Altruistic World Online Library

Trump Makes REPREHENSIBLE POSTS after RALLY SHOOTING
by Ben Meiselas
MeidasTouch
Jul 15, 2024

[Donald Trump] All hell breaks loose in one hour Trump rally alert when I take the rally stage I could be making a major announcement that's sure to strike fear in the heart of our deep State enemies

Transcript

look we've been saying it over and over

again for years now political violence

has no place in our country it has no

place anywhere the type of extremist

rhetoric that we are seeing that's been

spreading specifically from Maga

Republicans belongs nowhere in our

politics I just want to it belongs

nowhere anywhere period I just want to

show you the types of emails and posts

and statements that Donald Trump's been

making every day to his supporters like

I refuse to be gaslit you've seen the

other videos I've done where I've in the

strongest terms the strongest terms have

condemned political violence what went

down in Butler Pennsylvania is abhorent

it is Despicable to take place here in

the United States or any where it's

horrible and as much as I truly loathe

everything that Donald Trump stands for

you heard what I said that no one

deserves to be injured no one deserves

to be physically attacked at all period

full stop want to be very clear where I

stand on that just want to show you the

post though that he's been making

sending to his supporters like this one

um this is the message that he sent out

an hour before he took the stage in

Butler Pennsylvania so I'm on his list

Serb so you don't have to be um this is

the emails that he sends every day let

me just read from you over the past

month some of the emails this one goes

I'm addressing the nation in 60 minutes

this is before he spoke in Butler

Pennsylvania he goes all hell breaks

loose in one hour Trump rally alert when

I take the rally stage I could be making

a major announcement that's sure to

strike fear in the heart of our deep

State

enemies uh Donald Trump uh just a few

days before that wrote The Following all

hell breaks loose in seven days the

final battle starts in seven days after

I accept the nomination The Liberation

of America truly begins and when it does

I'll need millions of Patriots like Ben

standing by my side ready to demolish

the Deep State and rescue our country

from filthy lunatics he writes this is

what he wrote on July 9th so all this is

in the past week um the messages

official Trump merch don't tread on Maga

I'm speaking directly to Joe Biden and

the rest of the mob that wants to throw

me in prison don't tread on Maga here's

one a few days before that the gloves

are coming off this was before the

debate I'm bringing out the big guns and

in caps is the word guns before I step

into the ring with crooked Joe Biden

tomorrow that means Ben I'm not pulling

any punches so I'm inviting you to join

my debate prep here's another one that

he sent a few days before that I've got

a secret weapon and it says all I need

is Ben and it says that Biden's even got

a gang of Soros backed prosecutors

chomping at the bit to send mag to the

grave but I have one thing he'll never

have the love and support of America

First Patriots like you you are my

secret weapon in the fight to save

America and he puts this in caps from

Total

Annihilation think about the words he's

using total

Annihilation he uses words um sending me

to the Grave he uses words the gloves

are coming off big guns don't tread on

Maga liberation of America um help me

demolish the Deep State he's calling

people filthy lunatics deep state to

enemies over and over again email after

sends like seven of these emails every

single day then he says this next one it

goes Ben you've got guts and it says I

owe my life to you it takes guts to

stand up against the corrupt ruling

class the way you did if it weren't for

Patriots like you my campaign would have

been dead and buried long ago and he has

a caps dead and buried so you see what

he's doing here with these emails to his

supporters by the way these are selfie

videos that he's been making of himself

and posting on his truth Social account

his social media account uh this is what

he says this is the message that he just

creates these selfie videos like this

here play this clip Savage Killers

rapists and violent criminals are being

released from jail to continue their

crime wave they're trying to

indoctrinate and mutilate our children

he's leading us to the brink of World

War III and on top of all of that he's

the most corrupt president in American

history and it's not even closed you

know and then at his speeches and his

rallies he talks about how he believes

immigrants are poisoning the blood of

the of the country so when he says play

the clip country when they do that we

got a lot of work to do

they're poisoning the blood of our

country that's what they've done they

poisoned mental institutions and prisons

all over the world not just in South

America not just the three or four

countries that we think about but all

over the world they're coming into our

country from Africa from Asia all over

the world they're pouring into our

country nobody's even looking at them

they just come in the crime is going to

be tremendous the terrorism is going to

be terrorism is going to be and then we

built a tremendous piece of the wall and

then you'll recall that after Nancy

Pelosi's husband was the uh victim of an

attempted murder Don Jr posted the

following got my Paul Pelosi Halloween

costume ready and it's underwear with a

hammer on it where Don Jr is spreading a

conspiracy that Paul Pelosi was in a

homosexual relationship with the with

the person who tried to kill him is

false that's what Maga was doing and

saying um and then Donald Trump would

give speeches mocking Nancy Pelosi and

Nancy Pelosi's husband because somebody

tried to kill her husband and Trump

thought that was funny so he gave

speeches mocking that here play this

clip we had no Terror during my

Administration the only Terror we had

was Nancy Pelosi who's a crazed

lunatic she's a

lunatic she is a crazed lunatic what the

hell was going on with her husband let's

not ask

let's not ask I'll withdraw that

statement by the way she's got a wall

around her house obviously in that case

it didn't work very well did it it

didn't work by the way uh the shooter uh

has been identified Thomas Matthew

Crooks the FBI officially identified him

um it's also worth noting that uh the

individual uh who was identified as the

shooter was wearing Demolition Ranch

gear far right-wing company Don Jr would

take photos with uh the the CEO and head

of Demolition Ranch which basically they

argue that the second amendment gives

people unlimited rights to have weapons

of war to do whatever they um want with

it um I I did a whole other video where

I shared with you just some of the

statements that were being made by Biden

Obama Clinton and you know and others

who just condemn this and said They wish

Donald Trump speedy recovery they

condemned the violence in all forms they

condemned all forms of violent rhetoric

in any form that's what that that's what

should be

happening the politics should not

be what we see being spread by Trump and

Maga and by the way all I've seen from

the Maga people are all their takes oh

this is going to help Donald Trump this

is going to the can we just focus on the

fact here

could we focus on the fact

that weapons of war are proliferating

here the Supreme Court just allowed bump

stocks to proliferate like what are we

even talking about here and magger

Republicans saying Biden did this Biden

did this what are you talking about the

the person who was uh responsible for

this was was shot and neutralized by

Secret Service the GU was guy was a

republican wearing Second Amendment gear

what are you talking

about I'm Ben myellis this is the midest

touch Network hit subscribe right now

we'll give you more updates throughout

the day

Shooter's Family ON DATABASE used by Trump Campaign
MeidasTouch
Jul 16, 2024

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on new information gathered about the incident at the Donald Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.



Transcript

from the outset of this video I want to

be very clear that the FBI investigation

into the shooter at the Butler

Pennsylvania Trump rally is still

ongoing we know the shooter's identity

Thomas Matthew Crooks the FBI has not

announced what they believe the

motivation to be I do not intend for

this video to imply a specific

motivation of Thomas Matthew Crooks the

purpose of this video is to show you and

share with you the serious lies and

disinformation and violent rhetoric that

is being spewed each and every day by

far right-wing media which has a

stronghold over the minds of those who

identify as being Maga or as far right

that is the purpose of this now let's

talk about the Undisputed facts we know

that Thomas Matthew Crooks was

neutralized on scene we know that he was

a 20-year-old white male registered

Republican who last voted in the closed

Republican primaries we know from High

School classmates that he was a right-

Winger we know from his outfits and his

gear that he was a second amendment

Enthusiast we know that on the day of

the shooting Crook's father assumed his

son had gone to a gun range that

Saturday but became concerned when he

couldn't reach him and called police

after news of the shooting we know as

well that uh from Neighbors and

classmates that uh thas walked around

the neighborhood frequently and that

there were Trump signs on the front yard

so those are certain Undisputed facts

now what I do want to share with you

which I don't think has been reported

anywhere else but our research team

broke it here on the meidest touch

network is The Following that five

months ago Alex Jones and Infowars guest

Ivan rein discussed the following how

assassinating Donald Trump would be

beneficial they said according to them

because it would lead to retaliatory

in-kind

assassinations of a deep State list

which includes President Joe Biden this

is what they were saying on their show

[...] [edited for excessive virtue signalling]

now going through what uh

Alex Jones said on this infowar show now

Ivan Rin then said who's a kind of a far

right-wing media personality said if

they assassinated Trump option two

behind Trump is going to be so much

better for us and so much worse for them

to which Alex Jones then said I was

about to say if they kill him that's the

best case scenario from a sick level

from a sick level medium oh please kill

him I mean it's so good after that is

what Alex Jones said then rein responded

oh it's going to be the best cleansing

and the fastest cleansing that we've

ever seen in my lifetime I guarantee I

access with almost certainty with the

highest level of confidence that if they

assassinated trump it is so game over

for them that's what they were saying

five months ago now after this incident

what has Alex Jones been saying Alex

Jones has continued to engage his

audience with dangerous unhinged

rhetoric Alex Jones recently said the

following if they kill Trump the next

move will be a truck bomb or something

like that at a black church or a black

college to blame it on Trump supporters

which the baller alert account responded

what does black people have to do with

this Alex Jones then responded or Alex

Jones then said the globalists might

hijack a Plane by remote control and fly

it into maral Lago um then Alex Jones

claims the Deep State tried to kill

Trump and will attempt to cause a race

war poison him and will try to use a

truck bomb to keep him from winning the

election Jones also claimed that the

Secret Service stood down and will do so

again by order from Joe Biden now um JD

Vance who's now the vice presidential

pick of Donald Trump had previously said

that he trusts Alex Jones and he thinks

that Alex Jones is being censored by the

Deep State and uh JD Vance made that REM

made those remarks after Alex Jones was

found liable for defamation for defaming

the victims of and the victims families

of school shootings and calling them

crisis actors you see the post right

here from JD Vance you can see it for

yourself now also a number of Maga

Republicans echoed this type of rhetoric

that we're seeing from Alex Jones over

and over again um after uh the shooting

you had what margorie Taylor green said

she blames it on uh Democrats and and

she says Democrats are the party of

pedophiles she says um you have uh Maga

Republican Congress member Collins um

and he says that this was an order from

Joe Biden again echoing the language

from Alex Jones from five months ago

about what they said um was going to

happen [...] [edited for excessive virtue signalling]

now you'll see Ivan

rein sitting behind Dr Fauci when he

recently spoke at Congress and then then

you had Ivan rein um you know in kind of

a very threatening and menacing way in

my opinion and then you had Ivan rein

make these selfie videos of himself

where he talks about a kind of a deep

State uh SWAT list or hit list or um or

where they're going to go um once they

trigger uh this type of kind of mass

chaos and mass and mass confusion and

mass disorder uh and I read to you what

specifically was said on Alex Jones when

he was a guest on the show I want to

share with you as well what Eric Trump

said at the Republican National

Convention I'll show this clip because

it's not an Infowars thing or an Alex

Jones or an Ivan Rin thing um but then

Eric says that they look what they did

they tried to kill my father play this

clip they have done everything to try

and strip him of his wealth and of his

Fame they've tried to break up family

they've done everything possible to try

and get him and kill him and they

literally tried to kill him this week

and despite that he's undeterred he's

unrelenting he loves this country he's

the one billionaire who does not need to

be doing this his life would be

exponentially better if he wasn't but he

wants to make America great again and

I'm so proud of him I've never had more

respect for a person in my life and uh

you know it's funny we were I was there

with Don and Tiffany and everybody else

we were in that exact same position in

2016 and we Contin to fight on that

stage with him every every single day

and I will for the rest of my life well

I got teared up and I started crying

when I heard the news I was in the ra I

was in the car and the radio was on and

I was listening and it was live when I

heard that stop and I come I said to my

son I think I think president Trump was

shot and I I was falling yeah what was

your

and again when Eric says that the

"they" here, the "they" here

is what? White

Republican uh with Trump flag

who's who's uh who was believed to be at

a gun range who wore the same Second

Amendment paraphernalia of the gun club

that uh don Jr would would go to I mean

is is that is that what we're talking

about here I do want to show you this

clip though and I want to give a hat tip

to uh Channel 4 uh in the UK and I think

they did a good job here as well where

they talk about how um uh the father of

Thomas Crooks and the family appear in

Donald Trump's 2016 campaign data set

which was also used by Cambridge

analytica as well um to flood uh them

with pizzagate disinformation and and

all of the stuff about Civil War and and

and all of this type of disinformation

this violent rhetoric this

disinformation pushing all of this stuff

on them it's a great report from from

Channel 4 here play this clip Channel 4

News can reveal that Thomas krook's

father the owner of the rifle that was

used to shoot at Donald Trump was held

on a database and profiled by the former

president's election campaign and

identified by them as a strong

Republican supporter gun owner and

Hunter the information was compiled as

part of a secret Republican project to

gather data on millions of gun owners

Across America and use it to Target

proun messages in the runup to the 2016

election and here's why they did it the

city of Pittsburg is a key Battleground

in the critical swing state of

Pennsylvania so voters here are always

heavily profiled and targeted by

political parties like the Trump

campaign in 2016 which held voters

details on a database including as we've

discovered the shooters family Matthew

Kooks and his wife Mary who lived here

at 256 Milford Drive in bethl park we

know they profiled them using secret

computer models to identify likely gun

owners and enthusiasts and Mr crook

scored very highly .99 out of one for

being a gun owner and 0.95 out of one

for being a hunter in fact out of more

than 19,000 people in bethl park who

were profiled Mr krooks was in the top

20 and the database classified him as a

strong GOP or republican voter

[...] [edited for excessive virtue signalling]

but that's what we know right

now and we'll keep you posted with more

but I thought that was an important news

story to share with you

Things Just Aren't Adding Up About Trump's Assassination Attempt
by Grunge
Jul 19, 2024

The odd details from the July 13, 2024, attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump just keep piling up. We keep learning more about what happened, but it still isn't making any sense.



