You can have all sorts of structures and reporting mechanisms in place,” she said. “But at the end of the day, he’s going to call people up from his dining room. He’s going to bring in who he wants to. Or he’s going to have them at the residence, and you won’t even know until you get alerted by Secret Service.” It was all too much. She resigned.

In five states where the numbers were close, he had asked the U.S. attorneys to look at the big-ticket items, when someone made an allegation of systematic fraud that could affect the outcome. Those states were Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania. He had directed them not to open a full-fledged investigation but a preliminary analysis or assessment. If there was anything there and sufficient grounds, they should talk to him. “But the problem is this stuff about the voting machines is just bullshit,” Barr said.

“These fucking nuts,” Barr said. Giuliani, Powell and the rest of them. “Clown car.”

Trump said to Barr, “You must have said that because you hate Trump, you must really hate Trump.”

“What you needed was a team of crackerjack lawyers ready to go who could quickly formulate a strategy that would actually be able to say, ‘We’re going for these votes here, these votes here, and here’s our argument here,’ and execute. Instead, you have wheeled out a clown car. “Every self-respecting lawyer in the country has run for the hills. Your team is a bunch of clowns. “They are unconscionable in the firmness and detail they present as if it is unquestionable fact. It is not. You have wasted four weeks on the one theory that is demonstrably crazy, which is these machines.”

“I don’t know, Mr. President. You know, this is not the kind of thing that you can just say, deliver the product.” Barr snapped his fingers. “It has its own pace depending on what the evidence is. So, I can’t say. But I would imagine it would be in the first part of the Biden administration, hopefully maybe in the first six months.” Trump shouted, “First part of the Biden administration!”

At another point, Trump said, “Bill, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I have not been calling.” Trump said it as if Barr was really missing out not getting regular calls. Thank God, Barr thought. He could not help but think of the character in the 1964 dark comedy Dr. Strangelove who ruminates about withholding his “essence” from women.

The Democrats, the media and the Mueller investigation had “pulled a Clarence Thomas on Trump,” referring to the belief among many conservatives like Barr that the searing 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings had pushed Thomas to the hard right.

Barr continued to be fiercely criticized for protecting Trump. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Barr actively supported and amplified Trump’s push against mail-in ballots. Republicans did not like mail-ins and neither did Barr. And he said so publicly, claiming that the fraud potential was “obvious” and “common sense,” but neither he nor anyone else provided any proof.

“Go do CNN, do Brian Williams” on MSNBC, Cortes said. “The facts are on our side. Let’s have Lester Holt in here. Stand up and make your case.” Trump dismissed the idea. They were fake news, he said. Never. He turned to Fox News and started yelling again. They had called Arizona for Biden. They were in on the rigging as much as anyone. They were terrible, he said.

But the Rove-McConnell axis was not driving the message in Georgia, despite coordinating the spending. Instead, a brash lawyer named Lin Wood, who had deeply conspiratorial views on the election, was becoming a key figure. He was prominent at rallies and on social media, railing against Biden’s win as illegal. Astonishingly, at an early December rally with Sidney Powell, he told Georgia Republicans to stay home. “They have not earned your vote,” Wood said of the two GOP senators. “Don’t you give it to them. Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election for God’s sake? Fix it!”

“I think it’s a huge uphill climb,” Morgan said. I don’t think you have the votes on the court. “They don’t have courage,” Trump said.

Barr believed Trump had acquired the worst possible team of attorneys to challenge the election. Rudy Giuliani was in ascension, along with the likes of conservative lawyer Jenna Ellis, whom Barr believed was a moron. And he thought Sidney Powell was certifiable. But Giuliani was the worst—“a fucking idiot” who had gotten Trump impeached, Barr said. Giuliani was “drinking too much and was desperate for money, representing lowlifes and creeps like Lev Parnas,” the Ukrainian-born American businessman involved in various efforts to assist Trump.

On December 14, the electors in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., formally cast their ballots, giving Biden 306 electoral votes, Trump 232. But due to Trump’s various legal and legislative challenges, the final outcome had to wait for three weeks, until a joint session on January 6, when Congress would formally count the electoral votes that would certify the constitutional result.

“Repair the damage with college-educated women,” Graham recommended—an unlikely prospect.

