WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.660 You know, usually when you look at a massive, 00:00:03.700 --> 00:00:06.580 like 100 -story skyscraper, you just naturally 00:00:06.580 --> 00:00:09.300 assume it's built to withstand a hurricane. Right. 00:00:09.339 --> 00:00:10.740 Yeah, you don't really question it. Exactly. 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:13.480 You look at the glass and the steel, and you 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:15.140 just figure, you know, the engineers calculated 00:00:15.140 --> 00:00:18.160 the wind shear. They poured the reinforced concrete 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:20.539 deep into the bedrock. You just trust the building 00:00:20.539 --> 00:00:23.260 is going to hold. The architecture is entirely, 00:00:23.260 --> 00:00:25.640 well, it's invisible to you, but it's comforting. 00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:28.359 You trust the physics. Yeah. I mean, you don't 00:00:28.359 --> 00:00:30.140 walk into a high -rise lobby wondering if the 00:00:30.140 --> 00:00:32.700 foundation is going to just randomly fail that 00:00:32.700 --> 00:00:37.039 afternoon. But what if one day a category five 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:40.439 storm hits and the building sways a little more 00:00:40.439 --> 00:00:43.340 than it's supposed to? And you suddenly realize 00:00:43.340 --> 00:00:46.060 that the only thing keeping the entire structure 00:00:46.060 --> 00:00:48.560 from completely collapsing isn't the massive 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:51.679 steel beams. But a few specific isolated bolts. 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:54.649 Right. Bolts that just, you know. stubbornly 00:00:54.649 --> 00:00:56.789 refuse to snap under the pressure. That is the 00:00:56.789 --> 00:00:59.710 exact tension we are exploring today. We are 00:00:59.710 --> 00:01:02.590 examining the invisible architecture of a democratic 00:01:02.590 --> 00:01:06.849 system under extreme unprecedented pressure. 00:01:07.250 --> 00:01:09.870 So welcome to another deep dive. Today, we're 00:01:09.870 --> 00:01:13.150 opening up a massively documented file, basically 00:01:13.150 --> 00:01:16.170 a comprehensive Wikipedia article on the aftermath 00:01:16.170 --> 00:01:18.930 of the 2020 United States presidential election. 00:01:19.230 --> 00:01:22.019 And we should state our goal for today. The mission 00:01:22.019 --> 00:01:24.980 is to map the anatomy of this stress test. To 00:01:24.980 --> 00:01:27.900 dissect the how and the why behind the mechanisms, 00:01:28.420 --> 00:01:30.359 the strategies used to challenge the election 00:01:30.359 --> 00:01:32.290 results. Right. And before we really jump in, 00:01:32.310 --> 00:01:35.010 we need a crucial disclaimer here. Our goal today 00:01:35.010 --> 00:01:37.909 is absolutely not to litigate the politics. We 00:01:37.909 --> 00:01:40.370 are strictly here to impartially report on the 00:01:40.370 --> 00:01:42.769 facts and the viewpoints exactly as they are 00:01:42.769 --> 00:01:44.590 contained in our source material. We're taking 00:01:44.590 --> 00:01:46.870 absolutely no sides. Exactly. We aren't endorsing 00:01:46.870 --> 00:01:48.670 any political viewpoint. Right. We just want 00:01:48.670 --> 00:01:51.230 to help you, the listener, understand the historical 00:01:51.230 --> 00:01:54.349 events and the ideas exactly as they are documented 00:01:54.349 --> 00:01:57.230 in the text to understand how a modern political 00:01:57.230 --> 00:02:00.530 stress test actually functions in reality. So 00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:02.859 To understand the actions taken after November 00:02:02.859 --> 00:02:05.260 2020, we really have to look at the narrative 00:02:05.260 --> 00:02:07.760 groundwork, which our source notes was laid well 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:09.900 before any votes were actually cast. Meaning 00:02:09.900 --> 00:02:13.259 this wasn't just a spontaneous reaction to unexpected 00:02:13.259 --> 00:02:15.960 vote tallies? No, not at all. The text documents 00:02:15.960 --> 00:02:18.199 a very consistent pattern of rhetoric. It points 00:02:18.199 --> 00:02:20.599 out that Donald Trump's history of claiming electoral 00:02:20.599 --> 00:02:24.099 fraud dates all the way back to the 2012 election. 