Transcript

Witness warnings

The odd details from the July 13, 2024, attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump just
keep piling up. We keep learning more about what happened, but it still isn't making any sense.
Attendees of the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally where the shooting took place
have told multiple news outlets that they could see the would-be assassin,
Thomas Matthew Crooks, crawling on the roof and preparing to take aim.
"I'm standing there pointing at him for two, three minutes.
Secret Service is looking at us from the top of the barn. I'm pointin' at that roof."
That witness, Greg Smith, told the BBC that Crooks was probably not visible to
the Secret Service agents because of the slope of the roof. Another witness told
CBS News that he saw Crooks on the rooftops, going from one building to another. He also
noted that law enforcement was made aware. Many more witnesses had similar stories.
"A guy beside me looks over and he said, 'He has a gun! He has a gun!'
So if numerous people at the rally saw the shooter well before he opened fire,
why didn't the Secret Service and local police act? This seeming negligence has
led numerous people, including Elon Musk and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson,
to call for Secret Service head Kimberly Cheatle to resign or be fired.
An unguarded roof
Trump's stage was located in front of three side-by-side buildings with sloped,
triangular roofs. There's another smaller building kitty-corner to the stage area,
and a larger factory on the other side past some trees. Even though the roof of the building,
an AGR International building, was the furthest of all available roofs at around 150 yards,
it was certainly within range for an assailant to make a fatal shot
with an AR-style rifle like Crooks had. So why wasn't anyone posted up there?
ABC News reports that the Secret Service is currently following this exact line
of questioning. Crooks was wearing what's been described as "gray camouflage" while
remaining as still as possible once he got in position. After Crooks fired several shots, the
Secret Service counter-sniper team at the scene shot and killed him. But they were also quite a
distance away from his position, on different rooftops. Where were the agents that seemingly
should have been on the AGR building roof? As an unnamed former Secret Service agent told NBC News,
"Someone should have been on the roof or securing the building so no one could get on the roof."
According to officials, plenty of people agreed that the AGR building was
Finger-pointing
a security threat. What's much less clear is whose responsibility it was to secure it. Sources told
NBC News that although the Secret Service had identified the building as a potential problem,
they had also told local police to take the responsibility for securing that
particular building. However, Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said,
"The Secret Service ran the show. They were the ones who designated who did what. [...] To me,
the whole thing is under the jurisdiction of the Secret Service."
"I would have expected that they would have had that building secured."
Several days after the shooting, news outlets were still not reporting any concrete answers
as to how Crooks got up on the roof or why the building hadn't been included
in the Secret Service's secured perimeter. In an interview with ABC News, Secret Service Director
Kimberly Cheatle acknowledged that there were "a number of buildings in that outlying area"
that were similarly assigned to local law enforcement for security. But she also noted,
"The Secret Service is responsible for the protection of the former president."
Were officers inside?
We know from Cheatle herself that the security of the nearby AGR building
had been delegated to local police. The Secret Service director also offered an
explanation as to why no one was on the roof, telling ABC News,
"That building in particular has a sloped roof, at its highest point. And so,
there's a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn't want to put somebody up
on a sloped roof. And so, the decision was made to secure the building from inside."
There have been reports from the BBC and other outlets that there were
three police snipers inside the AGR building. But a police spokesman told The New York Times
that wasn't the case. They said that their officers were in an adjacent building.
The Times reported that multiple local law enforcement agencies contended that
their counter snipers were positioned on the second floor of a different building
and had been specifically instructed to watch the crowd, not to secure buildings.
Likewise, several former Secret Service agents have also stated that a sloped
roof is not a factor that unconditionally rules out a building as a location for a
sniper or other officers. Some have pointed out another nearby building with an even
steeper sloped roof was occupied by Secret Service snipers at the time of the shooting.
Flagged as a threat
According to The Washington Post, 86 seconds passed between bystanders' first attempts
to warn authorities and the shooting. It has also since come out that local law enforcement
officers had been aware of Crooks' presence, and that he had been acting suspiciously,
long before that. In fact, there's evidence authorities had flagged
Crooks as a potential threat well before he climbed the AGR building. There have
been reports that officers saw Crooks scouring the grounds with a rangefinder.
An unnamed U.S. official told NBC News that Crooks had been described as pacing back and
forth and behaving in a noticeably strange way while near the magnetometers that had been set
up for rally security. Local authorities considered Crooks suspicious enough that
they had set off to pursue him on foot, and reportedly relayed that information to the
Secret Service. Former Secret Service agents have questioned why plainclothes agents were
not sent to respond to the reported threat of Crooks' presence nearby the rally. Though there
have been some reports that agents were after him, and lost sight of the shooter.
So many warning signs
According to CBS News, two sources familiar with a congressional briefing
on the assassination attempt said agents relayed the sighting of Crooks by radio by 5:52 p.m.,
about 19 minutes before he shot at Trump. Sources also told NBC News that Pennsylvania
State Police were aware of Crooks as long as an hour before the shooting — but it
took local authorities 30 minutes to relay that information to the Secret
Service. Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming told NBC News that the Secret Service's briefing to
Congress was a, quote, "cover-your-ass briefing," noting that the shooter:
"Had a range finder. A backpack. The Secret Service lost sight of him,
and never really followed up on that."
One source told Fox News that sometime on Saturday, Crooks' parents notified police that
their son was missing along with his father's AR-style 556 rifle. Police have not revealed
what — if any — action they took after being contacted by the would-be assassin's family.
With all that lead time and a clearly identified threat,
it's unclear why Trump was allowed to take the stage at all.
Delayed reaction
According to ABC News, law enforcement officials said Secret Service snipers locked on to Crooks
11 seconds after his first shot, and 15 seconds later, they shot him dead. That may seem fast,
but in a heated moment like that, every second counts. Where was the hair-trigger reaction?
Two retired snipers, a former Secret Service agent, and a former marine sniper, told The
Washington Post the slant of the roof and the surrounding trees likely made it difficult for the
two counter sniper units to acquire their target. Jason Lawless, a retired officer who worked as a
sniper with the Tulsa Police Department, said after Crooks took his first shots,
one of the snipers on the northern team flinched and took his eye away from the scope before
resetting his position. Before Crooks opened fire, the second sniper team — the southernmost
one — reoriented itself, which the Post suggested could mean it was aware of the threat.
Audio experts heard 10 gunshots across the footage of the incident. They told
the Post that the first eight — fired over six seconds — had similar audio signatures.
Immediately after this flurry of bullets, another came from a different location,
followed by the final shot 16 seconds after Crooks began shooting. Both had different acoustic
characteristics than the first eight. Though they noted this type of analysis is not 100% accurate,
it suggests the security locked on to Crooks about six seconds after he started shooting.
Fist pumps and lost shoes
It certainly made for an iconic photo — Donald Trump with blood on his ear and face,
his fist in the air immediately after an assassination attempt.
But should agents have allowed him to put parts of his body back into the
line of fire? Or retrieve his shoes, which came off when he hit the deck?
"Let me get my shoes."
Yes, Crooks was confirmed to be down by then, but Secret Service agents are trained
to assume there are multiple shooters. If there happened to be another on July 13,
the former president might have been killed. Richard Aitch,
a U.K. close protection expert and former member of the Royal Military Police, told NBC News,
"The moment you know you are getting incoming rounds,
you grab hold on to that boss and you throw him into a car and you get out
of there as quickly as you can with the maximum amount of aggression."
He added,
"They stayed on that stage for over a minute. What on Earth were they doing? It was shocking."
Jeffrey James, a retired 22-year Secret Service veteran, told The New York Times that there would
be no wasted time getting the president away from danger if he had been on that stage. He said,
"We are going, and we are going now. If it's me, I'm buying him a new pair of shoes."
Sources told The Washington Post that local police contacted the
Not enough manpower?
Secret Service before the Saturday rally to tell officials that they didn't have
enough resources to station anyone at the AGR building where Crooks perched. It's
unclear why the agency didn't take steps to address the issue with its own resources,
or if any were available. Jason Russell, a former Secret Service agent, told the BBC,
"The Secret Service doesn't have unlimited resources in
terms of agents that they can post everywhere."
Former Secret Service agent Evy Pompouras put it this way on "Today":
"You have to think of the Secret Service like they're the conductor of the orchestra.
They create the blueprint and design of the security plan."
In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Ohio Representative Jim Jordan
suggested that the Secret Service may have been stretched too thin, writing,
"Whistleblowers have disclosed to the Committee that the U.S. Secret Service [...] did not have
proper resources for President Trump's campaign event [...] because of staffing shortages due
to the [NATO] summit and First Lady Jill Biden's event in Pittsburgh."
According to Roll Call, any security lapses at the rally shouldn't have been due to lack of
funding. The Secret Service received over 9 percent more in overall appropriations
for the fiscal 2024 year for a total of a whopping $3.1 billion, nearly $100 million
more than President Joe Biden had requested. Protective operations, which is what finances
daily security for heads of state, received $1.4 billion, a boost of approximately 24 percent.
According to the FBI, Crooks used an AR-style 556 rifle in his assassination attempt. Similar
Didn't anyone notice the rifle?
weapons were used in the 2015 San Bernardino mass shooting that killed 14 people and wounded 22 and
the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting that killed 20 children and six adults. The exact model of
Crooks' gun is not known, but the very similar Ruger AR-556 has a barrel length of about 1.5
feet and has an overall length of 2.5 to 3 feet, with a weight of about 6.5 pounds.
Which raises the question: How did he get that rifle into the area surrounding the
rally? According to CBS News, a person familiar with the investigation said
that authorities believe Crooks may have hid the weapon beforehand or smuggled it
in with his backpack. Officials believe he might have stashed the weapon near an
air conditioner unit on the AGR building. A Secret Service source told Fox News that
Crooks indeed hid the weapon before the rally, though where is still unclear. The source said,
"We went from golf range finder to AR-15, and now we have to fill in the gap."

More than 200 former Republican presidential staffers sign open letter endorsing Harris over Trump: More than 200 staffers for four previous Republican presidential nominees have endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris’ White House bid
by Meg Kinnard | AP
Washington Post
August 27, 2024 at 2:20 p.m. EDT


Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

More than 200 staffers for four previous Republican presidential nominees have endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris' White House bid, cautioning that the notion of a second term for GOP nominee Donald Trump is “simply untenable” and “will hurt real, everyday people.”

In an open letter, first written about on Monday by USA Today, 238 people who worked for former President George H.W. Bush, former President George W. Bush, former Arizona Sen. John McCain and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney call on their fellow “moderate Republicans and conservative independents” to join them in backing Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz , over Trump and his vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.

“Of course, we have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz,” the Republicans wrote, noting the significance of a handful of battleground states that proved crucial to Democrat Joe Biden’s slim margin of victory in 2020. “That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply untenable.”

Signatories include Reed Galen, a George W. Bush and McCain campaign alum who co-founded the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project, and Olivia Troye, a former George W. Bush staffer and homeland security adviser to Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence. The range of jobs represented runs the gamut from chief of staff to intern.

“Another four years of Donald Trump’s chaotic leadership,” the signatories warn, “this time focused on advancing the dangerous goals of Project 2025, will hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions.” The letter goes on to warn that “broad, democratic movements will be irreparably jeopardized as Trump and his acolyte JD Vance kowtow to dictators like Vladimir Putin while turning their backs on our allies.”

In a statement, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung called the letter “hilarious because nobody knows who these people are.”

“They would rather see the country burn down than to see President Trump successfully return to the White House to Make America Great Again,” Cheung added.

Many of the same signatories also issued a letter in 2020 supporting Biden’s candidacy over Trump.

Attracting backing from the other side of the political aisle has become a tactic for both Trump and Harris as Election Day draws near. Several Republicans, including Mesa, Arizona, Mayor John Giles, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, spoke in favor of Harris at last week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

In recent days, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , who recently suspended his independent presidential bid, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, both of whom had been considered fringe members of the Democratic Party before they left, have endorsed Trump . On Tuesday, Trump campaign spokesman Brian Hughes said Kennedy and Gabbard had been added to the Trump-Vance transition team.

___

Meg Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

*************************

Bush, McCain, and Romney Alumni for Harris Statement
August, 2024

Four years ago, President George W. Bush, the late Sen. John McCain, and then-Gov. Mitt Romney alumni came together to warn fellow Republicans that re-electing President Trump would be a disaster for our nation. In those declarations we stated the plain truth, each predicting that another four years of a Trump presidency would irreparably damage our beloved democracy.

We made those announcements months before lies about a stolen election became everyday talking points and six months before Trump incited an insurrection, cheering on a mob of sore losers and sycophants as they tried to use force to overturn the will of the American public.

We reunite today, joined by new George H.W. Bush alumni, to reinforce our 2020 statements and, for the first time, jointly declare that we’re voting for Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz this November.

Of course, we have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz. That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply untenable.

At home, another four years of Donald Trump’s chaotic leadership, this time focused on advancing the dangerous goals of Project 2025, will hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions.

