Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election
| Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election | |
|---|---|
  The electoral map for the 2020 election. Blue denotes the 306 electoral votes for Biden, while Red denotes the 232 electoral votes for Trump. | |
| Date | November 4, 2020[1] – January 7, 2021[2] (2 months and 3 days) |
| Location | Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and Washington, D.C. |
| Caused by | Fabricated claims of electoral fraud[3][4][5] |
| Resulted in | Failure to overturn election; Joe Biden inaugurated January 20, 2021 |
 2020 U.S. presidential election | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Attempts to overturn | |
| Democratic Party | |
|
|
| Republican Party | |
|
|
| Third parties | |
|
|
| Related races | |
| |
| 2021 United States Capitol attack |
|---|
 |
| Timeline of events |
| Background |
| Participants |
| Aftermath |
After the 2020 United States presidential election in which Joe Biden prevailed,[6] then-incumbent Donald Trump, as well as his campaign, his proxies, and many of his supporters, pursued an aggressive and unprecedented[7] effort to deny and overturn the election.[8][9][10] The attempts to overturn the election were widely described as an attempted coup d'état[11] and an implementation of "the big lie".[12] Trump and his allies promoted numerous false claims and conspiracy theories that the election was stolen, such as an international communist conspiracy, rigged voting machines, and electoral fraud.[13][19] On November 10, Trump fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.[20]
Allegations of election fraud were dismissed by numerous state and federal judges, election officials, governors, and government agencies as completely baseless.[21][22][23] Multiple congressional Republicans, as well as governors and other elected officials, refused to acknowledge Biden's victory.[24] Some acknowledged Biden's victory after the certification of the Electoral College vote, while others continued their refusal.[25][26] Emily Murphy, the administrator of the General Services Administration, delayed initiating the presidential transition, but allowed it to proceed twenty days after the election, and sixteen days after most media outlets had projected Biden to be the winner.[27][28]
Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Chris Krebs, stated there was no evidence that election systems had been compromised, calling the election "the most secure in American history," leading Trump to fire him days later. Responding to baseless claims of foreign outsourcing of vote counting, Krebs affirmed that all votes were counted in the United States.[29] US Attorney General William Barr stated on December 1 that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents had investigated complaints and allegations of fraud, and found no evidence of fraud at a large enough scale to influence the outcome of the election.[22][30][31][32] Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said no evidence had been found of foreign interference with voting tallies.[33] Trump's attempts to overturn the election cost taxpayers $519 million according to an analysis by The Washington Post, including $488 million in security fees during and after the 2021 United States Capitol attack and $2.2 million in legal fees.[34]
The Trump campaign and allies filed at least 63 lawsuits during and after Election Day,[35][36][37] none of which were successful.[36][38] He and his allies encouraged officials in states with close results, particularly those which Biden won, to throw out legally-cast ballots and challenge vote certification processes.[39][40] Trump pressured the Georgia secretary of state to "find" the 11,780 votes needed to secure his victory in the state in an early January 2021 phone call,[41] and repeatedly urged Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to convene a special session of the legislature to overturn Biden's certified victory in the state; Trump made a similar plea to the Pennsylvania Speaker of the House after Biden's victory had been certified in that state.[10][42][43][44] Trump also pressured the Justice Department to challenge the election results and publicly state the election was corrupt.[45][46][47] Before and after the election, Trump stated his expectation that the Supreme Court would determine the outcome, and after the election his legal team sought a path to bring a case before the Court, where conservative justices held a 6-3 majority, with three of the justices having been appointed by Trump.[48][49] Former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn, who was pardoned shortly after the election, called on the president to suspend the Constitution, silence the press, and hold a new election under military supervision.[50] Trump attorney Joseph diGenova called for Krebs to be executed.[51][52][53] During Trump's second impeachment trial, five lawyers who represented Trump resigned after claiming Trump coerced them to repeat false claims of voter fraud.[54]
On December 10, 2020, after several successive lawsuits had been dismissed, Trump tweeted, "This is going to escalate dramatically. This is a very dangerous moment in our history...The fact that our country is being stolen. A coup is taking place in front of our eyes, and the public can't take this anymore."[55] The next day, the Supreme Court declined to hear Texas v. Pennsylvania, a case hailed by Trump as "the big one" and supported by numerous Republicans,[56] which sought to overturn the results in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, and Wisconsin, all swing states won by Biden.[57] After the failure of Texas, Trump reportedly considered additional options, including military intervention, seizing voting machines and another appeal to the Supreme Court, as well as challenging the congressional counting of the electoral votes on January 6, 2021.[58][59] By December 30, multiple Republican members of the House and Senate indicated their intent to object to the congressional certification of Electoral College results in order to force both chambers to debate and vote on whether to accept the results.[60][61][62] Mike Pence, who as vice president would preside over the proceedings, signaled his endorsement of the effort, stating on January 4, "I promise you, come this Wednesday, we will have our day in Congress." Trump and some supporters promoted a false "Pence card" theory that the Vice President has the authority to reject certified results.[63][64][65]
As Congress convened to certify the results, Trump held a rally on The Ellipse. He then encouraged his supporters to march to the Capitol building, which they attacked. Five people died either shortly before, during, or shortly after the attack: one was shot by Capitol Police, one died of a drug overdose, and three succumbed to natural causes. Over 100 police officers were injured.[66]
One week later, Trump was impeached a second time for incitement of insurrection, but was acquitted by the Senate. He did not attend Biden's inauguration. As of August 2021, he still continues to insist that he won the election.
Background
Past accusations of electoral fraud
Trump has a history of claims of electoral fraud, including for elections in which he did not run. In the aftermath of the 2012 presidential election, in which incumbent president Barack Obama won re-election against Mitt Romney, Trump tweeted that "The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy", that the election was a "total sham", and that the United States was "not a democracy". During the 2016 Republican primaries, after Trump lost to Ted Cruz in the Iowa Republican caucus, Trump claimed that Cruz perpetrated "fraud" and "stole" the Iowa caucuses. Trump called for a repeat of the Iowa caucuses, or for Cruz's win to be declared void.[67]
Uncertainty over Trump accepting an electoral loss in 2016
During the campaign, Trump repeatedly suggested that the election was "rigged" against him, and in the final debate he cast doubt on whether he would accept the results of the election should he lose, saying "I'll keep you in suspense".[68] His comment touched off a media and political uproar in which he was accused of "threatening to upend a fundamental pillar of American democracy" and "rais(ing) the prospect that millions of his supporters may not accept the results on November 8 if he loses".[69] Rick Hasen of University of California, Irvine School of Law, an election-law expert, described Trump's comments as "appalling and unprecedented" and feared there could be "violence in the streets from his supporters if Trump loses."[70] The next day Trump said, "Of course, I would accept a clear election result, but I would also reserve my right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result." He also stated that he would "totally" accept the election results "if I win."[71]
Trump eventually won the election but lost the popular vote. He went on to claim, without evidence, that he had won the popular vote "if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."[72]
Uncertainty over Trump accepting an electoral loss in 2020
During the campaign, Trump indicated in Twitter posts, interviews and speeches that he might refuse to recognize the outcome of the election if he were defeated; Trump falsely suggested that the election would be rigged against him.[73][74][75] In July 2020, Trump declined to state whether he would accept the results, telling Fox News anchor Chris Wallace that "I have to see. No, I'm not going to just say yes. I'm not going to say no."[76][77][78] Trump repeatedly claimed that "the only way" he could lose would be if the election was "rigged" and repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power after the election.[79][80] Trump also attacked mail-in voting throughout the campaign, falsely claiming that the practice contained high rates of fraud.[81][82][83] At one point, Trump said: "We'll see what happens...Get rid of the ballots and you'll have a very peaceful – there won't be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation."[84] Trump's statements have been described as a threat "to upend the constitutional order".[85] In September 2020, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, a Trump appointee, testified under oath that the FBI has "not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it's by mail or otherwise."[86]
A number of congressional Republicans insisted that they were committed to an orderly and peaceful transition of power, but they declined to criticize Trump for his comments.[87] On September 24, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution affirming the Senate's commitment to a peaceful transfer of power.[88] Trump also stated that he expected the Supreme Court to decide the election and that he wanted a conservative majority in the event of an election dispute, reiterating his commitment to quickly install a ninth justice following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.[89] But concerns were also raised about Republican acceptance of the election result. For example, on October 8 Republican Senator Mike Lee tweeted "We're not a democracy" and "Democracy isn't the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity (sic) are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that."[90]
Refusal to accept 2020 electoral loss
After a consensus of major news organizations declared Biden the President-elect on November 7,[92] Trump refused to accept his loss, declaring "this election is far from over" and alleging election fraud without providing evidence.[93] He indicated that he would continue legal challenges in key states,[93] but most of the challenges were dismissed by the courts.[94][95][96] His legal team, led by Rudy Giuliani, made numerous false and unsubstantiated assertions revolving around an international communist conspiracy, rigged voting machines and polling place fraud to claim that the election had been stolen from Trump.[14][16][17][18][97] (For this, a New York court eventually suspended Giuliani's law license.)[98] Trump blocked government officials from cooperating in the presidential transition to Joe Biden.[99] Attorney General William Barr authorized the Justice Department to initiate investigations "if there are clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual State."[100]
In the months between the election and Inauguration Day (January 20), Trump engaged in multiple efforts to overturn the results. He filed numerous lawsuits; urged local and state authorities to overturn the results in their jurisdiction; pressed the Justice Department to verify unsupported claims of election fraud; and worked with congressional allies to get the results overturned in Congress on January 6.[30]
Since leaving office, Trump has continued to insist that he really won the 2020 election. He reportedly hates the term "former president", and his official statements refer to him as "the 45th President" or simply as "45" – as in his new website, www.45office.com.[101] During his public speeches he reiterates his claims that he lost only because of massive election fraud, saying "This was the scam of the century and this was the crime of the century"[102] and "We won the election twice [2016 and 2020] and it's possible we'll have to win it a third time [2024]. It's possible."[103]
Stop the Steal
Stop the Steal is a far-right and conservative campaign and protest movement in the United States promoting the conspiracy theory[104] that falsely[105] posits that widespread electoral fraud occurred during the 2020 presidential election to deny incumbent President Donald Trump victory over former vice president Joe Biden. Trump and his supporters have asserted, without evidence,[106][107] that he is the winner of the election, and that large-scale voter and vote counting fraud took place in several swing states.[107] The Associated Press, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Decision Desk HQ, NBC News, The New York Times, and Fox News projected Biden as the president-elect, having surpassed the 270 Electoral College votes needed to claim victory.[6][108] A New York Times survey of state election officials found no evidence of significant voting fraud, nor did the Justice Department, and dozens of lawsuits filed by Trump and his proxies to challenge voting results in several states were met with failure.[22][49][109][110]
"Stop the Steal" was created by Republican political operative Roger Stone in 2016,[111] in anticipation of potential future election losses that could be repainted as if stolen by alleged fraud. A Facebook group with that name was created during the 2020 counting of votes by pro-Trump group "Women for America First" co-founder and Tea Party movement activist Amy Kremer.[112] Facebook removed the group on November 5, describing it as "organized around the delegitimization of the election process".[112][113] It was reported to have been adding 1,000 new members every 10 seconds[114] with 360,000 followers before Facebook shut it down.[115][116]
On January 11, 2021, Facebook announced that it would remove content containing the phrase "stop the steal" from Facebook and Instagram.[117] On January 12, Twitter announced that it had suspended 70,000 accounts that it said "share harmful QAnon-associated content at scale".[118] All subsequent "Stop the Steal" groups have since been removed by Facebook moderators over their discussions of extreme violence, incitement to violence and other threats, all of which are violations of Facebook's community standards.[119][120][121]
Several "Stop the Steal" groups were founded by right-wing extremists[107] after Trump published tweets on Twitter encouraging his supporters to "Stop the Count".[122] Many unorganized "Stop the Steal" groups protested in various U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C.;[123] Detroit, Michigan;[124] Lansing, Michigan;[125] Las Vegas, Nevada;[126][127] Madison, Wisconsin;[128] Atlanta, Georgia;[129] and Columbus, Ohio.[130] Several of these protests included members of extremist groups such as Three Percenters, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, which CNN reported was an illustration, to those who track such groups, of "the thinning of a line between the mainstream right and far-right extremists."[131]
In Michigan on December 7, 2020, "Stop the Steal" protestors gathered outside the private home of Michigan's Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to shout obscenities and chant threatening speech into bullhorns. President-elect Joe Biden's Michigan win by 154,000 votes had been officially certified by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers in November.[132]
On December 12, 2020, post-election protests were held in Washington, D.C., in which at least nine people were transported from the protest by DC Fire and EMS workers for treatment in hospital. Among the injured were four people who suffered stab wounds and were said to be in critical condition. Two police officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries, and two other people suffered minor injuries. An additional 33 people were arrested, including one arrested for assault with a dangerous weapon. Earlier in the day large groups of protesters and counter-protestors assembled outside the Supreme Court and Freedom Plaza. Although small fights broke out periodically, in general the protests were mostly peaceful. Most participants did not wear masks, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.[133]
On April 7, 2021, the U.S. District Court of Minnesota charged self-proclaimed Boogaloo Bois member Michael Paul Dahlager, a 27-year old from St. Cloud, Minnesota, with illegal possession of a machine gun. Dahlager had travelled to the Minnesota State Capitol in Saint Paul for a December 12, 2020, "Stop the Steal" rally where he scouted law enforcement positions and numbers. Dahlager had discussed with confidential informants his willingness to kill law enforcement members and incite violent uprisings against the government.[134][135] Dahlager had allegedly planned to carry out an attack in early 2021 of the state's capitol building, but abandoned it after he believed that informants were among his inner circle. Dahlager pleaded guilty to federal weapons charges in July 2021.[136]
By March 2021, organizations linked to the Stop the Steal movement, including the Proud Boys and the boogaloo movement, had largely shifted their efforts to spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines as a way of undermining government credibility.[137][138]
Conspiracy theories
Multiple conspiracy theories were promoted, such as the claim that billionaire liberal donor George Soros "stole the election".[139] Italygate is a pro-Trump, QAnon-adjacent[140][141] conspiracy theory originating from a fake news website. It alleges that the election was rigged in Biden's favor by the U.S. Embassy in Rome, using satellites and military technology to remotely switch votes from Trump to Biden. There is no evidence to support this.[140][142] The Italygate allegation was sent to the White House in late December and was proclaimed publicly on January 6, 2021, the day the U.S. Capitol building came under siege from Trump supporters.[140] The New York Times later revealed that, during Trump's last weeks in office, his chief of staff Mark Meadows tried to get the Department of Justice to investigate these claims.[143]
These conspiracy theories had multiple origins. They were promoted by Trump and other individuals, and were heavily pushed and expanded on by far-right news organizations such as One America News Network (OANN), Newsmax, and The Gateway Pundit, as well as by Sean Hannity and some other Fox News commentators.[144][145] Attempts by Facebook and other mainstream social networks to restrict groups that spread false election claims led to a surge in the popularity of Parler, a right-leaning alternative social networking site that has attracted supporters of Stop the Steal.[146][147] Parler subsequently went offline after Amazon Web Services withdrew support for the app.[148]
As of June 2021, Trump has continued to echo the conspiracy theory that the election was "stolen"; particularly focusing on the efforts of Arizona Senate Republicans to audit the results of the election in Maricopa County and on a lawsuit disputing the results of the election in Georgia. The efforts of Arizona Republicans to audit the results have drawn the attention and support of some Republican politicians, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, and the former president. Trump has reportedly told associates he could be "reinstated" as president by August 2021; however, there is no constitutional mechanism to reinstate a president after the results of an election have been certified by Congress.[149][150]
November
Post-election firings
After vote counts showed a Biden victory, Trump engaged in what has been called a "post-election purge", firing or forcing out at least a dozen officials and replacing them with loyalists.[151] Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was fired by tweet on November 9.[152] Undersecretary for Defense Joseph D. Kernan and Acting Undersecretary for Policy James H. Anderson resigned in protest or were forced out.[151] The White House sought to learn the names of political appointees who had applauded Anderson upon his departure, so they could be fired.[153] The DOD chief of staff, Jen Stewart, was replaced by a former staffer to Representative Devin Nunes.[151] On November 30, Christopher P. Maier, the head of the Pentagon's Defeat ISIS Task Force, was ousted and the task force was disbanded; a White House official told him that the United States had won the war against the Islamic State, so the task force was no longer needed.[154]
Trump's allegations of election fraud in battleground states were refuted by judges, state election officials, and his own administration's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).[94] After CISA director Chris Krebs contradicted Trump's voting-fraud allegations, Trump fired him on November 17.[155][156] Two other Department of Homeland Security officials – Bryan Ware, CISA's assistant director, and Valerie Boyd, the DHS's assistant secretary of international affairs – were also forced out.[151]
Bonnie Glick, the deputy administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, was abruptly fired on November 6; she had prepared a transition manual for the next administration. She was due to become acting administrator of the department on November 7. Firing her left the position of acting administrator vacant, so that Trump loyalist John Barsa could become acting deputy administrator.[157][158]
Career climate scientist , who for the past five years has produced the annual National Climate Assessment issued by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was demoted on November 9 and returned to his previous position at the Department of Energy. Several media outlets reported that David Legates, a deputy assistant secretary at NOAA who claims that global warming is harmless, would be appointed to oversee the congressionally mandated report in place of Kuperberg, based on information obtained from "people close to the Administration", including Myron Ebell, the head of President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency transition team and director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.[159] As of May 18, 2021, the Biden administration reappointed Kuperberg as executive director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program.[160]
On November 5, Neil Chatterjee was removed from his post as chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; he remains a member of the commission.[151]
On November 11, Lisa Gordon-Hagerty resigned from her posts as Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security and administrator of the quasi-independent National Nuclear Security Administration, reportedly due to longstanding tensions and disagreements with Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.[161]
In October 2020, Trump signed an executive order that created a new category of federal employee, Schedule F, which included all career civil servants whose job includes "policymaking". Such employees would no longer be covered by civil service protections against arbitrary dismissal, but would be subject to the same rules as political appointees. The new description could be applied to thousands of nonpartisan experts, such as scientists who give advice to the political appointees who run their departments.[162] Heads of all federal agencies were ordered to report by January 19, 2021, a list of positions that could be reclassified as Schedule F. The Office of Management and Budget submitted a list in November that included 88 percent of the office's workforce.[163] Federal employee organizations and Congressional Democrats sought to overturn the order via lawsuits or bills. House Democrats warned in a letter that "The executive order could precipitate a mass exodus from the federal government at the end of every presidential administration, leaving federal agencies without deep institutional knowledge, expertise, experience, and the ability to develop and implement long-term policy strategies."[164] Observers predicted that Trump could use the new rule to implement a "massive government purge on his way out the door."[165]
Meanwhile, administration officials had ordered the Budget Office to begin work on a 2022 budget proposal that they would submit to Congress in February, ignoring the fact that Biden would have already taken over by that point.[166]
Lawsuits
After the 2020 United States presidential election, the campaign for incumbent president Donald Trump filed a number of lawsuits contesting election processes, vote-counting, and the vote-certification process in multiple states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.[167] Many such cases were quickly dismissed,[96] and lawyers and other observers noted that the lawsuits were unlikely to have an effect on the outcome of the election.[168][169][170] By November 19, more than two dozen of the legal challenges filed since Election Day had failed.[171]
On November 21, U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania Judge Matthew Brann, a Republican, dismissed the case before him with prejudice, ruling:
"In this action, the Trump Campaign and the Individual Plaintiffs [...] seek to discard millions of votes legally cast by Pennsylvanians from all corners – from Greene County to Pike County, and everywhere in between. In other words, Plaintiffs ask this Court to disenfranchise almost seven million voters. This Court has been unable to find any case in which a plaintiff has sought such a drastic remedy in the contest of an election, in terms of the sheer volume of votes asked to be invalidated. One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption, such that this Court would have no option but to regrettably grant the proposed injunctive relief despite the impact it would have on such a large group of citizens.