00:02:24.319 --> 00:02:28.110 Wait, 2012? Yeah. When Barack Obama won, Trump 00:02:28.110 --> 00:02:30.750 apparently called the Electoral College a disaster 00:02:30.750 --> 00:02:33.389 for democracy and called the election a total 00:02:33.389 --> 00:02:36.629 sham. Wow. OK. And then it continued into 2016, 00:02:36.629 --> 00:02:38.629 right? I remember there was that famous debate 00:02:38.629 --> 00:02:40.770 moment where he was asked if he would accept 00:02:40.770 --> 00:02:42.949 the results of the election. And he said he would, 00:02:42.990 --> 00:02:46.789 quote, if I win. Right. If I win. So the source 00:02:46.789 --> 00:02:49.169 frames this as setting the stage. You establish 00:02:49.169 --> 00:02:51.939 the premise early, right? that the only legitimate 00:02:51.939 --> 00:02:54.819 outcome is a victory. OK, so then we get to the 00:02:54.819 --> 00:02:58.300 early hours of November 4th, 2020. Millions of 00:02:58.300 --> 00:03:00.780 mail -in ballots are still uncounted. The results 00:03:00.780 --> 00:03:02.659 are entirely unclear. It's a massive waiting 00:03:02.659 --> 00:03:05.520 game. And Trump holds a press conference at like 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:08.599 2 .00 a .m. claiming victory and calling the 00:03:08.599 --> 00:03:10.960 ongoing election a fraud on the American public. 00:03:11.099 --> 00:03:13.280 And then the very next morning, he pushes the 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:15.530 message to stop the count. Which, I mean, that 00:03:15.530 --> 00:03:18.270 has always fascinated me mechanically, because 00:03:18.270 --> 00:03:21.069 the text points out this massive paradox here. 00:03:21.509 --> 00:03:24.789 At the exact moment he pushed that message, Joe 00:03:24.789 --> 00:03:27.750 Biden was actually leading in enough states that 00:03:27.750 --> 00:03:30.210 stopping the count right then and there would 00:03:30.210 --> 00:03:32.830 have resulted in an immediate Biden win. Yes. 00:03:33.030 --> 00:03:35.330 If you stop the count, you lose. So what is the 00:03:35.330 --> 00:03:38.129 mechanical purpose of demanding it? Well, because 00:03:38.129 --> 00:03:40.090 the goal of that message wasn't mathematical. 00:03:40.150 --> 00:03:42.729 It was entirely about shaping public perception. 00:03:42.870 --> 00:03:46.069 OK. The literal mechanics of counting the votes 00:03:46.069 --> 00:03:48.909 were secondary to establishing a narrative that 00:03:48.909 --> 00:03:51.870 the process itself was tainted. I mean, if the 00:03:51.870 --> 00:03:53.990 count continues and you eventually lose, you've 00:03:53.990 --> 00:03:55.969 already branded the counting process as illegitimate. 00:03:56.030 --> 00:03:57.490 Right, you've planted the seed. And that brings 00:03:57.490 --> 00:03:59.449 us to the first physical lever they tried to 00:03:59.449 --> 00:04:02.520 pull, which was the legal wall. the lawsuits. 00:04:02.740 --> 00:04:04.639 Yeah, the Trump legal team and various allies 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:09.080 filed 63 different lawsuits contesting the election 00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:11.539 processes, the vote counting, the certification. 00:04:11.819 --> 00:04:15.840 63. 63. And the text is clear that all of them 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:17.899 are unsuccessful. Okay, let's unpack this for 00:04:17.899 --> 00:04:20.279 a second. Let me play devil's advocate. If a 00:04:20.279 --> 00:04:23.319 legal team files 63 separate lawsuits across 00:04:23.319 --> 00:04:27.220 multiple states, surely some of them had to have 00:04:27.220 --> 00:04:30.300 a shred of legal merit, right? I mean, were they 00:04:30.300 --> 00:04:32.959 all completely baseless or were some just thrown 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:36.120 out on technicalities? It's a mix, but the outcome 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:39.519 was totally uniform. Some were dismissed for 00:04:39.519 --> 00:04:43.180 a complete lack of evidence, like literally failing 00:04:43.180 --> 00:04:46.279 to produce proof in court of the widespread fraud 00:04:46.279 --> 00:04:48.420 they were alleging on television. Right. Others 00:04:48.420 --> 00:04:51.120 were dismissed on procedural grounds. But the 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:54.199 most significant blow came at the very top. It 00:04:54.199 --> 00:04:56.839 culminated in a massive Supreme Court case called 00:04:56.839 --> 00:04:59.759 Texas v Pennsylvania. This is where Texas tried 00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:02.500 to get the Supreme Court to invalidate the electoral 00:05:02.500 --> 00:05:05.120 votes of four entirely different swing states. 00:05:05.259 --> 00:05:07.420 Yes. And the Supreme Court, keep in mind, this 00:05:07.420 --> 00:05:10.019 is a court with a six to three conservative majority 00:05:10.019 --> 00:05:12.519 with three justices appointed by Trump himself. 00:05:12.980 --> 00:05:15.220 They declined to hear the case. And the reason 00:05:15.220 --> 00:05:17.620 given was a lack of standing. Right. Let's break 00:05:17.620 --> 00:05:19.360 that down for the listener, because standing 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:20.740 is one of those legal terms that gets thrown 00:05:20.740 --> 00:05:22.939 around a lot. What does that actually mean in 00:05:22.939 --> 00:05:26.180 practice? So in legal terms, standing basically 00:05:26.180 --> 00:05:28.850 means You can't sue someone unless you can prove 00:05:28.850 --> 00:05:30.750 their actions personally indirectly harmed you. 00:05:30.970 --> 00:05:33.129 You have to have a dog in the fight. OK. The 00:05:33.129 --> 00:05:35.889 Supreme Court essentially ruled that Texas couldn't 00:05:35.889 --> 00:05:38.670 prove that Pennsylvania's internal voting laws 00:05:38.670 --> 00:05:41.670 actually cause legal harm to the state of Texas. 