Abroad, democratic movements will be irreparably jeopardized as Trump and his acolyte JD Vance kowtow to dictators like Vladimir Putin while turning their backs on our allies.

We can’t let that happen.

We know now, thanks to exit polling and voter data, that it was moderate Republicans and conservative independents in key swing states that ultimately delivered the presidency to Joe Biden—honest, hardworking Americans in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, and beyond that put country far before party.

We’re heartfully calling on these friends, colleagues, neighbors, and family members to take a brave stand once more, to vote for leaders that will strive for consensus, not chaos; that will work to unite, not divide; that will make our country and our children proud.

Those leaders are Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz.

Signed by:

Emily Abell
Advertising Production Manager & Assistant to the Director Strategy, McCain for
President 2008
Chad Adler
Finance Intern, Mitt Romney for President 2012
David Almacy
White House Internet Director, President George W. Bush
Melanie Anne Alvord
Assistant Administrator for Communications, FAA (DOT)
Emily Apte
Associate Director Speechwriting, EOP, President George W. Bush
Philip Baker-Shenk
General Counsel, Chairman John McCain, Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
Kimmie Balz (Lipscomb)
Director of Press Advance for McCain, White House Press Office for Bush
Michael C. Barnes
Confidential Counsel, Executive Office of the President, Office of National Drug Control
Policy, George W. Bush Administration
Beverly Barrett
Special Assistant for Cabinet Affairs, George W. Bush Administration
Andrea G Barthwell
Deputy Director, Demand Reduction, ONDCP, George W. Bush Administration
Raegan Bartlo
Communications Specialist, USDA, President George W. Bush
Christopher Barton
Director, National Security Council; Chief Counsel for House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence, George W. Bush Administration
Jean Becker
Chief of Staff, 1994-2018, George H.W. Bush
David Bentley
Legislative Staff Assistant, Sen. John McCain
Brandon B. Beshears
Confidential Assistant, USDA, George W. Bush Administration
Tomás Bilbao
Deputy Director of Operations at HUD, George W. Bush Administration
Vicki Blanton
Director of Scheduling, Mitt Romney for President 2012
David Blaszkowsky
Director, Office of Interactive Disclosure, SEC, George W. Bush Administration
Jeffrey Bobeck
Director of External Affairs, Dept of Energy, 2007-2009, George W. Bush Administration
Lisa Boepple
Administrative Assistant, Congressman John McCain, 1983-1986, Legislative Director,
Office of Senator John McCain, 1987-1988
Barrick Bollman
Site Advance, Mitt Romney for President 2012
Erin Bradley
Director, Office of Ann Romney, Romney for President 2012
Sally S. Bradshaw
Associate Director of Political Affairs, White House, George H.W. Bush Administration;
Chief of Staff, Governor Jeb Bush
Barbara Brady Stober
Michigan Branch County Chair for Romney for President 2012
Joe Brezny
Nevada State Director, Romney for President 2008
Greg Brower
U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada
Jamie Brown
Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs, President George W. Bush
Steven Brykman
Sr. Digital Strategist, Office of Gov. Mitt Romney
Max Buccini
The White House, Press Office, President George W. Bush
Lance Bultena
Counsel, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
Meghann Burger Wilson
Executive Assistant, DHS; Executive Assistant, Department of Treasury, International
Affairss; Executive Assistant, DoD, Acquisition and Technology
Gahl Burt
Surrogate Coordinator, McCain for President 2008
Ellen Cahill
Scheduler/Executive Assistant, Sen. John McCain
Brian Cairns
Director of White House Writers, President George W. Bush
Caitlin Callahan McBride
Lead Advance Coordinator, McCain-Palin 2008
Sally Canfield
Domestic Policy Adviser, Bush 2000; Policy Director, Romney for President 2008
Jason Carroll
State & Local Coordinator, Intergovernmental Affairs, U.S. Department of Homeland
Security
Ed Cash
Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, Department of Homeland Security
William Cervin
RNC/WH Office of Political Affairs, SECAF/GC, OSD Policy
Barbara C. Chaffee
Special Assistant to the President; Senior Director, Public Liaison, Office of Homeland
Security, George W. Bush Administration
Nicole Chmura
Director of Media Relations, Political Appointee, Department of Housing and Urban
Development, President George W. Bush
David Clark
Deputy Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel, The White House,
President George W. Bush
Laura Clarke Coleman
Director, Donor Relations and Services, Romney for President 2012
Heath Clayton
Special Project Coordinator, The White House, President George W. Bush
Robert Cohen
Advance Staff, McCain for President 2008
Richele Cole Burch
72 Hour Coordinator, WV GOP Victory 2004, President George W. Bush
Jill Collins
2000 GOP Convention, 2021 Inaugural Committee, VP advance, President George W.
Bush
Daniel Connor
Presidential Helicopter Pilot/Marine One, President George W. Bush
Matt Coote
Ground Operations Coordinator, Romney for President 2012
James Dalthorp, Jr
Communications / Content and Adverting Team, Romney for President 2012
Craig Daniel
Deputy White House Liaison, Department of the Treasury; Secretary’s Briefing Book
Coordinator, Department of Homeland Security; Operations Manager, Bush-Cheney ‘04
Katie Daryl
Communications Dept. (Intern), Sen. John McCain
Suzy DeFrancis
Deputy Assistant to the President for Communications; Assistant Secretary Public
Affairs HHS, President George W. Bush
Doug Denneny
Military Legislative Fellow, Sen. John McCain
Anne Dixon
Political Intern, McCain for President 2008
Jennifer Dodds
Lead Digital Producer, Romney for President 2012
Joe Donoghue
Legislative Director, Office of Sen. John McCain
Lauren Dorff
Outreach Coordinator for the FBCI USAID, George W. Bush Administration
Eric Earling
Deputy Secretary’s Regional Representative, US Department of Education, President
George W. Bush
Eric D Eberhead
Staff Director and Chief Counsel Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
Daniel Edwards
Intern, Sen. John McCAIN
Jon Evans
Deputy Director of Content, Romney for President 2012
Stacia S. Feinberg
Staff Assistant to VP Quayle and Volunteer Coordinator, McCain for President 2008
Todd Ferrara
Special Assistant to US Secretary of Agriculture, George W. Bush Administration
Matthew Filter
Legislative Assistant, Sen. John McCain
Steve Fong
Special Assistant, U.S. Department of Transportation, George W. Bush Administration
Jon Fortin
Special Assistant, Department of the Treasury, George W. Bush Administration
Andy Foster
Associate Director, White House Office of Political Affairs, George H.W. Bush
Administration
Charles C. Foster
Immigration Policy Advisor, George W. Bush Administration
Sara Frankfurt Gail
Executive Assistant, Director’s Office, OMB, George W. Bush Administration
Rob Freeman
Deputy Staff Director, Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. John McCain
Daniel Fridman
Senior Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, George W. Bush
Administration
Jessica Furey
US EPA, Associate Administrator, Office of Policy, Economics & Innovation, George W.
Bush Administration
Reed Galen
Director of Scheduling and Advance, Bush-Cheney '04 and Deputy Campaign Manager,
John McCain for President
Judy Gamboa
Volunteer Coordinator, McCain for President 2000
John Gardner
Deputy Assistant to the President; General Counsel, USAID; Governor, US Postal
Service, George W. Bush Administration
David Garman
Undersecretary of Energy, George W. Bush Administration
Thomas J. Gibson, Jr
Chief of Staff, US Environmental Protection Agency; McCain for President 2000, Policy
teams; Advance SC & VA
Frank Gifford Scholley
Volunteer, McCain for President 2000
Jonathan Glick
Operations & Advance, McCain for President 2008 & Romney for President 2012
Juleanna Glover
Press Aide, McCain for President 2008
Anthony Golia
Advance, Romney for President 2012
Gina Gormley Fong
Former State Director, former Director of Constituent Services, Office of Senator John
McCain
Felice Gorordo
Bush White House Office of Political Affairs (2003), Bush-Cheney Campaign (2004);
Bush presidential appointee at the U.S. Departments of Commerce, State and
Homeland Security (2005-2007)
Joe Greeley
Production Manager, Romney for President 2012
Deb Gullett
Administrative Assistant, Sen. John McCain
Wes Gullett
State Director, Sen. John McCain
Jimmy Gurulé
Under Secretary (Enforcement), U.S. Department of Treasury (2001-2003), George W.
Bush Administration
John Hadlock
Deputy State Manager, North Carolina, Romney for President 2012
Mark Hancock
Television Manager, Romney for President 2012
Benjamin Haney
Advance, McCain for President
Serenety Hanley
White House Internet Director; EPA Director of Web Communications, George W. Bush
Administration; RNC Political Technology Director
Michele Hannegan
Communications Director, CEQ - Council on Environmental Quality, George W. Bush
Administration
Bo Harmon
Voter Contact Director, McCain for President 2008
Maureen Harrington
Vice President, Policy and International Relations, Millennium Challenge Corporation,
George W. Bush Administration
Alisa Harrison
Director of Communications at USDA, George W. Bush Administration
Elton Hayes
Legislative Correspondent, Sen. John McCain
Jacqueline Hawkins
Staff Assistant, Presidential Personnel, The White House, George W. Bush
Administration
Chelsea Henderson
Volunteer, McCain for President 2008
Suzanne Hernandez
Constituent Advocate/Office of Sen. John McCain-Tucson
Paul Hickman
State Director, Sen. John McCain
David Hill
Associate Director, Bush-Cheney 2004; Deputy Associate Director, The White House
Rachel Hoff
Speechwriter & Policy Advisor, SASC Chairman John McCain
Faye Hoffman Hilpert
Congressional Liaison, Dept. of Education; Staff Assistant, HUD, George W. Bush
Administration
Gregory Houston
Campaign Aide, McCain for President 2000
Charlie Howell
Trip Coordinator for the EPA and the First Lady's Office, Bush White House
Wes Irvin
U.S. DOT - MARAD/FTA, George W. Bush Administration
Gordon James
Advance, McCain for President
Heather Janik
Deputy Press Secretary, EOP, George W. Bush Administration
Greg Jenkins
Deputy Assistant to the President/Director of Advance, George W. Bush Administration
Addison Jenkins
Denver County Field Director, Romney for President 2012
Tony Jimenez
National Operations Team, Bush-Cheney 2004
AE Johnson
White House; Deputy Director of Presidential Writers, George W. Bush Administration
Joe Johnson
Country Director - Russia IRI
Nicol Andrews Jones
Deputy Comms Director, FEMA & USDA, George W. Bush Administration
Warren Junium III
Producer/Director, George W. Bush Administration
Molly Kelly
Legislative Correspondent, Sen. John McCain
Kelly Kenneally
Deputy Director, Presidential Commission on White House Fellowships, George W.
Bush Administration
Matt Kilfoyle
Regional Finance Director, Romney for President 2012
Karen Kirksey
Deputy Associate Administrator, Office of Legislative Affairs, General Services
Administration, George W. Bush Administration
Christopher Koch
Chief of Staff, Senator John McCain
Priti Kothari
Coalitions Coordinator, Romney for President 2008/2012
Catherine Krug (Simonds)
Deputy Director Personal Correspondence, George W. Bush Administration
Rob Kubasko
Creative Director, McCain for President 2008
Carole Kuhn Waller
2008 Presidential Campaign, Scheduler — VP Nominee
Brittany Ladd
Press Advance Lead, McCain for President 2008; Director of Advance for Ann Romney,
Romney for President 2012
Jill Landon
Executive Assistant to the Chief of Staff for the Vice President, VP Cheney 2006
Travis Larson
Press Assistant, McCain for President 2000
Dallas Lawrence
Director of Community Relations and Public Liaison, Dept. of Defense, George W. Bush
Administration
Sheila Lazzari
Staff Assistant, Sen. John McCain
Emily Leitch
National Security Council Staff, George W. Bush Administration
Eric Livingston
Bush-Cheney 2004, RNC
Amy Lorenzini Wren
Congressional Liaison, USTDA, George W. Bush Administration
Jennifer Lux
Communications Director, McCain for President 2008
Margaret Mankin Barton
Executive Director, National Women’s Business Council, George W. Bush
Administration
Windsor Mann
Youth Coordinator, Students for Bush, Bush for President 2004
Megan Markel
Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, FMCSA, U.S. Department of Transportation,
George W. Bush Administration
Danny Mazza
Former Intern, Sen. John McCain
Catherine McEaddy
Presidential Writer, The White House, George W. Bush
Sally M. McKeag
Special Assistant to ETA Assistant Secretary of Labor, George W. Bush Administration
Jana McKeag
Chair, American Indians for McCain 2008
Patrick Mendoza
Program Advisor to the Administrator of the EPA, George W. Bush Administration
Meredith Merritt
Deputy Associate Director, Homeland Security Council, George W. Bush Administration
Jen Millikin
Advance, Bush-Cheney 2004; Deputy Director of Communications, President George
W. Bush
Jen Millikin
Press Advance, Bush-Cheney 2004, Deputy Director of Communications, George W.
Bush Administration
Daniel Mintz
Chief Information Officer, US Department of Transportation, 2006-2009. George W.
Bush Administration
Talal Mir
Legislative Assistant, Sen. John McCain
Heidi Mohlman Tringe
Legislative Affairs Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
(2004-2005)
Robert Morello
Director of Communications-Finance, Romney for President 2012
Virginia A Mulberger
Special Assistant to the President, National Security Council, President George H. W.
Bush
Martin J. Murphy
Founding Chief Executive Officer, CEO Roundtable on Cancer, Founder: President
George H.W. Bush
Mike Murphy
Senior Strategist, McCain for President 2000, Chief Consultant, Romney for Governor
Michael Napolitano
Office of Political Affairs, Bush Campaigns 00' & 04'
Bettina Nava
Arizona State Director, McCain for President 2000 and 2008
Brooks Nelson
Intern, USA Freedom Corps
Ryan Newcomb
Confidential Assistant DHS Political Appointment, George W. Bush Administration
Vinh Nguyen
Advance Representative, Bush for President, McCain for President, and Romney for
President
Natalie Nicolas
Research Analyst, Senate Armed Services Committee
David Nierenberg
National Finance Chair, Romney for President 2012
Megan O’Brien Fuentes
Scheduler, Romney for President 2012
Emmet O'Neal
Political Desk Coordinator, Romney for President 2012
Kaitlin O’Reilly
Regional Finance Director, Romney for President 2012
Manuel Ochoa
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Grant Programs, Dept. of Housing and Urban
Development, George W. Bush Administration
Howard Opinsky
National Press Secretary, McCain for President 2000
Justin Oppmann
Director, Patriots Network, McCain for President 2000
Chris Orlando
Communications Director, President George W. Bush
Kate Osler
Press Advance, McCain for President 2008; Press Advance, Romney for President
2012
Kimberley Palmese
Advance Representative, President George W. Bush
Ajay Patil
Senior Advance Representative, President George W. Bush
Kevin W. Parks
Executive Director, Federal Council on the Aging, George H.W. Bush Administration
Christina Pearson
HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, George W. Bush Administration
Ann Marie Pedersen Yager
Department of Education, President George W. Bush
Michael Petrucelli
Deputy Director and Acting Director, US Citizenship & Immigration Services, US
Department of Homeland Security, George W. Bush Administration
Matthew Phillips
Congressional Advisor (Sch. C), Dept of State, George W. Bush Administration
Rees Porcari
Door Contact Director (Des Moines, IA Field Office), Romney for President 2012
Tyler S. Posey
General Counsel, Peace Corps, George W. Bush Administration
Virginia Pounds
Administrative Manager, Office of Senator John McCain
Katherine M. Prendergast
Finance and Logistics Officer, George W. Bush White House; Public Liaison Officer,
DHS
Melissa Price
Assistant Staff Secretary, Staff Secretary’s Office, President George W. Bush
Kristopher Purcell
Bush White House & Campaigns
Patricia Radford
Confidential Assistant for the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, Department of
Commerce, George W. Bush Administration
Rebecca Ratliff
Texas Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities Appointee, George W. Bush
Administration
Meghan K. Reilly
Intern, Office of Sen. John McCain
Dawn Riley
Victory 2000 KY Director and USDA 2001-2005, George W. Bush Administration
Thomas Roberts
Bush-Cheney ‘04; Special Assistant, USDA, George W. Bush Administration
Julie Roberts
2001-2004 FEMA, Deputy Scheduler Secretary Chao Labor, Special Asst to US for Int’l
Trade Commerce, Special Assistant to Ambassador US Embassy the Netherlands
Josephine Biad Robinson
EOP, HHS, George W. Bush Administration
Webber Barton Roscher
Deputy White House Liaison for HUD, George W. Bush Administration
Jill Rulli (Neunaber)
Iowa State Director, Romney for President 2012
Colin K Russ
Digital Events, Romney for President 2012
Jerry Sager
Bush for President 2004
Mark Salter
Chief of Staff, Office of Senator John McCain
Diane Salter
Scheduler, Office of Senator John McCain
Shay Saucedo
Southern Arizona Regional Coordinator, Sen. John McCain
Bradley Saull
DHS Deputy White House Liaison, George W. Bush Administration
Gabriel Schoenfeld
Senior Advisor, Romney for President 2012
Yale Scott
The White House Deputy Associate Director of the Visitors Office, The U.S. Department
of State Deputy Public Affairs Officer in the Office of the Chief of Protocol, U.S.
Department of Education Advance
Representative for the Secretary of Education
Will Shaw
Special Assistant to the Sec. of Energy for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs,
George W. Bush Administration
George Sheehan
Staff Assistant, Office of Sen. John McCain
Jill Sigal
Assistant Secretary of Energy for Congressional & Intergovernmental Affairs, U.S.
Department of Energy, George W. Bush Administration
Brooke Sikora Purcell
Legislative Assistant, Office of Sen. John McCain and Deputy State Director, McCain for
President 2008
Sarah Simmons Swanson
Deputy Director of Strategic Initiatives, George W. Bush Administration; Director of
Strategy, McCain for President 2008
Doug Smith
Legislative Correspondent, Office of Senator John McCain
Stephanie Smith Lee
Director, Office of Special Education Programs, U. S. Department of Education, George
W. Bush Administration
Jennifer Smits-Kilgus
SBA Regional Director and Legislative Management Officer both at U.S. Dept of State
and HUD, George W. Bush Administration
Mark SooHoo
Deputy eCampaign Director, McCain for President 2008
Sonya Sotak Elling
Legislative Assistant, Office of Sen. John McCain, Health Policy Advisor McCain for
President 2008
Micah Spangler
Field Director, Romney for President 2012
Susan Spencer Mulvaney
Deputy Chief of Staff, US Environmental Protection Agency, George W. Bush
Administration
Lindsay Stanton
Deputy California Finance Director, McCain for President 2008
Michele Stember Hannegan
Associate Director Communications White House Council on Environmental Quality,
George W. Bush Administration
Andrew Stern
Digital Team Leader, Romney for President 2012
Daniel H. Stewart
Nevada Legal Counsel, Romney for President 2012
Melisa Niceol Stivaletti
US Department of Commerce, George W. Bush Administration
Jim Stoeckel
Fundraiser, Bush for President
Beth Supple
Trade Advocacy, US Foreign Commercial Service, Department of Commerce, George
W. Bush Administration
Timothy C. Suprise
George H. W. Bush & George W. Bush Campaign - Michigan
Jim Swift
RNC 2004 Field Staff
Jacob Terrell
Legislative Correspondent, Office of Sen. John McCain
Ansley Tillman Allison
Senior Legal Assistant, Bush for President 2000; Staff Assistant, White House Counsel’s
Office and Domestic Policy Council, 2001-02
Bradley Todd Deatherage
Special Assistant, Office of Policy Planning, US State Department, George W. Bush
Administration
Benjamin Tomchik
Correspondence Analyst, The White House, George W. Bush Administration
Mike Treiser
Finance and Treasury, Romney for President 2012
Olivia Troye
Homeland Security Advisor to Vice President Mike Pence and Confidential Assistant,
Office of the Under Secretary for Policy, Department of Defense, George W. Bush
Administration
Michael Turk
Government to Citizen Portfolio Manager, OMB
Gwendolyn van Paasschen
Legislative Assistant, Sen. John McCain
Yelena Vaynberg
Government Affairs, Department of Transportation, George W. Bush Administration
Brooke Vosburgh Alexander
Executive Assistant, Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Donald J. Trump
Mark Voyger
Russia Group Member, Romney for President 2012
Lars Walton
72-HR Taskforce Bush-Cheney 2004, 2000 Transition/Inaugural Team, 2000 Finance
Team
Michael Wascom
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Transportation, George W. Bush Administration
Dane Waters
Advisor, McCain for President 2008
Shelby Watts Valdez
Special Assistant, USAID; Director, 2004 72 Hour Task Force, RNC; Special Assistant
Secretary of Commerce
Kate Weinstein
Marketing Manager, Romney for President 2012
Kate Wesner
Voter Contact Director, Romney for President 2012
Marlene Wilden
Campaign Field Operations, Bush for President
Karen Willard
RNC Victory 2000, US HUD, US DOT
Anne Wisniewski
Political Intern, McCain for President 2008