"That has not happened. Instead, this Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence. In the United States of America, this cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state. Our people, laws, and institutions demand more."[172][173]
Michigan officials pressured to not certify
Prior to November 17, the four-member board of canvassers of Wayne County, Michigan, was deadlocked on election-result certification along party lines with the two Republican members refusing to certify, but on November 17 the board voted unanimously to certify its results.[174] Trump subsequently called the two Republican members of the board,[175] following which the two Republicans asked to rescind their votes for certification, signing affidavits the following day stating that they had voted for certification only because the two Democratic members had promised a full audit of the county's votes.[176] The two denied Trump's call had influenced their reversal.[177]
Trump issued an invitation to Michigan lawmakers to travel to Washington.[178] Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield, State Senator Mike Shirkey and State Representative Jim Lilly were photographed in the lobby of the D.C. Trump Tower, where they were drinking $500-a-bottle champagne and were not wearing masks.[179] Chatfield later floated the possibility of a "constitutional crisis" in Michigan, while Shirkey suggested that certification be delayed.[180] On November 21, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and Michigan Republican Party Chair Laura Cox publicly called upon the Michigan State Board of Canvassers to not proceed with the planned certification of election results.[181] On November 23, the State Board of Canvassers certified the election.[182]
Georgia Secretary of State pressured to disqualify ballots
The 2020 United States presidential election in Georgia produced an initial count wherein Biden defeated Trump by around 14,000 votes, triggering an automatic recount due to the small margin. While the recount was ongoing, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina privately called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to discuss Georgia's vote counting. Raffensperger, a Republican, told The Washington Post that Graham had asked whether Raffensperger could disqualify all mail-in ballots in counties that had more signature errors.[39] Gabriel Sterling, a Republican election official and staffer to Raffensperger, was present for the call, and Sterling confirmed that Graham had asked that question.[183]
Raffensperger viewed Graham's question as a suggestion to throw out legally-cast ballots, although Graham denied suggesting that. Graham acknowledged calling Raffensperger to find out how to "protect the integrity of mail-in voting" and "how does signature verification work?", but declared that if Raffensperger "feels threatened by that conversation, he's got a problem".[39] Graham stated that he was investigating in his own capacity as a senator, although he is the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Graham also claimed that he had spoken to the secretaries of state in Arizona and Nevada. The secretaries, however, denied this, and Graham then contradicted himself, stating that he had talked to the Governor of Arizona but no official in Nevada.[184]
Wisconsin recount-obstruction
The Trump campaign requested a recount in Milwaukee and Dane counties, both Democratic strongholds. On November 20, Wisconsin election officials reported that Trump campaign observers were attempting to obstruct the recount. According to officials, observers were "constantly interrupting vote-counters with questions and comments." At one table, a Republican representative was objecting to every ballot that was pulled for recount. At other tables, there were two Republican observers when only one was allowed; it was also reported that some Republicans had been posing as independents.[185] Completed by November 29, the recounts ended up increasing Biden's lead by 87 votes.[186]
Partisan hearings with Republican legislatures
On November 25, one day after Pennsylvania certified its election results, a Republican state senator requested a hearing of the State Senate Majority Policy Committee to discuss election issues. The event, described as an "informational meeting," was held at a hotel in Gettysburg and featured Rudy Giuliani asserting that the election had been subject to massive fraud. Trump also spoke to the group by speakerphone, repeating his false claim that he had actually won in Pennsylvania and other swing states, and saying "We have to turn the election over."[187]
In Arizona, a state won by Biden, Republican members of the Arizona Senate promoted Trump's false claims of election fraud. In mid-December 2020, Eddie Farnsworth, Chairman of the State Senate Judiciary Committee, claimed that "tampering" or "fraud" might have marred the election, despite the testimony given by election officials, attorneys, and the Arizona Attorney General Election Integrity Unit at a six-hour hearing, all of whom testified that there was no evidence for such claims.[188] Hearings held in the Michigan Legislature similarly presented no evidence of any fraud or other wrongdoing.[189]
Conspiracy allegations
Days before the 2020 presidential election, Dennis Montgomery, a software designer with a history of making dubious claims, asserted that a program called Scorecard, running on a government supercomputer called Hammer, would be used to switch votes from Trump to Biden on voting machines. Trump legal team attorney Sidney Powell promoted the conspiracy theory on Lou Dobbs Tonight on November 6,[190][191] and again two days later on Maria Bartiromo's Fox Business program, claiming to have "evidence that that is exactly what happened."[192] She also asserted that the CIA ignored warnings about the software, and urged Trump to fire director Gina Haspel.[193] Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), characterized the supercomputer claim as "nonsense" and a "hoax". CISA described the 2020 election as "the most secure in American history," with "no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised."[194][195] A few days later, Trump fired Krebs by tweet, claiming that Krebs' analysis was "highly inaccurate."[196]
During a November 19 press conference, Powell alleged without evidence that an international Communist plot had been engineered by Venezuela, Cuba, China, Hugo Chávez (who died in 2013), George Soros, the Clinton Foundation, and antifa to rig the 2020 elections.[197][198][199] She also alleged that Dominion Voting Systems "can set and run an algorithm that probably ran all over the country to take a certain percentage of votes from President Trump and flip them to President Biden."[15] The source for many of these claims appeared to be the far-right news organization One America News Network (OANN). She also repeated a conspiracy theory[145] spread by Texan Congressman Louie Gohmert, OANN and others:[200] that accurate voting results had been transmitted to the German office of the Spanish electronic voting firm Scytl, where they were tabulated to reveal a landslide victory for Trump nationwide (which included implausible Trump victories in Democratic strongholds such as California, Colorado, Maine statewide, Minnesota, and New Mexico), after which a company server was supposedly seized in a raid by the United States Army. The U.S. Army and Scytl refuted those claims:[201] Scytl has not had any offices in Germany since September 2019, and it does not tabulate any U.S. votes.[202][203] In a March 2021 report, the Justice and Homeland Security Departments flatly rejected accusations of voting fraud conducted by foreign nations.[204]
In a subsequent interview with Newsmax on November 21,[205] Powell accused Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp, of being "in on the Dominion scam" and suggested financial impropriety.[206] Powell additionally alleged that fraud had prevented Doug Collins from winning a top-two position in the November 2020 nonpartisan blanket primary against incumbent Kelly Loeffler in the Senate race in Georgia.[207] She also claimed that the Democratic Party had used rigged Dominion machines to defeat Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary and that Sanders had learned of this but had "sold out."[208] She stated that she would "blow up" Georgia with a "biblical" court filing.[209] Powell suggested that candidates "paid to have the system rigged to work for them."[210] On the basis of these claims, Powell called for Republican-controlled state legislatures in swing states to disregard the election results and appoint a slate of "loyal" electors who would vote to re-elect Trump,[211] based on authority supposedly resting in Article Two of the Constitution.[212] The Washington Post reported that on December 5 Trump asked Kemp to convene a special session of the Georgia legislature for that purpose, but Kemp declined.[42] Trump also pressured Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Bryan Cutler to overturn the result and use electors loyal to Trump, but Cutler declined, saying that the legislature had no power to overturn the state's chosen slate of electors.[213]
Conservative television outlets amplified baseless allegations of voting machine fraud. Fox News host Lou Dobbs had been outspoken during his program supporting the allegations, but on December 18 his program aired a video segment debunking the allegations, although Dobbs himself did not comment. Fox News hosts Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo had also been outspoken in supporting the allegations, and both their programs aired the same video segment debunking the allegations over the following two days.[214]
Smartmatic, a company accused of conspiring with Dominion, demanded a retraction from Fox News. Smartmatic wanted corrections to be "published on multiple occasions" during prime time to "match the attention and audience targeted with the original defamatory publications." They also threatened legal action.[214][215][216] On February 4, 2021, Smartmatic filed a lawsuit against Dobbs, Bartiromo, Pirro, and Fox News itself, as well as against Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, seeking $2.7 billion in total damages.[217]
In December 2020, Dominion sent a similar letter to Sidney Powell, demanding that she retract her allegations and retain all relevant records; the Trump legal team later instructed dozens of staffers to preserve all documents for any future litigation.[218][219] The company filed a $1.3 billion defamation suit against Powell in January 2021.[220] While fighting the lawsuit in March 2021, Powell's attorneys claimed that her speech was protected because she was sharing her "opinion" and that, because she was serving as an attorney for the Trump campaign, it was her role to make accusations against Dominion. Dominion had complained that Powell's comments were "wild," "outlandish," and "impossible." Powell's attorneys seemed to concede that Powell had been obviously lying, saying that "reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact" and therefore that she had not defamed Dominion.[221]
Threats of violence by Trump supporters
After Biden won the election, angry Trump supporters threatened election officials, election officials' family members, and elections staff in at least eight states via emails, telephone calls and letters; some of the menacing and vitriolic communications included death threats. Officials terrorized by the threats included officials in the swing states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, and Arizona, as well as a few less competitive states.[222] Some officials had to seek police protection[222][223] or move from their homes due to the threats.[222] The director of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research, described the threats as frightening and said, "These threats often go into areas related to race or sex or anti-Semitism. More than once they specifically refer to gun violence." Prominent Republicans ignored or said little about the threats of violence.[222]
On November 15, the Georgia Secretary of State reported that he and his wife were receiving death threats.[39] On November 30, Trump attorney Joseph diGenova said the recently fired head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Chris Krebs, should be "taken out and shot" for disputing the president's claims about election fraud.[224] On December 1, Republican Georgia elections official Gabriel Sterling publicly condemned Trump and Georgia Senators Perdue and Loeffler for making unsubstantiated claims and for failing to condemn the threats of violence against election workers, including those made against a young, low-level Dominion employee and his family.[225] After Democratic Georgia State Senator Elena Parent spoke out against the false claims of voter fraud, she was targeted by online vitriol, threatened with death and sexual violence, and had her home address widely circulated online. Parent attributed the onslaught to Trump, saying, "He has created a cult-like following and is exposing people like me across the country to danger because of his unfounded rhetoric on the election."[223]
In early December, an "enemies list" circulated on the web falsely accusing various government officials and voting systems executives of rigging the election, providing their home addresses, and superimposing red targets on their photos.[226]
The Arizona Republican Party twice tweeted that supporters should be willing to "die for something" or "give my life for this fight." Ann Jacobs, chairwoman of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said she had received constant threats, including a message mentioning her children, and photos of her house had been posted on the web.[227]
On January 1, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence asked a federal judge to dismiss a suit naming him as the defendant; filed by Texas Republican congressman Louis Gohmert and others, the ultimately unsuccessful suit asserted that the Vice President had the sole constitutional authority to conduct the congressional certification of Electoral College results without restriction.[228] Attorney Lin Wood, a conspiracy theorist and QAnon promoter who had worked with Trump attorney Sidney Powell to file baseless lawsuits alleging election fraud, tweeted that day that Pence and other prominent Republican officials should be arrested for treason and that Pence should "face execution by firing squad".[229] Two weeks earlier, Wood had tweeted that people should stock up on survival goods, including "2nd Amendment supplies." Emerald Robinson, a White House correspondent for pro-Trump One America News, tweeted "Folks, when [Lin Wood] tells people to prep, I listen."[230]
After Trump urged his supporters to protest in Washington as Congress convened to certify the election results, some posters in far-right online forums interpreted it as a call to action, with one asserting, "We've got marching orders," while others made references to possible violence and to bringing firearms to the protest. In a discussion of how to evade police blockades and the District of Columbia’s gun laws, one poster remarked, "We The People, Will not tolerate a Steal. No retreat, No Surrender. Restore to my President what you stole or reap the consequences!!!"[231][232]
December
Trump's attempt to pressure state officials
On December 5, Trump placed a call to Georgia governor Brian Kemp in which he urged the governor to call a special session of the state legislature to override the election results and appoint electors who would support Trump.[42] He also called the Pennsylvania speaker of the house with similar objectives, and had earlier invited Michigan Republican state officials to the White House to discuss election results in that state.[42][233] The Georgia and Pennsylvania contacts were made after Biden's victories had been certified in those states; Biden's Michigan victory was certified three days after the Trump White House meeting.[43][44][234]
After Georgia had twice recounted and twice certified its results, Republican secretary of state Brad Raffensperger received death threats. He was pressured to resign by others in his party, including the state's two senators.[235][236] On December 23, Trump called the investigations chief in the Georgia Secretary of State's office, who was then investigating allegations of mail ballot fraud, and urged the official to "find the fraud" (a misquote that was amended by the Washington Post in March 2021 to "[you would] find things that are gonna be unbelievable");[237] the investigation ultimately concluded that the allegations had no merit.[238] Texas attorney general Ken Paxton sued the state and three others, asking the United States Supreme Court to invalidate the states' voting results, alleging that they had violated the Constitution, citing a litany of complaints that had already been rejected by other courts.[239][240] Trump and seventeen Republican state attorneys general filed motions to support the case, the merits of which were sharply criticized by legal experts and politicians.[241][242] The day the suit was filed, Trump warned Georgia attorney general Chris Carr to not rally other Republican officials in opposition to the suit.[243]
Sixty-four Republican members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly signed a letter urging the state's congressional delegation to reject Biden's electoral votes. Kim Ward, the Republican majority leader of the Pennsylvania senate, said that Trump had called her to say there had been fraud in the election, but she had not seen the letter before it had been released. She stated that Republican leaders were expected to support Trump's claims and if she had announced opposition to the letter, "I'd get my house bombed tonight."[244]
Supreme Court petitions
On November 21, a group of Republican legislators in Pennsylvania petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in appeal of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision against the legislators, who had asked to nullify mailed ballots after they had been cast, or to direct the legislature to select Pennsylvania's electors. The high court denied the request in a one-sentence, unsigned order on December 8. By the time of the high court's decision, the Pennsylvania election results had been certified in Biden's favor. Lawyers for Pennsylvania argued to the high court that the legislators' request was "an affront to constitutional democracy" and that "Petitioners ask this court to undertake one of the most dramatic, disruptive invocations of judicial power in the history of the Republic; no court has ever issued an order nullifying a governor's certification of presidential election results."[37][43]
On December 8, 2020, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton sued the states of Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where certified results showed Joe Biden the victor over Trump, alleging a variety of unconstitutional actions in their presidential balloting, arguments that had already been rejected in other courts. Paxton asked the Supreme Court to invalidate those states' 62 electoral votes, allowing Trump to be declared the winner of a second presidential term.[37] Trump and seventeen Republican state attorneys general filed motions to support the case.[citation needed]
126 Republican members of the House of Representatives signed onto the Texas lawsuit.[245] After congressman Michael Waltz added his name, the Orlando Sentinel published an editorial apologizing for endorsing him.[246] On December 11, the Supreme Court denied the plaintiff's motion to intervene in the election, stating: "the state of Texas' motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing."[57][247][248][249] On December 12, after the Supreme Court had rejected the Texas lawsuit, Democratic Representative Bill Pascrell wrote a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Administration Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, calling for the Republican House members who backed the suit to not be seated in Congress based on the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment providing that persons who "have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against" the United States are ineligible for office; Pascrell wrote that "Men and women who would act to tear the United States government apart cannot serve as members of Congress" and that "These lawsuits seeking to obliterate public confidence in our democratic system by invalidating the clear results of the 2020 presidential election attack the text and spirit of the Constitution, which each member swears to support and defend."[250][251]
Electoral College vote and "alternate" electors
On December 14, in accordance with the law, the local electors of the Electoral College met in each state capital and in the District of Columbia and formalized Biden's victory, with 306 electoral votes cast for Biden and 232 electoral votes cast for Trump.[252][253] On the same day that the electors voted, self-appointed "alternate" slates of Republican electors convened in or near the state capitols of five states where Biden had won by a relatively small margin (Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania) and attempted to issue counterfeit electoral college certificates.[254] A group of Republican activists claiming to be electors attempted to enter the Michigan State Capitol to do likewise, but were barred entry by building security. Scattered protests opposing the election results occurred near other state capitols.[255] Stephen Miller, an aide to Trump, announced on Fox & Friends that "an alternate slate of electors [pledged to Trump] in the contested states is going to vote and we are going to send those results to Congress".[256] The "votes" cast by the pro-Trump "alternate electors" have no legal standing.[257][258]
In Texas, the state's official electors voted 34–4 to call on Republican-controlled legislatures in five swing states won by Biden to ignore their states' election results and appoint electors pledged to Trump instead.[259]
In an address to the nation on the evening of December 14, after the Electoral College vote, President-Elect Biden strongly criticized Trump's continued refusal to concede.[260]
Consideration of special counsel and martial law
After legal efforts by Trump and his proxies had failed in numerous state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court,[261] some right-wing activists and Trump allies – including Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, and L. Lin Wood – suggested that Trump could suspend the Constitution, declare martial law and "rerun" the election.[262][263] Many retired military officers, attorneys, and other commentators expressed horror at such a notion.[264][a] Trump held an Oval Office meeting on December 18 with Rudy Giuliani, chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, Powell, and Flynn. At the meeting, Trump entertained the idea of naming Powell, who has promoted election conspiracy theories and falsehoods, as special counsel to investigate election matters, though most advisors in attendance strongly opposed the idea. Flynn reportedly discussed his idea to declare martial law, although others also resisted that idea, and Trump's opinion on the matter was unclear. Trump also reportedly considered an executive order to confiscate voting machines, which he falsely claimed were rigged against him. That same day, Flynn appeared on Newsmax TV to suggest that Trump had the power to deploy the military to "rerun" the election in the swing states that Trump had lost.[261] Trump dismissed reports about a discussion of martial law as "fake news", but it remained unclear whether he had endorsed the notion.[269]