00:05:42.230 --> 00:05:43.649 You know, you don't get to sue your neighbor 00:05:43.649 --> 00:05:45.209 just because you don't like how they organize 00:05:45.209 --> 00:05:48.290 their living room. It's like a sports team prewriting 00:05:48.290 --> 00:05:51.410 an appeal to the referees months before the championship 00:05:51.410 --> 00:05:53.509 game even happens and then trying to complain 00:05:53.509 --> 00:05:55.709 about a game they weren't even playing in. Exactly. 00:05:55.970 --> 00:05:59.209 So The traditional legal route hits a brick wall. 00:05:59.649 --> 00:06:01.689 But while these courtroom challenges are failing, 00:06:02.290 --> 00:06:04.589 the rhetoric outside the courts is escalating 00:06:04.589 --> 00:06:07.350 into these highly elaborate conspiracy theories. 00:06:07.629 --> 00:06:09.769 Right. The source details the promotion of things 00:06:09.769 --> 00:06:13.079 like Italy Gate. Which is just, it's this incredibly 00:06:13.079 --> 00:06:16.220 bizarre theory claiming that satellites and military 00:06:16.220 --> 00:06:18.639 technology managed by the U .S. Embassy in Rome 00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:21.259 were somehow being used to remotely change votes 00:06:21.259 --> 00:06:23.759 from Trump to Biden. Yeah. And there was also 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:26.620 the scorecard and hammer hoax? Oh yeah, the supercomputer 00:06:26.620 --> 00:06:29.660 one. Right. Claiming a secret government supercomputer 00:06:29.660 --> 00:06:32.459 was actively switching votes in real time. Which 00:06:32.459 --> 00:06:35.199 brings up a huge question. If your goal is to 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:38.439 win a legal battle, why pivot so quickly to these 00:06:38.439 --> 00:06:42.319 massive sci -fi level conspiracy theories? I 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:44.660 mean, it feels like jumping from a traffic dispute 00:06:44.660 --> 00:06:47.939 to accusing the police of being aliens. How does 00:06:47.939 --> 00:06:50.160 pushing theories about Italian satellites help 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:52.360 you win a court case? What's fascinating here 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:54.639 is it doesn't. It doesn't help you win a court 00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:57.259 case at all. And that is the crucial insight 00:06:57.259 --> 00:07:00.060 the source provides. The rhetorical strategy 00:07:00.060 --> 00:07:02.600 is identified in the text as, heads I win, tails 00:07:02.600 --> 00:07:05.879 you cheated. The sheer volume of the 63 lawsuits 00:07:05.879 --> 00:07:08.259 combined with these outlandish theories wasn't 00:07:08.259 --> 00:07:10.759 necessarily about securing a concrete legal victory. 00:07:11.220 --> 00:07:13.699 It was about creating a fog. Flooding the zone. 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:15.860 Precisely. Flooding the zone. If you flood the 00:07:15.860 --> 00:07:17.920 zone with allegations, lawsuits, and complex 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:20.139 technological conspiracies, the average person 00:07:20.139 --> 00:07:21.959 just can't keep up. Yeah, it's just too much 00:07:21.959 --> 00:07:25.620 noise. Exactly. Even when the lawsuits are quietly 00:07:25.620 --> 00:07:28.139 dismissed in court due to lack of standing or 00:07:28.139 --> 00:07:31.120 lack of evidence, the headline already did its 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:34.139 job. It establishes a pervasive narrative of 00:07:34.139 --> 00:07:37.139 illegitimacy. It keeps the political base mobilized, 00:07:37.459 --> 00:07:40.959 angry, and financially engaged, which fuels the 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:43.060 next phase of the operation. Right. Because if 00:07:43.060 --> 00:07:45.100 the judicial route is closed, the strategy has 00:07:45.100 --> 00:07:47.810 to organically shift. The courts are saying no, 00:07:48.149 --> 00:07:50.329 the Supreme Court won't take the case. So the 00:07:50.329 --> 00:07:52.129 pressure flows down the path of least resistance. 00:07:52.209 --> 00:07:54.550 It goes directly to the state officials who actually 00:07:54.550 --> 00:07:56.850 physically certify the math. Yeah. You move from 00:07:56.850 --> 00:07:58.910 the federal judges down to the local bureaucrats, 00:07:59.089 --> 00:08:01.490 the secretaries of state, the county canvassing 00:08:01.490 --> 00:08:03.269 boards. And this is where the source details 00:08:03.269 --> 00:08:06.610 some of the most intense direct pressure campaigns. 