WASHINGTON | His justice minister, a slew of advisers, and even his own daughter…a House committee on Monday provided a disturbing timeline of how Donald Trump tried to hold on to power following his 2020 presidential defeat in claiming that the election had been “stolen” from him, despite repeated denials from his closest supporters.
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“Even before the election, Mr. Trump had decided that, regardless of the facts and the truth, if he lost the election, he would claim that it was rigged,” said Zoe Lofgren, elected Democrat member of this group seeking to shed light on the responsibility of the Republican billionaire in the attack on the United States Congress by his supporters, January 6, 2021.
After nearly a year of investigation, the commission on Monday delivered a painstaking account of the former president’s maneuvers between presidential election night and the assault on Capitol Hill.
- Listen to Luc Laliberté’s column at the microphone of Geneviève Pettersen on QUB radio:
Giuliani ‘intoxicated’
A few hours following the polls closed on November 3, 2020, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are neck and neck. “It was becoming clear that the election would not be decided that night,” said Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter and at the time one of his closest advisers, in testimony released Monday by the commission. .
However, shortly before 2:30 a.m., Donald Trump appears in front of American television from the living rooms of the White House. “Honestly, we won the election,” he says, despite the current count.
“It was far too early to make this kind of decision,” said Bill Stepien, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, before this group of elected officials.
One of the only ones to encourage the president in his approach that evening? His personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who according to one of the president’s advisers testifying before the commission, was “clearly intoxicated”.
Donald Trump ‘angry’
On November 7, 2020, just before 11:30 a.m., Joe Biden was declared the winner. That same day, Donald Trump’s campaign manager attended a meeting with the outgoing president. “We told him what we thought was his chance of victory at this stage (….) that there was maybe a 5 or 10% chance”, details Bill Stepien.
The president “was more and more angry”, says Mr. Stepien. The leader decides to change his teams to surround himself with people who support him in his crusade.
On November 19, this new legal team held a most confusing press conference. Sidney Powell, one of Donald Trump’s lawyers, accuses Venezuela, Cuba and the Democrats of having hatched an electoral plot.
At his side, Rudy Giuliani, denounces “a scandalous iron curtain of censorship”. Under the heat of the spotlights, a brown liquid, hair dye, begins to drip down her temples.
“Nonsense”
Four days later, Attorney General Bill Barr visits the White House. “It was a bit embarrassing,” says the minister in a video broadcast Monday by the commission.
On several occasions, he said, the two men together examined the alleged election fraud advanced by Donald Trump. “Nonsense”, according to the Minister of Justice.
“It demoralized me, because I said to myself” it’s crazy, if he really believes all this, it is that he is really detached from reality “”, assured Bill Barr, who will resign the December 14.
In the month that will follow, Donald Trump and his entourage will continue to convey “these lies” regarding electoral fraud to collect donations, argued the commission. Flooding her supporters with dozens of emails a day, her campaign team is raising $250 million between Election Day and Jan. 6, 2021, she revealed.
“The big lie was also a big scam,” lambasted Zoe Lofgren, known for having worked on the impeachment before Congress of three presidents: Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton … and Donald Trump.
During four hearings over the next few days, the so-called “January 6” commission will continue to present its conclusions on its year of investigation, placing the former tenant of the White House at the heart “of an attempted coup. “.
The main interested party Donald Trump once once more denounced the work of this commission on Monday, calling it a “witch hunt”, which according to him “shames America”.