An attempt by Trump to invoke martial law to invalidate the results of the election would be illegal and unconstitutional.[270][271] In late December 2020, legal scholars Claire O. Finkelstein and Richard Painter wrote that while it was very unlikely that Trump would actually "attempt to spark a military coup," Acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen should be prepared to direct federal law enforcement "to arrest anyone, including if necessary the president, who ... conspired to carry out this illegal plan." Likening a hypothetical invocation of martial law to overturn the election to the 1861 firing on Fort Sumter, Finkelstein and Painter wrote that any such plan would constitute seditious conspiracy and possibly other crimes, and that any military officers or enlisted personnel ordered to assist in such a plan would be required, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to disregard such an illegal order.[270]
On December 18, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and General James McConville, the Army chief of staff, issued a joint statement saying, "There is no role for the US military in determining the outcome of an American election."[272] On January 3, all ten living former secretaries of defense – Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Mark Esper, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, James Mattis, Leon Panetta, William Perry and Donald Rumsfeld – published an op-ed in The Washington Post calling for the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, noting that "efforts to involve the US armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory", and noting that "civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic." The former defense secretaries wrote that "acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller and his subordinates – political appointees, officers and civil servants – are each bound by oath, law and precedent to facilitate the entry into office of the incoming administration, and to do so wholeheartedly. They must also refrain from any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team."[273]
Elizabeth Neumann, an adviser at Defending Democracy Together and a former assistant secretary of Homeland Security under Trump, stated that "In the conspiratorial conservative base supporting Trump, there are calls for using the Insurrection Act to declare martial law. When they hear that the president is actually considering this, there are violent extremist groups that look at this as a dog whistle, an excuse to go out and create ... violence."[269]
Planning for Congress to overturn the election on January 6
In December Congressman Mo Brooks, who had been the first member of Congress to announce he would object to the January 6, 2021 certification of the Electoral College results,[274][275] organized three White House meetings between Trump, Republican lawmakers, and others. Attendees included Trump, Vice President Pence, representatives Jody Hice (R-Ga.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), and members of the Trump legal team. The purpose of the meetings was to strategize about how Congress could overturn the election results on January 6. Brooks confirmed after one such meeting that it had been "a back-and-forth concerning the planning and strategy for January the 6th."[276]
"Pence Card" false theory
Beginning in late December, false legal theories went viral on pro-Trump social media suggesting that Vice President Mike Pence could invoke the "Pence Card", a legal loophole that would enable him, in his capacity as President of the Senate, to reject pro-Biden electoral votes from contested swing states on the grounds that they were fraudulently appointed. The theory stems from a misreading of 3 U.S.C. § 12, which directs the Vice President to request electoral vote certificates from any state that has not yet sent these votes to the National Archives by the fourth Wednesday in December. Under the theory, Pence had unilateral authority to declare that state certificates from contested states had not in fact been received, and that new certificates (presumably supporting President Trump) should be issued. Trump re-tweeted a post calling for the invocation of the Pence Card on December 23, the day specified in statute, but Pence took no action consistent with the theory.[277][278] As of January 5, 2021, Trump was continuing to assert that Pence had unilateral power to throw out states' official electoral certificates on grounds of fraud.[64] During the Capitol attack, numerous rioters chanted "Hang Mike Pence", and the phrase trended on Twitter until Twitter banned it.[279]
Pressure on Justice Department
On December 14, two weeks after Barr stated there was no evidence of significant election fraud, Trump announced that Barr would be leaving as attorney general by Christmas.[280][281] Before Trump's announcement, he enlisted his chief of staff Mark Meadows and other aides to pressure deputy attorney Jeffrey Rosen, who would replace Barr on December 23, and other Justice Department officials to challenge the election results. Meadows and a top Trump aide emailed allegations of voting anomalies in three states to Rosen and other officials. Meadows also sought to have Rosen investigate a conspiracy theory, promoted by a Giuliani ally, that satellites and military technology had been used in Italy to remotely change votes from Trump to Biden. Trump also enlisted a private attorney, Kurt Olsen, to seek a meeting with Rosen to propose a legal challenge he had drafted; it was similar to a challenge initiated by Texas attorney general Ken Paxton and supported by dozens of Republican members of Congress and state attorneys general, that attempted unsuccessfully to have the Supreme Court reject election results in four states. Trump also spoke to Rosen about Olsen's proposal. Rosen and his deputy Richard Donoghue resisted the efforts, exchanging emails mocking them, in one case, as "pure insanity."[45][282][283] Rosen later testified to Congress, "During my tenure, no special prosecutors were appointed, whether for election fraud or otherwise; no public statements were made questioning the election; no letters were sent to State officials seeking to overturn the election results; [and] no DOJ court actions or filings were submitted seeking to overturn election results."[284]
In late December, Trump reportedly phoned Rosen "nearly every day" to tell him about claims of voter fraud or improper vote counts.[284] Donoghue took notes of a December 27, 2020 phone call between him, Rosen and Trump in which he characterized the president saying, "Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen."[46][47] The next day Jeffrey Clark, acting assistant attorney general for the civil division, approached Rosen and Donoghue with a draft letter and requested them to sign it. The letter was addressed to officials in the state of Georgia, saying that the Justice Department had evidence that raised "significant concerns" about the outcome of the presidential election, contrary to what Barr had publicly announced weeks earlier, and suggesting that the Georgia legislature "call itself into special session for [t]he limited purpose of considering issues pertaining to the appointment of Presidential Electors." Both Rosen and Donoghue refused to sign the letter, and it was never sent.[285]
The Associated Press reported in December that Heidi Stirrup, an ally of Trump advisor Stephen Miller, who months earlier had been quietly installed at the Justice Department as the White House's "eyes and ears," had in recent days been banned from the building after it was learned she pressured officials for sensitive information about potential election fraud and other matters she could relay to the White House. Stirrup had also circumvented Justice Department management to extend job offers to political allies for senior Department positions and interfered with the hiring of career officials.[286]
January
Trump reportedly reached out to Steve Bannon for advice on his quest to overturn the election results.[287]
The Wall Street Journal reported that the White House forced B. J. Pak, the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta, to resign on January 4, 2021, because he was not investigating claims of election fraud to President Trump's satisfaction.[288] Pak told the Senate Judiciary Committee in August 2021 that top Justice Department officials had told him he would be fired by Trump if he did not say there had been widespread voter fraud in Georgia.[289]
On January 6, 2021, a joint session of Congress presided over by Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took place to count the electoral votes. Normally a ceremonial formality, the session was interrupted by a mob that attacked the Capitol.[290][291]
Gohmert v. Pence
On December 27, 2020, Republican Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas and the slate of Republican presidential electors for Arizona filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against Vice President Mike Pence, seeking to force him to decide the election outcome.[292][293] Gohmert argued that the Electoral Count Act of 1887 was unconstitutional, that the Constitution gave Vice President Pence the "sole" power to decide the election outcome, and that Pence had the power to "count elector votes certified by a state's executive," select "a competing slate of duly qualified electors," or "ignore all electors from a certain state."[292][294][295] Pence, represented by the Justice Department, moved to dismiss the case, since Congress, and not the vice president, was a more suitable defendant. The Justice Department also argued that "the Vice President – the only defendant in this case – is ironically the very person whose power [plaintiffs] seek to promote. A suit to establish that the Vice President has discretion over the count, filed against the Vice President, is a walking legal contradiction."[296][297] Lawyers for Congress also supported Pence's position.[297]
On January 1, 2021, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle dismissed the suit saying that due to the plaintiffs' lack of standing, the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction relating to the constitutional status of the Electoral Count Act.[293][297][298] On appeal, the next day, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit dismissed Gohmert's appeal in a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel.[299]
Calls with state officials
On January 2, 2021, Trump held a one-hour phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.[300][301] Trump was joined by chief of staff Mark Meadows, trade adviser Peter Navarro, Justice Department official John Lott Jr., law professor John Eastman, and attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Cleta Mitchell and Kurt Hilbert. Raffensperger was joined by his general counsel Ryan Germany.[302]
In that call, Trump repeatedly referred to disproven claims of election fraud and urged Raffensperger to overturn the election, saying "I just want to find 11,780 votes."[41] Raffensperger refused, noting that Georgia had certified its results after counting the votes three times,[303] and said at one point in the conversation, "Well, Mr. President, the challenge you have is the data you have is wrong."[303][304] Trump issued a vague threat suggesting that Raffensperger and his general counsel Ryan Germany might be subject to criminal liability.[305] After the Georgia call, Trump and his team spoke on Zoom with officials in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.[306]
Raffensperger told his advisers that he did not wish a recording or a transcript to be made public unless Trump made false claims about the conversation or attacked Georgia officials. On the morning of January 3, Trump tweeted that Raffensperger "was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions" about various election-related conspiracy theories endorsed by Trump. Raffensperger replied by tweet, "Respectfully, President Trump: What you're saying is not true. The truth will come out."[307] Later that day, The Washington Post reported on the call and published the full audio and transcript.[302][308] (The Associated Press also obtained the recording.[303])
Two months later, it was revealed that Trump had also called Raffensperger's chief investigator, Frances Watson, on December 23. He spoke to her for six minutes, during which he told her: "When the right answer comes out, you'll be praised."[309][310]
Legal experts stated that Trump's attempt to pressure Raffensperger could have violated election law,[303] including federal and state laws against soliciting election fraud or interference in elections.[306][311] Election-law scholar Edward B. Foley called Trump's conduct "inappropriate and contemptible" while the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington called Trump's attempt "to rig a presidential election ... a low point in American history and unquestionably impeachable conduct."[312]
Democrats condemned Trump's conduct.[303] Vice President-elect Harris, as well as Representative Adam Schiff, (the chief prosecutor at Trump's first impeachment trial) said that Trump's attempt to pressure Raffensperger was an abuse of power.[303][313] Dick Durbin, the second highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, called for a criminal investigation.[303] On January 4, 2021, Democratic Representatives Ted Lieu and Kathleen Rice sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking him to open a criminal investigation of the incident, writing that they believed Trump had solicited, or conspired to commit, "a number of election crimes."[314] More than 90 House Democrats supported a formal censure resolution, introduced by Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia, to "censure and condemn" Trump for having "misused the power of his office by threatening an elected official with vague criminal consequences if he failed to pursue the president's false claims" and for attempting "to willfully deprive the citizens of Georgia of a fair and impartial election process in direct contravention" of state and federal law.[315][316] Some congressional Democrats called Trump's conduct an impeachable offense.[317]
Several House and Senate Republicans also condemned Trump's conduct,[303][318] although no Republican described the conduct as criminal or an impeachable offense.[318] Republican Senator Pat Toomey, who is not seeking reelection in 2022, called it a "new low in this whole futile and sorry episode", and commended "Republican election officials across the country who have discharged their duties with integrity over the past two months while weathering relentless pressure, disinformation, and attacks from the president and his campaign."[318] Other congressional Republicans ignored or sought to defend Trump's Georgia call, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy[316] and Georgia Senator David Perdue, who told Fox News in an interview that he thinks releasing the tape of the call was "disgusting."[319]
Justice Department pressured and efforts made to replace acting attorney general
The day after Attorney General William Barr said he intended to resign, Trump began to pressure his planned replacement, Jeffrey Rosen, to help him fight the election results. In particular, Trump asked Rosen to file legal briefs supporting lawsuits against the election results; to announce Justice Department investigations of alleged serious election fraud; and to appoint special prosecutors to investigate Trump's unfounded allegations of voter fraud and accusations against Dominion Voting Systems.[320] Rosen refused, as did his deputy, Richard Donoghue, as the Justice Department had already determined and announced that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud.[22] However, Trump continued to pressure them.[320]
Despite these disagreements, Rosen became acting U.S. Attorney General on December 24 as originally planned. Trump continued to pressure Rosen, asking him to go to the Supreme Court directly to invalidate the election results, but Rosen – along with his predecessor Barr and former acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall – said such a case would have no basis and refused to file it.[321][322]
Meanwhile, assistant attorney general Jeffrey Clark, acting head of the Civil Division, proposed himself as Rosen's replacement, suggesting to Trump that he would support the president's efforts to overturn the election results. Clark told Rosen and other top Justice Department officials that the Department should announce it was investigating serious election fraud issues. Clark drafted a letter to Georgia officials claiming the DOJ had "identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States" and urging the Georgia legislature to convene a special session for the "purpose of considering issues pertaining to the appointment of Presidential Electors."[323] Rosen and his deputy Richard Donoghue rejected the suggestion, as the Department had previously determined and announced that there was no significant fraud.[324] On January 3, Clark revealed to Rosen that Trump intended to appoint him in Rosen's place. Rosen, Donoghue, and head of the Office of Legal Counsel Steven Engel made a pact to resign if Rosen was removed. Confronted with the threat of mass resignations, the president backed away from the plan.[320][325] In early August 2021, Rosen and Donoghue told the Justice Department inspector general and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that Clark attempted to help Trump subvert the election.[326][327]
During the closing weeks of the Trump presidency, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sent multiple emails to Rosen, asking him to investigate conspiracy theories, including that satellites had been used from Italy to remotely switch votes from Trump to Biden. Rosen did not open the investigation.[328]
January 6 joint session
Senate efforts
In December 2020, several Republican members of the House, led by Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama,[21][329] as well as Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri,[330] declared that they would formally object to the counting of the electoral votes of five swing states won by Biden during the January 6, 2021, joint session.[21][290][329] The objections would then trigger votes from both houses.[290] At least 140 House Republicans reportedly planned to vote against the counting of electoral votes, despite the lack of any credible allegation of an irregularity that would have impacted the election, and the allegations' rejections by courts, election officials, the Electoral College and others,[21] and despite the fact that almost all of the Republican objectors had "just won elections in the very same balloting they are now claiming was fraudulently administered."[331]
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who on December 15 had acknowledged Biden's victory the day after the Electoral College vote, privately urged his Republican Senate colleagues not to join efforts by some House Republicans to challenge the vote count,[21] but he was unable to persuade Hawley not to lodge an objection.[332] Hawley used his objection stance in fundraising emails.[333][334] Eleven Republican senators and senators-elect Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson, James Lankford, Steve Daines, John Kennedy, Marsha Blackburn, Mike Braun, Cynthia Lummis, Roger Marshall, Bill Hagerty, and Tommy Tuberville – one-quarter of Senate Republicans – announced that they would join Hawley's challenge. However, many senators acknowledged that it would not succeed. On January 2, 2021, Vice President Pence had expressed support for the attempt to overturn Biden's victory. Neither Pence nor the 11 senators planning to object made any specific allegation of fraud; rather, they vaguely suggested that some wrongdoing might have taken place.[331] Other Senate Republicans were noncommittal or opposed to the attempt by the 11 Republican senators to subvert the election results.[332]
Objections to the electoral votes had virtually no chance of success, as Democrats had a majority in the House of Representatives[21] and, although the Senate had a Republican majority, there was no majority for overturning the election results.[332] Trevor Potter, a Republican former chairman of the Federal Election Commission and the president of the Campaign Legal Center, wrote that the counting joint session "gives Trump's die-hard supporters in Congress an opportunity to again provide more disinformation about the election on national television."[290] After Senator John Thune, the second highest-ranking Senate Republican, said that the challenge to the election results would fail "like a shot dog" in the Senate, Trump attacked him on Twitter.[331][335]
In early January, Trump began to pressure Pence to take action to overturn the election. As vice president, Pence presides over the Congressional session to count the electoral votes – normally a non-controversial, ceremonial event. For days beforehand, Trump demanded both in public and in private that Pence use that position to overturn the election results in swing states and declare Trump-Pence the winners of the election.[336] Pence demurred that the law does not give him that power, but Trump insisted that "The Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act."[337] Pence ultimately released a statement stating: "It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not".[338]
An hour before the joint session was set to start, the president's lawyer Rudy Giuliani tried to call freshman Senator Tommy Tuberville but accidentally left a message in the voicemail of another senator, which was subsequently leaked to The Dispatch, stating that "we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down ... So if you could object to every state and, along with a congressman, get a hearing for every state, I know we would delay you a lot, but it would give us the opportunity to get the legislators who are very, very close to pulling their vote ... they have written letters asking that you guys adjourn and send them back the questionable ones and they'll fix them up".[339][340]
House votes
At the January 6 session, after Republican senators had raised objections to Biden's electoral victory, the House debated and voted. A majority of Republicans, totaling 139 and including GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and his deputy Steve Scalise, voted to support at least one objection.[341][342]
Report by Representative Zoe Lofgren
At the end of February 2021, Representative Zoe Lofgren released a nearly 2,000-page report that examined the social media posts of Republican leaders who had voted against certifying the election results. The report focused on their posts before the November election and after the January 6 riot.[343]
Violent protests and attack on the U.S. Capitol
Starting in December, Trump repeatedly encouraged his supporters to protest in Washington, D.C., on January 6 in support of his campaign to overturn the election results,[344] telling his supporters to "Be there, will be wild!"[345] The Washington Post editorial board criticized Trump for urging street protests, referring to previous violence by some Trump supporters at two earlier rallies and his earlier statement during a presidential debate telling the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by."[346] Multiple groups of "die-hard" Trump supporters staged rallies in Washington on that day: Women for America First; the Eighty Percent Coalition (also at Freedom Plaza) (the group's name refers to the belief that approximately 80% of Trump voters do not accept the legitimacy of Biden's win); and "The Silent Majority" (a group organized by a South Carolina conservative activist).[344][347] George Papadopoulos and Roger Stone, ardent allies of Trump, headlined some of the events. In addition to the formally organized events, the Proud Boys, other far-right groups, and white supremacists vowed to descend on Washington on January 6, with some threatening violence and pledging to carry weapons.[344] Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio said that his followers would "be incognito" and would "spread across downtown DC in smaller teams."[347] On January 4, Tarrio was arrested by District police on misdemeanor and felony charges.[348]