Jack Smith files superseding indictment against Trump in Jan. 6 case
by Carrie Johnson
npr
August 27, 2024 4:08 PM ET
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/27/nx-s1-50 ... tment-jan6

Case 1:23-cr-00257-TSC Document 226 Filed 08/27/24 Page 1 of 36
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. DONALD J. TRUMP, Defendant. CRIMINAL NO. 23-cr-257 (TSC). VIOLATIONS: Count 1: 18 U.S.C. § 371 (Conspiracy to Defraud the United States); Count 2: 18 U.S.C. § 1512(k) (Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding); Count 3: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(c)(2), 2 (Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding); Count 4: 18 U.S.C. § 241 (Conspiracy Against Rights). SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT

Prosecutors filed a superseding indictment in the federal criminal case against Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, after the Supreme Court granted the former president substantial immunity, according to a new court filing.

Court papers say the superseding indictment was presented to a new grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in the case. The papers say the new indictment "reflects the Government's efforts to respect and implement the Supreme Court's holdings and remand instructions."

Prosecutor Molly Gaston, in a new court filing, said the Justice Department will not insist that Trump make an in-person appearance for arraignment on the new indictment. The Justice Department said it will confer with Trump's lawyers and try to come up with a joint proposal for how to proceed in the case. Judge Tanya Chutkan had asked for an update by Friday.

Special counsel Jack Smith has been consulting with other officials inside the Justice Department for weeks about the case, which accuses then-President Trump of leading a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election and disenfranchise millions of voters. The scheme allegedly culminated in a cascade of violent attacks on police at the U.S. Capitol three years ago.

Trump has denied all charges. His lawyers have said Trump's words and actions on and before Jan. 6, 2021, amounted to legitimate inquiry about possible election fraud. A conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court largely sided with Trump, giving the former president absolute immunity from prosecution for acts that were "core" to his official duties.

In a statement on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump called the superseding indictment "an effort to resurrect a 'dead' Witch Hunt." He alleged that the "ridiculous new Indictment against me" should be dismissed.

The high court ruling, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, specifically carved out part of the case where Trump had been accused of misusing the Justice Department to pursue phony theories of fraud at the ballot box. But the opinion left open many critical questions for a D.C. trial judge to pursue.

Chutkan asked lawyers for both Smith and Trump for guidance about how to proceed.

There's no chance the case will be tried before Election Day in November. And if Trump prevails, he could direct his appointees at the Justice Department to drop it next year.

Part 1 of 2

Case 1:23-cr-00257-TSC Document 226 Filed 08/27/24 Page 1 of 36

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

v.

DONALD J. TRUMP,

Defendant.

CRIMINAL NO. 23-cr-257 (TSC)

VIOLATIONS:

Count 1: 18 U.S.C. § 371 (Conspiracy to Defraud the United States)
Count 2: 18 U.S.C. § 1512(k) (Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding)
Count 3: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(c)(2), 2 (Obstruction of and Attempt to * Obstruct an Official Proceeding)
Count 4: 18 U.S.C. § 241 (Conspiracy Against Rights)

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... 26.0_1.pdf

SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT

The Grand Jury charges that, at all times material to this Superseding Indictment, on or about the dates and at the approximate times stated below:

INTRODUCTION

1. The Defendant, DONALD J. TRUMP, was a candidate for President ofthe United States in 2020. He lost the 2020 presidential election.

2. Despite having lost, the Defendant-who was also the incumbent President-was determined to remain in power. So, for more than two months following election day on November 3,2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false. But the Defendant used his Campaign to repeat and widely disseminate them anyway-to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election.

3. As a candidate and a citizen, the Defendant had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won. He was also entitled to formally challenge the results of the election through lawful and appropriate means, such as by seeking recounts or audits of the popular vote in states or filing lawsuits challenging ballots and procedures. Indeed, in many cases, the Defendant did pursue these methods of contesting the election results. His efforts to change the outcome in any state through recounts, audits, or legal challenges were uniformly unsuccessful.

4. Shortly after election day, the Defendant also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results. In so doing, the Defendant perpetrated three criminal conspiracies:

a. A conspiracy to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful federal government function by which the results of the presidential election are collected, counted, and certified by the federal government, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371;

b. A conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the January 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified ("the certification proceeding"), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(k); and

c. A conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one's vote counted, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 241.

Each of these conspiracies-which built on the widespread mistrust the Defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud-targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation's process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election ("the federal government function").

5. In furtherance of these conspiracies, the Defendant tried-but failed-to enlist the Vice President, who was also the Defendant's running mate and, by virtue of the Constitution, the President of the Senate who plays a ceremonial role in the January 6 certification proceeding.

COUNT ONE
(Conspiracy to Defraud the United States-18 U.S.C. § 371)

6. The allegations contained in paragraphs 1 through 5 of this Superseding Indictment are re-alleged and fully incorporated here by reference.

The Conspiracy

7. From on or about November 13,2020, through on or about January 20, 2021, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, the Defendant,

DONALD J. TRUMP,

did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with co-conspirators, known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful federal government function by which the results of the presidential election are collected, counted, and certified by the federal government.

Purpose of the Conspiracy

8. The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the federal government function by which those results are collected, counted, and certified.

The Defendant's Co-Conspirators

9. The Defendant enlisted co-conspirators to assist him in his criminal efforts to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and retain power. These coconspirators included the following individuals, none of whom were government officials during the conspiracies and all of whom were acting in a private capacity:

a. Co-Conspirator 1, a private attorney whom the Defendant put in charge of his campaign's litigation efforts and who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant's 2020 re-election campaign ("Campaign") attorneys would not.

b. Co-Conspirator 2, a private attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President's ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.

c. Co-Conspirator 3, a private attorney who made unfounded claims of election fraud that the Defendant embraced and publicly amplified.

d. Co-Conspirator 5, a private attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.

e. Co-Conspirator 6, a private political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.