00:08:07.259 --> 00:08:10.000 We have the phone calls, specifically that recorded 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:12.540 call on January 2nd to Georgia Secretary of State 00:08:12.540 --> 00:08:16.379 Brad Raffensperger, where Trump explicitly asks 00:08:16.379 --> 00:08:20.540 Raffensperger to, quote, find 11 ,780 votes, 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:22.879 which is an incredibly specific number. Yeah. 00:08:22.879 --> 00:08:24.980 And it's the phrasing that strikes me. He didn't 00:08:24.980 --> 00:08:27.699 say, you know, please conduct a thorough recount 00:08:27.699 --> 00:08:30.339 of the state to ensure every legal vote is accurately 00:08:30.339 --> 00:08:33.500 tallied. He asked an executive official to find 00:08:33.500 --> 00:08:36.690 an exact number of votes. Right. I mean, From 00:08:36.690 --> 00:08:40.450 a legal standpoint, asking an election official 00:08:40.450 --> 00:08:43.950 to materialize a specific tally puts that official 00:08:43.950 --> 00:08:47.529 in massive legal jeopardy regarding state level 00:08:47.529 --> 00:08:49.929 election interference laws. Right. You are basically 00:08:49.929 --> 00:08:52.090 asking a referee to just change the score on 00:08:52.090 --> 00:08:53.850 the board. And the pressure wasn't just at the 00:08:53.850 --> 00:08:56.669 top state level either. The text outlines how 00:08:56.669 --> 00:08:59.309 it reached all the way down to local county boards. 00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:01.399 like in Wing County, Michigan. Oh right, the 00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:03.419 canvassers. Yeah, you had Trump and the Republican 00:09:03.419 --> 00:09:05.720 National Committee chair pressuring two Republican 00:09:05.720 --> 00:09:08.419 board members not to certify the results. And 00:09:08.419 --> 00:09:11.059 they promised them, quote, we will get you attorneys. 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:14.019 Promising attorneys to a county canvasser isn't 00:09:14.019 --> 00:09:16.740 just like a casual political favor. I mean, a 00:09:16.740 --> 00:09:19.100 canvasser's job is largely administrative. They 00:09:19.100 --> 00:09:21.840 just certify the math that comes out of the precincts. 00:09:22.019 --> 00:09:24.039 Pressuring them not to certify is like pressuring 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:26.120 a calculator to output a different number. And 00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:28.299 promising them legal cover shows an awareness 00:09:28.299 --> 00:09:31.899 that what is being asked is, well, Highly irregular 00:09:31.899 --> 00:09:34.899 it is using the bureaucracy against itself and 00:09:34.899 --> 00:09:37.360 we saw the same tactic play out with the state 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:40.019 level audits The source details how Republicans 00:09:40.019 --> 00:09:43.139 initiated these massive partisan audits the most 00:09:43.139 --> 00:09:45.500 famous one being the cyber ninjas audit in Maricopa 00:09:45.500 --> 00:09:48.700 County, Arizona So how does a partisan audit 00:09:48.700 --> 00:09:51.639 like that actually differ from a routine post 00:09:51.639 --> 00:09:54.769 -election canvas because every state? Does routine 00:09:54.769 --> 00:09:56.509 audits, right? I mean, that's standard. They 00:09:56.509 --> 00:09:58.970 do. A routine audit is conducted by experienced 00:09:58.970 --> 00:10:02.009 election officials. They use standardized, transparent 00:10:02.009 --> 00:10:04.549 statistical methods to verify the machine counts 00:10:04.549 --> 00:10:06.509 against the paper ballots. It's very rigorous. 00:10:07.009 --> 00:10:09.490 But the Cyber Ninjas audit... as the text notes, 00:10:10.110 --> 00:10:12.409 was fundamentally different. It was run by a 00:10:12.409 --> 00:10:15.049 firm with absolutely no prior election experience. 00:10:15.529 --> 00:10:17.629 It was led by someone who had already publicly 00:10:17.629 --> 00:10:19.690 promoted election conspiracy theories. Right. 00:10:19.809 --> 00:10:21.450 The CEO had already said he thought the election 00:10:21.450 --> 00:10:25.090 was stolen. Exactly. And they were using bizarre, 00:10:25.529 --> 00:10:28.029 non -standard methodologies. Like they were literally 00:10:28.029 --> 00:10:31.750 searching for bamboo fibers on ballots to prove 00:10:31.750 --> 00:10:34.350 they were flown in from Asia. Bamboo fibers. 00:10:34.590 --> 00:10:38.919 Wow. The text notes a deeply ironic outcome to 00:10:38.919 --> 00:10:41.240 all of this, right? After six months of this 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:44.000 highly irregular investigation looking for fraud, 00:10:44.460 --> 00:10:46.519 the Cyber Ninjas audit actually ended up finding 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:50.659 360 more votes for Joe Biden. Which again underscores 00:10:50.659 --> 00:10:53.299 the core strategy. The objective impact of these 00:10:53.299 --> 00:10:56.019 actions wasn't to uncover actual usable proof 00:10:56.019 --> 00:10:58.840 of fraud. It was to severely undermine public 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:02.379 trust. They managed to turn obscure routine bureaucratic 00:11:02.379 --> 00:11:05.259 processes into high stakes partisan battlegrounds. 