As the certification process was underway, Trump gave a speech encouraging his supporters to march to the Capitol. Many of them did, whereupon they joined other protesters already gathered in the area and violently stormed and breached the Capitol, eventually entering the Senate and House chambers as well as numerous offices. The Congressional proceedings were suspended, the legislators were taken to secure locations, and Pence and later Pelosi were evacuated.[349] Protestors penetrated the Senate chamber.[350] One unarmed woman was shot and killed by Capitol Police inside the Capitol building after she attempted to climb through a broken door into the Speaker's Lobby; the officer who shot her had been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, however, there were no criminal charges against the officer.[351][352] One other protester was trampled to death, two died of natural causes, and a Capitol Police officer collapsed at the scene and died the next day due to unknown causes.[353]
Lindell memo
On January 15, Trump ally and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell visited the White House, where he was photographed carrying notes that appeared to suggest an additional attempt to overturn the election.[354] The document bore a heading containing the words "taken immediately to save ... Constitution"[355] and called for 780th Military Intelligence Brigade (Cyber) civilian lawyer[356] "Frank Colon NOW as Acting National Security [illegible]", and mentioned the "Insurrection Act" and "martial law".[354] It further recommended "[m]ov[ing] Kash Patel to CIA Acting"[357] and made reference to Trump loyalist Sidney Powell.[358]
March
Security concerns over March 4, 2021
Starting in late January, QAnon adherents began expressing their beliefs that Trump would be re-inaugurated as the 19th President on March 4, the original date for presidential inaugurations until the passage of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933.[359][360] This belief was adopted from a false aspect of sovereign citizen ideology that asserts there has not been a "legitimate" U.S. President since Ulysses S. Grant (whose first inauguration occurred on March 4, 1869) due to an 1871 law that supposedly turned the U.S. into a corporation.[360][361] In February, it was reported that National Guard troops were expected to remain in Washington, D.C., through March 12 due to concerns over possible activity by QAnon adherents on March 4.[362]
On March 2, it was reported that security measures were being added in Washington, D.C., in preparation for possible events on March 4.[361] Despite these reports, the Capitol Police had advised lawmakers earlier that week that there was no indication of any protests or acts of violence in Washington, D.C., being planned.[363] However, based on new intelligence that an identified but undisclosed militia group might attempt an attack on the Capitol building from that date to March 6, the agency issued an updated alert on March 3. House leadership subsequently rescheduled a March 4 vote to the previous night to allow lawmakers to leave town, though it later said the reschedule was not done out of security concerns. Meanwhile, the Senate did not follow suit, and it continued debating on the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 as planned.[363][364][365][366]
In addition to the Capitol Police advisory, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint intelligence bulletin, featuring similar warnings of possible violence on March 4, to state and local law enforcement agencies across the U.S. on the previous day.[363][364] The Associated Press reported that federal agents were monitoring hotel rooms, flight, and rental car reservation increases, as well as bus charters, for that day. It also reported a decline in online activity on some social media platforms regarding March 4, similar to another decline of online chatter leading up to the events of January 6.[363]
Ultimately, March 4 passed without any serious incidents being reported. Afterwards, it was reported that the QAnon community had recently become skeptical of the March 4 theory. Prominent QAnon influencers did not treat the date with any significance unlike January 6, and some even dissuaded followers from participating in events scheduled on that date and accusing the news coverage about the date of being part of a false flag narrative designed to entrap them. Similar rhetoric had been observed prior to the January 6 riot and Biden's inauguration. According to Newsweek, some QAnon adherents rescheduled the purported date of Trump's re-inauguration to March 20, based on a misinterpretation of a 2019 act that "extends support provided by the General Services Administration to the president- and vice president-elect for up to 60 days after the inauguration"; it was also the 167th anniversary of the founding of the Republican Party.[367][368][369]
Arizona audit
On March 31, 2021, the Arizona Senate Republican caucus hired four firms to perform an audit of the presidential ballots in Maricopa County, with a Florida-based company called Cyber Ninjas being the lead firm.[370] There was no stated purpose of overturning the election, and there is no mechanism under the Constitution by which the Congressional certification of the result could be reversed. Nevertheless, Trump and some of his supporters expressed the hope that the Arizona result would be changed and that there might be a "domino effect" in which other states changed their results.[371]
August
Mike Lindell reinstatement prediction
Businessman and Trump supporter Mike Lindell predicted that Trump would be reinstated on the morning of August 13, the day after Lindell's three-day cyber fraud conference in Sioux Falls, stating "it'll be the talk of the world". After August 13 passed and president Joe Biden remained in office, Lindell moved his prediction for Trump's return to September 30.[372]
Reactions
At least nine sitting Republican Senators,[b] members of the second Bush administration,[c] and former members of the Trump administration condemned Trump's claims of fraud.[d]
A spokesperson for President-elect Biden called the effort a publicity stunt that would fail,[385] a statement echoed by Senator Amy Klobuchar, the top Democrat of the committee with jurisdiction over federal elections.[331] A bipartisan group of senators condemned the scheme to undo the election for Trump;[385] Joe Manchin (D-WV), Susan Collins (R-ME), Mark Warner (D-VA), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Angus King (I-ME), Mitt Romney (R-UT), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) said, "The 2020 election is over. All challenges through recounts and appeals have been exhausted. At this point, further attempts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 Presidential election are contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine Americans' confidence in the already determined election results."[386] In a separate statement, Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, denounced his Republican colleagues who had sought to overturn the election results, terming them "the institutional arsonist members of Congress" and called the submission of objection to counting the electoral votes a "dangerous ploy" by Republican members of Congress who – in seeking "a quick way to tap into the president's populist base" – were pointing "a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government."[387] Other prominent Republicans who spoke out against attempts to subvert the election results included Governor Larry Hogan, former House Speaker Paul Ryan, and Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-highest-ranking Republican in the House.[385]
The former Republican Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, wrote in The Economist that "President Donald Trump's actions to destroy faith in our elections and throw centuries of American principles out the window must be met with universal condemnation from all political leaders, regardless of party."[388]
The New York Post, which had promoted Trump's celebrity in New York since the 1980s[389] and had twice endorsed his presidential candidacy, published a front-page editorial in December asking the president to "stop the insanity" and "end this dark charade," asserting that he was "cheering for an undemocratic coup." The editorial continued: "If you insist on spending your final days in office threatening to burn it all down, that will be how you are remembered. Not as a revolutionary, but as the anarchist holding the match." The Post characterized Trump attorney Sidney Powell as a "crazy person" and his former national security advisor Michael Flynn's suggestion to declare martial law as "tantamount to treason." The conservative editorial board of The Wall Street Journal published an editorial entitled "Trump's Bad Exit", writing: "As he leaves office he can't seem to help reminding Americans why they denied him a second term" and "his sore loser routine is beginning to grate even on millions who voted for him."[390][391]
In 2011, Fox News created a "Monday Mornings with Trump" segment during which Trump would call in to Fox & Friends to offer his views on current affairs, and the hosts of that program continued to be supportive of Trump during his presidency.[392] On January 4, 2021, host Ainsley Earhardt stated that many conservatives "feel like it was rigged," although host Steve Doocey responded, "That's the case that Donald Trump and his lawyers have put out. They said there is all this evidence. But they haven't really produced the evidence." Host Brian Kilmeade stated that he had another "worry" about "the protest the president is calling for on Tuesday and Wednesday [as Congress convened to certify the election results]. I mean, this is the type of anarchy that doesn't work for anybody, Republicans or Democrats, in the big picture."[393][394]
All ten living former secretaries of defense – including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates – published an essay on January 3, 2021, stating: "The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived." They also warned of grave consequences of any contemplated military involvement in the situation.[273][395]
The Chief Executive of the United States Chamber of Commerce commented that "[e]fforts by some members of Congress to disregard certified election results ... undermines our democracy and the rule of law and will only result in further division", while almost 200 business leaders signed a statement from the Partnership for New York City declaring that such a move would "run counter to the essential tenets of our democracy".[396] The National Association of Manufacturers called for Vice President Pence to invoke the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and remove Trump from office.[397]
A former communications director for Senator Ted Cruz, acknowledging that she once "worked for him and...believed in him," told reporters that "the new Ted Cruz, post-Trump, is one I don't recognize...his actions directly played into the hands of the mob."[398]
During the riot, a Cumulus Media executive told its radio hosts that they must stop spreading the idea of election fraud. The memo said the election was over and that "there are no alternate acceptable 'paths’," and thus the radio hosts must immediately "help induce national calm."[399]
According to a Washington Post assessment, Trump's falsehoods about fraud cost taxpayers more than half a billion dollars in spending to enhance security, resolve legal disputes and repair property, among other things.[400]
Drawing on the false allegations of voting fraud and a stolen election, in early 2021 Republican state legislatures began to implement new laws and rules to restrict voting access in ways that would benefit Republican candidates.[401]
Description as an attempted coup
Multiple media outlets[e] characterized the efforts as an attempted coup. In addition, cable news political commentators for MSNBC and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough cited the Wikipedia article "coup d'état" and specified that this would technically be an autocoup.[415] Consistent with the notion of an attempted coup and rejection of the results of the 2020 election, longtime Republican strategist Steve Schmidt stated: "The Republican Party is an organized conspiracy for the purposes of maintaining power for self-interest, and the self-interest of its donor class... It's no longer dedicated to American democracy."[249][416][417][418]
Steven Levitsky, the co-author of How Democracies Die, said that "in technical terms, it's probably not a coup. But it is an illegal and authoritarian attempt to stay in power." Naunihal Singh, the author of Seizing Power: The Strategic Logic of Military Coups, opined that Trump's actions were not a coup without military action.[419] Erica De Bruin, assistant professor of government at Hamilton College, submitted a November 11, 2020, op-ed to The Washington Post, arguing that Trump's actions did "not yet fit" the definition of a coup but more closely matched the description of an autocoup.[420] Scholars Michael Albertus and John Chin also stated that the behavior better fit the political science definition of an autocoup rather than a classical coup, with Chin stating: "[i]f this were a coup, it'd be a very strange one, a slow-motion kind of coup that goes against pretty much what most scholars have observed about coups from time immemorial."[421] Joshua Keating similarly argued in Slate that the autocoup descriptor was most accurate, but that regardless of the technical definition "Republicans are drawing up a playbook that won't soon be forgotten" and pointing out that "[p]olitical scientists have identified a phenomenon known as the 'coup trap', in which countries that have experienced coups in the recent past are more likely to have more of them."[422][423]
Daniel Drezner wrote a December 2020 op-ed in The Washington Post arguing that while Trump and his confederates were ineptly trying to overturn the election results in a "ham-handed effort to besmirch the election outcome by any easily available means necessary", the attempts were insufficiently violent to meet the criteria for a coup and consequently should not be equated to Turkish military coups d'état.[424] Jonathan Powell described the coup classification as "completely inaccurate", clarifying that "[t]he types of places that have coups are limited to countries that are incredibly poor, that have really stagnant economies, that are economically marginalized, that generally have very serious forms of other types of domestic instability, like civil war", but said that while the attempt "might not be specifically tied to a potential coup right now, it is certainly very alarming for the US's potential to remain a democracy in the future."[421]
On January 6, 2021, rioters forced a recess of a joint session of Congress as they counted electoral votes. Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) described the event as a coup attempt.[425] New York Attorney General Letitia James similarly described the event as a coup attempt.[426] Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) described the events as an "insurrection", language also echoed by President-elect Biden.[427]
According to a July 2021 book by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, during the weeks following the election Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley became concerned Trump was preparing to stage a coup, and held informal discussions with his deputies about possible ways to thwart it, telling associates, "They may try, but they're not going to fucking succeed. You can't do this without the military. You can't do this without the CIA and the FBI. We're the guys with the guns." The book also quoted Milley saying, "This is a Reichstag moment. The gospel of the Führer." Milley reportedly told police and military officials preparing to secure Joe Biden's presidential inauguration, "Everyone in this room, whether you’re a cop, whether you’re a soldier, we’re going to stop these guys to make sure we have a peaceful transfer of power. We’re going to put a ring of steel around this city and the Nazis aren’t getting in." The book also stated that a friend told Milley they were concerned that Trump's allies were attempting to "overturn the government".[428][429]
"Trump won"
"Trump won" is a political slogan adopted by Trump supporters who, contrary to the election results, believe that Trump won the 2020 U.S. presidential election.[430][431] As of May 2021, an Ipsos/Reuters survey reported that 53% of Republican-identifying respondents agreed with the belief that Trump was still the legitimate President of the United States.[432] As of June 2021, some still believe that Trump will be restored to power by some extraordinary process, possibly later in 2021.[431][433] These beliefs have led to calls for violence on social media, sparking concerns from the Department of Homeland Security about violence by right-wing extremists in the summer of 2021.[434]
An Economist/YouGov poll conducted on November 15–17, 2020, found nearly all Trump supporters (88%) asserting that Biden's election was illegitimate, that mail-in ballots were manipulated to favor Biden (91%), that votes had been cast by immigrants who were not eligible to vote (89%), and that there was voter fraud more generally (89%).[435] According to a poll by CNBC/Change Research conducted on November 16–19, only 3% of Trump supporters stated that Biden's victory was legitimate. 73% of Trump voters considered Trump the winner of the election, 66% of them stated that Trump should never concede the election, and 31% said Trump should fight the results until the states certified the results.[436]
In Politico/Morning Consult polls conducted in June 2021, 51% of registered Republican voters said they believed that an ongoing election audit in Arizona would reveal significant problems that could imply that Trump had been the true winner, while 29% of registered Republican voters believed it was likely that such audits would succeed in restoring Trump to the presidency.[437]
See also
- Business Plot – 1933 attempt to overthrow the United States government
- Dennis L. Montgomery
- Pre-election lawsuits related to the 2020 United States presidential election
- Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
Notes
- ^ Trump's Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs nominee Scott O'Grady and Virginia State Senator Amanda Chase, a candidate in Virginia's 2021 gubernatoral election, promoted debunked conspiracy claims and called for Trump to institute martial law.[265][266][267] North Carolina State Senator Bob Steinburg similarly promoted false claims of a "stolen" election and suggested that Trump should declare a national emergency, invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, and suspend civil liberties and habeas corpus.[268]
- ^ The Senators are Roy Blunt,[373] Susan Collins,[373] Joni Ernst,[374] Lisa Murkowski,[375] Rob Portman,[376] Mitt Romney,[375] Marco Rubio,[375] Ben Sasse[373] and Pat Toomey.[375]
- ^ Statements were made by George W. Bush,[377] Andrew Card,[378] Dan Coats,[379] Ari Fleischer,[380] Condoleezza Rice,[381] Tom Ridge[382] and Karl Rove.[383]
- ^ The former members included National Security Advisor John Bolton,[4] Director of National Intelligence Michael Chertoff,[379] and H. R. McMaster, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (2017–2018).[384]
- ^ The outlets are The Atlantic,[402] Bloomberg News,[403][404] The Economist,[405] The Financial Times,[406] The Guardian,[407] The Intelligencer,[408] The Nation,[409] The New Yorker,[410] The New York Times,[411] Salon,[412] The San Francisco Chronicle,[413] The Washington Post,[18] and Vanity Fair[414]
References
- ^ Chalfant, Morgan; Samuels, Brett (November 4, 2020). "Trump prematurely declares victory, says he'll go to Supreme Court". The Hill. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
- ^ Liptak, Kevin; Stracqualursi, Veronica; Malloy, Allie (January 7, 2021). "Trump publicly acknowledges he won't serve a second term a day after inciting mob". CNN. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
- ^ Woodward, Calvin; Dale, Maryclaire (November 6, 2020). "Fact Check: Trump Fabricates Election Corruption".
- ^ Jump up to: a b Crowley, Michael (November 6, 2020). "Trump's False Election Fraud Claims Split Republicans". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
- ^ Funke, Daniel (November 20, 2020). "Dozens of claims about election fraud, debunked". PolitiFact. Tampa Bay Times.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Blood, Michael R.; Riccardi, Nicholas (December 5, 2020). "Biden officially secures enough electors to become president". AP News. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Kumar, Anita; Orr, Gabby (December 21, 2020). "Inside Trump's pressure campaign to overturn the election". Politico.
Trump's efforts to cling to power are unprecedented in American history. While political parties have fought over the results of presidential elections before, no incumbent president has ever made such expansive and individualized pleas to the officials who oversee certification of the election results.
- Sanger, David E. (November 19, 2020). "Trump's Attempts to Overturn the Election Are Unparalleled in U.S. History". The New York Times.
President Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election are unprecedented in American history and an even more audacious use of brute political force to gain the White House than when Congress gave Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency during Reconstruction.
- Kumar, Anita; Orr, Gabby (December 21, 2020). "Inside Trump's pressure campaign to overturn the election". Politico.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Miller, Zeke; Long, Colleen; Eggert, David (November 20, 2020). "Trump tries to leverage power of office to subvert Biden win". Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
- Haberman, Maggie; Rutenberg, Jim; Corasaniti, Nick; Epstein, Reid J. (November 20, 2020). "Trump Targets Michigan in His Ploy to Subvert the Election". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
- "Trump presses Georgia governor to help subvert election". MarketWatch. Associated Press. December 5, 2020. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
- "The Growing Backlash Against Trump's Efforts To Subvert The Election : Consider This from NPR". NPR. November 20, 2020. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
- Raju, Manu; Herb, Jeremy (December 7, 2020). "House conservatives urge Trump not to concede and press for floor fight over election loss". CNN. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Snyder, Timothy (January 9, 2021). "The American Abyss". The New York Times. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
- Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (January 26, 2021). "Opinion: Trump's big lie wouldn't have worked without his thousands of little lies". CNN.
- Heavey, Jan Wolfe, Susan (January 25, 2021). "Trump lawyer Giuliani faces $1.3 billion lawsuit over 'big lie' election fraud claims". Reuters.
- Block, Melissa (January 16, 2021). "Can The Forces Unleashed By Trump's Big Election Lie Be Undone?". NPR.org.
