Memos Were Blueprint For Authoritarian Coup By Trump Carl Bernstein Warns
Legendary Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein said Sunday that a newly reported memo by another Donald Trump loyalist on how to overturn the presidential election was part of Trumpâs âblueprintâ for his planned âauthoritarian coup.â
âWhat we are seeing in these memos particularly are blueprints for a coup â" the actual blueprints in document form in which the president of the United States, through his chief of staff, is sending to Mike Penceâs ... staff a blueprint to overturn an election, a blueprint for a conspiracy led by a president of the United States to result in an authoritarian coup in which the election is stolen,â Bernstein told CNNâs Jim Acosta.
AdvertisementâOf course there was a conspiracy,â he added. It was a âconspiracy led by the president of the United States to overturn the duly elected president ... by thwarting the Electoral College process.â
Jenna Ellis, an attorney for Trumpâs failed reelection, outlined a strategy after his loss for Vice President Mike Pence to reject electoral votes so select states could amend their counts to ultimately serve Trump, according to the upcoming book âBetrayal,â by ABC News chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl.
A memo on Ellisâ plan was emailed to Penceâs top aide by then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Karl details in the book, ABC News reported.
It was one of other infamous âcoup memos,â including those written by right-wing attorney John Eastman, who also urged Pence to dump electoral votes for Joe Biden. Both Ellis and Eastman were subpoenaed last week by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.
AdvertisementBernstein said the nation still needs a detailed ânarrative of everything that Donald Trump did and said, especially on January 5th and 6th, to undermine the Constitution of the United Statesâ amid plans to âgo ahead with the coup that would have resulted in the most grievous undermining of our Constitution in the history of the United States.â
Trump, meanwhile, is desperately âengaged in a massive cover-up through executive privilege and other instruments to keep us from finding out what he did to do this illegal, unconstitutional, authoritarian act such as weâve never seen,â Bernstein said.
The danger, Bernstein warned, is that Republicans take back the House in midterm elections and shut down the investigation which could be the last chance to save free elections.
Trump relentlessly pressured Pence to toss out electoral votes to overturn the results. In an interview with Trump for his book, Karl repeated a report that he called Pence the morning of Jan. 6 to warn him that he âcould be a patriot or a pussyâ â" by failing to reject electoral votes. Trump did not dispute saying it, Karl reported.
AdvertisementTrump also told Karl he could understand why people were calling for Pence to be hanged. âItâs common sense ... people were angry,â he told Karl.
EXCLUSIVE: @jonkarlâs new book reveals former Pres. Trump pressured former Vice Pres. Pence the morning of Jan. 6, saying "you can be a patriot or you can be a *****."
"I wouldn't dispute it," Trump tells Karl about the reported crude phone call. https://t.co/VPMeG4Yu6D pic.twitter.com/owbREZqYiD
â" ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 14, 2021Eastman continued in emails on Jan. 6 to pressure Penceâs counsel Greg Jacob even as Jacob was huddled under guard with Pence as rioters surged through the Capitol calling for Penceâs âhangingâ because he refused to subvert Americansâ vote.
Jacob later wrote in an unpublished column obtained by The Washington Post that Eastman and Trumpâs former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani were part of a âcadre of outside lawyersâ who had âspun a web of lies and disinformationâ in an attempt to pressure Pence to âbetray his oath to uphold our laws and the Constitutionâ by rejecting electoral votes.
Check out Bernsteinâs interview in the video clip up top.
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