00:11:05.259 --> 00:11:07.700 Yeah. And, you know, we cannot gloss over the 00:11:07.700 --> 00:11:09.919 human cost of this either. The source is very 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:12.220 explicit about the intense intimidation faced 00:11:12.220 --> 00:11:14.200 by everyday election workers. Yes, that's a huge 00:11:14.200 --> 00:11:15.679 part of this. Because these aren't high level 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:18.740 politicians. These are local citizens doing data 00:11:18.740 --> 00:11:21.940 entry. The text mentions officials in multiple 00:11:21.940 --> 00:11:24.899 states who had to seek police protection, or 00:11:24.899 --> 00:11:27.120 they were literally forced to flee their homes 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:29.259 because the vitriol and the threats of violence 00:11:29.259 --> 00:11:31.559 became so severe. It's a very sobering detail. 00:11:31.740 --> 00:11:35.139 The rhetoric moved from legal briefs into real 00:11:35.139 --> 00:11:38.179 world physical danger for individuals just doing 00:11:38.179 --> 00:11:40.600 their civic duty. Right. And as those state officials 00:11:40.600 --> 00:11:43.679 and local workers largely held the line and refused 00:11:43.679 --> 00:11:46.639 to alter the certified counts, the campaign's 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:50.120 final recourse was to squeeze the federal bottlenecks. 00:11:50.620 --> 00:11:52.059 Okay. But before they could get to the federal 00:11:52.059 --> 00:11:54.480 level, they needed a mechanism to introduce doubt 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:56.460 into the federal certification. Here's where 00:11:56.460 --> 00:11:58.639 it gets really interesting. This is the fake 00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:01.820 electors plot. Yes. The source describes memos 00:12:01.820 --> 00:12:04.039 drafted by attorneys Kenneth Cheesebrough and 00:12:04.039 --> 00:12:07.200 John Eastman, and they outlined a plan to submit 00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:10.840 entirely alternate uncertified slates of electors 00:12:10.840 --> 00:12:13.600 from seven contested states. Walk me through 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:16.399 the actual physical mechanics of this. If the 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:18.970 votes in a state are already counted, and the 00:12:18.970 --> 00:12:21.110 state's governor has signed the official certificate 00:12:21.110 --> 00:12:24.610 of ascertainment, how does submitting a parallel 00:12:24.610 --> 00:12:27.570 set of fake electors actually accomplish anything? 00:12:27.769 --> 00:12:29.450 I mean, you can't just print out a certificate 00:12:29.450 --> 00:12:32.210 on your home printer, mail it to Washington, 00:12:32.750 --> 00:12:35.370 and expect it to work. You're right. Under normal 00:12:35.370 --> 00:12:37.850 circumstances, it wouldn't. It shouldn't. But 00:12:37.850 --> 00:12:40.009 the Eastman and Cheese Bro memos were trying 00:12:40.009 --> 00:12:43.200 to exploit a very specific historical ambiguity. 00:12:43.899 --> 00:12:46.059 They were targeting the Electoral Count Act of 00:12:46.059 --> 00:12:49.200 1887, which is a famously poorly written, confusing 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:51.840 piece of 19th century legislation. Exactly. It's 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:54.539 incredibly dense. Normally on January 6th, the 00:12:54.539 --> 00:12:56.820 vice president opens one envelope from each state 00:12:56.820 --> 00:12:59.220 containing the certified electoral votes. The 00:12:59.220 --> 00:13:02.480 memos essentially theorized that if the vice 00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:04.799 president receives two envelopes from a state, 00:13:05.580 --> 00:13:07.759 even if one isn't signed by the governor and 00:13:07.759 --> 00:13:10.759 has literally no legal backing. The vice president 00:13:10.759 --> 00:13:13.659 has the unilateral constitutional right to say, 00:13:14.019 --> 00:13:15.860 hey, I don't know which of these is real. There's 00:13:15.860 --> 00:13:17.559 a dispute here, so I'm throwing them both out. 00:13:17.659 --> 00:13:20.460 or I'm sending this back to the state legislatures 00:13:20.460 --> 00:13:23.279 to decide. Wow. So the mechanical goal wasn't 00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:25.539 necessarily to have those alternate electors 00:13:25.539 --> 00:13:28.320 immediately accepted as the real ones. The goal 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:31.419 was simply for them to exist. By generating a 00:13:31.419 --> 00:13:33.639 competing piece of paper, they create the necessary 00:13:33.639 --> 00:13:36.700 pretext for allies in Congress or the vice president 00:13:36.700 --> 00:13:39.500 to just delay the entire ceremonial process. 