- Pilkington, Ed (January 24, 2021). "Donald Trump is gone but his big lie is a rallying call for rightwing extremists". The Guardian. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Gardner, Amy; Dawsey, Josh; Bade, Rachael (December 7, 2020). "Trump asks Pennsylvania House speaker for help overturning election results, personally intervening in a third state". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Graham, David A. (January 6, 2021). "This Is a Coup". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
- Musgrave, Paul (January 6, 2021). "This Is a Coup. Why Were Experts So Reluctant to See It Coming?". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
- Solnit, Rebecca (January 6, 2021). "Call it what it was: a coup attempt". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- Coleman, Justine (January 6, 2021). "GOP lawmaker on violence at Capitol: 'This is a coup attempt'". TheHill. Archived from the original on January 6, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
- Jacobson, Louis (January 6, 2021). "Is this a coup? Here's some history and context to help you decide". PolitiFact. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
A good case can be made that the storming of the Capitol qualifies as a coup. It's especially so because the rioters entered at precisely the moment when the incumbent's loss was to be formally sealed, and they succeeded in stopping the count.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Stelter, Brian (January 11, 2021). "Experts warn that Trump's 'big lie' will outlast his presidency". CNN. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- Block, Melissa (January 16, 2021). "Can The Forces Unleashed By Trump's Big Election Lie Be Undone?". NPR. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- Snyder, Timothy (January 9, 2021). "The American Abyss". The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- Ben-Ghiat, Ruth (January 26, 2021). "Opinion: Trump's big lie wouldn't have worked without his thousands of little lies". CNN.
- Castronuovo, Celine (January 8, 2021). "Biden says Cruz, other Republicans responsible for 'big lie' that fueled Capitol mob". TheHill.
- ^ Carlson, J. (December 14, 2020). "The Legitimacy and Effect of Private Funding in Federal and State Electoral Processes" (PDF). Got Freedom. Thomas More Society. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
The confusion and negative effect from illegitimate infusion of private funding in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and several other states during the 2020 election can be shown to have had a disparate and inequitable impact on the electorate.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Swenson, Ali (November 19, 2020). "AP Fact Check: Trump legal team's batch of false vote claims". AP News. Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Subramaniam, Tara; Lybrand, Holmes (November 19, 2020). "Fact checking Giuliani and the Trump legal team's wild, fact-free press conference". CNN. Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Farhi, Paul; Izadi, Elahe (November 20, 2020). "Rudy Giuliani floated 'dangerous' and incendiary false claims of election conspiracy – and Fox News broadcast it live". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Kessler, Glenn (November 19, 2020). "Analysis | Fact-checking the craziest news conference of the Trump presidency". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Rucker, Philip; Gardner, Amy; Dawsey, Josh (November 19, 2020). "Trump uses power of presidency to try to overturn the election and stay in office". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 10, 2020.
- ^ Multiple sources:[14][15][16][17][18]
- ^ Harper, Steven. "Insurrection Timeline: First the Coup and Then the Cover-Up". BillMoyers.com.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Tapper, Jake (December 31, 2020). "At least 140 House Republicans to vote against counting electoral votes, two GOP lawmakers say". CNN.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Balsamo, Michael (December 1, 2020). "Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud". AP News. Archived from the original on December 7, 2020. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
- ^ Chen, Shawna (November 12, 2020). "Department of Homeland Security calls election 'the most secure in American history'". Axios. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
- ^ Kane, Paul; Clement, Scott (December 5, 2020). "Just 27 congressional Republicans acknowledge Biden's win, Washington Post survey finds". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
- ^ Caldwell, Leigh Ann; Kapur, Sahil; Tsirkin, Julie (December 16, 2020). "McConnell congratulates Biden on his victory as more Republicans abandon Trump's fight". NBC News.
- ^ Wise, Lindsay; Hughes, Siobhan (December 15, 2020). "More Republicans Now Say Joe Biden Is President-Elect". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Shear, Michael D.; Haberman, Maggie; Crowley, Michael (November 10, 2020). "Trump Appointee Stands Between Biden's Team and a Smooth Transition". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 10, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- ^ "Formal Joe Biden transition may begin, US agency concludes". 12news.com. Archived from the original on November 23, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
- ^ Krebs, Christopher Cox (November 29, 2020). "Fired director of U.S. cyber agency Chris Krebs explains why President Trump's claims of election interference are false". In Pelley, Scott Cameron (ed.). 60 Minutes. Season 53. Episode 13. Event occurs at 11:30. CBS. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Rutenberg, Jim; Becker, Jo; Lipton, Eric; Haberman, Maggie; Martin, Jonathan; Rosenberg, Matthew; Schmidt, Michael S. (January 31, 2021). "77 Days: Trump's Campaign to Subvert the Election – Hours after the United States voted, the president declared the election a fraud – a lie that unleashed a movement that would shatter democratic norms and upend the peaceful transfer of power". The New York Times. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
- ^ Rosenberg, Matthew; Rutenberg, Jim (February 1, 2021). "Key Takeaways From Trump's Effort to Overturn the Election – A Times examination of the 77 days between election and inauguration shows how a lie the former president had been grooming for years overwhelmed the Republican Party and stoked the assault on the Capitol". The New York Times. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Schouten, Fredreka (December 3, 2020). "Trump raises more than $207 million since Election Day as he pushes baseless election fraud claims". CNN. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- Dawsey, Josh; Lee, Michelle Ye Hee. "Trump raises more than $150 million appealing to false election claims". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
- Goldmacher, Shane; Haberman, Maggie (December 1, 2020). "Trump Raises $170 Million as He Denies His Loss and Eyes the Future". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
- Renshaw, Jarrett; Tanfani, Joseph (November 11, 2020). "Donations under $8K to Trump 'election defense' instead go to president, RNC". reuters.com.
- ^ Polantz, Katelyn; Cohen, Zachary; Perez, Evan. "How a Trump environmental lawyer tried to weaponize the Justice Department to help the President". CNN.
- ^ Al-Arshani, Sarah (February 7, 2021). "Trump's attempts to overturn the election have cost taxpayers more than $519 million so far, Washington Post finds". Business Insider. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
- ^ Sherman, Amy; Valverde, Miriam (January 8, 2021). "Joe Biden is right that more than 60 of Trump's election lawsuits lacked merit". PolitiFact.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Cummings, William; Joey Garrison and Jim Sergent (January 6, 2021). "By the numbers: President Donald Trump's failed efforts to overturn the election". USA Today. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Liptak, Adam (December 8, 2020). "Supreme Court Rejects Republican Challenge to Pennsylvania Vote". The New York Times.
- ^ Shamsian, Jacob; Sheth, Sonam (January 5, 2021). "Trump and Republican officials have won zero out of at least 42 lawsuits they've filed since Election Day". Business Insider. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Garder, Amy (November 16, 2020). "Ga. secretary of state says fellow Republicans are pressuring him to find ways to exclude ballots". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Fessler, Pam (November 19, 2020). "Despite More Than 2 Dozen Legal Losses, Trump's Lawyers Press On With Election Fights". NPR. Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- Feuer, Alan (November 22, 2020). "Judge Dismisses Trump Lawsuit Seeking to Delay Certification in Pennsylvania". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
- Fahrenthold, David A.; Reinhard, Beth; Viebeck, Elise; Brown, Emma (November 20, 2020). "Trump's escalating attacks put pressure on vote certification process". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Gardner, Amy (January 3, 2021). "'I just want to find 11,780 votes': In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Gardner, Amy; Itkowitz, Colby; Dawsey, Josh (December 5, 2020). "Trump calls Georgia governor to pressure him for help overturning Biden's win in the state". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Scolforo, Mark (November 24, 2020). "Biden certified as winner of Pennsylvania presidential vote". Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Brumback, Kate (November 20, 2020). "Georgia officials certify election results showing Biden win". Associated Press. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Wild, Whitney; Herb, Jeremy; Fox, Lauren; Cohen, Zachary; Nobles, Ryan (June 15, 2021). "New emails show how Trump and his allies pressured Justice Department to try to challenge 2020 election results". CNN.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Herb, Jeremy (July 30, 2021). "Trump to DOJ last December: 'Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me' | CNN Politics". CNN.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Reich, Robert (August 3, 2021). "A Trump bombshell quietly dropped last week. And it should shock us all - A newly released memo shows that Trump told the acting attorney general: 'Just say the election was corrupt [and] leave the rest to me and the [Republican] congressmen'". The Guardian. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Mascaro, Lisa (September 30, 2020). "Trump thrusts Supreme Court pick into election turmoil". AP NEWS. Archived from the original on November 2, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- Mason, Jeff (September 24, 2020). "Trump hedges on transferring power, says election will end up at Supreme Court". Reuters. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- McCoy, Kevin; Wolf, Richard (December 1, 2020). "Lawsuit by Trump allies challenging Pennsylvania election results reaches Supreme Court". USA Today. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- Gresko, Jessica; Sherman, Mark (November 7, 2020). "Trump faces tough road in getting Supreme Court to intervene". AP News. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Polantz, Katelyn (December 3, 2020). "With Trump and allies headed to the Supreme Court, elections cases still dead on arrival". CNN. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Vallejo, Justin (December 3, 2020). "Michael Flynn calls for Trump to suspend the constitution and declare martial law to re-run election". The Independent. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- Krawczyk, Kathryn (December 2, 2020). "Freshly pardoned Michael Flynn shares message telling Trump to 'suspend the Constitution' to hold a new presidential election". The Week. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
- Meyer, Ken (December 2, 2020). "Michael Flynn Calls for Trump to 'Suspend the Constitution,' Impose Martial Law". Mediaite. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
- ^ Pengelly, Martin (December 2020). "Trump lawyer: ex-election security chief Krebs should be 'taken out and shot'". The Guardian.
- ^ Sanger, David E.; Perlroth, Nicole (November 18, 2020). "Trump Fires Christopher Krebs, Official Who Disputed Election Fraud Claims". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Payne, Adam (December 1, 2020). "Trump lawyer Joe diGenova says election security chief fired by the president should be 'taken out at dawn and shot'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
- Acosta, Jim; Tapper, Jake; Cohen, Zachary; Cole, Devan (December 2, 2020). "Trump attorney issues call for violence against truth-telling former election cybersecurity official". CNN. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
- Izadi, Elahe (December 3, 2020). "Joseph diGenova resigns from Gridiron Club after saying fired cybersecurity official should be shot". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
- ^ O'Connell, Oliver (January 31, 2021). "Trump impeachment lawyers quit 10 days before Senate trial".
- ^ "'This is Going to Escalate Dramatically': Trump Threatens a 'Dangerous Moment' Forthcoming in Twitter Spree Assailing Election". December 10, 2020.
- ^ Fordham, Evie (December 9, 2020). "Trump touts Texas Supreme Court case as 'the big one,' says 'we will be intervening'". Fox News.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Liptak, Adam (December 11, 2020). "Supreme Court Rejects Texas Suit Seeking to Subvert Election". The New York Times.
- ^ Sonmez, Felicia; Dawsey, Josh; Lamothe, Dan; Zapotosky, Matt (December 21, 2020). "A frustrated Trump redoubles efforts to overturn election result". The Washington Post.
- ^ Rahman, Rema (December 21, 2020). "No. 2 GOP senator: Efforts to overturn election would 'go down like a shot dog'". TheHill.
- ^ Edmondson, Catie; Crowley, Michael (December 30, 2020). "Hawley Answers Trump's Call for Election Challenge". The New York Times.
- ^ Herb, Jeremy; Mattingly, Phil; Fox, Lauren (December 30, 2020). "GOP senator to delay affirming Biden victory". CNN.
- ^ Wagner, John. "Sen. Hawley announces he will contest certification of electoral college vote". The Washington Post.
- ^ Broadwater, Luke (January 2, 2021). "Pence Welcomes Futile Bid by G.O.P. Lawmakers to Overturn Election". The New York Times.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Karni, Annie (January 4, 2021). "Pence's Choice: Side With the Constitution or His Boss". The New York Times.
- ^ Jalonick, Mary Clare (January 3, 2021). "EXPLAINER: How Congress will count Electoral College votes". Associated Press.
- ^ Evelyn, Kenya (January 9, 2021). "Capitol attack: the five people who died". The Guardian.
- ^ Smith, Terrance (November 11, 2020). "Trump has longstanding history of calling elections 'rigged' if he doesn't like the results". ABC News. Archived from the original on November 30, 2020. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
- ^ Collinson, Stephen (October 20, 2016). "Donald Trump refuses to say whether he'll accept election results". CNN. Archived from the original on October 20, 2016. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
- ^ Pace, Julie; Lerer, Lisa (October 20, 2016). "Debate Stunner: Trump Won't Say He'll Accept Election Result". The Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
- ^ Gambino, Lauren (October 21, 2016). "What would happen if Donald Trump refused to concede this election?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ Diamond, Jeremy (October 20, 2016). "Donald Trump: 'I will totally accept' election results 'if I win'". CNN. Archived from the original on October 21, 2016. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
- ^ "Trump claims millions voted illegally in presidential poll". BBC News. November 28, 2016. Archived from the original on November 23, 2020. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
- ^ Bertrand, Natasha; Samuelsohn, Darren (June 21, 2019). "What if Trump won't accept 2020 defeat?". Politico. Archived from the original on July 26, 2020. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
- ^ Gessen, Masha (July 21, 2020). "What could happen if Donald Trump rejects electoral defeat?". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on July 31, 2020. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
- ^ Ward, Jon (October 1, 2020). "Trump's false claims of rigged voting are 'a perilous thing,' says top Republican expert". Yahoo News.
- ^ Beer, Tommy (September 24, 2020). "Here's Everything Trump Has Said About Refusing To Give Up Power". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
- ^ Lange, Jason (June 12, 2020). "Trump says he will 'do other things' if he loses 2020 election". Reuters. Archived from the original on July 29, 2020. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
- ^ Feuer, Will (July 19, 2020). "President Trump won't agree to accept 2020 election results as Biden leads in polls – 'I have to see'". CNBC. Archived from the original on July 28, 2020. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
- ^ "Trump won't commit to peaceful transfer of power". BBC News. September 24, 2020. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- ^ Choi, Matthew (September 23, 2020). "Trump declines to commit to a peaceful transition of power after election". Politico. Archived from the original on September 29, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- ^ Kiely, Eugene; Rieder, Rem (September 30, 2020). "Trump's Repeated False Attacks on Mail-In Ballots". FactCheck. Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
- ^ Riccardi, Nicholas (September 30, 2020). "Here's the reality behind Trump's claims about mail voting". Associated Press.
- ^ Parks, Miles (August 28, 2020). "Ignoring FBI And Fellow Republicans, Trump Continues Assault On Mail-In Voting". NPR.
- ^ Stimson, Brie (September 24, 2020). "Trump blasts ballots when asked about election aftermath: 'The ballots are a disaster'". Fox News. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
- ^ Levine, Marianne; Desiderio, Andrew; Everett, Burgess (September 24, 2020). "Republicans break with Trump over peaceful transition of power". Politico. Archived from the original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- ^ Cillizza, Chris (September 25, 2020). "The FBI director just totally shut down Donald Trump's vote-fraud conspiracy". CNN. Archived from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
- ^ Crowley, Michael (September 24, 2020). "2020 Election Live Updates: Trump Once Again Questions the Election, as Top Republicans Commit to a Peaceful Transfer of Power". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- ^ Kane, Paul; Bade, Rachael; Itkowitz, Colby (September 24, 2020). "What Senate Republicans are saying after Trump refused to commit to an orderly transfer of power". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 28, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
- ^
- Baker, Peter (September 23, 2020). "Trump says he wants a conservative majority on the Supreme Court in case of an Election Day dispute". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- Reklaitis, Victor (September 23, 2020). "Trump says Supreme Court will need 9th justice to decide election outcome". MarketWatch. Archived from the original on September 26, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- Garrison, David Jackson and Joey (September 23, 2020). "Trump says he wants to fill Supreme Court seat quickly in case justices need to settle election dispute". USA Today. Archived from the original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- Mason, Jeff (September 24, 2020). "Trump hedges on transferring power, says election will end up at Supreme Court". Reuters. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- Stieb, Matt (September 23, 2020). "Trump Says Supreme Court Needs 9 Justices for Potential Election Dispute". Intelligencer. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- Wingrove, Josh (September 23, 2020). "Trump Talks Up Need for Full Court as He Casts Doubt on Election". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- ^ Morgan, David (October 8, 2020). "'Democracy isn't the objective': Republican U.S. senator draws Democrats' ire". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
- ^ Dale, Daniel (June 12, 2021). "Trump is doing more lying about the election than talking about any other subject". CNN. Archived from the original on June 16, 2021. Similar graphic in source attributed to Janie Boschma, CNN.
- ^ Izadi, Elahe (November 8, 2020). "First CNN, then within minutes, most other news organizations called the race for Biden". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b King, Ledyard (November 7, 2020). "Trump revives baseless claims of election fraud after Biden wins presidential race". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Woodward, Calvin (November 17, 2020). "AP Fact Check: Trump conclusively lost, denies the evidence". Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ Shubber, Kadhim (November 16, 2020). "Lawsuit tracker: Trump's battle faces tough test this week". Financial Times. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Tillman, Zoe (November 5, 2020). "Judges Are Rejecting Trump's False Claims Of Shady Poll Practices After Looking At The Evidence". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
- ^ Subramaniam, Tara; Lybrand, Holmes (November 20, 2020). "Fact checking Giuliani and the Trump legal team's wild, fact-free press conference". CNN. Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- ^ Stempel, Jonathan (June 24, 2021). "Rudolph Giuliani is suspended from law practice in New York state". Reuters. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
- ^ Lamire, Jonathan (November 10, 2020). "Refusing to concede, Trump blocks cooperation on transition". Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 10, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- ^ Balsamo, Michael (November 10, 2020). "Barr tells DOJ to probe election fraud claims if they exist". Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
- ^ Seitz-Wald, Alex (April 5, 2021). "'The 45th': Why Trump is abandoning his iconic brand for a number". NBC News. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
- ^ Colvin, Jill (June 26, 2021). "Trump airs old election grievances in return to rally stage". AP News. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
- ^ Layne, Nathan (June 27, 2021). "At Ohio rally, Trump knocks Biden on border, hints at 2024 plans". Reuters. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Triomphe, Catherine (November 6, 2020). "Explaining 'Stop the Steal', Trump supporters' viral offensive to discredit the election". America Votes. Archived from the original on November 10, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- Romm, Tony; Stanley-Becker, Isaac; Dwoskin, Elizabeth (November 6, 2020). "Facebook bans 'STOP THE STEAL' group Trump allies were using to organize protests against vote counting". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 10, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- Ghaffary, Shirin (November 5, 2020). "Facebook took down a massive 'Stop the Steal' group after its members called for violence". Vox. Archived from the original on November 10, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- Perez, Sarah; Hatmaker, Taylor (November 5, 2020). "Facebook blocks hashtags for #sharpiegate, #stopthesteal election conspiracies". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- Parks, Miles (November 8, 2020). "The Next 2020 Election Fight? Convincing Trump's Supporters That He Lost". NPR. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- Sullivan, Mark (November 5, 2020). "The pro-Trump 'Stop the Steal' movement is still growing on Facebook". Fast Company. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
- Beckett, Lois (November 6, 2020). "Tea party-linked activists protest against election fraud in US cities". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
- Doerer, Kristen (November 5, 2020). "Right-Wing Operative Ali Alexander Leads 'Stop the Steal' Campaign". Right Wing Watch. Archived from the original on November 5, 2020. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Goba, Kadia (November 4, 2020). "Donald Trump Is Lying About The Early Election Results". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on November 4, 2020. Retrieved November 4, 2020.
