You Will Anyway: Trump's involvement in the seizure of voting machines scheme

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Trump's involvement in the seizure of voting machines scheme

The New York Times, citing three unidentified sources, reported that Trump ordered his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in December 2020 to ask if it could legally take possession of voting machines in crucial swing states.

Giuliani reportedly placed a call to Acting Deputy DHS Secretary Ken Cuccinelli to relay the president’s request. But, according to the Times, Cuccinelli told Giuliani that he did not have the power to examine or take possession of the voting machines.

The request came after Trump declined to use the Pentagon to seize the voting machines, an idea that was floated by his team of outside advisers, the Times reported.

The Hill

Come on. He didn't decline. Somebody told him he couldn't do that.

Trump also reportedly brought up potentially using the Department of Justice to take possession of voting machines. According to the Times, the president raised the prospect during a meeting with then-Attorney General Bill Barr in the Oval Office, a gathering that took place not long before Giuliani called Cuccinelli.

See what I mean? He was asking everybody to do it.

Last month, Politico reported on a draft executive order that sought to order the Defense secretary to take possession of voting machines, and appoint a special counsel to investigate the 2020 election.

And on Monday, CNN reported that advisers to Trump drafted another version of an executive order that would have directed DHS to seize voting machines.

Three sources told the Times that retired Army Col. Phil Waldron conceived the idea to order federal agencies, like the military or DHS, to seize voting machines. Waldron reportedly went to former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn with his idea.

Doesn't really matter who conceived the idea. Trump was the one pushing it.

Trump also tried to encourage state lawmakers in key battleground states — including Michigan and Pennsylvania — to uti.lize law enforcement agencies and seize voting machines, according to the Times. The state lawmakers, however, would not get on board with the effort.

He should have asked Erik Prince. (And for all I know, maybe he did.)

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

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GUILDENSTERN: What a fine persecution---to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.

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ROSENCRANTZ : The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute.

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GUILDENSTERN: But for God's sake what are we supposed to do?!

PLAYER: Relax. Respond. That's what people do. You can't go through life questioning your situation at every turn.

GUILDENSTERN: But we don't know what's going on, or what to do with ourselves. We don't know how to act.

PLAYER: Act natural. You know why you're here at least.

GUILDENSTERN: We only know what we're told, and that's little enough. And for all we know it isn't even true.

PLAYER: For all anyone knows, nothing is. Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It's the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions.

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GUILDENSTERN : We act on scraps of information... sifting half-remembered directions that we can hardly separate from instinct.

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PLAYER: Life is a gamble, at terrible odds-if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.