00:13:39.659 --> 00:13:42.740 It's weaponized chaos. Yes, exactly. Weaponized 00:13:42.740 --> 00:13:45.259 chaos. They needed the fake electors to justify 00:13:45.259 --> 00:13:47.950 the next phase, which was extreme federal intervention. 00:13:48.350 --> 00:13:50.210 Because if the states won't overturn the results, 00:13:50.509 --> 00:13:52.309 you have to go to the very top of the executive 00:13:52.309 --> 00:13:54.470 branch. Yeah. The Justice Department, the military, 00:13:54.870 --> 00:13:57.149 and the vice president. Let's look at the DOJ 00:13:57.149 --> 00:14:00.169 first. The source explains that Trump considered 00:14:00.169 --> 00:14:02.570 replacing his acting attorney general, Jeffrey 00:14:02.570 --> 00:14:05.190 Rosen, with a subordinate named Jeffrey Clark. 00:14:05.789 --> 00:14:08.960 Why Clark? Well, because he had drafted a letter 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:11.419 falsely claiming the DOJ had found significant 00:14:11.419 --> 00:14:13.960 concerns about the election, and he wanted to 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:16.200 send it to state officials to urge them to overturn 00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:18.649 the results. Right. And think about the mechanical 00:14:18.649 --> 00:14:21.289 impact of that letter. If the states are refusing 00:14:21.289 --> 00:14:24.029 to convene and appoint alternate electors because 00:14:24.029 --> 00:14:26.370 there's no proof of fraud. A letter from the 00:14:26.370 --> 00:14:28.350 United States Department of Justice officially 00:14:28.350 --> 00:14:31.029 stating, we found fraud, provides those state 00:14:31.029 --> 00:14:33.289 legislatures with the ultimate political cover 00:14:33.289 --> 00:14:36.309 to act. Exactly. It's a chain reaction. But the 00:14:36.309 --> 00:14:39.789 chain broke. Rosen and his deputy, Richard Donahue, 00:14:40.090 --> 00:14:42.509 flatly refused to sign the letter. The text says 00:14:42.509 --> 00:14:45.210 they threaten mass resignations across the entire 00:14:45.210 --> 00:14:47.769 Justice Department if Clark was installed. Yeah, 00:14:47.889 --> 00:14:50.649 Donahue famously called the schemes pure insanity. 00:14:50.909 --> 00:14:53.549 Pure insanity. Confronted with the prospect of 00:14:53.549 --> 00:14:55.970 the entire leadership of the DOJ walking out 00:14:55.970 --> 00:14:58.549 on national television, the plan was abandoned. 00:14:58.850 --> 00:15:02.019 So if the DOJ refuses to play ball... And that 00:15:02.019 --> 00:15:04.639 avenue is completely closed. What is the next 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:07.500 logical escalation? You need an entity that doesn't 00:15:07.500 --> 00:15:10.580 rely on legal arguments or bureaucratic letters, 00:15:10.759 --> 00:15:13.379 but on sheer physical enforcement. The military. 00:15:13.500 --> 00:15:16.240 Yes. The source details how figures like former 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:18.519 national security advisor Michael Flynn and attorney 00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:21.480 Sidney Powell pushed for extreme executive measures. 00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:24.120 They were actively advocating for the president 00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:26.940 to declare martial law or to use the Pentagon 00:15:26.940 --> 00:15:29.580 to physically seize voting machines across the 00:15:29.580 --> 00:15:32.419 country. The prospect of military intervention 00:15:32.419 --> 00:15:35.519 became so serious and it was so widely discussed 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:38.759 that all 10 living former defense secretaries 00:15:38.759 --> 00:15:41.159 felt compelled to publish a joint op -ed. All 00:15:41.159 --> 00:15:43.659 10 of them. All 10. They publicly warned against 00:15:43.659 --> 00:15:46.000 any military involvement in resolving the election 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:48.340 dispute, reminding the armed forces of their 00:15:48.340 --> 00:15:50.860 oath to the Constitution. not to an individual. 00:15:51.100 --> 00:15:53.659 Which brings us to the ultimate federal bottleneck, 00:15:53.799 --> 00:15:56.659 the final failsafe, Vice President Mike Pence. 