The Federal Government Function

10. The federal government function by which the results of the election for President of the United States are collected, counted, and certified was established through the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act (ECA), a federal law enacted in 1887. The Constitution provided that individuals called electors select the president, and that each state determine for itself how to appoint the electors apportioned to it. Through state laws, each of the fifty states and the District of Columbia chose to select their electors based on the popular vote in the state. After election day, the ECA required each state to formally determine--{)r "ascertain"-the electors who would represent the state's voters by casting electoral votes on behalf of the candidate who had won the popular vote, and required the executive of each state to certify to the federal government the identities of those electors. Then, on a date set by the ECA, each state's ascertained electors were required to meet and collect the results of the presidential election-that is, to cast electoral votes based on their state's popular vote, and to send their electoral votes, along with the state executive's certification that they were the state's legitimate electors, to the United States Congress to be counted and certified in an official proceeding. Finally, the Constitution and ECA required that on the sixth of January following election day, the Congress meet in a Joint Session for a certification proceeding, presided over by the Vice President as President of the Senate, to count the electoral votes, resolve any objections, and announce the result-thus certifying the winner of the presidential election as president-elect. This federal government function-from the point of ascertainment to the certification-is foundational to the United States' democratic process, and until 2021, had operated in a peaceful and orderly manner for more than 130 years.

Manner and Means

11. The Defendant's conspiracy to impair, obstruct, and defeat the federal government function through dishonesty, fraud, and deceit included the following manner and means:

a. The Defendant and co-conspirators used knowingly false claims of election fraud to get state legislators and election officials to subvert the legitimate election results and change electoral votes for the Defendant's opponent, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., to electoral votes for the Defendant. That is, on the pretext of baseless fraud claims, the Defendant pushed officials in certain states to ignore the popular vote; disenfranchise millions of voters; dismiss legitimate electors; and ultimately, cause the ascertainment of and voting by illegitimate electors in favor of the Defendant.

b. The Defendant and co-conspirators organized fraudulent slates of electors in seven targeted states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin), attempting to mimic the procedures that the legitimate electors were supposed to follow under the Constitution and other federal and state laws. This included causing the fraudulent electors to meet on the day appointed by federal law on which legitimate electors were to gather and cast their votes; cast fraudulent votes for the Defendant; and sign certificates falsely representing that they were legitimate electors. Some fraudulent electors were tricked into participating based on the understanding that their votes would be used only if the Defendant succeeded in outcome-determinative lawsuits within their state, which the Defendant never did. The Defendant and co-conspirators then caused these fraudulent electors to transmit their false certificates to the Vice President, in his capacity as President of the Senate, and other government officials to be counted at the certification proceeding on January 6.

c. The Defendant and co-conspirators attempted to enlist the Vice President, in his ceremonial role as President of the Senate at the January 6 certification proceeding to fraudulently alter the election results. First, using knowingly false claims of election fraud, the Defendant and coconspirators attempted to convince the Vice President to use the Defendant's fraudulent electors, reject legitimate electoral votes, or send legitimate electoral votes to state legislatures for review rather than counting them. When that failed, on the morning of January 6, the Defendant and co-conspirators repeated knowingly false claims of election fraud to gathered supporters, falsely told them that the Vice President had the authority to and might alter the election results, and directed them to the Capitol to obstruct the certification proceeding and exert pressure on the Vice President to take the fraudulent actions he had previously refused.

d. After it became public on the afternoon of January 6 that the Vice President, as President of the Senate, would not fraudulently alter the election results, a large and angry crowd-including many individuals whom the Defendant had deceived into believing the Vice President could and might change the election results-violently attacked the Capitol and halted the proceeding. As violence ensued, the Defendant and co-conspirators exploited the disruption by redoubling efforts to levy false claims of election fraud and convince Members of Congress to further delay the certification based on those claims.

The Defendant's Knowledge of the Falsity of His Election Fraud Claims

12. Throughout the conspiracies, the Defendant, 'co-conspirators, and their agents made knowingly false claims that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the 2020 presidential election. These false claims were unsupported, objectively unreasonable, and ever-changing, and the Defendant and co-conspirators repeated them even after they were publicly disproven. These prolific lies about election fraud included dozens of specific claims that there had been substantial fraud in certain states, such as that large numbers of dead, non-resident, non-citizen, or otherwise ineligible voters had cast ballots, or that voting machines had changed votes for the Defendant to votes for Biden. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false.

13. The Defendant was on notice that his claims were untrue. He was told so by those most invested in his re-election, including his own running mate and his campaign staff. Federal and state courts rejected every outcome-determinative post-election lawsuit filed by the Defendant, co-conspirators, and their allies. State officials-including election directors and Secretaries of State in his own political party-issued public statements dispelling the Defendant's and coconspirators' myth of widespread election fraud. And on November 12, the National Association of Secretaries of State, the National Association of State Election Directors, and other organizations issued a statement on behalf of several coordinated entities, declaring the 2020 election to be "the most secure in American history" and that there was "no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."

14. The Defendant continued to make false claims nonetheless, with deliberate disregard for the truth, including through his Twitter account. Throughout the conspiracies, although the Defendant sometimes used his Twitter account to communicate with the public, as President, about official actions and policies, he also regularly used it for personal purposes, including to spread knowingly false claims of election fraud, exhort his supporters to travel to Washington, D.C. on January 6, pressure the Vice President to misuse his ceremonial role in the certification proceeding, and leverage the events at the Capitol on January 6 to unlawfully retain power.

15. The Defendant continued his lies through the day of the certification proceeding on January 6. That morning, the Defendant gave a Campaign speech at a privately-funded, privately-organized political rally held on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. During the speech, the Defendant used many of the same unsupported, objectively unreasonable, and publicly disproven lies to exhort the gathered crowd to march to the Capitol.

The Criminal Agreement and Acts to Effect the Object of the Conspiracy

16. To effect the object of the conspiracy, the Defendant and co-conspirators committed one or more of the acts set forth below:

The Defendant's Use of Deceit to Get State Officials to Subvert the Legitimate Election Results and Change Electoral Votes

17. Shortly after election day-which fell on November 3, 2020-the Defendant launched his criminal scheme. On November 13, the Defendant's Campaign attorneys conceded in court that he had lost the vote count in the state of Arizona-meaning, based on the assessment the Defendant's Campaign advisors had given him just a week earlier, the Defendant had lost the election. So that day, the Defendant turned to Co-Conspirator 1, whom he announced on November 14 would spearhead his efforts going forward to challenge the election results. From that point on, the Defendant and co-conspirators executed a strategy to use knowing deceit in the targeted states to impair, obstruct, and defeat the federal government function, including as described below. The Defendant had no official responsibilities related to any state's certification of the election results.

Arizona

18. On November 13, 2020, the Defendant had a conversation with his Campaign Manager, who informed him that a claim that had been circulating-that a substantial number of non-citizens had voted in Arizona-was false.

19. On November 22, eight days before Arizona's Governor certified the ascertainment of the state's legitimate electors based on the popular vote, the Defendant and Co-Conspirator 1 called the Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives and made knowingly false claims of election fraud aimed at interfering with the ascertainment of and voting by Arizona's electors, as follows:

a. The Defendant and Co-Conspirator 1 falsely asserted, among other things, that a substantial number of non-citizens, non-residents, and dead people had voted fraudulently in Arizona. The Arizona House Speaker asked CoConspirator 1 for evidence of the claims, which Co-Conspirator 1 did not have, but claimed he would provide. Co-Conspirator 1 never did so.

b. The Defendant and Co-Conspirator 1 asked the Arizona House Speaker to call the legislature into session to hold a hearing based on their claims of election fraud. The Arizona House Speaker refused, stating that doing so would require a two-thirds vote of its members, and he would not allow it without actual evidence of fraud.

c. The Defendant and Co-Conspirator 1 asked the Arizona House Speaker to use the legislature to circumvent the process by which legitimate electors would be ascertained for Biden based on the popular vote, and replace those electors with a new slate for the Defendant. The Arizona House Speaker refused, responding that the suggestion was beyond anything he had ever heard or thought of as something within his authority.

20. On December 1, Co-Conspirator 1 met with the Arizona House Speaker. When the Arizona House Speaker again asked Co-Conspirator 1 for evidence of the outcome-determinative election fraud he and the Defendant had been claiming, Co-Conspirator 1 responded with words to the effect of, "We don't have the evidence, but we have lots of theories."


21. On December 4, the Arizona House Speaker issued a public statement that said, in part:

No election is perfect, and if there were evidence of illegal votes or an improper count, then Arizona law provides a process to contest the election: a lawsuit under state law. But the law does not authorize the Legislature to reverse the results of an election.

As a conservative Republican, I don't like the results of the presidential election. I voted for President Trump and worked hard to reelect him. But I cannot and will not entertain a suggestion that we violate current law to change the outcome of a certified election.

I and my fellow legislators swore an oath to support the U.S. Constitution and the constitution and laws of the state of Arizona. It would violate that oath, the basic principles of republican government, and the rule of law if we attempted to nullify the people's vote based on unsupported theories of fraud. Under the laws that we wrote and voted upon, Arizona voters choose who wins, and our system requires that their choice be respected.

22. On the morning of January 4, 2021, Co-Conspirator 2 called the Arizona House Speaker to urge him to use a majority of the legislature to decertify the state's legitimate electors. Arizona's validly ascertained electors had voted three weeks earlier and sent their votes to Congress, which was scheduled to count those votes in Biden's favor in just two days' time at the January 6 certification proceeding. When the Arizona House Speaker explained that state investigations had uncovered no evidence of substantial fraud in the state, Co-Conspirator 2 conceded that he "[didn't] know enough about facts on the ground" in Arizona, but nonetheless told the Arizona House Speaker to decertify and "let the courts sort it out." The Arizona House Speaker refused, stating that he would not "play with the oath" he had taken to uphold the United States Constitution and Arizona law.

23. In his Campaign speech on January 6, the Defendant publicly repeated the knowingly false claim that 36,000 non-citizens had voted in Arizona.

Georgia

24. As early as mid-November, the Defendant's Senior Campaign Advisor informed the Defendant that his claims of a large number of dead voters in Georgia were untrue.

25. On November 16,2020, on the Defendant's behalf, his executive assistant sent Co- Conspirator 3 and others a document containing bullet points critical of a certain voting machine company, writing, "See attached - Please include as is, or almost as is, in lawsuit." Co- Conspirator 3 responded nine minutes later, writing, "IT MUST GO IN ALL SUITS IN GA AND PA IMMEDIATELY WITH A FRAUD CLAIM THAT REQUIRES THE ENTIRE ELECTION TO BE SET ASIDE in those states and machines impounded for non-partisan professional inspection." On November 25, Co-Conspirator 3 filed a lawsuit against the Governor of Georgia falsely alleging "massive election fraud" accomplished through the voting machine company's election software and hardware. Before the lawsuit was even filed, the Defendant retweeted a post promoting it. Co-Conspirator 3's Georgia lawsuit was dismissed on December 7.

26. On December 3, Co-Conspirator 1 orchestrated a presentation to a Judiciary Subcommittee of the Georgia State Senate, with the intention of misleading state senators into blocking the ascertainment of legitimate electors. During the presentation:

a. A Campaign attorney and agent of the Defendant and Co-Conspirator 1 falsely claimed that more than 10,000 dead people voted in Georgia. That afternoon, a Senior Advisor to the Defendant told the Defendant's Chief of Staff through text messages, "Just an FYI. [A Campaign lawyer] and his team verified that the 10k+ supposed dead people voting in GA is not accurate .... It was alleged in [Co-Conspirator 1 's] hearing today." The Senior Advisor clarified that he believed that the actual number was 12.

b. Another agent of the Defendant and Co-Conspirator 1 played a misleading excerpt of a video recording of ballot-counting at State Farm Arena in Atlanta and insinuated that it showed election workers counting "suitcases" of illegal ballots.

c. Co-Conspirator 2 encouraged the legislators to decertify the state's legitimate electors based on false allegations of election fraud.

27. Also on December 3, the Defendant issued a Tweet amplifying the knowingly false claims made in Co-Conspirator l' s presentation in Georgia: "Wow! Blockbuster testimony taking place right now in Georgia. Ballot stuffing by Dems when Republicans were forced to leave the large counting room. Plenty more coming, but this alone leads to an easy win of the State!"

28. On December 4, the Georgia Secretary of State's Chief Operating Officer debunked the claims made at Co-Conspirator 1 's presentation the previous day, issuing a Tweet stating, "The 90 second video of election workers at State Farm arena, purporting to show fraud was watched in its entirety (hours) by @GaSecofState investigators. Shows normal ballot processing. Here is the fact check on it." On December 7, he reiterated during a press conference that the claim that there had been misconduct at State Farm Arena was false.

29. On December 8, the Defendant called the Georgia Attorney General to pressure him to support an election lawsuit tiled in the Supreme Court by another state's attorney general, which sought to invalidate election results in certain targeted states like Pennsylvania. The Georgia Attorney General told the Defendant that officials had investigated various claims of election fraud in the state-including the State Farm Arena allegations-and were not seeing evidence to support them. The following day, represented by Co-Conspirator 2, the Defendant -- not as President but in his capacity as a candidate for office-moved to intervene and join the state attorney general's lawsuit. And on December 11, the Supreme Court denied the suit.

