Last night and this morning much of the media reporting on the MSG rally was focused on the racism, the misogyny, and the sheer and utter stupidity of pissing off large numbers of voters in crucial swing states. Not much attention was paid to another, equally alarming, claim by Trump that he and Mike Johnson had a “secret plan” to fix the election, so he wasn’t worried about the vote.
It took 12 hours, but that is starting to change.
NYT just posted this a few minutes ago: Trump Hints at ‘Little Secret’ With House Republicans, Setting Off a Panic
Speaker Mike Johnson was taking in former President Donald J. Trump’s grievance-fueled closing rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon when the main actor onstage turned to him and drew him into the drama.
“I think with our little secret we’re going to do really well with the House, right?” Mr. Trump said, addressing Mr. Johnson directly. “Our little secret is having a big impact. He and I have a little secret — we will tell you what it is when the race is over.”
The “panic” was mostly among Democrats, says the Times, who have long feared something like this. But while the Times half downplayed the threat, it added this bit:
In a statement provided to The New York Times, the mild-mannered Mr. Johnson did nothing to alleviate those fears. Instead, he seemed to confirm that there was, in fact, a “little secret” — and that he planned to keep it that way.
“Mild-mannered” kind of like Clark Kent, eh? The NYT still can’t make up its mind how to deal with Trump and his enablers. But onward. . . .
Daily Beast: How Could Trump’s ‘Little Secret’ With Speaker Mike Johnson Help Win the Election?
New Republic: Trump’s Dark Little “Secret” With Mike Johnson Is Actually a Threat
Vanity Fair: Hmm: Donald Trump and Mike Johnson Have a “Little Secret” Election Plan
Some journalists and politicians have interpreted Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks, delivered as he thanked House Speaker Mike Johnson for appearing at the MSG event, as a possible signal that Johnson is prepared to override the electoral college, should Vice President Kamala Harris win. “I suspect Donald Trump’s ‘little secret’ plan with Mike Johnson is a backup plan for when he loses,” Rep. Dan Goldman said on CNN.
Alternet: 'What’s he confessing to?' Trump’s Mike Johnson 'secret' draws Electoral College concerns
Referencing Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Trump said: “I think with our little secret we are gonna do really well with the House, our little secret is having a big impact, he and I have a secret, we will tell you what it is when the race is over.”
Suggesting the comment was “potentially…sinister,” Politico Playbook reported it “could be a reference to the House settling a contested election.”
Historian Heather Cox Richardson in her popular Substack newsletter wrote: “It seems possible—probable, even—that Trump was alluding to putting in play the plan his people tried in 2020. That plan was to create enough chaos over the certification of electoral votes in the states to throw the election into the House of Representatives. There, each state delegation gets a single vote, so if the Republicans have control of more states than the Democrats, Trump could pull out a victory even if he had dramatically lost the popular vote.”
(Other Constitutional scholars also weighed in; see the full article.)
New York Magazine: Will Trump’s and Johnson’s ‘Little Secret’ Be Unveiled on January 6?
MSNBC (Rachel’s blog): Why the ‘little secret’ between Trump and Speaker Johnson matters
I expect Rachel to talk about this tonight, though maybe not in her ‘A’ block; the racism and the blowback from it may get top billing.
CNN hasn’t highlighted this story yet, but they have these two (among others) top items:
Trump unveils the most extreme closing argument in modern presidential history and this fascinting gem: A survey asked what Americans were hearing most about the candidates. One of the most common words for Trump was ‘liar’.
Even People got onto the story: Donald Trump Says He Has a 'Little Secret' with the House Speaker That's Having a 'Big Impact' on Election.
Nothing from WaPo yet, but we’ll see. The kind of attention this story is now getting from some media often spurs more coverage.
-----------------— Update 1520 PDT --------------------—
WaPo still hasn’t made this a story, but they do have opinion from three constitutional scholars: Stop worrying that the House will decide who wins the election. Their argument is that there are a lot of possible Trump/GOP/MAGA moves to be genuinely concerned about, but throwing it into the House will be almost impossible to do. You should read their whole argument, but basically it comes down to this phrase in the XII Amendment:
a majority of the whole number of electors appointed
So if Trump succeeds it preventing a Harris-won state from certifying any electors, then the number of electors required to win drops, and it still doesn’t go to the House. They discuss a lot of other possible scenarios and say we should be very worried about them. But if this is the “secret plan” Trump and Johnson are counting on, it’s not going to work. We hope.