00:15:57.240 --> 00:15:59.320 The text details what they called the Pence card. 00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:01.639 This was the false legal theory we touched on 00:16:01.639 --> 00:16:04.259 earlier, pushed heavily by Eastman and an attorney 00:16:04.259 --> 00:16:07.379 named Ivan Raiklin, that Pence had the unilateral 00:16:07.379 --> 00:16:10.039 authority to just reject electoral votes during 00:16:10.039 --> 00:16:12.399 the January 6th certification. I look at this 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:14.909 and I think It's like trying to find a master 00:16:14.909 --> 00:16:17.269 override switch in an airplane cockpit that was 00:16:17.269 --> 00:16:19.649 specifically engineered not to have one. The 00:16:19.649 --> 00:16:21.909 Constitution doesn't give one single person the 00:16:21.909 --> 00:16:24.629 power to pick the president. If we connect this 00:16:24.629 --> 00:16:27.250 to the bigger picture, what is truly remarkable 00:16:27.250 --> 00:16:30.590 here is the incredible reliance on the personal 00:16:30.590 --> 00:16:33.470 integrity of a few key appointees. Yeah. People 00:16:33.470 --> 00:16:38.029 like Rosen, Donahue. and Pence. The system didn't 00:16:38.029 --> 00:16:40.210 automatically protect itself with some magical 00:16:40.210 --> 00:16:42.750 force field. The architecture held because it 00:16:42.750 --> 00:16:44.509 required individuals in incredibly high pressure 00:16:44.509 --> 00:16:46.830 situations to look at the legal theories being 00:16:46.830 --> 00:16:48.909 presented to them, recognize them as baseless, 00:16:49.090 --> 00:16:52.350 and simply refuse to pull a lever. This internal 00:16:52.350 --> 00:16:54.970 pressure cooker reveals how easily norms can 00:16:54.970 --> 00:16:57.230 be challenged and how much the resilience of 00:16:57.230 --> 00:16:59.830 the executive branch really relied on the fortitude 00:16:59.830 --> 00:17:03.120 of specific individuals. And all of these theoretical 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:05.960 legal arguments, the rhetorical strategies, the 00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:09.259 pressure on state canvassers, the threats of 00:17:09.259 --> 00:17:13.259 mass DOJ resignations, the memos about the 1887 00:17:13.259 --> 00:17:17.440 Electoral Count Act, it all physically converged 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:21.019 on one day at one building. January 6th. The 00:17:21.019 --> 00:17:23.339 physical violence at the Capitol was the culmination 00:17:23.339 --> 00:17:25.339 of the narrative that had been built for months. 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:28.210 Yeah. The source describes how the mob violently 00:17:28.210 --> 00:17:30.910 breached the Capitol, temporarily halting the 00:17:30.910 --> 00:17:32.710 electoral certification we just talked about, 00:17:33.009 --> 00:17:35.390 and forcing lawmakers and Vice President Pence 00:17:35.390 --> 00:17:38.829 to flee for their lives. The text specifically 00:17:38.829 --> 00:17:41.190 notes that multiple academic and media sources 00:17:41.190 --> 00:17:43.930 described this event as an attempted self -coup, 00:17:44.170 --> 00:17:46.509 and the immediate legal fallout from that day 00:17:46.509 --> 00:17:49.349 was massive. The text details investigations 00:17:49.349 --> 00:17:52.190 resulting in over 1 ,500 federal charges. You 00:17:52.190 --> 00:17:54.309 had leaders of extremist groups like the Proud 00:17:54.309 --> 00:17:56.519 Boys and the Oath Keepers was convicted of seditious 00:17:56.519 --> 00:17:58.519 conspiracy. And we should clarify what that means, 00:17:58.740 --> 00:18:01.240 because seditious conspiracy isn't just a fancy 00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:03.880 legal term for rioting. Right, it's very specific. 00:18:04.200 --> 00:18:07.059 It is a rarely used federal charge that means 00:18:07.059 --> 00:18:10.700 two or more people conspired to overthrow, put 00:18:10.700 --> 00:18:13.359 down, or destroy by force the government of the 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:16.000 United States, or to prevent the execution of 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:19.730 its laws. It requires proving a coordinated plan 00:18:19.730 --> 00:18:22.230 to use force against the government. And the 00:18:22.230 --> 00:18:24.250 accountability reached all the way to the top. 00:18:24.670 --> 00:18:26.970 The source documents state and federal indictments 00:18:26.970 --> 00:18:29.710 against Trump and his inner circle. This included 00:18:29.710 --> 00:18:31.950 a massive federal indictment by special counsel 00:18:31.950 --> 00:18:34.730 Jack Smith for conspiracy to defraud the United 00:18:34.730 --> 00:18:36.609 States and obstructing an official proceeding. 00:18:37.170 --> 00:18:39.390 But and this is where we get the wild twist that 00:18:39.390 --> 00:18:42.490 takes us into the present day into 2024 and 2025. 00:18:42.910 --> 00:18:45.210 The long tale of these events. Yeah. Because 00:18:45.210 --> 00:18:46.869 the story didn't end with those indictments. 00:18:47.009 --> 00:18:49.309 So what does this all mean? The timeline in the 00:18:49.309 --> 00:18:51.849 source shows a staggering whiplash. Following 00:18:51.849 --> 00:18:53.930 Trump's reelection to the presidency in November 00:18:53.930 --> 00:18:57.109 2024, the federal charges against him were dismissed. 