IT IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF US

This past week, Rachel Maddow covered the five forged documents from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Georgia and Arizona, in which people claiming they were duly-elected Presidential Electors cast their votes for Donald Trump. All of these documents are fraudulent and were returned by the National Archives to the respective state authorities for action. At this time, only Attorney General Nessel of Michigan has referred the matter to the Department of Justice.

George Conway asked an important question this week: why are not all of these people under arrest and indictment under the following law?

“18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2):

c)Whoever corruptly—

(1)alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or

(2)otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so,

shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”

These forgeries were not a side-show — they were an integral part of Trump’s attempt to overturn the election. And that plan was widely known in Republican circles before January 6, 2021.

On December 10, 2020, a group of prominent “movement” conservatives signed an open letter calling for swing states to “appoint clean slates of electors to the Electoral College to support President Trump.”

They wrote:

“There is no doubt President Donald J. Trump is the lawful winner of the presidential election. Joe Biden is not president-elect.

“Accordingly, state legislatures in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Michigan should exercise their plenary power under the Constitution and appoint clean slates of electors to the Electoral College to support President Trump. Similarly, both the House and Senate should accept only these clean Electoral College slates and object to and reject any competing slates in favor of Vice President Biden from these states.”

Here’s a partial list of the signatories:

Alfred S. Regnery: Chairman, Conservative Action Project (and, yes, publisher of “The Bridgebusters” - my bad)

Thomas Fitton: President, Judicial Watch

Tony Perkins: President, Family Research Council

L. Brent Bozell III: President, Media Research Center

Mary Vought: Senate Conservatives Fund

Jenny Beth Martin: Tea Party Patriots

Jim DeMint: former Senator, Heritage Foundation president

LGEN William Boykin: Executive VP, Family Research Council

David Bossie: President, Citizens United

Becky Norton Dunlop: Former White House advisor to President Reagan

David Bozell: President, For America

Rick Scarborough: President, Recover America Now

William Walton: President, Council for National Policy

Ed Corrigan: VP Conservative Action Project

Bob McEwen: Former Congressman from Ohio

Colin Hanna: President, Let Freedom Ring

Jim Backlin: Christian Coalition

Gary Bauer: President, American Values

This list is a significant number of the Who’s Who In Conservatism Inc. Most of them have a long history of far right work, and all of them fit Richard Hofstadter’s definition of the Pseudo-Conservative:

“The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition.”

A week after that letter was delivered, former White House “press spokesperson” Kayleigh McEnany talked about an “alternate slate of electors” that Congress would vote on, when it met on January 6. She said that in four states (at that time) an “alternative slate of electors” had voted on “what congress would decide.”

Around the same time, Jeffrey Clark and other Trumpists in the Department of Justice were drafting letters to states alleging election fraud.

While that was happening, John Eastman was writing a detailed memo laying out a scheme for overturning the election on January 6.

This was their plan for the coup d’etat:

Step 1: Eastman concocts plan for Vice President to declare that since there are two slates of electors for seven states, he is throwing those votes out. This leaves Trump with 232 electoral votes and Biden with 222.

Step 2: GOP operatives in those states create absolutely similar false documents signed by non-electors declaring they are the electors for that state and that they voted for Donald Trump.

Step 3: Dept of Justice sends letters to the legislatures of those states declaring there is “evidence of fraud” in the vote for president in each state.

Step 4: Big Lie is repeated in rallies in each state.

Step 6: Mob attacks capitol to delay vote certification.

Step 7: Pence declares Trump the winner of the “valid” electoral votes.

Let’s go back to George Conway’s question: How does this not constitute a criminal offense? And why on earth has the Department of Justice not launched an investigation into the fake/forged election certificates? So far, reporters have found that not one of the people mentioned in all of this have been contacted by the FBI, according to the individuals themselves.

And all this has continued, in full public view, for the past 12 months since the seditionist attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Last night in Arizona, thousands of people chanted for Donald Trump. They had braved the wind for hours (trust me, this part of the country is cold, for this part of the country, right now) and some waited all day to see him. When he finally appeared on stage, as that godawful Lee Greenwood piece of “music” played from the loudspeakers, the crowd roared as though Trump was still president. To too many of them, he is.

“I ran twice and we won twice. Bigger the second time. This crowd is a massive symbol of what took place, because people are hungry for the truth. They want their country back.”

While this event was advertised as his response to the anniversary of January 6 and the kickoff for his efforts to support Republicans in the midterm elections, what this really marked was the soft launch of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. “Make America great again again … again,” he joked. He didn’t lose in 2020, and he’ll work to elect Republicans who agree.

Arizona is now the place where the Big Lie thrives, despite the fact state lawmakers who spent the past year reviewing the ballots ultimately found zero evidence of mischief. But that didn’t matter- GOP politicians across Arizona have adopted Trump’s Big Lie and many were guests of honor.

The opening act was Kari Lake, the former TV-news reporter running to replace Governor Doug Ducey, who claims that “bag loads of ballots” were dumped in Arizona last year. After Trump brought her back on stage for a cameo, she called for the arrests of anyone involved in the “shady, shoddy election of 2020.”

Other “guests of honor” who spoke include secretary-of-state candidate Mark Finchem, who was at the Capitol last January 6 - he wears a cowboy hat and bolo tie despite being from Michigan (which is typical in Arizona). Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, and Debbie Lesko, the three Trump-loving members of Congress who voted against certifying Biden’s win in 2020 also spoke. ; Looney-Tunes Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward (proof you have to know the political affiliations of your medical professionals), who recently received a cease-and-desist notice from Dominion Voting Systems after accusing the company of changing 6,000 Trump votes to Biden votes.

Each echoed The Big Lie. This is Trump’s new litmus test: You endorse the lie; he endorses you.

If Lake and the other Big Lie proponents can win their primary races, they’ve got a good shot at becoming Arizona’s next generation of political leaders. And they’ll still owe Trump a debt of loyalty.

Like most demagogues, Trump can carry on forever. An hour or so into his speech, he called the storming of the Capitol an excuse for Democrats to arrest people and abuse them in jail. He mocked the police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt. He suggested the FBI planted people in the crowd outside the Capitol to incite the riot. “The real insurrection took place on Election Day, November 3.”

And the crowd cheered. This is now Conventional Reality in GOP World.

Trump has been saying this ever since November 3, 2020. Now that midterm season is fully under way, Trump will be hosting two rallies a month around the country, campaigning for any Republicans who will lie about the election in exchange for his support. Here I am, America, back after a stolen election, ready to win by any means possible.

By the end, Trump was having trouble pretending he wasn’t actively running for president. He previewed his lines of attack on Biden over Afghanistan, immigration, and inflation; recited a litany of policy changes that a Republican-controlled Congress would be able to make; and promised that “in 2024, we are going to take back the White House.” Sam and Dave’s “Hold on I’m Coming” played as he exited, and the song sounded like a promise.

Mark Finchem proclaimed: “In 2024, we will win Donald Trump’s THIRD electoral victory and we will Take Back Our country!” He got massive applause and cheers.

I’ve told this story before, I’ll tell it again: A departed friend who was in Germany during the rise of the Nazis began to see them as a threat in 1928. By 1932, his friends were calling him a “crank” on the subject, because they saw the Nazis as clowns. When Hitler won in January 1933, my friend took one-way passage on the Paris Express and didn’t return to Germany until 1945. “When I returned, all my friends who told me the Nazis were clowns, were dead. Killed by the clowns.”

These people are not clowns. This seditious conspiracy is on-going and is taking place Right. In. Front. Of. Us.

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