- King, Ledyard (November 7, 2020). "Trump revives baseless claims of election fraud after Biden wins presidential race". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
- Haberman, Maggie; Corasaniti, Nick; Rutenberg, Jim; Feuer, Alan; Thrush, Glenn; Gray, Kathleen (November 19, 2020). "Presidential Transition Live Updates: Trump Invites State Lawmakers to White House in Bid to Subvert Election". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 23, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
- ^ Frenkel, Sheera (November 13, 2020). "Beware of this misinformation from 'Stop the Steal' rallies this weekend". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Breland, Ali (November 7, 2020). "Meet the right-wing trolls behind "Stop The Steal"". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- ^ Athas, Eric; Carlson, Seth; Keefe, John; Miller, Claire Cain; Parlapiano, Alicia; Sanger-Katz, Margot (November 7, 2020). "Tracking Which News Outlets Have Called the Presidential Race in Each State". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
- ^ Corasaniti, Nick; Epstein, Reid J.; Rutenberg, Jim (November 11, 2020). "The Times Called Officials in Every State: No Evidence of Voter Fraud". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
- ^ Cheney, Kyle; Gerstein, Josh (December 4, 2020). "Donald Trump's brutal day in court". Politico. Archived from the original on December 6, 2020. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
- ^ Kuznia, Rob (November 14, 2020). "Stop the Steal's massive disinformation campaign connected to Roger Stone". CNN. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Wong, Julia Carrie (November 5, 2020). "Facebook removes pro-Trump Stop the Steal group over 'calls for violence'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
- ^ Frenkel, Sheera (November 5, 2020). "The Rise and Fall of the 'Stop the Steal' Facebook Group". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
- ^ Culliford, Elizabeth; Satter, Raphael (November 5, 2020). "Pro-Trump Facebook group protesting vote count adding 1000 members every 10 seconds". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
- ^ Dickson, E. J. (November 5, 2020). "A Pro-Trump 'Stop the Steal' Group Rapidly Grew on Facebook". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on November 10, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- ^ Schulberg, Jessica; Cook, Jesselyn (November 5, 2020). "Nationwide 'Stop The Steal' Protests Are Being Pushed By GOP Operatives And The Far-Right". HuffPost. Archived from the original on December 14, 2020. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
- ^ Rosen, Guy (January 11, 2021). "Our Preparations Ahead of Inauguration Day". About Facebook. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
- ^ "Twitter suspends 70,000 accounts linked to QAnon". BBC News. January 12, 2021. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ Mac, Ryan; Silverman, Craig (November 5, 2020). "Facebook Has A Metric For "Violence And Incitement Trends." It's Rising". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
- ^ "Community Standards". Facebook. Archived from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
- ^ "Violence Brewed in Facebook Groups Ahead of 'Stop The Steal' Protests". Snopes.com. November 5, 2020. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
- ^ Rupar, Aaron (November 5, 2020). "Trump's desperate "STOP THE COUNT!" tweet, briefly explained". Vox. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
- ^ Yancey-Bragg, N'dea (November 13, 2020). "Trump supporters plan rallies in Washington DC, experts warn extremists may attend". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ Marcus, Josh (November 4, 2020). "'Stop the count': Crowd tries to storm Detroit convention centre". The Independent. Archived from the original on November 19, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ LeBlanc, Beth (November 14, 2020). "Trump supporters dispute Michigan vote count at 'Stop the Steal' rally on Capitol lawn". The Detroit News. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ Komenda, Ed (November 4, 2020). "Nevada election 2020: Vote challengers gather outside election department in Las Vegas". Reno Gazette Journal. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ Mendez, Astrid (November 8, 2020). "'Stop the steal' protest outside Clark County Election Center Office". KTNV. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ Rickert, Chris; Wroge, Logan (November 7, 2020). "Trump supporters, counter protesters clash at Madison rally". madison.com. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ "Demonstrators rally for Trump in front of Georgia Capitol". WSBTV. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ Thomas, Matthew; Smith, Mary (November 7, 2020). "Trump, Biden supporters rally at Ohio Statehouse after Biden projected to win election". WSYX. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ Jones, Julia; Snider, Sara (November 15, 2020). "MAGA March brings together Trump voters, far-right leaders and counterprotesters, ending in some clashes". CNN. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
- ^ O'Kane, Caitlin (December 7, 2020). "Dozens of armed 'stop the steal' protesters threaten Michigan Secretary of State outside her house". CBS News. Archived from the original on December 11, 2020. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
- ^ Koenig, Lauren (December 12, 2020). "Several people stabbed and 33 arrested as 'Stop the Steal' protesters and counterprotesters clash in Washington, DC". CNN. Archived from the original on December 14, 2020. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
- ^ Brownell, Andy (April 7, 2021). "FBI Says Minnesota Boogaloo Bois Member Scouted the State Capitol". KRFO. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- ^ "Self-Described Member Of Boogaloo Bois Arrested, Charged With Illegal Possession Of A Machine Gun". www.justice.gov. April 7, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- ^ Mannix, Andy (July 15, 2021). "Boogaloo Bois member accused in plot to attack Minnesota Capitol pleads guilty to firearm charge". Star Tribune. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
- ^ MacFarquhar, Neil (March 26, 2021). "Far-Right Extremists Move From 'Stop the Steal' to Stop the Vaccine". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
- ^ Devine, Curt; Griffin, Drew (February 5, 2021). "How two anti-government conspiracy theories converged". CNN. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
- ^ "Gingrich Pushes 'Soros Stole the Election' Conspiracy Theory on Fox News". Haaretz. Associated Press. November 9, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "Fact check: Evidence disproves claims of Italian conspiracy to meddle in U.S. election (known as #ItalyGate)". Reuters. January 15, 2021.
- ^ "Vatican blackout hoax linked to ItalyGate conspiracy theory". Formiche.net. January 12, 2021.
- ^ Caldera, Camille (January 8, 2021). "Fact check: Claims of electoral fraud in Rome, dubbed 'ItalyGate,' are baseless". USA TODAY.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Benner, Katie (June 5, 2021). "Meadows Pressed Justice Dept. to Investigate Election Fraud Claims". The New York Times.
- Pengelly, Martin (June 6, 2021). "Trump aide asked DoJ to investigate bizarre 'Italygate' claim votes were changed by satellite". The Guardian.
- Bolies, Corbin (June 5, 2021). "Meadows Pushed DOJ to Probe Insane 'Italygate' Election Fraud Theory". The Daily Beast.
- "Trump aide asked DOJ to probe bizarre 'Italygate' election fraud claim". South China Morning Post. June 6, 2021.
- ^ Keveny, Bill; Puente, Maria (January 11, 2021). "How conservative media stoked baseless election-fraud claims that motivated DC rioters". USA Today. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Darcy, Oliver (November 17, 2020). "Company debunks conspiracy theory that its server showed a landslide for Trump". CNN. Archived from the original on November 30, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
- ^ Dwoskin, Elizabeth; Lerman, Rachel (November 10, 2020). "'Stop the Steal' supporters, restrained by Facebook, turn to Parler to peddle false election claims". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
- ^ Brandom, Russell (November 9, 2020). "Parler, a conservative Twitter clone, has seen nearly 1 million downloads since Election Day". The Verge. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
- ^ Shead, Sam (January 11, 2021). "Parler CEO says app will be offline 'longer than expected' because of Amazon, Apple and Google". CNBC. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
- ^ Karni, Annie; Haberman, Maggie (June 5, 2021). "At Once Diminished and Dominating, Trump Prepares for His Next Act". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
- ^ "Arizona GOP election audit draws more Republican politicians". AP NEWS. June 2, 2021. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e McEvoy, Jemima (November 18, 2020). "Trump's 'Post-Election Purge': Head Of Election Cybersecurity, 11 Other Top Officials Out". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
- ^ Mehta, Aaron (November 10, 2020). "Esper fired as defense secretary". Defense News. Archived from the original on November 10, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ Alexander, Harriet (November 11, 2020). "White House 'requesting names of those who clapped out departing Pentagon official'". The Independent. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ Schmitt, Eric; Goldman, Adam (December 1, 2020). "Another Official Is Ousted From the Pentagon". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
- ^ Sanger, David E. (November 18, 2020). "Trump fires Christopher Krebs, whose agency disputed president's false claims of election fraud". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
- ^ "Trump fires election security official who contradicted him". BBC News. November 18, 2020. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
- ^ Dawsey, Josh; Eilperin, Juliet; Hudson, John; Rein, Lisa (November 13, 2020). "In Trump's final days, a 30-year-old aide purges officials seen as insufficiently loyal". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
- ^ Hansler, Jennifer; Atwood, Kylie (November 7, 2020). "Second highest-ranking official at USAID ousted". CNN. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Waldmann, Scott (November 10, 2020). "Trump to put climate change denier in charge of key U.S. report". Science Magazine. doi:10.1126/science.abf6536. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- Boyle, Louise (November 10, 2020). "Trump removes scientist who led sweeping climate change report and other officials". The Independent. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- Flavelle, Christopher; Friedman, Lisa; Davenport, Coral (November 9, 2020). "Trump Administration Removes Scientist in Charge of Assessing Climate Change". The New York Times. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- Samenow, Jason; Freedman, Andrew; Eilperin, Juliet (November 9, 2020). "Trump administration removes head of federal climate program that oversees key reports". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
- ^ Flavelle, Christopher (May 19, 2021). "Biden reappoints a top climate scientist who was removed by Trump". The New York Times. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
- ^ Castronuovo, Celine (November 6, 2020). "Lisa Gordon-Hagerty resigns as chief of nuclear weapons agency". The Hill. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
- ^ Feinberg, Andrew (October 30, 2020). "Trump just quietly passed an executive order that could destroy a future Biden administration". The Independent. Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
- ^ Wegmann, Philip (November 21, 2020). "OMB Lists Positions Stripped of Job Protection Under Trump Order". Real Clear Politics. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
- ^ Ogrysko, Nicole (November 24, 2020). "Congress, employee groups ramp up pressure to block Schedule F executive order". Federal News Network. Archived from the original on November 30, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
- ^ Rampell, Catherine (November 30, 2020). "Trump lays the groundwork for a massive government purge on his way out the door". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
- ^ Stein, Jeff; Werner, Erica; Dawsey, Josh (November 10, 2020). "White House tells federal agencies to proceed with plans for Trump's February budget in latest sign of election defiance". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
- ^ Davis, Tina (November 7, 2020). "Trump's Election Lawsuits: Where the Fights Are Playing Out". Bloomberg Law. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- ^ "Courting failure: Donald Trump still hopes lawsuits will make up for his lack of votes". The Economist. November 7, 2020. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
- ^ Shubber, Kadhim (November 8, 2020). "Trump clings to courtroom hopes despite lawsuit losses". Financial Times. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
- ^ Parks, Miles (November 10, 2020). "Trump Election Lawsuits Have Mostly Failed. Here's What They Tried". NPR. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2020.
- ^ Fessler, Pam (November 19, 2020). "Despite More Than 2 Dozen Legal Losses, Trump's Lawyers Press On With Election Fights". NPR. Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- ^ "US election: Trump camp's lawsuit struck down in Pennsylvania". BBC News. April 10, 2020. Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ "MEMORANDUM OPINION" (PDF). pacer-documents.s3.amazonaws.com. November 21, 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
- ^ Axelrod, Tal (November 17, 2020). "Michigan county reverses course, votes unanimously to certify election results". The Hill. Archived from the original on November 19, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- ^ Hendrickson, Clara (November 19, 2020). "Donald Trump called Monica Palmer after Wayne County Board of Canvassers meeting". Detroit Free Press. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ Bowden, John (November 19, 2020). "Republicans in key Michigan county ask to rescind votes to certify election". The Hill. Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- ^ Meloni, Rod; Kelly, Dane (November 20, 2020). "Wayne County GOP canvassers say call from Trump did not influence vote decisions". WDIV. Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ Fahrenthold, David A.; Hamburger, Tom; Dawsey, Josh; Ruble, Kayla (November 19, 2020). "Trump invites Michigan Republican leaders to meet him at White House as he attempts to overturn election results". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ Falcon, Russell (April 14, 2016). "'Dom Perignon' trends on Twitter after Michigan GOP leaders seen drinking $495 champagne at Trump hotel". WGN-TV. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ Mauger, Craig (November 22, 2020). "Michigan House speaker floats possibility of 'constitutional crisis'". Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
- ^ Bangura, Fatima (November 21, 2020). "GOP leaders ask Michigan Board of State Canvassers to delay certification of election results for 2 weeks". WXYZ. Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ Ahmad, Zahra (November 23, 2020). "Board of Canvassers certifies Michigan's election results". mlive. Archived from the original on November 23, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
- ^ Gregorian, Dareh; Clark, Dartunorro (November 18, 2020). "Georgia officials spar with Sen. Lindsey Graham over alleged ballot tossing comments". NBC News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
- ^ Kane, Paul (November 17, 2020). "Lindsey Graham's one-man voting probe prompts confusion". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
- ^ Tarm, Michael (September 24, 2019). "Wisconsin officials: Trump observers obstructing recount". Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ Marley, Patrick (November 29, 2020). "Biden gains 87 votes in Trump's $3 million Wisconsin recount as Dane County wraps up review. President plans lawsuit". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Archived from the original on November 30, 2020. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
- ^ "Trump phones in false claims at Pennsylvania Senate committee hearing on voting "irregularities"". CBS News. November 25, 2020. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
- ^ Small, Jim; Gómez, Laura (December 14, 2020). "Arizona Senate will subpoena Maricopa County for election audit". Arizona Mirror.
- ^ Mauger, Craig (December 1, 2020). "Michigan Senate hearing puts new spotlight on unproven claims of election fraud". The Detroit News.
- ^ "Fact check: TV news clip does not show 'live computerized fraud' on Election Day 2020". Reuters. November 10, 2020. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
- ^ Fichera, Angelo; Spencer, Saranac Hale (November 13, 2020). "Bogus Theory Claims Supercomputer Switched Votes in Election". FactCheck.org. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
- ^ Fichera, Angelo; Spencer, Saranac Hale (November 13, 2020). "Bogus Theory Claims Supercomputer Switched Votes in Election". FactCheck.org. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ Leibovich, Mark (November 20, 2020). "Trump's Legal Team Sets a Precedent for Lowering the Bar". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
- ^ Fichera, Angelo; Spencer, Saranac Hale (November 13, 2020). "Bogus Theory Claims Supercomputer Switched Votes in Election". FactCheck.org. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
- ^ Tucker, Eric; Bajak, Frank (November 13, 2020). "Repudiating Trump, officials say election 'most secure'". AP News. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
- ^ Collins, Kaitlan; LeBlanc, Paul (November 18, 2020). "Trump fires director of Homeland Security agency who had rejected President's election conspiracy theories". CNN. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved November 18, 2020.
- ^ Peters, Jeremy W.; Feuer, Alan (December 8, 2020). "What We Know About Sidney Powell, the Lawyer Behind Wild Voting Conspiracy Theories". The New York Times. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Kessler, Glenn (November 19, 2020). "Fact-checking the craziest news conference of the Trump presidency". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Sherman, Jake; Palmer, Anna; Ross, Garrett; Okun, Eli (November 19, 2020). "POLITICO Playbook PM: Rudy". Politico. Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
- ^ Qiu, Linda (November 20, 2020). "Trump allies are among the frequent purveyors of election misinformation". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 30, 2020. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
- ^ Joffe-Block, Jude (November 14, 2020). "False reports claim election servers were seized in Germany". Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ "Scytl strongly denies the false information related to the U.S. elections". Scytl. November 13, 2020. Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- ^ Roose, Kevin (November 18, 2020). "No, the Army didn't seize a German server showing a Trump landslide". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- ^ Barnes, Julian E. (March 16, 2021). "Russian Interference in 2020 Included Influencing Trump Associates, Report Says". The New York Times.
- ^ Garrett, Alexandra (November 22, 2020). "Trump lawyer Sidney Powell said that the Georgia election lawsuit "will be biblical," suggests GOP governor helped Biden". Newsweek. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
- ^ "Trump campaign cuts ties with attorney Sidney Powell after bizarre election fraud claims". The Guardian. Associated Press. November 23, 2020. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
- ^ Haberman, Maggie; Feuer, Alan (November 22, 2020). "Trump Team Disavows Lawyer Who Peddled Conspiracy Theories on Voting". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 23, 2020. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
- ^ Feldman, Josh (November 22, 2020). "Sidney Powell Goes After Brian Kemp Over Election Conspiracy". Mediaite. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ "Sidney Powell: Trump team cuts ties with lawyer who peddled bizarre fraud claims". BBC News. November 23, 2020. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
- ^ Vella, Lauren (November 19, 2020). "Ernst: Trump lawyer claim that candidates pay to rig elections 'absolutely outrageous'". The Hill. Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
- ^ Smith, David (November 21, 2020). "Trump makes futile last stand to overturn results as Georgia certifies Biden win". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- ^ Campbell, Jason [@JasonSCampbell] (November 19, 2020). "Sidney Powell: "The entire election, frankly, in all the swing states should be overturned and the legislatures should make sure that the electors are selected for Trump"" (Tweet). Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2020 – via Twitter.
- ^ Gardner, Amy; Dawsey, Josh; Bade, Rachael (December 8, 2020). "Trump asks Pennsylvania House speaker for help overturning election results, personally intervening in a third state". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Feldman, Josh (December 18, 2020). "Lou Dobbs Airs Stunning Fact-Check of His Own Election Claims". Mediaite. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Feldman, Josh (December 20, 2020). "Maria Bartiromo Airs Fact-Check, Adds 'We Will Keep Investigating'". Mediaite.
- ^ Barr, Jeremy (December 19, 2020). "Lou Dobbs debunks his own claims of election fraud – after a legal demand from Smartmatic". The Washington Post.