Trump called McConnell immediately and spewed expletives. “Mr. President,” McConnell told Trump, “the Electoral College has spoken. That’s the way we pick a president in this country.” Trump cursed McConnell. Disloyal! Weak! He claimed McConnell had won his reelection bid in Kentucky, months ago, because of Trump’s support. “And this is the thanks I got?” Trump asked. He was furious. Incredulous. “You never really got me. You don’t understand me.”

“You lost the election,” he said, “the Electoral College has spoken.” He hung up. McConnell hoped it would be the final time he and Trump would ever speak to each other.

You don’t know what you’re doing, Meadows yelled at Hahn. Mark, I totally disagree with you, Hahn said. “You are wrong.” Meadows then mumbled something about resignation. “Excuse me, what did you say?” Hahn asked. “Nothing. I didn’t say anything,” Meadows said. “I’ll handle this.” Meadows hung up, then called back 30 minutes later and apologized. But Trump soon sent off a tweet: “While my pushing the money drenched but heavily bureaucratic FDA saved five years in the approval of NUMEROUS great new vaccines, it is still a big, old, slow turtle. Get the dam vaccines out NOW, Dr. Hahn. Stop playing games and start saving lives!!!”

As Ebola czar, Klain reminded Biden he decided to build 17 Ebola treatment units in West Africa, in every potential site where it might flare up. Of the 17 units, he said, nine were never used. I got whacked later for wasting money. But since they took two months to build, it would have been too late if they had waited to see if they were needed. That is the way epidemics work. You must stay in front.

Zients and his team immediately set to work developing Biden’s national virus response strategy and any executive orders needed to speed up its execution. They needed to hit the ground running at noon on January 20. The plan grew to 200 pages.

The Trump administration had encouraged and helped develop the vaccine, a remarkable achievement in record time, but intended to drop-ship the vials to the states and let each state come up with a distribution plan. “That was the worst possible decision,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told Zients’s team on a Zoom call. It put the states on their own.

During the transition period, Zients and Quillian knew they couldn’t direct FEMA to begin preparations. Instead, they began submitting question after question to FEMA, signaling the plan FEMA would operationalize at noon on January 20.

“What mandate?” McCarthy asked the group, dismissing Biden’s 2020 showing. “He’s yesterday, we’re the future,” McCarthy said of the president-elect—a title he had so far been reluctant to utter. “He’s bringing everybody back from the past. He’s misreading this election.

McCarthy’s eye was already on 2022. Hold on for two years and then win the speakership. “The majority,” McCarthy flatly told anyone when asked about his priority. To get there, McCarthy envisioned a partial revival of the now defunct Tea Party’s slash-government-spending ethos, alarm over the debt, culture warfare, and pitches to voters fed up with politically correct politics. He would have Trump hold rallies for House candidates.

“We’re the party of the working people. They’re now the elitists who tell us where to eat, how to eat, what to drink, what to think, what we can read, what’s news and not,” he said. “That doesn’t sell at the end of the day.”

Funny how two years later the Republican party is pushing for the power to decide who can marry, who the are (gender), what they can read, whether you can make your own medical decisions (abortion), and who can vote.

Byrne, a business gadfly with a shock of red hair, had resigned from his company in 2019 after he acknowledged a romantic relationship with a woman later imprisoned in the U.S. for acting as an unregistered Russian agent.

“Sidney Powell promises and never delivers,” Herschmann said, looking at Powell, prompting Flynn and others to disagree. “Lawyers,” Trump sighed, “I have nothing but lawyers that stop me on everything.” “I’m very embarrassed by my lawyers and the Justice Department,” he added. Trump looked at Powell. “At least she’s giving me a chance.” The siren song of declarative presidential action.

Once Giuliani arrived, still putting on his tie, it was apparent there would be no harmony. Giuliani gruffly told Powell she had to start looping him into her legal work. No more surprises. She was sharp in response: You never get back to me when I do. Read your texts. Giuliani shook his head. Not true, he said. You’re the one keeping me in the dark! “Don’t you talk down to me, Rudy Giuliani!” Powell said, nearly shouting.

Trump persisted. He could not understand how he won 74 million votes and lost. His pollsters and campaign staff told him if he won 74 million votes, he had to win. That was more votes than any presidential candidate in history—except Joe Biden.