00:18:57.410 --> 00:18:59.869 The special counsel cited the longstanding Department 00:18:59.869 --> 00:19:02.450 of Justice policy against prosecuting a sitting 00:19:02.450 --> 00:19:05.640 president. And upon returning to office in early 00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:09.420 2025, the source states Trump pardoned the January 00:19:09.420 --> 00:19:12.660 6 rioters en masse. Furthermore, his Department 00:19:12.660 --> 00:19:14.960 of Justice officially opened an investigation 00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:18.079 into Special Counsel Jack Smith, alleging that 00:19:18.079 --> 00:19:20.160 the original investigations were politically 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:22.539 motivated. This raises an important question. 00:19:23.220 --> 00:19:26.140 It fundamentally reshapes how we view the consequences 00:19:26.140 --> 00:19:29.059 of this stress test. You have a heavily documented 00:19:29.309 --> 00:19:32.509 multi -pronged attempt to subvert the certification 00:19:32.509 --> 00:19:35.490 of an election. It results in historically unprecedented 00:19:35.490 --> 00:19:37.910 criminal indictments. Yeah. But the electoral 00:19:37.910 --> 00:19:40.450 system itself eventually returns the central 00:19:40.450 --> 00:19:43.250 figure to power, which then provides the executive 00:19:43.250 --> 00:19:46.049 authority to essentially erase the federal legal 00:19:46.049 --> 00:19:48.130 consequences of those actions. It's incredible. 00:19:48.390 --> 00:19:49.890 So bringing it all back to you, the listener, 00:19:50.009 --> 00:19:52.009 if you're trying to gain knowledge quickly without 00:19:52.009 --> 00:19:54.289 feeling completely overwhelmed by this avalanche 00:19:54.289 --> 00:19:57.109 of names, dates and lawsuits, the real takeaway 00:19:57.109 --> 00:20:00.490 here isn't just memorizing a timeline, it's understanding 00:20:00.490 --> 00:20:03.440 the literal architecture of American ins... institutions. 00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:06.180 By breaking down the exact mechanisms from the 00:20:06.180 --> 00:20:08.660 concept of legal standing that defeated the court 00:20:08.660 --> 00:20:12.099 cases, to the intense pressure on bureaucratic 00:20:12.099 --> 00:20:15.799 canvassers, to the exploitation of the 1887 Electoral 00:20:15.799 --> 00:20:18.619 Count Act, to the attempt to use the vice president 00:20:18.619 --> 00:20:21.779 as an override switch, You gain a much more clear 00:20:21.779 --> 00:20:24.180 -eyed view of how political power actually functions 00:20:24.180 --> 00:20:27.259 when it is placed under extreme stress. Grasting 00:20:27.259 --> 00:20:29.599 these mechanics is a crucial tool for your uncritical 00:20:29.599 --> 00:20:32.480 thinking. In an era where the fundamental legitimacy 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:35.359 of democratic processes is constantly being debated, 00:20:35.740 --> 00:20:38.039 knowing the actual anatomy of the system, like 00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:40.759 how a routine audit works or what an elector 00:20:40.759 --> 00:20:43.480 actually does is your best defense against misinformation. 00:20:43.619 --> 00:20:46.240 Right. The playbook used in 2020 has fundamentally 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:48.420 altered how elections are contested, leading 00:20:48.420 --> 00:20:50.750 to new voting restriction laws. and a normalized 00:20:50.750 --> 00:20:53.569 skepticism of the electoral process itself. Which 00:20:53.569 --> 00:20:55.869 brings us back to where we started, that massive 00:20:55.869 --> 00:20:58.930 skyscraper facing a Category 5 hurricane. We 00:20:58.930 --> 00:21:00.930 saw the invisible architecture of the democratic 00:21:00.930 --> 00:21:03.750 system take a direct hit and we saw exactly which 00:21:03.750 --> 00:21:06.190 bolts were strained the most. But I want to leave 00:21:06.190 --> 00:21:08.190 you with a new puzzle to mull over as you go 00:21:08.190 --> 00:21:11.359 about your week. We just spent this time analyzing 00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:13.680 a playbook that relied on flooding the zone with 00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:16.539 allegations, pressuring local bureaucrats, and 00:21:16.539 --> 00:21:19.079 creating a fog of complex conspiracy theories 00:21:19.079 --> 00:21:22.019 to justify overturning a result. And all of that 00:21:22.019 --> 00:21:24.240 was done largely through tweets, press conferences, 00:21:24.420 --> 00:21:27.960 and memos. If this exact playbook, which we now 00:21:27.960 --> 00:21:31.000 know intimately, is executed next time by a political 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:33.299 movement fully equipped with AI -generated audio, 00:21:33.539 --> 00:21:36.359 deepfakes, and synthetic media to actually prove 00:21:36.359 --> 00:21:38.900 the fraud they are alleging, Does the building 00:21:38.900 --> 00:21:41.519 hold a second time? Or does the storm just get 00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:44.559 stronger? A fascinating and very urgent question 00:21:44.559 --> 00:21:46.480 to ponder. Thanks for diving deep with us today. 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:47.559 We'll see you next time.