Retired Col. Philip Waldron, who’s established himself as a prominent proponent of lies about the integrity of last year’s presidential election, ‘said that he visited the White House on multiple occasions after the election, spoke with President Donald Trump’s chief of staff “maybe eight to 10 times” and briefed several members of Congress on the eve of the Jan. 6 riot,’ per a new report from The Washington Post. He also attended a meeting with Trump. These people — from ex-Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows to members of Congress like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who was among those in touch with Waldron — were right there in efforts to overturn the duly documented will of the people of the U.S.
Guardian US: The “Options for 6 JAN” powerpoint was presented on Jan. 4 to a number of Republican senators and members of Congress, per source. Trump’s lawyers at the Willard were not shown the presentation.
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) December 11, 2021
Waldron was one of those involved with a now infamous PowerPoint presentation laying out so-called “Options for 6 JAN.” On January 6 — when a mob of the then-president’s supporters ended up storming the Capitol complex — Congress was set to formally certify the outcome of the presidential election (meaning Biden’s victory), and Trump, along with certain allies of his, hoped to stop that process. According to the Post, Waldron “said his contribution to the [PowerPoint] focused on his claims of foreign interference in the vote, as did his discussions with the White House.” To be clear, no substantive evidence has ever emerged that indicates foreign interference in the 2020 election to the point of changing the outcome, which is what Waldron was getting at.
Given how much evidence is already publicly available, I'm not even sure that Trump coming out and being like "Yeah, I secretly plotted to end American democracy and I'm trying to do it again" would fundamentally shift the political dynamics in America. That's how bad it is.
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) December 11, 2021
On a similar note, the PowerPoint presentation that Waldron helped push — and that he met with then-White House chief of staff Meadows and certain Republican members of Congress about — contained discredited suggestions for action. Among other things, it put forward the possibility of then-Vice President Mike Pence rejecting electoral votes from certain states or replacing them with votes for Trump, although Pence didn’t actually possess the legally recognized authority to undertake such a move in his role overseeing the proceedings to certify the election outcome. Disturbingly, the PowerPoint presentation also featured a suggestion for deploying U.S. Marshals and National Guard personnel and involving them in tabulating paper ballots in certain states. That sounds an awful lot like a proposal for a military occupation of the United States in the name of keeping Trump in power.
Former Trump WH chief Mark Meadows turned over a coup powerpoint — which is bad enough. But recall that was what he chose to give the Jan. 6 committee — raising possibility that what he withheld may be worse
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) December 11, 2021
Meadows apparently met with Waldron in December of last year, although it’s unclear exactly how eager that the then-chief of staff might have been to accept and push Waldron’s proposals. The Capitol riot investigation committee in the House would no doubt be inclined to ask Meadows about such a thing, but Meadows is resisting the panel’s subpoena for his testimony. Meanwhile, Waldron’s participation in a meeting with Trump also involved legislators from Pennsylvania and took place last November. Read more at this link.
I feel like we're at the point where there's no risk of hyperbole when talking about the threat to democracy posed by Trump's Republican Party.
This is nation-ending stuff we're dealing with here and folks better wake up soon.
I'll do my part. Think about what yours is.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 10, 2021