30. Also on December 8, a Senior Campaign Advisor-who spoke with the Defendant on a daily basis and had informed him on multiple occasions that various fraud claims were untrue---expressed frustration that many of Co-Conspirator 1 and his legal team's claims could not be substantiated. With respect to the persistent false claim regarding State Farm Arena, the Senior Campaign Advisor wrote in an email, "When our research and campaign legal team can't back up any of the claims made by our Elite Strike Force Legal Team, you can see why we're 0-32 on our cases. I'll obviously hustle to help on all fronts, but it's tough to own any of this when it's all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership."

31. On December 10, four days before Biden's validly ascertained electors were scheduled to cast votes and send them to Congress, Co-Conspirator 1 appeared at a hearing before the Georgia House of Representatives' Government Affairs Committee. Co-Conspirator 1 played the State Farm Arena video again, and falsely claimed that it showed "voter fraud right in front of people's eyes" and was "the tip of the iceberg." Then, he cited two election workers by name, baselessly accused them of "quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports as if they are vials of heroin or cocaine," and suggested that they were criminals whose "places of work, their homes, should have been searched for evidence of ballots, for evidence of USB ports, for evidence of voter fraud." Thereafter, the two election workers received numerous death threats.

32. On December 31, the Defendant signed a verification affirming false election fraud allegations made on his behalf in a lawsuit filed in his capacity as a candidate for President against the Georgia Governor and Secretary of State. In advance of the filing, Co-Conspirator 2-who was advising the Defendant on the lawsuit-acknowledged in an email that he and the Defendant had, since signing a previous verification, "been made aware that some of the allegations (and evidence proffered by the experts) has been inaccurate" and that signing a new affirmation "with that knowledge (and incorporation by reference) would not be accurate." The Defendant and Co- Conspirator 2 caused the Defendant's signed verification to be filed nonetheless.

33. On January 2, four days before Congress's certification proceeding, the Defendant, his Chief of Staff-who sometimes handled private and Campaign-related logistics for the Defendant-and private attorneys involved in the lawsuit against Georgia's Secretary of State called the Secretary of State. During the call, the Defendant lied to the Georgia Secretary of State to induce him to alter Georgia's popular vote count and call into question the validity of the Biden electors' votes, which had been transmitted to Congress weeks before, including as follows:

a. The Defendant raised allegations regarding the State Farm Arena video and repeatedly disparaged one of the same election workers that Co-Conspirator 1 had maligned on December 10, using her name almost twenty times and falsely referring to her as "a professional vote scammer and hustler." In response, the Georgia Secretary of State refuted this: "You're talking about the State Farm video. And I think it's extremely unfortunate that [Co-Conspirator 1] or his people, they sliced and diced that video and took it out of context." When the Georgia Secretary of State then offered a link to a video that would disprove Co-Conspirator l' s claims, the Defendant responded, "I don't care about a link, I don't need it. I have a much, [Georgia Secretary of State], I have a much better link."

b. The Defendant asked about rumors that paper ballots cast in the election were being destroyed, and the Georgia Secretary of State's Counsel explained to him that the claim had been investigated and was not true.

c. The Defendant claimed that 5,000 dead people voted in Georgia, causing the Georgia Secretary of State to respond, "Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong. . .. The actual number were two. Two. Two people that were dead that voted. And so [your information]'s wrong, that was two."

d. The Defendant claimed that thousands of out-of-state voters had cast ballots in Georgia's election, which the Georgia Secretary of State's Counsel refuted, explaining, "We've been going through each of those as well, and those numbers that we got, that [Defendant's counsel] was just saying, they're not accurate. Every one we've been through are people that lived in Georgia, moved to a different state, but then moved back to Georgia legitimately ... they moved back in years ago. This was not like something just before the election."

e. In response to multiple other of the Defendant's allegations, the Georgia Secretary of State's Counsel told the Defendant that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was examining all such claims and finding no merit to them.

f. The Defendant said that he needed to "find" 11,780 votes, and insinuated that the Georgia Secretary of State and his Counsel could be subject to criminal prosecution if they failed to find election fraud as he demanded, stating, "And you are going to find that they are-which is totally illegal -- it's, it's, it's more illegal for you than it is for them because you know what they did and you're not reporting it. That's a criminal, you know, that's a criminal offense. And you know, you can't let that happen. That's a big risk to you and to [the Georgia Secretary of State's Counsel], your lawyer."

34. The next day, on January 3, the Defendant falsely claimed that the Georgia Secretary of State had not addressed the Defendant's allegations, publicly stating that the Georgia Secretary of State "was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the 'ballots under table' scam, ballot destruction, out of state 'voters', dead voters, and more. He has no clue!"

35. In his Campaign speech on January 6, the Defendant publicly repeated the knowingly false insinuation that more than 10,300 dead people had voted in Georgia.

Michigan

36. On November 20, 2020, after outreach by the Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), and just three days before Michigan's Governor signed a certificate of ascertainment notifying the federal government that, based on the popular vote, Biden's electors were to represent Michigan's voters, the Defendant held a meeting in the Oval Office with the Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives and the Majority Leader of the Michigan Senate. The Defendant included in the meeting by phone the RNC Chairwoman, who joined only briefly, and Co-Conspirator 1. The Defendant and Co-Conspirator 1 raised false fraud claims, including of an illegitimate vote dump in Detroit. In response, the Michigan Senate Majority Leader told the Defendant that he had lost Michigan not because of fraud, but because the Defendant had underperformed with certain voter populations in the state. Upon leaving their meeting, the Michigan House Speaker and Michigan Senate Majority Leader issued a statement reiterating this:

The Senate and House Oversight Committees are actively engaged in a thorough review of Michigan's elections process and we have faith in the committee process to provide greater transparency and accountability to our citizens. We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors, just as we have said throughout this election.

37. On December 4, Co-Conspirator 1 sent a text message to the Michigan House Speaker reiterating his unsupported claim of election fraud and attempting to get the Michigan House Speaker to assist in reversing the ascertainment of the legitimate Biden electors, stating, "Looks like Georgia may well hold some factual hearings and change the certification under ArtII sec 1 cl2 of the Constitution. As [Co-Conspirator 2] explained they don't just have the right to do it but the obligation .... Help me get this done in Michigan."

38. Similarly, on December 7, despite still having established no fraud in Michigan, Co-Conspirator 1 sent a text intended for the Michigan Senate Majority Leader: "So I need you to pass a joint resolution from the Michigan legislature that states that, * the election is in dispute, * there's an ongoing investigation by the Legislature, and * the Electors sent by Governor Whitmer are not the official Electors of the State of Michigan and do not fall within the Safe Harbor deadline of Dec 8 under Michigan law."

39. On December 14-the day that electors in states across the country were required to vote and submit their votes to Congress-the Michigan House Speaker and Michigan Senate Majority Leader announced that, contrary to the Defendant's requests, they would not decertify the legitimate election results or electors in Michigan. The Michigan Senate Majority Leader's public statement included, "[W]e have not received evidence of fraud on a scale that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan." The Michigan House Speaker's public statement read, in part:

We've diligently examined these reports of fraud to the best of our ability ....

. . . I fought hard for President Trump. Nobody wanted him to win more than me. I think he's done an incredible job. But I love our republic, too. I can't fathom risking our norms, traditions and institutions to pass a resolution retroactively changing the electors for Trump, simply because some think there may have been enough widespread fraud to give him the win. That's unprecedented for good reason. And that's why there is not enough support in the House to cast a new slate of electors. I fear we'd lose our country forever. This truly would bring mutually assured destruction for every future election in regards to the Electoral College. And I can't stand for that. I won't.

 

40. In his Campaign speech on January 6, 2021, the Defendant publicly repeated his knowingly false claim regarding an illicit dump of more than a hundred thousand ballots in Detroit.

Part 2 of 2

Pennsylvania

41. On November 11, 2020, the Defendant publicly maligned a Philadelphia City Commissioner for stating on the news that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in Philadelphia. As a result, the Philadelphia City Commissioner and his family received death threats.

42. On November 25, the day after Pennsylvania's Governor signed a certificate of ascertainment and thus certified to the federal government that Biden's electors were the legitimate electors for the state, Co-Conspirator 1 orchestrated an event at a hotel in Gettysburg attended by state legislators. Co-Conspirator 1 falsely claimed that Pennsylvania had issued 1.8 million absentee ballots and received 2.5 million in return. In the days thereafter, a Campaign staffer wrote internally that Co-Conspirator 1's allegation was "just wrong" and "[t]here's no way to defend it." The Deputy Campaign Manager responded, "We have been saying this for a while. It's very frustrating."

43. On December 6, after four Republican leaders of the Pennsylvania legislature issued a public statement that the General Assembly lacked the authority to overturn the popular vote and appoint its own slate of electors, and that doing so would violate the state Election Code and Constitution, the Defendant re-tweeted a post labeling the legislators cowards.

44. In his Campaign speech on January 6, 2021, the Defendant publicly repeated his knowingly false claim that there had been 205,000 more votes than voters in Pennsylvania.

Wisconsin

45. On November 29,2020, a recount in Wisconsin that the Defendant's Campaign had petitioned and paid for did not change the election result, and in fact increased the Defendant's margin of defeat.

46. On December 14, the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected an election challenge by the Campaign. One Justice wrote, "[N]othing in this case casts any legitimate doubt that the people of Wisconsin lawfully chose Vice President Biden and Senator Harris to be the next leaders of our great country."

47. On December 21, as a result of the state Supreme Court's decision, the Wisconsin Governor-who had signed a certificate of ascertainment on November 30 identifying Biden's electors as the state's legitimate electors-signed a certificate of final determination in which he recognized that the state Supreme Court had resolved a controversy regarding the appointment of Biden's electors, and confirmed that Biden had received the highest number of votes in the state and that his electors were the state's legitimate electors.

48. That same day, in response to the court decision that had prompted the Wisconsin Governor to sign a certificate of final determination, the Defendant issued a Tweet repeating his knowingly false claim of election fraud and demanding that the Wisconsin legislature overturn the election results that had led to the ascertainment of Biden's electors as the legitimate electors.

49. In his Campaign speech on January 6, 2021, the Defendant publicly repeated knowingly false claims that there had been tens of thousands of unlawful votes in Wisconsin.

The Defendant's Use of Dishonesty, Fraud, and Deceit to Organize Fraudulent Slates of Electors and Cause Them to Transmit False Certificates to Congress

50. As the Defendant's attempts to obstruct the electoral vote through deceit of state officials met with repeated failure, beginning in early December 2020, he and co-conspirators developed a new plan: to marshal individuals who would have served as the Defendant's electors, had he won the popular vote, in seven targeted states-Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin-and cause those individuals to make and send to the Vice President and Congress false certifications that they were legitimate electors. Under the plan, the submission of these fraudulent slates would create a fake controversy at the certification proceeding and position the Vice President-presiding on January 6 as President of the Senate -- to supplant legitimate electors with the Defendant's fake electors and certify the Defendant as president. The Defendant had no official responsibilities related to the convening of legitimate electors or their signing and mailing of their certificates of vote.

51. The plan capitalized on ideas presented in memoranda drafted by Co-Conspirator 5, an attorney who was assisting the Defendant's Campaign with legal efforts related to a recount in Wisconsin. The memoranda evolved over time from a legal strategy to preserve the Defendant's rights to a corrupt plan to subvert the federal government function by stopping Biden electors' votes from being counted and certified, as follows:

a. The November 18 Memorandum ("Wisconsin Memo") advocated that, because of the ongoing recount in Wisconsin, the Defendant's electors there should meet and cast votes on December 14-the date the ECA required appointed electors to vote-to preserve the alternative of the Defendant's Wisconsin elector slate in the event the Defendant ultimately prevailed in the state.

b. The December 6 Memorandum ("Fraudulent Elector Memo") marked a sharp departure from Co-Conspirator 5's Wisconsin Memo, advocating that the alternate electors originally conceived of to preserve rights in Wisconsin instead be used in a number of states as fraudulent electors to prevent Biden from receiving the 270 electoral votes necessary to secure the presidency on January 6. The Fraudulent Elector Memo suggested that the Defendant's electors in six purportedly "contested" states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) should meet and mimic as best as possible the actions of the legitimate Biden electors, and that on January 6, the Vice President should open and count the fraudulent votes, setting up a fake controversy that would derail the proper certification of Biden as president-elect.

c. The December 9 Memorandum ("Fraudulent Elector Instructions") consisted of Co-Conspirator 5's instructions on how fraudulent electors could mimic legitimate electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada. Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Co-Conspirator 5 noted that in some states, it would be virtually impossible for the fraudulent electors to successfully take the same steps as the legitimate electors because state law required formal participation in the process by state officials, or access to official resources.

52. The plan began in early December, and ultimately, the conspirators and the Defendant's Campaign took the Wisconsin Memo and expanded it to any state that the Defendant claimed was "contested"---even New Mexico, which the Defendant had lost by more than ten percent of the popular vote. This expansion was forecast by emails the Defendant's Chief of Staff sent on December 6, forwarding the Wisconsin Memo to Campaign staff and writing, "We just need to have someone coordinating the electors for states."

