Bonus episode: Inside the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency

[JoeOtterbein]

Axios

Axios Jonathan Swan, Zachary Basu

Four conspiracy theorists marched into the Oval Office. It was early evening on Friday, Dec. 18 — more than a month after the election had been declared for Joe Biden, and four days after the Electoral College met in every state to make it official.

"How the hell did Sidney get in the building?" White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann grumbled from the outer Oval Office as Sidney Powell and her entourage strutted by to visit the president.

President Trump's private schedule hadn't included appointments for Powell or the others: former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, and a little-known former Trump administration official, Emily Newman. But they'd come to convince Trump that he had the power to take extreme measures to keep fighting.

As Powell and the others entered the Oval Office that evening, Herschmann — a wealthy business executive and former partner at Kasowitz Benson & Torres who'd been pulled out of quasi-retirement to advise Trump — quietly slipped in behind them.

snip

more at link

[TwilightZone]

1. Nearly a month after she was "fired"

Uh, huh.

[wiggs]

2. Huge. Does anyone doubt that there have been many, many crazy meetings in this administration

pertaining not only to the 2020 election but also to self-enrichment, deals with foreign nations, pardons, hiding evidence, the 2016 election, the Mueller report, silencing critics, dealing with protestors, punishing immigrants, etc?

All it takes is some carrot and a little praise and you've got his attention.

The original Axios report is worth a read

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. Meeting header: What can we do to further enrich ourselves before January 20th?

[Laelth]

13. Not at all.

This unscheduled meeting was far more serious than that.

Trump was being lobbied—hard—to declare martial law. Ultimately, he chose not to do so, but his decision was based upon the heated, six-hour-long meeting described in the Axios article.

-Laelth

[genxlib]

4. That is one crazy ass meeting

At first glance, there are some attendees that seem sane. Then you stop to think that the "sane" ones are also Trumpers who just wouldn't go the final mile. So these are arguments between the marginally insane and batshit crazy.

The thing that is striking to me is how descriptive the scenes are laid out with information like who is standing, sitting, eating, etc. I don't know how this is sourced but that is a remarkable amount of detail to be reporting about a meeting where the reporter was not in attendance.

[BusyBeingBest]

5. This is what America came to--a handful of crackpots and loons pitching

schemes to stay in power that had zero basis in reality or law. Reading this, I want to find another country to live in, but I know that's too difficult.

[MissB]

6. I'm surprised they weren't offered McDonald's French fries

in the meeting as it ended up in the residence. But hey, they got meatballs and pigs in blankets. I don’t know why that particular detail strikes me as funny.

[Laelth]

14. It adds tremendous credibility to the article.

The specific description of the food offered up by the White House tells us that the inside source is probably credible regarding the actual details of this six-hour-long, heated argument (about whether Trump should or should not declare martial law).

-Laelth

[BGBD]

7. There's no way it was the "craziest meeting"

and Mike Lindell wasn't there.

[Laelth]

8. The "Off the Rails" series keeps getting better.

Good work, Axios.



-Laelth

[jcgoldie]

9. "When Rudy's the voice of reason..."

"When Rudy's the voice of reason, you know the meetings not going well!”

It amazes me how all these fuckers conflate their will with actual facts just like Trump. Lacking any actual evidence they turn to accusing each other of “not fighting” for Trump.

[Laelth]

10. Not exactly.

It was the loons (Powell, Byrne, Flynn, and Newman) accusing the sane Republicans (Herschmann, Ciplione, Meadows, and even Giuliani) of being quitters and not fighting hard enough for Trump. The sane people said, “Mr. President, the loons don’t have any evidence of a vast Venezuela/China/Dominion conspiracy that they claim they can produce in a few days.” The loons said, “We will have it soon, and you need to declare martial law NOW to seize the voting macines, fire these losers like Guliani and Herschmann, give us security clearances, and put us in charge so that we can GET the evidence from the machines themselves.”

The unscheduled meeting lasted six hours. One side arguing for, and one side arguing against, declaring martial law. Around midnight, the sane Republicans went home. They gave up and said, “Mr. President, you have our opinion. It’s up to you to decide what to do.”

In the end, Trump sided with the sane Republicans and martial law was averted, but we came really close to it on December 18, 2020.

-Laelth

[jcgoldie]

11. "Trump sided with the sane republicans"

Is that what you think he was doing on January 6th?

[Laelth]

12. Nope.

That’s what he did on December 18, 2020 as described in the relevant Axios article.

-Laelth

[jcgoldie]

15. No he didnt

He kept pushing the same bullshit he obviously didnt side with the people telling him there was no evidence the election was rigged or the insurrection would not have been incited.