- ^ Darcy, Oliver (February 4, 2021). "Voting technology company Smartmatic files $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell over 'disinformation campaign'". CNN. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
- ^ Collins, Kaitlan (December 19, 2020). "Trump campaign told to preserve all documents related to Sidney Powell and Dominion Voting Systems". CNN.
- ^ Naham, Matt (December 17, 2020). "Days After Smartmatic's Legal Threat, Dominion Voting Systems Follows Suit with Demand Letter to Sidney Powell". lawandcrime.com. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ "Dominion sues Trump lawyer Sidney Powell for defamation". Associated Press. January 8, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Polantz, Katelyn (March 23, 2021). "Sidney Powell argues in new court filing that no reasonable people would believe her election fraud claims". CNN. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Wines, Michael (December 3, 2012). "Here Are the Threats Terrorizing Election Workers". The New York Times.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Pilkington, Ed; Levine, Sam (December 9, 2020). "'It's surreal': the US officials facing violent threats as Trump claims voter fraud". The Guardian. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Pengelly, Martin (December 1, 2020). "Trump lawyer: ex-election security chief Krebs should be 'taken out and shot'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
- ^ Montellaro, Zach (December 1, 2020). "Georgia election official condemns Trump after threat to worker". Politico. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
- ^ Knowles, Hannah; Gowen, Annie; Hamburger, Tom (December 13, 2020). "'A dark, empty place:' Public officials face personal threats as tensions flare". The Washington Post.
- ^ Corasaniti, Nick; Rutenberg, Jim; Gray, Kathleen (December 9, 2020). "As Trump Rails Against Loss, His Supporters Become More Threatening". The New York Times.
- ^ Vella, Lauren (January 2, 2021). "Appeals court dismisses Gohmert's election suit against Pence". TheHill. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Kilander, Gustaf (January 2, 2021). "Trump election lawyer Lin Wood calls for Pence to be 'executed by firing squad'". The Independent. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Crump, James (December 15, 2020). "Trump election lawyer calls on his supporters to stock up on '2nd Amendment supplies'". The Independent. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Timberg, Craig; Harwell, Drew (January 5, 2021). "Pro-Trump forums erupt with violent threats ahead of Wednesday's rally against the 2020 election". The Washington Post.
- ^ Zadrozny, Brandy; Collins, Ben (January 6, 2021). "Violent threats ripple through far-right internet forums ahead of protest". NBC News.
- ^ Hamburger, Tom; Ruble, Kayla; Fahrenthold, David A.; Dawsey, Josh (November 19, 2020). "Trump invites Michigan Republican leaders to meet him at White House as he escalates attempts to overturn election results". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
- ^ Grayer, Annie; Herb, Jeremy; Duster, Chandelis (November 23, 2020). "Michigan's state board certifies Biden's win". CNN. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
- ^ Fausset, Richard; Saul, Stephanie (November 12, 2020). "Georgia's Close Elections Sent Republicans After a Republican". The New York Times. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Meyer, Ken (December 6, 2020). "Brad Raffensperger Responds to Death Threats, 'Irrational' Behavior Over GA Election Results". Mediaite. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ "Correction: Trump-Georgia story". The Washington Post. March 15, 2021. Archived from the original on March 16, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
- ^ Gardner, Amy (January 9, 2021). "'Find the fraud': Trump pressured a Georgia elections investigator in a separate call legal experts say could amount to obstruction 'Find the fraud': Trump pressured a Georgia elections investigator in a separate call legal experts say could amount to obstruction". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
- ^ Fausset, Richard; Corasaniti, Nick (December 7, 2020). "Georgia Recertifies Election Results, Affirming Biden's Victory". The New York Times.
- ^ Long, Colleen; White, Ed (December 8, 2020). "Trump thought courts were key to winning. Judges disagreed". Associated Press.
- ^ Gillman, Todd J. (December 9, 2020). "17 states, and Trump, join Texas request for Supreme Court to overturn Biden wins in four states". Dallas News.
- ^ Liptak, Adam (December 8, 2020). "Texas files an audacious suit with the Supreme Court challenging the election results". The New York Times.
- ^ Bluestein, Greg (December 9, 2020). "Trump warns Georgia AG not to rally other Republicans against Texas lawsuit". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020.
- ^ Gabriel, Trip (December 9, 2020). "Even in Defeat, Trump Tightens Grip on State G.O.P. Lawmakers". The New York Times.
- ^ Solender, Andrew (December 11, 2020). "126 House Republicans Now Support Lawsuit To Overturn Election In Updated Brief". Forbes. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
- ^ Editorial Board (December 11, 2020). "Editorial: We apologize for endorsing U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, who wants to overturn the election". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on January 4, 2021. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ "Order in Pending Case" (PDF). Supreme Court of the United States. December 11, 2020.
- ^ "READ: Supreme Court order on Texas election case". CNN News. December 11, 2020. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b The Editorial board (December 11, 2020). "The Republicans Who Embraced Nihilism – The Supreme Court thwarts the latest Trumpist attack on American democracy". The New York Times. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
- ^ Bowker, Brittany (December 12, 2020). "Calls for GOP not to be seated in Congress: A look at the fallout from Texas's brazen election lawsuit". The Boston Globe. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
- ^ Cooper, Ryan (December 12, 2020). "The Constitution has an answer for seditious members of Congress". Yahoo! News. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
- ^ Sherman, Mark (December 14, 2020). "Electoral College makes it official: Biden won, Trump lost". Associated Press.
- ^ Corasaniti, Nick; Rutenberg, Jim (December 14, 2020). "Electoral College Vote Officially Affirms Biden's Victory". The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- ^ Hansen, Ronald J. (December 14, 2020). "Fake electors try to deliver Arizona's 11 votes for Trump". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- ^ Samuels, Brett (December 14, 2020). "Electors cast ballots for Biden amid simmering national tensions". The Hill. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- ^ Durkee, Alison (December 14, 2020). "Group Claiming To Be Michigan GOP Electors Locked Out of Capitol, Police Used To Bar Entrance". Forbes. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- ^ McLeod, Paul (December 14, 2020). "Pro-Trump Republicans Are Holding Fake Electoral College Votes While The Real Electoral College Meets To Formalize Biden's Win". Buzzfeed News. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- ^ Corasaniti, Nick; Rutenberg, Jim (December 15, 2020). "No, there aren't 'alternate electors' who can vote for President Trump". The New York Times.
- ^ Coleman, Justine (December 14, 2020). "Texas electors vote to call on battleground states to appoint Trump electors". The Hill. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
- ^ Easley, Jonathan (December 14, 2020). "Biden rips Trump's refusal to concede after Electoral College vote". The Hill.
- ^ Jump up to: a b
- Cheney, Kyle; Gerstein, Josh (December 19, 2020). "Trump sought to tap Sidney Powell as special counsel for election fraud". Politico.
- Haberman, Maggie; Kanno-Youngs, Zolan (December 19, 2020). "Trump Weighed Naming Election Conspiracy Theorist as Special Counsel". The New York Times.
- Liptak, Kevin; Brown, Pamela (December 21, 2020). "Heated Oval Office meeting included talk of special counsel, martial law as Trump advisers clash". CNN.
- Rubin, Olivia; Mosk, Matthew; Santucci, John; Faulders, Katherine (December 20, 2020). "Fired attorney Sidney Powell is back, advising Trump to chart a scorched-earth course". ABC News.
- Williams, Jordan (December 18, 2020). "Michael Flynn: Trump could deploy military to 'rerun' election". The Hill.
- ^ Lambe, Jerry (December 2, 2020). "Lawyers Condemn Michael Flynn and Lin Wood's 'Breathtakingly Morally Treasonous' Call for Trump to Declare Martial Law and Hold New Election". Law and Crime. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
- ^ Blake, Andrew (December 1, 2020). "Sidney Powell shares post recommending military tribunals review election". The Washington Times. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
- ^ Ackerman, Spencer; Weill, Kelly (December 2, 2020). "'When the Bombs Go Off, the Blood Is on Mike Flynn's Hands': Retired Officers Blast His Calls for Martial Law". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
- ^ McDermott, Nathan; Kaczynski, Andrew; Steck, Em (December 4, 2020). "Trump Pentagon nominee spreads debunked conspiracies and tweets suggesting Trump declare martial law". CNN. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- ^ "US hero of Bosnia war named to the Pentagon". Yahoo!. AFP. November 18, 2020. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
- ^ Ruiz, Michael (December 17, 2020). "Virginia gubernatorial candidate says 'Trump should declare martial law'". Fox News. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
- ^ WRAL (December 15, 2020). "NC senator OK with suspending civil liberties in wake of Trump's defeat". WRAL.com. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Goodwin, Jazmin (December 20, 2020). "Trump's talk of martial law sends White House staffers rushing to the press". CNN. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Finkelstein, Claire O.; Painter, Richard (December 22, 2020). "Invoking Martial Law to Reverse the 2020 Election Could be Criminal Sedition". Just Security. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Kim, Noah Y. (December 18, 2020). "No, a 2018 executive order doesn't allow Trump to unilaterally impose martial law". PolitiFact. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
PolitiFact spoke to six scholars of constitutional law and presidential power and asked them whether the executive order allows Trump to declare martial law. They were unanimous: It doesn't. ... Under the Constitution, the president does not have the power to unilaterally impose martial law.
- ^ Frum, David (December 20, 2020). "How Long Can This Continue?". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Carter, Ashton; Cheney, Dick; Cohen, William; Esper, Mark; Gates, Robert; Hagel, Chuck; Mattis, James; Panetta, Leon; Perry, William; Rumsfeld, Donald (January 3, 2021). "All 10 living former defense secretaries: Involving the military in election disputes would cross into dangerous territory". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ "Mo Brooks: Today patriots start 'kicking ass' in fighting vote results". AL.com. January 6, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- ^ "Here Are The Republicans Challenging Congress' Tally Of Election Results". NPR.org. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- ^ Zanona, Melanie (December 21, 2021). "House Republicans meet with Trump to discuss overturning election results". Politico. Retrieved July 29, 2021.
- ^ Evon, Dan (December 23, 2020). "Can Veep Play the 'Pence Card' and Reject US Election Results?". Snopes.com.
- ^ Levinson, Adam (December 24, 2020). "Why is the so-called "Pence Card" a canard?". statutesandstories.com. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
- ^ Pengelly, Martin (January 10, 2021). "'Hang Mike Pence': Twitter stops phrase trending after Capitol riot". The Guardian. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ^ "Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud". AP NEWS. December 1, 2020.
- ^ "Trump says Barr resigning, will leave before Christmas". AP NEWS. December 14, 2020.
- ^ Benner, Katie (June 15, 2021). "Trump Pressed Official to Wield Justice Dept. to Back Election Claims". The New York Times.
- ^ "Trump asked his AG about legal strategy to overturn election, Rosen tells senators". POLITICO.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Dawsey, Josh; Barrett, Devlin (July 28, 2021). "As Trump pushed for probes of 2020 election, he called acting AG Rosen almost daily". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
- ^ Brown, Matthew (August 8, 2021). "Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark pushed acting AG to interfere in Georgia election: report". USA Today. Retrieved August 10, 2021.
- ^ "Trump aide banned from Justice after trying to get case info". AP NEWS. April 20, 2021.
- ^ Jacobs, Jennifer (January 14, 2021). "Trump Reconciles With Ex-Strategist Steve Bannon in Talks on Election". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
- ^ Viswanatha, Aruna; Gurman, Sadie; McWhirter, Cameron (January 9, 2021). "White House Forced Georgia U.S. Attorney to Resign". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Benner, Katie (August 11, 2021). "Former U.S. attorney in Atlanta says Trump wanted to fire him for not backing election fraud claims". The New York Times.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Potter, Trevor (December 17, 2020). "No, Jan. 6 isn't another chance for Trump to reverse the election". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Berman, Dan (January 1, 2021). "Pence asks judge to reject Gohmert lawsuit asking the VP to interfere in the Electoral College count". CNN. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Linton, Caroline (January 2, 2021). "Judge dismisses Gohmert's attempt to force Pence to decide election results". CBS News. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Order of Dismissal" (PDF). Gohmert v. Pence. January 1, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2021 – via courtlistener.com.
6:20-cv-00660-JDK
- ^ Cheney, Kyle (December 28, 2020). "Gohmert suit may force Pence's hand in effort to overturn Trump's defeat". Politico. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Breuninger, Kevin (December 28, 2020). "Congressman, other Republicans sue Vice President Pence in last-ditch effort to overturn Biden win". CNBC. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Helderman, Rosalind S.; Wagner, John (December 31, 2020). "Pence seeks rejection of lawsuit that aimed to expand his power to overturn the election". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Barrett, Devlin (January 1, 2021). "Judge dismisses Gohmert lawsuit seeking to stymie Biden electoral college count". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
- ^ Edmondson, Catie; Haberman, Maggie (January 1, 2021). "Federal Judge Dismisses Election Lawsuit Against Pence". The New York Times. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
- ^ Gerstein, Josh; Cheney, Kyle (January 1, 2021). "Federal appeals court tosses Gohmert suit aimed at overturning 2020 election results". Politico. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- ^ Smith, Allan; Jester, Julia; Thompson, Priscilla (January 3, 2021). "Trump begs Georgia secretary of state to overturn election results in remarkable, hourlong phone call". NBC News. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- ^ Duster, Chandelis; Cole, Devan (January 3, 2021). "In call, Trump demands Georgia officials 'find' votes to tilt election". CNN News. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Gardner, Amy; Firozi, Paula (January 3, 2021). "Here's the full transcript and audio of the call between Trump and Raffensperger". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Amy, Jeff; Superville, Darlene; Brumback, Kate (January 3, 2021). "Trump, on tape, presses Ga. official to 'find' him votes". Associated Press. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Bluestein, Greg (January 3, 2021). "Trump demands Georgia elections official overturn his defeat in hourlong call". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- ^ Breland, Ali (January 3, 2021). "Trump called the Georgia secretary of state and pressured him to find more nonexistent votes". Mother Jones. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Bice, Allie; Cheney, Kyle; Kumar, Anita (January 3, 2021). "Trump's pressure on Georgia election officials raises legal questions". Politico. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- ^ Shear, Michael D.; Saul, Stephanie (January 3, 2021). "Trump, in Taped Call, Pressured Georgia Official to 'Find' Votes to Overturn Election". The New York Times. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- ^ Sweeney, Don; Aldridge, Bailey (January 3, 2021). "'The truth's on tape.' Reactions to leaked Trump call seeking to overturn Georgia vote". The Charlotte Observer. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- ^ Morris, Jason; Murray, Sara (March 11, 2021). "Wall Street Journal: Trump pressured Georgia investigator to find 'the right answer' in baseless fraud push". CNN. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
- ^ Morris, Jason (March 15, 2021). "Officials located December recording of Trump call in a trash folder on Georgia investigator's device". CNN. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
- ^ Lipton, Eric (January 3, 2021). "Trump Call to Georgia Official Might Violate State and Federal Law". The New York Times.
- ^ Nichols, John (January 4, 2021). "Trump's Solicitation of Election Fraud Is His Highest Crime". The Nation. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Pengelly, Martin; Luscombe, Richard (January 3, 2021). "'I just want 11,780 votes': Trump pressed Georgia to overturn Biden victory". The Guardian. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Smith, Allan; Moe, Alex (January 4, 2021). "Democrats ask FBI Director Wray to open criminal probe into Trump after leaked phone call". NBC News. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
- ^ Hayes, Christal (January 4, 2021). "90 House Dems support Trump censure after leaked GA election call".
- ^ Jump up to: a b Raju, Manu; Herb, Jeremy (January 4, 2021). "House Republicans rush to Trump's defense over Georgia call as Democrats prep censure resolution". CNN News. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
- ^ Falconer, Rebecca; Rummler, Orion (January 3, 2021). ""Impeachable offense": Democrats react to Trump's Georgia call". Axios. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Levine, Marianne; Zanona, Melanie (January 4, 2021). "'A new low': Republicans chastise Trump over his Raffensperger call". Politico. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Hains, Tim (January 3, 2021). "David Perdue Says It is "Disgusting" Trump Call With Georgia Secretary Of State Was Leaked" (Video). Real Clear Politics. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Benner, Katie (January 23, 2021). "Trump and Justice Dept. Lawyer Said to Have Plotted to Oust Acting Attorney General". The New York Times.
- ^ Bravin, Jess; Gurman, Sadie (January 24, 2021). "WSJ News Exclusive | Trump Pressed Justice Department to Go Directly to Supreme Court to Overturn Election Results". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
- ^ Mena, Kelly (January 24, 2021). "The Wall Street Journal: Trump pressured DOJ to file case with Supreme Court to overturn election results". CNN. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
- ^ Faulders, Katherine (August 3, 2021). "DOJ officials rejected colleague's request to intervene in Georgia's election certification: Emails". ABC News.
- ^ Balsamo, Mike (December 1, 2020). "Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud". AP NEWS.
- ^ Zapotosky, Matt; Barrett, Devlin; Leonnig, Carol D. (January 23, 2021). "Trump entertained plan to install an attorney general who would help him pursue baseless election fraud claims". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
- ^ Brenner, Katie (August 7, 2021). "Former Acting Attorney General Testifies About Trump's Efforts to Subvert Election". The New York Times. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
- ^ Perez, Evan (August 7, 2021). "Interviews with former Justice Department officials provide new details on Trump efforts to undermine election results". CNN.
- ^ Benner, Katie (June 5, 2021). "Meadows Pressed Justice Dept. to Investigate Election Fraud Claims". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Fandos, Nicholas (December 15, 2020). "Defying Trump, McConnell Seeks to Squelch Bid to Overturn the Election". The New York Times.