53. On December 6, the Defendant and Co-Conspirator 2 called the RNC Chairwoman to ensure that the plan was in motion. During the call, Co-Conspirator 2 told the RNC Chairwoman that it was important for the RNC to help the Defendant's Campaign gather electors in targeted states, and falsely represented to her that such electors' votes would be used only if ongoing litigation in one of the states changed the results in the Defendant's favor. After the RNC Chairwoman consulted the Campaign and heard that work on gathering electors was underway, she called and reported this information to the Defendant, who responded approvingly.

54. On December 7, Co-Conspirator 1 received the Wisconsin Memo and the Fraudulent Elector Memo. Co-Conspirator 1 spoke with Co-Conspirator 6 regarding attorneys who could assist in the fraudulent elector effort in the targeted states, and he received from Co-Conspirator 6 an email identifying attorneys in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

55. The next day, on December 8, Co-Conspirator 5 called the Arizona attorney on Co- Conspirator 6's list. In an email after the call, the Arizona attorney recounted his conversation with Co-Conspirator 5 as follows:

I just talked to the gentleman who did that memo, [Co-Conspirator 5]. His idea is basically that all of us (GA, WI, AZ, PA, etc.) have our electors send in their votes (even though the votes aren't legal under federal law -- because they're not signed by the Governor); so that members of Congress can fight about whether they should be counted on January 6th. (They could potentially argue that they're not bound by federal law because they're Congress and make the law, etc.) Kind of wild/creative --I'm happy to discuss. My comment to him was that I guess there's no harm in it, (legally at least) -- i.e. we would just be sending in "fake" electoral votes to Pence so that "someone" in Congress can make an objection when they start counting votes, and start arguing that the "fake" votes should be counted.[/quoted]

56. At Co-Conspirator 1's direction, on December 10, Co-Conspirator 5 sent to points of contact in all targeted states except Wisconsin (which had already received his memos) and New Mexico a streamlined version of the Wisconsin Memo-which did not reveal the intended fraudulent use of the Defendant's electors-and the Fraudulent Elector Instructions, along with fraudulent elector certificates that he had drafted.

57. The next day, on December 11, through Co-Conspirator 5, Co-Conspirator 1 suggested that the Arizona lawyer file a petition for certiorari in the Supreme Court as a pretext to claim that litigation was pending in the state, to provide cover for the convening and voting of the Defendant's fraudulent electors there. Co-Conspirator 5 explained that Co-Conspirator 1 had heard from a state official and state provisional elector that "it could appear treasonous for the AZ electors to vote on Monday if there is no pending court proceeding .... "

58. To manage the plan in Pennsylvania, on December 12, Co-Conspirator 1, Co- Conspirator 5, and Co-Conspirator 6 participated in a conference call organized by the Defendant's Campaign with the Defendant's electors in that state. When the Defendant's electors expressed concern about signing certificates representing themselves as legitimate electors, Co-Conspirator 1 falsely assured them that their certificates would be used only if the Defendant succeeded in litigation. Subsequently, Co-Conspirator 6 circulated proposed conditional language to that effect for potential inclusion in the fraudulent elector certificates. A Campaign official cautioned not to offer the conditional language to other states because "[t]he other States are signing what he prepared - if it gets out we changed the language for PA it could snowball." In some cases, the Defendant's electors refused to participate in the plan.

59. On December 13, Co-Conspirator 5 sent Co-Conspirator 1 an email memorandum that further confirmed that the conspirators' plan was not to use the fraudulent electors only in the circumstance that the Defendant's litigation was successful in one of the targeted states-instead, the plan was to falsely present the fraudulent slates as an alternative to the legitimate slates at Congress's certification proceeding.

60. On the same day, the Defendant asked the Senior Campaign Advisor for an update on "what was going on" with the elector plan and directed him to "put out [a] statement on electors." As a result, Co-Conspirator 1 directed the Senior Campaign Advisor to join a conference call with him, Co-Conspirator 6, and others. When the Senior Campaign Advisor related these developments in text messages to the Deputy Campaign Manager, a Senior Advisor to the Defendant, and a Campaign staffer, the Deputy Campaign Manager responded, "Here's the thing the way this has morphed it's a crazy play so I don't know who wants to put their name on it." The Senior Advisor wrote, "Certifying illegal votes." In turn, the participants in the group text message refused to have a statement regarding electors attributed to their names because none of them could "stand by it."

61. Also on December 13, at a Campaign staffer's request, Co-Conspirator 5 drafted and sent fraudulent elector certificates for the Defendant's electors in New Mexico, which had not previously been among the targeted states, and where there was no pending litigation on the Defendant's behalf. The next day, the Defendant's Campaign filed an election challenge suit in New Mexico at 11 :54 a.m., six minutes before the noon deadline for the electors' votes, as a pretext so that there was pending litigation there at the time the fraudulent electors voted.

62. On December 14, the legitimate electors of all 50 states and the District of Columbia met in their respective jurisdictions to formally cast their votes for president, resulting in a total of232 electoral votes for the Defendant and 306 for Biden. The legitimate electoral votes that Biden won in the states that the Defendant targeted, and the Defendant's margin of defeat, were as follows: Arizona (11 electoral votes; 10,457 votes), Georgia (16 electoral votes; 11,779 votes), Michigan (16 electoral votes; 154,188 votes), Nevada (6 electoral votes; 33,596 votes), New Mexico (5 electoral votes; 99,720 votes), Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes; 80,555 votes), and Wisconsin (10 electoral votes; 20,682 votes).

63. On the same day, at the direction of the Defendant and Co-Conspirator 1, fraudulent electors convened sham proceedings in the seven targeted states to cast fraudulent electoral ballots in favor of the Defendant. In some states, in order to satisfy legal requirements set forth for legitimate electors under state law, state officials were enlisted to provide the fraudulent electors access to state capitol buildings so that they could gather and vote there. In many cases, however, as Co-Conspirator 5 had predicted in the Fraudulent Elector Instructions, the fraudulent electors were unable to satisfy the legal requirements.

64. Nonetheless, as directed in the Fraudulent Elector Instructions, shortly after the fraudulent electors met on December 14, the targeted states' fraudulent elector certificates were mailed to the President of the Senate, the Archivist of the United States, and others. The Defendant and co-conspirators ultimately used the certificates of these fraudulent electors to deceitfully target the government function, and did so contrary to how fraudulent electors were told they would be used.

65. Unlike those of the fraudulent electors, consistent with the ECA, the legitimate electors' signed certificates were annexed to the state executives' certificates of ascertainment before being sent to the President of the Senate and others.

66. That evening, at 6:26 p.m., the RNC Chairwoman forwarded to the Defendant, through his executive assistant, an email titled, "Electors Recap - Final," which represented that in "Six Contested States"-Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsinthe Defendant's electors had voted in parallel to Biden's electors. The Defendant's executive assistant responded, "It's in front of him!"

The Defendant's Attempts to En list the Vice President to Fraudulently Alter the Election Results at the January 6 Certification Proceeding

67. As the January 6 congressional certification proceeding approached and his other efforts to impair, obstruct, and defeat the federal government function failed, the Defendant sought to enlist the Vice President to assist in the plan to use his role as President of the Senate to fraudulently alter the election results. The Defendant had no official responsibilities related to the certification proceeding, but he did have a personal interest as a candidate in being named the winner of the election. All of the conversations between the Defendant and Vice President described below focused on the Defendant maintaining power. When his efforts to use the Vice President's role as President of the Senate failed, the Defendant attempted to use a crowd of supporters that he had gathered in Washington, D.C. to pressure the Vice President to fraudulently alter the election results.

68. On December 19, 2020, after cultivating widespread anger and resentment for weeks with his knowingly false claims of election fraud, the Defendant urged his supporters to travel to Washington on the day of the certification proceeding, tweeting, "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th• Be there, will be wild!" Throughout late December and early January, the Defendant repeatedly urged his supporters to come to Washington for January 6.

69. On December 23, the Defendant re-tweeted a memo titled "Operation 'PENCE' CARD," which falsely asserted that the Vice President could, among other things, unilaterally disqualify legitimate electors from six targeted states.

70. On the same day, Co-Conspirator 2 circulated a two-page memorandum outlining a plan for the Vice President to unlawfully declare the Defendant the certified winner of the presidential election. Just two months earlier, on October 11, Co-Conspirator 2 had taken the opposite position, writing that neither the Constitution nor the ECA provided the Vice President discretion in the counting of electoral votes, or permitted him to "make the determination on his own."

71. On December 25, when the Vice President called the Defendant to wish him a Merry Christmas, the Defendant quickly turned the conversation to January 6 and his request that the Vice President, as President of the Senate, reject electoral votes that day. The Vice President pushed back, telling the Defendant, as the Vice President already had in previous conversations, "You know I don't think I have the authority to change the outcome."

72. On January 1, the Defendant called the Vice President and berated him because he had learned that the Vice President had opposed a lawsuit seeking a judicial decision that, at the certification, the Vice President had the authority to reject or return votes to the states under the Constitution. The Vice President responded that he thought there was no constitutional basis for such authority and that it was improper. In response, the Defendant told the Vice President, "You're too honest." Within hours of the conversation, the Defendant reminded his supporters to meet in Washington before the certification proceeding, tweeting, "The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C., will take place at 11.00 A.M. on January 6th. Locational details to follow. StopTheSteal!"

73. On January 3, the Defendant again told the Vice President that at the certification proceeding, the Vice President had the absolute right to reject electoral votes and the ability to overturn the election. The Vice President responded that he had no such authority, and that a federal appeals court had rejected the lawsuit making that claim the previous day.

74. On January 3, Co-Conspirator 2 circulated a second memorandum that included a new plan under which, contrary to the ECA, the Vice President would send the elector slates to the state legislatures to determine which slate to count.

75. On January 4, the Defendant held a meeting with Co-Conspirator 2, the Vice President, the Vice President's Chief of Staff, and the Vice President's Counsel. The Defendant's White House Counsel did not attend.

76. During the meeting, as reflected in the Vice President's contemporaneous notes, the Defendant made knowingly false claims of election fraud, including, "Bottom line-won every state by 100,000s of votes" and "We won every state." The Defendant and Co-Conspirator 2 then asked the Vice President to either unilaterally reject the legitimate electors from the seven targeted states, or send the question of which slate was legitimate to the targeted states' legislatures. When the Vice President challenged Co-Conspirator 2 on whether the proposal to return the question to the states was defensible, Co-Conspirator 2 responded, "Well, nobody's tested it before." The Vice President then told the Defendant, "Did you hear that? Even your own counsel is not saying I have that authority." The Defendant responded, "That's okay, I prefer the other suggestion" of the Vice President rejecting the electors unilaterally.

77. Also on January 4, when Co-Conspirator 2 acknowledged to the Senior Advisor that no court would support his proposal, the Senior Advisor told Co-Conspirator 2, "[Y]ou're going to cause riots in the streets." Co-Conspirator 2 responded that there had previously been points in the nation's history where violence was necessary to protect the republic.

78. On the morning of January 5, at the Defendant's direction, the Vice President's Chief of Staff and the Vice President's Counsel met again with Co-Conspirator 2. Co- Conspirator 2 now advocated that the Vice President do what the Defendant had said he preferred the day before: unilaterally reject electors from the targeted states. During this meeting, Co- Conspirator 2 privately acknowledged to the Vice President's Counsel that he hoped to prevent judicial review of his proposal because he understood that it would be unanimously rejected by the Supreme Court. The Vice President's Counsel expressed to Co-Conspirator 2 that following through with the proposal would result in a "disastrous situation" where the election might "have to be decided in the streets."

79. That same day, the Defendant encouraged supporters to travel to Washington on January 6, and he set the false expectation that the Vice President had the authority to and might use his ceremonial role as President of the Senate at the certification proceeding to reverse the election outcome in the Defendant's favor, including issuing the following Tweets:

a. At 11 :06 a.m., "The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors." This was within 40 minutes of the Defendant's earlier reminder, "See you in D.C."

b. At 5:43 p.m., "I will be speaking at the SAVE AMERICA RALLY tomorrow on the Ellipse at 11AM Eastern. Arrive early - doors open at 7AM Eastern. BIG CROWDS!"

80. Also on January 5, the Defendant met alone with the Vice President. When the Vice President refused to agree to the Defendant's request that he use his position as President of the Senate to obstruct the certification, the Defendant grew frustrated and told the Vice President that the Defendant would have to publicly criticize him. Upon learning of this, the Vice President's Chief of Staff was concerned for the Vice President's safety and alerted the head of the Vice President's Secret Service detail.

81. That night, the Defendant approved and caused the Defendant's Campaign to issue a public statement that the Defendant knew, from his meeting with the Vice President only hours earlier, was false: "The Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act."

82. On January 6, starting in the early morning hours, the Defendant again turned to knowingly false statements aimed at pressuring the Vice President to fraudulently alter the election outcome, and raised publicly the false expectation that the Vice President might do so:

a. At 1 :00 a.m., the Defendant issued a Tweet that falsely claimed, "If Vice President@Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency. Many States want to decertify the mistake they made in certifying incorrect & even fraudulent numbers in a process NOT approved by their State Legislatures (which it must be). Mike can send it back!"

b. At 8: 17 a.m., the Defendant issued a Tweet that falsely stated, "States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval. All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!"

