“In the days and weeks after Election Day on November 3, the President was deserted by his aides and staff. The legal establishment, at least anyone in it with a promising career, abandoned him. His hapless band of co-conspirators are too lazy or too drunk or cynical to develop a credible strategy or execute one. It was a a shit show–ludicrous, inexplicable, cringeworthy, nuts, event for the people who felt most loyal to him. The election challenge never had a chance of success.” (p. xiv)
“[Sidney Powell] had been telling Giuliani and the team that the conspiracy ran even deeper: Trump’s landslide victory was upended by an international plot. Former Venezuelan present Hugo Chavez (dead since 2013), George Soros, the Clinton Foundation, and the Chinese had masterminded the plot to steal the election from [Trump]. Oh, and the voting software routed the realists through Germany, exposing the tabulation to nefarious elements there!” (p. 114)
“On Saturday, November 21, two days after Giuliani’s hair dye meltdown at the RNC press conference, U. S. Court District judge Matthew Brann, in Pennsylvania, denied the Trump effort to have millions of mail-in ballots thrown out because of small inconsistencies, from county to country, in the filing process. …[Judge Brann wrote] the claim, ‘like Frankenstein’s monster, has been haphazardly stitched together.'” (p. 124)
With Trump traipsing around the country praising Putin–“A genius!”–and positioning himself for a run for President in 2024, I thought it was instructive to read Michael Wolff’s Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency to revisit those dark days that culminated in the Attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The desperate efforts to overturn the Election, the failure to concede to Biden, the launching of the Big Lie (the Election was stolen!) strategy, and total lack of interest in the Pandemic punctuated the Lame Duck period until Biden’s Inauguration.
With the Russian-Ukraine War raging, historically high gas prices, Inflation out of control, and Republican states targeting LGBTQ students (“Don’t Say Gay!), things look bleak. Where do you think we’re headed? GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction xiii
Prologue: The Trial 1
1 Death Star 9
2 Election Night 43
3 New Votes 64
4 Rudy 92
5 What’s Black Is White 121
6 Where Now? 143
7 The Endgame 163
8 The Day Before 189
9 Morning, January 6 213
10 The Remainder Of The Day, January 6 229
11 Deplatformed 251
12 Redux 272
Epilogue: The Road To Mar-A-Lago 291
Acknowledgments 311
Don’t know about Gas Prices in your neck of the woods, but Gas prices here ($4/Gal) were higher (Near $5/Gal) during the 2nd Bush administration.
Dan, I just filled up at a Sam’s Club at $4.09, but most gas stations here are at $4.49. And, going up.
As usual, Republicans learned exactly the wrong lessons from the 2020 election cycle and the January 6 insurrection. Not enough votes for the GOP? Forget changing their policies or trying to appeal to a broader demographic, just make it impossible for minorities to vote. Can’t get election workers to admit there was fraud? Don’t accept the fact that there was no fraud, just threaten and intimidate poll workers until they quit or give you the answers you want. January 6 insurrection unsuccessful? Don’t have the slightest doubt that storming the Capitol was a great plan, just gin-up your gun-totin’ followers for a more massive attack next time. The 2022 election cycle is going to be bad enough, but 2024 (especially if Trump runs again) may be a tipping point for our Democracy.
Deb, Trump will run in 2024. The Republicans look to take back the Senate and House in the 2022 elections. The Dems are in Big Trouble.
I feel like we are marching lockstep toward a cliff. Very little chance democracy will survive it in the US.
Patti, I agree. Things look bad for Democracy.
My burning question is : Who is going to play Trump in the movie? My vote goes to a steaming road apple covered in Cheeto dust.
Jerry, with CGI technology, Trump could play Trump!
And less than two years ago 80 million people voted for this Fascist piece of shit. At least two states, Texas and Florida, already have fascist administrations, and there will likely be more after this year’s elections. The Republicans will almost certainly take the House this year, but I think it’s just barely possible that the Democrats will keep the Senate. I still think it’s possible Trump won’t run, or won’t win if he does, but it’s certainly possible that a Trump clone could do it. I’m trying to have a teeny bit of optimism, but it’s not easy.
Michael, I agree with your analysis. But the Dems have a tough fight in holding on to the Senate.
Where are we headed? Down the crapper. Every time Jackie hears Biden (or a commentator on the news) say, “That’s not who we are,” she says, “Yes, it is!” Not us, perhaps, but too many people are exactly that – stupid, ignorant, deluded morons who believe any crap they hear or see. But the whole “not trusting vaccines” thing should have told us that. Jackie asked how many people voted for Trump in the last election, and when I checked I found he had lost by SEVEN MILLION VOTES. So, not exactly stolen by corrupt voting machines.
As Bill Crider would have said, we’re doomed!
Jeff, things look dire in the months ahead. Although our Covid-19 rate is 2%, Diane and I will continue to wear our N95 masks. Over 1400 people die each day in the U.S. from Covid, but no one seems to notice–or care!
Glad I’m at the end of my life and not the beginning.
Bev DeWeese always reminds me that everything is cyclical but I don’t see this ending well.
Beth, I would love for the cycle to return to Sanity. I’ve had enough of weirdness and fake conspiracies!
The Democrats in their current psychological fugue state have already ceded the battles of 2022 and 2024. If anyone doubts, just replay Biden’s mind-numbingly desperate call to “fund the police” in the SotU address, and his ongoing insistence that rising gas prices in the U.S. are Putin’s fault even as the oil companies continue to enjoy obscene levels of profit.
Fred, I confess I’m one of the recipients of those obscene levels of profit from my oil stocks. But, I turn around the money and donate it to worthy causes. Not a perfect solution, but it lets me sleep at night.
What, you voted for Biden and are now complaining that everything’s a mess?
Bob, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Inflation, and gas prices have little to do with Biden.