The risk became real when Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Yale Law–educated freshman and former Supreme Court law clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts, announced on December 30 that he would object to the Electoral College certification on January 6, becoming the first senator to do so.

“JANUARY SIXTH, SEE YOU IN DC!” Trump tweeted on December 30 from Mar-a-Lago, where he was spending the holiday. His allies, led by a group called “Women for America First,” had filed a National Park Service permit for January 22 and 23 in Washington. But they amended their permit application for a rally and instead reserved space at Freedom Plaza near the White House for January 6.

In August, Bannon had been charged in a federal Manhattan court for defrauding donors on a private project called “We Build the Wall,” an attempt to sidestep the government and build Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump did not seem to care. Maybe Bannon would get a pardon.

Bannon told Trump to focus on January 6. That was the moment for a reckoning. “People are going to go, ‘What the fuck is going on here?’ ” Bannon believed. “We’re going to bury Biden on January 6th, fucking bury him.”

“We are going to kill it in the crib. Kill the Biden presidency in the crib,” he said.

Giuliani offered a computer expert who presented a mathematical formula that demonstrated the near impossibility of a Biden win. Several states had recorded more votes for Biden than previous votes for Obama in 2008 and 2012. Since polling showed that Obama had been more popular in these states, it was almost mathematically impossible for Biden to outpace Obama in raw numbers during the 2020 presidential election, Giuliani’s expert maintained.

Holmes was stunned at the blatant discrepancies in Giuliani’s submission. As best he could tell, nearly all of the 789 dead people who allegedly voted in Georgia had properly received their ballots before they died. The sourcing was unclear. He could not figure out which government documents might have been used.

Turning to a PowerPoint printout sent by Giuliani, Holmes read, “Independent analysis conducted by expert CPAs and Ivy League statisticians show a sufficient number of illegal votes…. there were at least 27,713 illegal votes cast and counted in Georgia’s election.” Holmes wondered, who were these unnamed brainiac experts? That total was more than twice the 11,779-vote margin that gave Biden the state.

Holmes backtracked to the Giuliani memos and found much of the latest data could be traced to investigative work done by Christina Bobb of the One America News Network, a pro-Trump television network that touted conspiracies about “voting machines” being “notorious” for fraud. He believed the number of alleged underaged voters in Georgia was exceptionally large.

“8,111 voters had registered with non-existent addresses,” the memo stated. “15,164 out-of-state voters voted.” Holmes could find no public records that would even allow someone to reach these conclusions.

Graham told Trump that he lost Arizona because of his attacks on the late John McCain, who remained popular in his home state. His widow, Cindy, had endorsed Biden, who was a good friend and spoke at McCain’s funeral. “I think the reason you fell short in Arizona is you started beating on a dead guy,” Graham said.

“If you are right,” Lee said, “why aren’t you in court at this moment arguing for a temporary restraining order? Or a preliminary injunction? Or making this pitch to the election officials in Georgia? To the secretary of state? To the governor or the attorney general or your legislature?” The state legislature had all the authority. He asked, “Why are you making it to me? “You might as well make your case to Queen Elizabeth II. Congress can’t do this. You’re wasting your time.”

“I’m dealing with a fucking lunatic,” Trump said in one meeting with Kellogg, referring to his engagement with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

After long talks with aides, Pence leaned into the idea that the election had problems, but he avoided the words “rigged” and “fraud.” It was his way of staying in Trump’s good graces without going full Giuliani.

“I hope Mike Pence comes through for us. I have to tell you,” Trump said. “He’s a great guy,” he added. “Of course, if he doesn’t come through, I won’t like him quite as much.” He slapped the side of the lectern as the crowd laughed.

“Well, what if these people say you do?” Trump asked, gesturing beyond the White House to the crowds outside. Raucous cheering and blasting bullhorns could be heard through the Oval Office windows. “If these people say you had the power, wouldn’t you want to?” Trump asked. “I wouldn’t want any one person to have that authority,” Pence said. “But wouldn’t it almost be cool to have that power?” Trump asked.

“No, no, no!” Trump shouted. “You don’t understand, Mike. You can do this. I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.”

Trump’s voice grew louder. You are weak. You lack courage. “You’ve betrayed us. I made you. You were nothing,” Trump said. “Your career is over if you do this.” Pence did not budge.