From The Guardian: Capitol attack panel obtains PowerPoint that set out plan for Trump to stage coup
Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows turned over to the House select committee investigating the 6 January Capitol attack a PowerPoint recommending Donald Trump to declare a national security emergency in order to return himself to the presidency.
The fact that Meadows was in possession of a PowerPoint the day before the Capitol attack that detailed ways to stage a coup suggests he was at least aware of efforts by Trump and his allies to stop Joe Biden’s certification from taking place on 6 January.
The PowerPoint, titled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 Jan”, made several recommendations for Trump to pursue in order to retain the presidency for a second term on the basis of lies and debunked conspiracies about widespread election fraud.
Meadows turned over a version of the PowerPoint presentation that he received in an email and spanned 38 pages, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Further reading and commentary:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/10/politics/hugh-hewitt-donald-trump-interview/index.html
(CNN)In an interview with Donald Trump earlier this week, conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt said something truly breathtaking.
“You know, Mr. President, you and I disagree about the election, but we agree on so much,” Hewitt told Trump, segueing into a conversation about China’s hypersonic missiles.
Talk about an other-than-that-how-was-the-play-Mrs. Lincoln moment!
That Hewitt uttered that line without irony is a telling window into how conservatives have found ways to rationalize Trump and his fundamentally anti-democratic attempts to undermine the faith of the American public in the 2020 election results.
Here’s the reality: You can’t just sort of yada yada the election rejection embraced by Trump. Because in refusing to accept the result of the 2020 election and repeatedly (and falsely) alleging voter fraud, Trump is actively working against everything that makes America, well, America.Report
I am somewhat cautious about this power point presentation, particularly in the case of published slides that allegedly come from it. I do not want this to turn into another Steel dossier.
Nevertheless, I fully endorse the notion that Trump is actively working in a way that makes him an enemy of America.Report
There are now two confirmed copies in the public sphere, with their attached meta data. That’s not impossible to forge mind you, but it would take a lot more work then these folks think they need to put in here. That Meadows turned it over without any hint of duress tells me he thinks its fine.Report
Do you have links? Google and Duck Duck Go failed me in an attempt to review the actual ppt.
In light of everything above and… well, everything… I’m generally suspicious when I see narrative running before evidence.
There’s a non-zero chance that the ppt outlines the 12th amendment and how it’s plugging holes from the 1800 election and those holes now have some holes.
When it comes to voting reform (which I’m favor of) I’m not generally in favor of reforms which require Constitutional Amendments (mostly for practical reasons, and because most of our electoral issues can be addressed with simple legislation)… that said, we have some vestigial tails in and around the States and Congress as electors for the Executive that probably need cleaning up.
Politically, I’d avoid pushing for some sort of national plebescite, but that doesn’t mean that the actual electoral process between states and congress can’t be cleaned up — ideally by statute.
I’d also be interested if any fellow OT folks who bothered to dissect the abandoned(?) Dem plan for Voting reform had a sane take on addressing the 12th? My recollection is that it did not… but I’ll admit to only cursory bullet point level surveys.Report
Start here:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/jan-6-powerpoint-what-we-know-what-we-don-t-n1285910
Fox News personality Lara Logan tweeted a link to the slide deck on Jan. 5.
So whoever sees Lara Logan’s tweets was able to see the Powerpoint deck.Report
Thanks… that was a ‘three clicker’ to get to this link
https://www.mediafire.com/file/g79xlbwbubqzm5b/Congressional_Election_Fraud_Briefing_4JAN2021_v20Diseminationpptx.pdf/file
But I’m not brave enough to voluntarily surrender my machine to the bitcoin borg… if someone else would like to download and share? 🙂
What I find interesting is the the reporting in the 1st link talks about the .ppt in the ‘third person’ as if it is this thing that isn’t knowable… but then there’s a link to the link and I have to ask… how do you as a New Journalist (TM) not click the clicks and screen cap the material?
