On December 19, 2020, Donald Trump released twenty-one tweets. A banal production, according to his standards. One of them made history, sent at 1:42 a.m. The outgoing president repeated there that he was “statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 election”. He added: “large demonstration in Washington on January 6 [2021]. Be there, it will be crazy! »
White-hot for two months, Trump supporters enthusiastically welcomed the invitation. Grassroots activists, conspiracy sites and especially far-right militias, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers: all ticked the date in the calendar. A tweet as a green light to prevent the peaceful transition of power on the day of the planned certification of the presidential election in Congress.
Tuesday July 12, during its 7e public hearing, the commission of inquiry of the House of Representatives looked into the preparations for this meeting. The courts had dismissed 60 of the 61 complaints filed by Trump’s team about imaginary fraud. Many White House advisers, including Ivanka Trump and the legal team, believed the incumbent president should concede defeat. ” Say that [la preuve des fraudes] was thin is probably an understatement,” explained to the commission Jason Miller, adviser to the president.
However, a few hours before the famous tweet, a stormy meeting – “crazy”, according to a witness – took place in the Oval office, on the evening of December 18, 2020. It lasted six hours and was animated by screams, insults and even physical threats, before ending upstairs, in the residence. Echoes could be heard in the corridors.
The unexpected guests were Rudy Giuliani, lawyer to the president, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, conspiracy lawyer Sidney Powell, as well as Patrick Byrne, ex-boss of Overstock.com, all very involved in the campaign. denunciation of the election won by Joe Biden. This small group of outside, informal advisers were there to feed Donald Trump’s basest instincts. They had in hand a draft presidential decree, written two days earlier. It provided for the seizure by the army of voting machines in the contested states.
No decree, but a tweet
Informed of these visitors, the legal adviser of the White House, Pat Cipollone, arrived in disaster, accompanied by his colleague Eric Herschmann. He discovered with amazement the small assembly. “I didn’t understand how they got in. » Advisers from outside, without limits or morals, against advisers from inside, still distinguishing in the Trumpian night the principles of the rule of law: thus began the tussle.
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