I see that investigations both in congress and within the Justice Department are taking aim at the scheme to count electoral votes from fraudulent electors. This is a good sign, but we should be clear that this didn’t just happen by accident or coincidentally, it was part of a plot that came from the top. I know that is clear to all of us, but investigators will be looking for proof.
Fortunately, they won’t have to look far, because the most ghoulish member of the trump administration (in my opinion), Stephen Miller said it out loud on television at the time. If you don’t remember Stephen Miller or have bleached your brain in order to forget the previous administration, Stephen Miller was a top Whitehouse advisor so racist, the Southern Poverty Law Center put his face on the front of their “extremest files” webpage that links to all the flavors of hate groups and high profile individuals. He also has his own dedicated page there that outlines his general ugliness.
Anyway, the date was December 14, 2020, over a month after the results of the election were clear and the certified electors were gathering in state capitols’ to cast their votes. Miller, serving as a ‘trump campaign senior advisor’, and therefore ostensibly speaking for the campaign and the president, made an appearance on Fox and Friends to allay the fears of the three dunderheads.
Important quote from this interview, emphasis is mine:
“As we speak, today, an alternate slate of electors in the contested states is going to vote and we’re going to send those results up to Congress.”
From this statement it is clear that this was a scheme created and approved by the trump campaign, “...we’re going to send those results up to Congress.” On its face, submitting alternative electors who weren't certified by any legal body was a ridiculous thing to do and everyone knew it at the time. Here is my future governor breaking it down the same day:
While Shapiro he was right on the facts, what he didn’t know, and what seems clear now as laid out in the Eastman Memo, the goal was probably obfuscation on 1/6 during the joint session. When the electors were to be counted, the trump campaign wanted to create confusion with the alternate electors so all electors would be thrown out and the majority Republican state delegations would choose the President, meaning trump.
Below are excerpts from the Eastman memo (John Eastman was a shady constitutional lawyer hired by trump to convince Mike Pence he had the power to overturn the election):
1. VP Pence, presiding over the joint session (or Senate Pro Tempore Grassley, if Pence recuses himself), begins to open and count the ballots, starting with Alabama (without conceding that the procedure, specified by the Electoral Count Act, of going through the States alphabetically is required).
2. When he gets to Arizona, he announces that he has multiple slates of electors, and so is going to defer decision on that until finishing the other States. This would be the first break with the procedure set out in the Act.
3. At the end, he announces that because of the ongoing disputes in the 7 States, there are no electors that can be deemed validly appointed in those States. That means the total number of “electors appointed” – the language of the 12th Amendment -- is 454. This reading of the 12th Amendment has also been advanced by Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe (here). A “majority of the electors appointed” would therefore be 228. There are at this point 232 votes for Trump, 222 votes for Biden. Pence then gavels President Trump as re-elected.
4. Howls, of course, from the Democrats, who now claim, contrary to Tribe’s prior position, that 270 is required. So Pence says, fine. Pursuant to the 12th Amendment, no candidate has achieved the necessary majority. That sends the matter to the House, where the “the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote . . . .” Republicans currently control 26 of the state delegations, the bare majority needed to win that vote. President Trump is re-elected there as well.
The point is that this was all part of a seditious conspiracy to take power from the people who had made their choice clear. Our country isn’t monarchy, or a dictatorship…. yet, but in order to continue to secure the blessings of liberty, we need to adhere the the rule of law. That requires holding those accountable who tried to take away power from the people, and it is past time to do that.
Thursday, Jan 27, 2022 · 3:31:03 PM +00:00 · Kappyhour
Huffpost calls Miller for comment and he hangs up on them (my ephasis):
From Huffpost Article:
The source of the scheme, however, was clear even as it was unfolding. The Trump White House was pushing it openly while outside adviser Steve Bannon was promoting it almost daily on his podcast. On the actual day of the Electoral College vote, top White House aide Stephen Miller laid it out it on a Fox News appearance.
“As we speak, an alternate slate of electors in the contested states is going to vote, and we are going to send those results to Congress,” Miller said.
Miller hung up Wednesday when contacted by HuffPost about that statement.
The White House’s plan for those “alternate” slates nevertheless was made clear in a memo by lawyer John Eastman, who presented it to Trump himself in the Oval Office. Because some states had “competing” slates of electors, Vice President Mike Pence could simply not count either set and leave those states out of the total entirely. “There are at this point 232 votes for Trump, 222 votes for Biden. Pence then gavels President Trump as re-elected,” Eastman wrote.