- ^ Brockell, Gillian (January 5, 2021). "The senators who were expelled after refusing to accept Lincoln's election". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Broadwater, Luke (January 2, 2021). "Pence Welcomes Bid to Overturn Biden's Election as Republican Senators Join". The New York Times. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Everett, Burgess (January 1, 2021). "'Exercise in futility': Republicans lambaste Hawley's push to challenge election". Politico. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Axelrod, Tal (December 31, 2020). "Outgoing GOP congressman criticizes Hawley for fundraising off Electoral College challenge". The Hill. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Isenstadt, Alex (December 21, 2020). "Hawley faces heat from Senate Republicans over Electoral College plans". Politico. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Sneve, Joe (January 1, 2021). "Trump again attacks Thune via Twitter, Noem repeats she won't challenge for Senate seat". Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Schmidt, Michael S. (January 5, 2021). "Trump Says Pence Can Overturn His Loss in Congress. That's Not How It Works". The New York Times. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
- ^ Haberman, Maggie; Karni, Annie (January 5, 2021). "Pence Said to Have Told Trump He Lacks Power to Change Election Result". The New York Times. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
- ^ Wise, Alana (January 6, 2021). "Pence Says He Doesn't Have Power To Reject Electoral Votes". NPR.org. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- ^ Hayes, Steve (January 6, 2021). "Giuliani to Senator: 'Try to Just Slow it Down'". thedispatch.com. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- ^ Serfaty, Sunlen; Cole, Devan; Rogers, Alex (January 9, 2021). "As riot raged at Capitol, Trump tried to call senators to overturn election". CNN. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
- ^ "How members of Congress voted on counting the electoral college vote". The Washington Post. January 7, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
- ^ Chang, Alvin (January 7, 2021). "The long list of Republicans who voted to reject election results". The Guardian. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
- ^ Fox, Lauren (February 5, 2021). "Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren quietly releases massive social media report on GOP colleagues who voted to overturn the election". CNN. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Lang, Marissa J. (December 30, 2020). "Jan. 6 protests multiply as Trump continues to call supporters to Washington". The Washington Post.
- ^ Shaw, Adam (December 19, 2020). "Trump promises 'wild' protest in Washington DC on Jan. 6, claims it's 'impossible' he lost". Fox News. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Editorial Board (December 30, 2020). "Trump is inciting chaos on Jan. 6, both in and outside the Capitol". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Jackson, David; Brown, Matthew (January 2, 2021). "'Wild' protests: Police brace for pro-Trump rallies when Congress meets Jan. 6 to certify Biden's win". USA Today.
- ^ Hermann, Peter; Weil, Martin (January 4, 2021). "Proud Boys leader arrested in the burning of Black Lives Matter banner, D.C. police say". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
- ^ Feldman, Josh (January 6, 2021). "Trump Supporters Breach Capitol Building as Violent Clashes Continue". Mediaite. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- ^ Dupree, Jamie [@jamiedupree] (January 6, 2021). "A protester sitting in the chair of the Senate chamber pic.twitter.com/4FZ5Rziqd9" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Smith, Allan; Gibson, Ginger; Arkin, Daniel; Williams, Pete (January 6, 2021). "Senate evacuated, National Guard activated after pro-Trump protesters storm Capitol". NBC News. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
- ^ Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas (January 6, 2021). "Woman shot in the Capitol has died". The New York Times. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
- ^ Daly, Matthew; Balsamo, Michael (January 8, 2021). "Deadly siege focuses attention on Capitol Police". Associated Press. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Jacobs, Ben (January 16, 2021). "Even the Guy the MyPillow CEO Wanted to Enlist for a Coup Is Confused". Intelligencer.
- ^ Bort, Ryan (January 16, 2021). "Trump Calls in Pillow Salesman to Discuss Possibility of Instituting Martial Law". Rolling Stone.
- ^ Jacobs, Ben (January 16, 2021). "Even the Guy the MyPillow CEO Wanted to Enlist for a Coup Is Confused". New York Magazine. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
- ^ Bump, Philip (January 16, 2021). "A pillow salesman apparently has some ideas about declaring martial law". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
- ^ Riga, Kate (January 15, 2021). "MyPillow CEO Spotted Bringing Notes To WH That Appear To Reference 'Martial Law,' Installing New CIA Director". Talking Points Memo.
- ^ "Fact check: No evidence to support QAnon claims of mass arrests, military takeover, illegitimacy of Biden's presidency or Trump's return to power". Reuters. January 22, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Kelleher, Suzanne Rowan (February 6, 2021). "Trump's DC Hotel Is Jacking Up Rates For QAnon's Next Special Date". Forbes. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Collins, Ben; Zadrozny, Brandy (March 2, 2021). "D.C. police, FBI on alert ahead of QAnon's 'true Inauguration Day'". NBC News. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
- ^ Cohen, Zachary; Kaufman, Ellie (February 17, 2021). "Nearly 5,000 National Guard troops to remain in Washington through mid-March due to concerns about QAnon chatter". CNN. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Balsamo, Michael (March 3, 2021). "Police uncover 'possible plot' by militia to breach Capitol". Associated Press. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Ainsley, Julia (March 3, 2021). "Extremists discussed plans to 'remove Democratic lawmakers': FBI-Homeland Security bulletin". NBC News. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
- ^ Kanno-Youngs, Zolan; Rosenberg, Matthew (March 3, 2021). "Capitol Police Warn of Threat on Thursday, and House Cancels the Day's Session". The New York Times. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
- ^ Jansen, Bart (March 4, 2021). "March 4 put Capitol on alert: Nancy Pelosi calls out QAnon conspiracy 'silliness'". USA Today. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
- ^ Czachor, Emily (March 4, 2021). "QAnon Theorists Switch Date to March 20 After No Trump Inauguration, Call the 4th 'False Flag'". Newsweek. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
- ^ Nguyen, Tina (March 7, 2021). "'It is a trap!': Inside the QAnon attack that never happened". Politico. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
- ^ Sommerlad, Joe (March 19, 2021). "What next for QAnon if its latest deadline for Donald Trump's heroic return proves another disappointment?". The Independent. Retrieved March 27, 2021.
- ^ Cooper, Jonathan J.; Christie, Bob (May 10, 2021). "Inside Arizona's election audit, GOP fraud fantasies live on". Associated Press.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Colarossi, Natalie (May 1, 2021). "Trump Suggests Arizona Recount Will Be First Domino to Fall: 'Let's See What They Find'". Newsweek. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- T, Anthony (April 22, 2021). "Maricopa County Are Moving Machines To Be Audited". welovetrump.com. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- "AZ GOP Chair Kelli Ward: Arizona Is The First Domino That Will Fall". welovetrump.com. May 3, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- Warner, Bruce (May 11, 2021). "Bruce Warner: How 2020 election could be overturned". havasunews.com. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ "Critics mock believers in Trump's 'reinstatement day'". The Independent. August 13, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Everett, Burgess; Zanona, Melanie (November 6, 2020). "GOP begins pushing back against Trump's false election claims". Politico. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
- ^ Fandos, Nicholas; Edmonson, Catie (November 19, 2020). "'Absolutely outrageous.' Joni Ernst bristles at Trump team's groundless claims about election results". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Daly, Matthew (November 6, 2020). "GOP divided over Trump's baseless claims of election fraud". Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
- ^ Daly, Matthew (November 5, 2020). "Some in GOP break with Trump over baseless vote-fraud claims". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
- ^ Bradner, Eric (November 8, 2020). "Bush congratulates Biden, says election was 'fundamentally fair' and 'its outcome is clear'". CNN. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
- ^ DeCiccio, Emily (November 11, 2020). "Former Bush chief of staff cites 9/11 Commission, warns about slow transition". CNBC. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Solender, Andrew (November 13, 2020). "Ex-Trump Intelligence Chief Dan Coats Among 20 New Republicans Calling Biden President-Elect". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 13, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- ^ Goldmacher, Shane; Cochrane, Emily (November 12, 2020). "Small Cracks Emerge in G.O.P. Support for Trump's Baseless Fraud Claims". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
- ^ Langlois, Shawn (November 9, 2020). "Condoleezza Rice calls for 'respect' and 'empathy' from both sides – and gets the exact opposite". MarketWatch. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
- ^ Shepherd, Katie (November 6, 2020). "GOP splits over Trump's false election claims, unfounded fraud allegations". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
- ^ Perkins, Tom (November 6, 2020). "Donald Trump's baseless vote fraud claim opens cracks in Republican ranks". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
- ^ Fuchs, Hailey; Delkic, Melina; Cameron, Chris (November 15, 2020). "Presidential Transition: As More Republicans Break With Trump, He Refuses to Budge". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Mascaro, Lisa; Jalonick, Mary Clare (January 3, 2021). "Republicans condemn GOP 'scheme' to undo election for Trump". Associated Press.
- ^ "Durbin, Bipartisan Colleagues: Voters Have Spoken, Congress Must Fulfill Its Responsibility". durbin.senate.gov (Press release). January 3, 2021. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^
- Cheney, Kyle (December 31, 2020). "'Institutional arsonist members of Congress': Sasse rips GOP lawmakers challenging 2020 results". Politico. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- Blitzer, Ronn (December 31, 2020). "Sasse slams 'institutional arsonist members of Congress' who plan Electoral College objection". Fox News. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- Egan, Lauren (December 31, 2020). "'Playing with fire': GOP Sen. Ben Sasse tears into Republicans planning to object to Electoral College results". NBC News. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- Jalonick, Mary Clare; Mascaro, Lisa (December 31, 2020). "GOP senator rebukes 'dangerous ploy' to fight Biden victory". Associated Press. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- ^ Schwarzenegger, Arnold (January 5, 2021). "Judgment Day: Arnold Schwarzenegger on why Republicans must stop Trump". The Economist. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Mulcahy, Susan (May 2016). "Confessions of a Trump Tabloid Scribe". Politico. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Tracy, Marc (December 28, 2020). "Murdoch's New York Post Blasts President's Fraud Claims". The New York Times. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ Goldman, David (December 28, 2020). "New York Post to Donald Trump: Stop the insanity". CNN. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ Stelter, Brian (September 15, 2020). "Trump says weekly calls on 'Fox & Friends' are returning; Fox says maybe not". CNN. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ Meyer, Ken (January 4, 2021). "Ainsley Earhardt Says Conservatives 'Feel' Election Was Rigged". Mediaite. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ Hall, Colby (January 4, 2021). "Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade Agree It's Long Past Time for Trump to Show Evidence of Voter Fraud". Mediaite. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ Lamothe, Dan (January 3, 2021). "The time to question election results has passed, all living former defense secretaries say". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ "Donald Trump vows to 'fight like hell' to remain in White House". Financial Times. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ "Manufacturers group calls on Pence to invoke 25th Amendment". PBS NewsHour. Associated Press. January 6, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- ^ Wagner, Meg; Macaya, Melissa (January 8, 2021). "Cruz's former spokeswoman says she does not recognize him anymore". CNN. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
- ^ Farhi, Paul (January 11, 2021). "Talk-radio owner orders conservative hosts to temper election fraud rhetoric". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
- ^ Olorunnipa, Toluse; Ye Hee Lee, Michelle (February 6, 2021). "Trump's lie that the election was stolen has cost $519 million (and counting) as taxpayers fund enhanced security, legal fees, property repairs and more". The Washington Post.
- ^ Wines, Michael (February 27, 2021). "In Statehouses, Stolen-Election Myth Fuels a G.O.P. Drive to Rewrite Rules". The New York Times.
- ^ Tufekci, Zeynep (December 7, 2020). "This Must Be Your First". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
- ^ Gongloff, Mark (November 19, 2020). "Trump's Coup Attempt Will Be a Very Costly Failure". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ Niquette, Mark (December 13, 2020). "Biden Nod From Electors Could Seal His Win With Some in GOP". Bloomberg News. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
It's mind-boggling to me that we have people that are actually trying conduct a coup and take the votes away from the voters.
- ^ "Donald Trump's refusal to concede is harming America". The Economist. November 21, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
- ^ "Donald Trump is not done with America yet". Financial Times.
- ^ McCarthy, Tom (November 11, 2020). "'It must be made to fail': Trump's desperate bid to cling to power". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ Kilgore, Ed (December 10, 2020). "Every Republican in Congress May Have to Vote on Trump's Coup". The Intelligencer.
- ^ Mystal, Elie (December 12, 2020). "People Are Taking the Wrong Lesson From Trump's Failed Coup". The Nation.
- ^ Gessen, Masha (November 20, 2020). "The Coup Stage of Donald Trump's Presidency". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ Friedman, Thomas L. (January 6, 2021). "Opinion | Never Forget the Names of These Republicans Attempting a Coup". The New York Times.
- ^ Devega, Chauncey (December 11, 2020). "Don't look past Trump's coup attempt: This is a dark moment in American history". Salon.
- ^ "Editorial: The enduring cost of Trump's attempted coup". San Francisco Chronicle. Editorial Board. December 10, 2020. Retrieved December 10, 2020.
- ^ Levin, Bess (December 10, 2020). "106 House Republicans Back Trump's Bid to Overthrow the Government". Vanity Fair. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ Scarborough, Charles Joseph (December 1, 2020). "Morning Joe" (Interview). Interviewed by Scarborough, Mika Emilie Leonia Brzezinski. MSNBC.
Just so people who think this, to call this a coup is hyperbolic, or an attempted coup, you just look at the definition in Wikipedia: it says, "Typically, it's an illegal, unconstitutional attempt to seize power by a political faction". Definition of a coup. Of course, if he's already in power, it'd be an "autocoup". But at the same time, you look at the definition, and if... I guess I would just say to Trump defenders, if it's not an attempted coup, if it's not an "illegal unconstitutional attempt to seize power by a political faction" when he's trying to call people to the White House to get them to change their votes, trying to call the Governor of Arizona to try to stop him from doing legally what he has to do which is to certify the election results, trying to get those in Michigan and Wayne County to illegally not certify the votes there... if Republicans don't think it's a coup or doesn't fit this definition of a coup in all four corners then I'd love to hear what they would call it.
- ^ Chapman, Matthew (December 9, 2020). "The GOP Is an 'Organized Conspiracy' That Exists for 'No Purpose Other Than Power' Says Steve Schmidt". TheNewCivilRightsMovement.com. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
- ^ Schmidt, Steve; et al. (December 9, 2020). "Steve Schmidt says the GOP is an 'organized conspiracy' to gain power – video (2:43)". MSNBC News. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
- ^ Hains, Tim (December 10, 2020). ""Lincoln Project" Founder Steve Schmidt Warns: "The Republican Party Is An Organized Conspiracy" And They Just Crossed The Rubicon". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved December 10, 2020.
- ^ Nakamura, David (January 5, 2021). "With brazen assault on election, Trump prompts critics to warn of a coup". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
- ^ De Bruin, Erica (November 11, 2020). "No, Trump is not attempting a 'coup.' Here's why the distinction matters.: It's important that we describe the crisis accurately. That will shape our response". PostEverything · Perspective. Archived from the original on November 23, 2020.
Because Trump is attempting to remain in power, rather than remove someone else from it his efforts come closer to what scholars call an attempt at a "self-coup" – or, using the Spanish term, an autogolpe – in which a head of state attempts to remain in power past his or her term in office.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Narea, Nicole (November 14, 2020). "3 scholars say Trump isn't staging a coup – but he still poses a threat to democracy: Trump's destab alizing rhetoric, which calls into question the integrity of the presidential election, could erode the strength of American institutions". Vox. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020.
- ^ Keating, Joshua (November 13, 2020). "Whatever Trump Is Doing, It Isn't a "Coup": But the long-term effect could be similarly damaging". Slate. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020.
- ^ Harkness, Kristen A. (June 1, 2016). "The Ethnic Army and the State: Explaining Coup Traps and the Difficulties of Democratization in Africa". Journal of Conflict Resolution. 60 (4): 587–616. doi:10.1177/0022002714545332. hdl:10023/9391. ISSN 0022-0027. S2CID 54538341.
- ^ Drezner, Daniel W. (December 7, 2020). "It's not a coup. It's not even a bad coup: Coup-coup-kachoo!". PostEverything · Perspective. The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on December 17, 2020.
To be clear, the takeaway from this is not to relax completely. However ineptly, Trump and his legal team are trying to overturn the results. The effect on GOP public attitudes is disheartening. Tufekci is correct to observe that the watchword is vigilance. That said, what is happening is not a coup, or even an attempt at a coup. It is a ham-handed effort to besmirch the election outcome by any easily available means necessary. That is not good, but it is very different from Turkey's myriad coups.
- ^ Wagner, Meg; Macaya, Melissa; Hayes, Mike; Mahtani, Melissa; Rocha, Veronica; Alfonso, Fernando, III (January 6, 2021). "Republican congressman tweets: "This is a coup attempt"". CNN. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- ^ Reisman, Nick (January 6, 2021). "Cuomo, AG James Call U.S. Capitol Riot a Failed Coup". spectrumlocalnews.com. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
- ^ Swanson, Ian (January 6, 2021). "Romney: Trump caused 'this insurrection'". The Hill. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- ^ "Top U.S. military official draws parallels between Trump, Hitler". The Seattle Times. July 14, 2021.
- ^ Gangel, Jamie; Herb, Jeremy; Cohen, Marshall; Stuart, Elizabeth (July 15, 2021). "'They're not going to f**king succeed': Top generals feared Trump would attempt a coup after election, according to new book". CNN.
- ^ "US election 2020: The people who still believe Trump won". BBC News. January 5, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "The People Still Going To Trump Rallies Are Committed To Trump's Fantasy: "He's Our True President"". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved June 29, 2021.
- ^ "PUBLIC POLL FINDINGS AND METHODOLOGY : Ipsos/ReutersPoll: The Big Lie" (PDF). Ipsos. Retrieved June 29, 2021.
- ^ "Conspiracy theory that Trump will be reinstated in August has officials worried, report claims". The Independent. June 26, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2021.
- ^ Multiple sources:
- Cohen, Zachary; Sands, Geneva (June 30, 2021). "DHS raises alarms over potential for summer violence pegged to August conspiracy theory". CNN. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
- Dilanian, Ken (August 11, 2021). "Feds warn of potential violence fueled by false election claims". NBC News. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
- Sands, Geneva (August 13, 2021). "Calls for violence online similar to before January 6 Capitol attack, DHS Intel chief says". CNN. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
- ^ Frankovic, Kathy (November 19, 2020). "Trump voters still see Biden's victory as illegitimate". Archived from the original on November 30, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
- ^ Pramuk, Jacob (November 24, 2020). "Almost no Trump voters consider Biden the legitimate 2020 election winner". CNBC. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
- ^ Waldron, Travis; Delaney, Arthur (June 17, 2021). "GOP Voters Believe Trump's Lie That Arizona's Sham Audit Could Overturn His Election Loss". HuffPost. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
External links
Quotations related to Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election at Wikiquote
Violence breaks out in Washington, DC at pro-Trump protest at Wikinews- Conservative groups hold rally in Washington D.C. claiming U.S. elections were stolen from President Trump at Wikinews
- PBS Frontline (April, 2021): "American Insurrection" (video; 84:13); transcript
- News team decides to remind listeners of the attempted overthrow of the USA government by
Republican elected officials on January 6, 2021 (WITF; The Washington Post; May 2, 2021).
- 2020 United States presidential election
- Controversies of the 2020 United States presidential election
- Conspiracy theories promoted by Donald Trump
- Disinformation operations
- Protests against results of elections