Is Trump Trying To Pull Off A Coup With His Claims Of Election Fraud?

By Susie Madrak — November 10, 2020

Maybe Trump isn't actually planning a coup, but things are looking kind of coup-ish right now.

Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper yesterday. Other than his usual petulance, why?

Remember that Chris Miller, the new acting defense secretary, effectively leapfrogged five ranks and over dozens of others to take over the Pentagon, even though there is a confirmed deputy SecDef. It’s worth asking: Why? What does Miller offer that no one else would?

— Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg) November 10, 2020

The man who now becomes the acting Secretary of Defense - Chris Miller - refused to promise that intelligence agencies wouldn’t target Americans based on their political views. https://t.co/Dd4aqJFdAe

— Ayman Mohyeldin (@AymanM) November 9, 2020

We know Trump and his enablers are desperate for Trump to retain power. His apparent game plan is to get Republican state legislators in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan or Arizona to submit a competing slate of electors to Congress for the Electoral College vote that takes place the first week of December.

The latest Trump campaign PA lawsuit is asking the court to issue an emergency order stopping officials from certifying the election results, and a permanent injunction requiring county election boards to invalidate ballots of voters who were allowed to "cure" their mail ballots

— Hilary Beaumont (@HilaryBeaumont) November 9, 2020

Now, Pennsylvania GOP legislators have said they won't do it. Legally, they can't do it -- our Democratic governor would veto it. But if there's one thing we've learned, it's that "legal" doesn't matter when it comes to Republicans. Will he somehow bully the state legislators into causing an actual rupture by insisting they can? He's trying.

If there's another thing we've learned, it's that Republicans do not know how to say no to Trump. They never have.

I'm not alone in my concern:

“What if the demagoguery about election fraud and the sophistry about the prerogatives of state legislatures is repeated over and over for four weeks by Trump and his surrogates, and isn’t refuted by many, if any, prominent conservatives and Republicans?” https://t.co/E7FjQcbPPb

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) November 10, 2020

If we saw the head of the ruling regime, and his party, react to the election results this way in any other country, we'd know exactly what we are looking at.

And I'd say here, too, it's time to be honest and say we know exactly what we are looking at. https://t.co/aLQetMNmjR

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) November 9, 2020

Some Republican electeds genuinely believe the election was stolen. They’re lost to Q’anon. Others cosplaying coup d’etat to appease the base. Others legit committed to overturning the will of the voters. Scary part: it’s getting hard to tell who falls into which category.

— Joshua Zeitz (@JoshuaMZeitz) November 10, 2020

Trump’s coup attempt is very real — but there are several gaping holes in the planhttps://t.co/MNWmDHUZFI

— Raw Story (@RawStory) November 10, 2020

But PA AG Josh Shapiro is on the case:

(NOT) BREAKING:

The Trump campaign’s latest filing is another attempt to throw out legal votes — my team and I were already prepared for this.

😴 Sleep tight. We will protect the laws of our Commonwealth and the will of the people.

— Josh Shapiro (@JoshShapiroPA) November 10, 2020

The stories about how Trump insiders are trying to get him to concede remind me of inept parents trying to "explain" to little Dylan why he can't wear his Star Wars costume to school:

“If you can get him [Trump] somehow to see that it’s in his best interest you might get him to do the right thing for the party and the country,” @jheil says how Pres. Trump’s inner circle can convince him to accept the election results. https://t.co/30QlELRLTa

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 10, 2020

And Moscow Mitch is going along:

McConnell, later pressed by reporters, declined to answer when asked to produce evidence of fraud that would overturn the election results. https://t.co/qWZvKfYAly

— Eugene Scott (@Eugene_Scott) November 10, 2020

So is Bill Barr:

JUST IN: DOJ's Top Voter Fraud Investigator Steps Down in Protest After AG Bill Barr Memo's Authorizing Election Probeshttps://t.co/AGjV1YWfJv

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) November 10, 2020

Pilger threw himself on his sword to alert us all as to how dangerous Barr's authorization is. He could have waited out the last 60+ days of Trump, but the policy signals to Trump's minions Barr's willingness to toss out the rule of law. https://t.co/R55vtyMlku

— Mary Beth "Reform Fed Courts" Williams (@wampumpeag) November 10, 2020

Barr authorizing federal prosecutors to investigate
non-existent election fraud suggests only one thing:
Trump has not yet delivered Bill Barr his much-needed pardon.

— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) November 10, 2020

HOWEVER. Our allies have accepted Joe Biden as the actual winner of the election. The media refers to him as the president-elect. The Washington Nationals have invited him to throw out next season's first pitch:

Nats invite President-elect Biden to toss 1st pitch https://t.co/U7BhNfyUEn

— Suburban Guerrilla Ω (@SusieMadrak) November 10, 2020

And even some Republicans are acknowledging the inevitable:

Rubio and Romney were the only ones to tell us today that the GSA should start cooperating with the Biden transition team. https://t.co/8xtLoq8V33 pic.twitter.com/Iwd01IElnu

— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) November 10, 2020

And Trump now looks as though he's planning for his life after the White House:

President Trump is planning to form a so-called leadership political action committee, a federal fund-raising vehicle that will potentially let him retain influence on the Republican Party even when he is out of office, officials said. https://t.co/7PIN5lmdBI

— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 10, 2020

So we're not at the point of an actual coup. Trump is probably not competent enough to pull one off. But the real danger is how many of his supporters believe his lies about a stolen election, and not enough Republicans are standing up to his lies.