The above is not some hyperbolic conclusion. Here’s an actual headline now appearing in The New York Times: “Trump tries to subvert the election, inviting Michigan GOP. lawmakers to the White House.”
After failing repeatedly in court to overturn election results, President Trump is taking the extraordinary step of reaching out directly to Republican state legislators as he tries to subvert the Electoral College process, inviting Michigan lawmakers to meet with him at the White House on Friday.
Mr. Trump contacted the Republican majority leader in the Michigan State Senate to issue the invitation, according to a person briefed on the invitation. It is not clear how many Michigan lawmakers will be making the trip to Washington, nor precisely what Mr. Trump plans to say to the lawmakers.
This conduct would appear to constitute grounds for impeachment, as it exemplifies “conduct or speech” calculated to incite rebellion against our Constitutional process.
The closest analogue would appear to be sedition.
The White House invitation to Republican lawmakers in a battleground state comes as the Trump campaign has been seeking to overturn the results of the election in multiple states through lawsuits and intrusions into the state vote certification process, and as Mr. Trump himself has reached out personally to at least one election official in Michigan, a Wayne County canvass board member, Monica Palmer.
The Republican Majority Leader in the Michigan State Senate is Mike Shirkey. To his credit, Shirkey has already gone on record to say that the Michigan legislature would not move to appoint its own slate of pro-Trump electors, which is apparently what Donald Trump wants them to do. It is not clear what impact Trump's arm-twisting will have on the willingness of the Michigan legislature to disregard the expressed will of that state's citizens.
Our republic is literally hanging in the balance of the actions that occur over the next few days.
It’s not at all clear where our Democratic representatives and senators in Congress are on this attempted coup. They need to speak with a unified voice, loudly, here and now—as do we all.
This needs to stop.