Getting a Maddow/Trump’s IRS filings feel about this. I’m sure there’s a .ppt but the thing about smoking guns is the smoke and the guns, not other people’s speculation about it.Report
Which part of this story do you doubt?
That the PowerPoint exists?
That it outlines how to overthrow the election?
That people outside the President’s circle knew of it?
That Lara Logan tweeted it?Report
I’d like to validate that it is what the narrative people are pushing that “it outlines how to overthrow the election” vs. outlines how the certification process works a’la the 12th amendment and what happens if slates of delegates are contested… and what it means to contest a slate… and whether these slates might be, should be, or ought to be contested.
I’m just a simple sales guy… when I have a smoking gun ROI I shut up and let the customer read the ROI. When I’m selling soft benefits my throat gets dry from all the talking.Report
What no one is contesting, is that the Trump Administration was searching for ways in which they could invalidate the results of a free and fair election.
They knew the election was free and fair.
They just didn’t want to accept it.
This is a simple fact.Report
I’ve posted quotes from it below. You can probably download and read for yourself if you for to the Logan Tweet.Report
It’s not that in approximately 20 years we went from Stringer(“…notes on a criminal f’n conspiracy” Bell to mega idiot/traitor Meadows doing a frickin Powerpoint on a conspiracy. That’s bad enough. But the conservo half will ignore and defend this. If we actually had the liberal media C’s thought we did this Powerpoint would be front and center from today until after election day in 24. But we don’t have that. What we have is 25 pounds of anti democracy, anti election BS in a 10 pound bag dressed up in pretty and business like words to sooth the suckers.Report
This is why i keep talking about how normal life under authoritarianism is.
There aren’t ever any jackbooted armies marching down the street.
If you go to Hong Kong today you will see life as normal- People going to work, lovers strolling through the park, the tee vee filled with sitcoms and game shows.
The news item about the Powerpoint isn’t actually new- Lara Logan supposedly tweeted it on the day of the attempted coup.
But as Orwell stated, the point of authoritarianism is to ignore everything you see and keep your head down and continue walking.Report
An authoritarianism so normal we don’t know we’re living under it.Report
Yes.
Its only ever the other people, the ones that we don’t talk about who feel the iron fist in the shadows where no one can hear them.Report
Yeah but Stringer Bell was a drug dealer, not an insurrectionist – the difference is that drug dealers actually have to worry about suffering consequences for their actions.Report
“the conservo half will ignore and defend this.”
this is the part where you actually go find someone doing that, sirReport
That would be the 80% or more of the Republican Party who will joyfully reward the coup plotters with another term.
Their accomplices are the self proclaimed moderates telling everyone to calm down and stop talking about it and anyway the Democrats are worse.
Present company excluded, I hope.Report
Well lets’ start here:
Or this from Mitch McConnell in May:
Or this from Forbes in May:
Or this:
I could keep going, but I suspect you don’t actually care.Report
None of those is a defense, but I suspect you don’t actually care.Report
Meadows Jan. 5 email indicated Guard on standby to ‘protect pro Trump people,’ investigators say
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/12/meadows-jan-6-national-guard-trump-524133
Maybe they were hoping for counterprotesters, so as to have a Riechstag fire event which would justify a national security declaration.
But in any event, the fact that the entire affair was planned and participated in by Trumpists leaves them without any fig leaf.Report
I downloaded it through the Lara Logan Twitter. Its a legit PDF of a ppt. And its chock full of lies and misdirections about the Chinese, Venezuelans, and Dominion voting systems machines.
Slide 23 is pretty straight forward:
Two slides later:
Then Slide 31:
Next slide:
and the end:
Now, this COULD be a massive misdirection. A gigantic “Own the Libs” play. But if Logan had this 5 January then so did others. And given that its built on demonstrable lies, the conclusion that it was something resembling a coup plan – given its admitted origins – is hard to ignore.Report
and here’s an amusing anecdote – given the number of republicans who were elected below Biden they would really have had a tough time tossing mail in ballots and maintaining their hold on lots of offices.Report