83. On the morning of January 6, an agent of the Defendant contacted a United States Senator to ask him to hand-deliver documents to the Vice President. The agent then facilitated the receipt by the Senator's staff of the fraudulent certificates signed by the Defendant's fraudulent electors in Michigan and Wisconsin, which were believed not to have been delivered to the Vice President or Archivist by mail. When one of the Senator's staffers contacted a staffer for the Vice President by text message to arrange for delivery of what the Senator's staffer had been told were "[a]lternate slate[s] of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn't receive them," the Vice President's staffer rejected them.

84. At 11: 15 a.m., the Defendant called the Vice President and again pressured him to fraudulently reject or return Biden's legitimate electoral votes. The Vice President again refused. Immediately after the call, the Defendant decided to single out the Vice President in public remarks he would make within the hour, reinserting language that he had personally drafted earlier that morning-falsely claiming that the Vice President had authority to send electoral votes to the states-but that advisors had previously successfully advocated be removed.

85. Earlier that morning, the Defendant had selected Co-Conspirator 2 to join Co- Conspirator 1 in giving public remarks before his own. When they did so, based on knowingly false election fraud claims, Co-Conspirator 1 and Co-Conspirator 2 intensified pressure on the Vice President to fraudulently obstruct the certification proceeding:

a. Co-Conspirator 1 told the crowd that the Vice President could "cast [the ECA] aside" and unilaterally "decide on the validity of these crooked ballots[.]" He also lied when he claimed to "have letters from five legislatures begging us" to send elector slates to the legislatures for review, and called for "trial by combat."

b. Co-Conspirator 2 told the crowd, "[A]lI we are demanding of Vice President Pence is this afternoon at one o'clock he let the legislatures of the state look into this so we get to the bottom of it and the American people know whether we have control of the direction of our government or not. We no longer live in a self-governing republic if we can't get the answer to this question. "

86. Next, beginning at 11:56 a.m., the Defendant made multiple knowingly false statements integral to his criminal plans to defeat the federal government function, obstruct the certification, and interfere with others' right to vote and have their votes counted. The Defendant repeated false claims of election fraud, gave false hope that the Vice President might change the election outcome, and directed the crowd in front of him to go to the Capitol as a means to obstruct the certification and pressure the Vice President to fraudulently obstruct the certification. The Defendant's knowingly false statements for these purposes included:

a. The Defendant falsely claimed that, based on fraud, the Vice President could use his position as President of the Senate to alter the outcome of the election results, stating:

I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so.

Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. All he has to do-all, this is, this is from the number one, or certainly one of the top, Constitutional lawyers in our country-he has the absolute right to do it. We're supposed to protect our country, support our country, support our Constitution, and protect our Constitution.

States want to revote. The states got defrauded. They were given false information. They voted on it. Now they want to recertify. They want it back. All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify and we become president and you are the happiest people.

b. After the Defendant falsely stated that the Pennsylvania legislature wanted "to recertify their votes. They want to recertify. But the only way that can happen is if Mike Pence agrees to send it back," the crowd began to chant, "Send it back."

c. The Defendant also said that regular rules no longer applied, stating, "And fraud breaks up everything, doesn't it? When you catch somebody in a fraud, you're allowed to go by very different rules."

d. The Defendant specifically referenced the process by which electoral votes are counted during the proceeding, including by stating, "We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated."

e. Finally, after exhorting that "we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore," the Defendant directed the people in front of him to head to the Capitol, suggested he was going with them, and told them to give Members of Congress "the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country."

87. During and after the Defendant's remarks, thousands of people marched toward the Capitol.

The Defendant's Exploitation of the Violence and Chaos at the Capitol 88. Shortly before 1 :00 p.m., the Vice President issued a public statement explaining that his role as President of the Senate at the certification proceeding did not include "unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not."

89. Before the Defendant had finished speaking, a crowd began to gather at the Capitol.

90. On the floor of the House of Representatives, the Vice President, in his role as President of the Senate, began the certification proceeding. At approximately 1:11 p.m., the Vice President opened the certificates of vote and certificates of ascertainment that the legitimate electors for the state of Arizona had mailed to Washington, consistent with the ECA. After a Congressman and Senator lodged an objection to Arizona's certificates, the House and Senate retired to their separate chambers to debate the objection.

91. A mass of people-including individuals who had traveled to Washington and to the Capitol at the Defendant's direction-broke through barriers cordoning off the Capitol grounds and advanced on the building, including by violently attacking law enforcement officers trying to secure it.

92. Beginning around 1:30 p.m., the Defendant, who had returned to the White House after concluding his remarks, settled in the dining room off of the Oval Office. He spent much of the afternoon reviewing Twitter on his phone, while the television in the dining room showed live events at the Capitol.

93. At 2:13 p.m., after more than an hour of steady, violent advancement, the crowd at the Capitol broke into the building, and forced the Senate to recess. At approximately 2:20 p.m., the official proceeding having been interrupted, staffers evacuating from the Senate carried with them the legitimate electors' certificates of vote and their governors' certificates of ascertainment. The House also was forced to recess.

94. At 2 :24 p.m., the Defendant personally, without assistance, issued a Tweet intended to further delay and obstruct the certification: "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!"

95. One minute later, at 2:25 p.m., the United States Secret Service was forced to evacuate the Vice President to a secure location.

96. At the Capitol, throughout the afternoon, members of the crowd chanted, "Hang Mike Pence!"; "Where is Pence? Bring him out!"; and "Traitor Pence!"

97. On the evening of January 6, the Defendant and Co-Conspirator 1 attempted to exploit the violence and chaos at the Capitol by having Co-Conspirator 1 call lawmakers to convince them, based on knowingly false claims of election fraud, to delay the certification proceeding in which the Defendant had no official role, including:

a. From 6:59 p.m. through 7:22 p.m., Co-Conspirator 1 placed calls to five United States Senators and one United States Representative.

b. Co-Conspirator 6 attempted to confirm phone numbers for six United States Senators whom the Defendant had directed Co-Conspirator 1 to call and attempt to enlist in further delaying the certification.

c. In one of the calls, Co-Conspirator 1 left a voicemail intended for a United States Senator that said, "We need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you. And I know they're reconvening at eight tonight but the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow-ideally until the end of tomorrow."

d. In another message intended for another United States Senator, Co-Conspirator 1 repeated knowingly false allegations of election fraud, including that the vote counts certified by the states to Congress were incorrect and that the governors who had certified knew they were incorrect; that "illegal immigrants" had voted in substantial numbers in Arizona; and that "Georgia gave you a number in which 65,000 people who were underage voted." Co-Conspirator 1 also claimed that the Vice President's actions had been surprising and asked the Senator to "object to every state and kind of spread this out a little bit like a filibuster[.]"

98. The attack on the Capitol obstructed and delayed the certification for approximately six hours, until the Senate and House of Representatives came back into session separately at 8:06 p.m. and 9:02 p.m., respectively, and came together in a Joint Session at 11 :35 p.m.

99. At 11 :44 p.m., Co-Conspirator 2 emailed the Vice President's Counsel advocating that the Vice President violate the law and seek further delay of the certification. Co-Conspirator 2 wrote, "I implore you to consider one more relatively minor violation [of the ECA] and adjourn for 10 days to allow the legislatures to finish their investigations, as well as to allow a full forensic audit of the massive amount of illegal activity that has occurred here."

100. At 3:41 a.m. on January 7, as President of the Senate, the Vice President announced the certified results of the 2020 presidential election in favor of Biden.

(In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371)

COUNT TWO
(Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding-18 U.S.C. § 1512(k))

101. The allegations contained in paragraphs 1 through 5 and 9 through 100 of this Superseding Indictment are re-alleged and fully incorporated here by reference.

102. From on or about November 13, 2020, through on or about January 7, 2021, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, the Defendant,

DONALD J. TRUMP,

did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with co-conspirators, known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to corruptly obstruct and impede an official proceeding, that is, the certification of the electoral vote, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1512( c )(2).

(In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1512(k))

COUNT THREE
(Obstruction of, and Attempt to Obstruct, an Official Proceeding-18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(c)(2), 2)

103. The allegations contained in paragraphs 1 through 5 and 9 through 100 of this Superseding Indictment are re-alleged and fully incorporated here by reference.

104. From on or about November 13, 2020, through on or about January 7, 2021, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, the Defendant,

DONALD J. TRUMP,

attempted to, and did, corruptly obstruct and impede an official proceeding, that is, the certification of the electoral vote.

(In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1512(c)(2), 2)

COUNT FOUR
(Conspiracy Against Rights-18 U.S.C. § 241)

105. The allegations contained in paragraphs 1 through 5 and 9 through 100 of this Superseding Indictment are re-alleged and fully incorporated here by reference. 106. From on or about November 13,2020, through on 01' about January 20, 2021, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, the Defendant,

DONALD J. TRUMP,

did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with co-conspirators, known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate one or more persons in the free exercise and enjoyment of a right and privilege secured to them by the Constitution and laws of the United States-that is, the right to vote, and to have one's vote counted.

(In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 241)


________________
JACK SMITH
SPECIAL COUNSEL
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
A TRUE BILL

_______________
FOREPERSON

Tim Pool
@Timcast

"You'll never know want or loneliness again." Trump said, "The world was cruel to you, but you have Trump now."


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Part 1 of 2

LIVE REPLAY: President Trump Speaks at Moms for Liberty National Summit in D.C. - 8/30/24
Right Side Broadcasting Network
Streamed live 8/30/24

President Trump will address the third annual National “Joyful Warriors” Summit in Washington, DC, as a special guest on Friday, August 30, 2024, at 8:00 p.m.



Transcript

I started today in New York
and I started today with a man who has been the leader of a movement to put
America
First and people see the interviews they see the rally speeches they see the
truths and the tweets but what they don't see is the
man the man that I have gotten to know is a man who will do
good things for anybody he does great things for people who really can't do anything for him but
that demonstrates the true character the true Integrity of not just a man not
just a businessman not just a mogul because he's a mogul
too but the 45th and soon to be 47th
president of the United United States moms for Liberty give it up for president Donald J
Trump I'm to be an American where in least I know I'm free and I won't forget
the men who died who gave that right to me and I gladly stand up next to you and
defend her still today cuz there ain't no doubt I love
this land God Bless the
[Applause] [Music] [Applause]
USA from the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of
Tennessee across the plains of Texas come SE a shining SE
from Detroit down to Houston and New York to
LA where there's pride in every American Heart and it's time we stand and
[Music] say that I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free and I won't forget the men who died who gave
that life to me and I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still
today cuz you're a no doubt I love this
land God Bless the
[Applause] USA and I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free and I won't forget the men who died who gave
that light to me and I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still
today cuz there a't no doubt I love
this God bless for you
[Music] [Applause]
thank you
wow that's a nice crowd thank you very much everybody thank
[Music] you I love you here president Trump
thank you so much well thank you so much and it's an honor to be here this is a nice group this is a nice
group we just left Pennsylvania we had a big rally and a big speech and I said
okay that's it for the day right nurse sir you're going to DC now congratul so it's but it's when I heard
exactly the group I knew anyway but when they reminded me this was it this is own point the job you've done is incredible
really and it's an honor to be here thank you
Mr President we just want to say how thankful we are that you're doing okay what a scary day that was in
Pennsylvania and you are looking great and we're so happy that you were able to join us you and I were talking a little
bit backstage and you were sharing with me a lot of the concerns you have about the border and what you're seeing happen
with illegal immigrants across the United States and I thought I'd give you an opportunity to talk a little bit about that to start off sure because uh
you're talking about moms and you're talking about family such a big factor for you just about everything and when
you look at what's happening in our country this is so tough you know it's one thing you
don't Grill oil or you don't do something that you can do with a new group coming in but millions and
millions of people 21 million people I think the real number is that you hear 13 14 15 like that's not a big number
but it is but 21 million people and many of these people are criminals many of
these people are coming out of of the roughest countries in the world and
they're coming from all over the world they're not just coming from South America you know everyone thinks they're coming from like Guatemala El Salvador
they're coming from Mexico they're coming from everywhere uh I was speaking to the border of Patrol they said in the last
12 months 159 different countries were represented by people having come in
illegally and that's some number but uh these are tough people they're coming
out of the jails they're coming out of the mental institutions uh they're coming out of
prisons and they're coming I mean they're just coming out of there's a difference between a prison and jail
it's subtle but I say that they come out of mental institutions and insane asylums there's a difference there also
and uh they're coming into our country at levels that nobody's ever seen and I've been saying for two years
that this has got to stop been saying for longer than that but for two and a
half three years I said this has to stop and now it's catching up with us and you see what's going on in Colorado I don't
know if anybody got to see Aurora I mean they're taking over the city they're taking over
apartment complexes these are young very tough people these are tough they make a
criminals look nice that's the only thing good about them our criminals are like nice people by comparison and and
uh if you saw the Colorado thing and this is happening all over just not Colorado but the the Colorado thing
caught the imagination because there were many of them with the biggest weapons that you've ever seen and these
came from Venezuela which is emptying out all of its criminals you know Venezuela crime is down like
72% because they're bringing all of their criminals from Caracus and everywhere else they're bringing them to
to the beautiful USA thank you very much ven well we appreciate it and we're
allowing it to happen because we have open borders and again this is happening with uh every continent we have Africa
well represented coming out from the Congo 22 people came in recently from
the Congo where do you come from we come from
prison what did you do to get into prison we will not tell you bad stuff
and we have them here no intention of bringing them back none whatsoever and they're all over the
country but now what they're doing you know if you think 21 million so if you
say a certain large percentage of them are bad because when you empty out your prisons and you empty out your mental
institutions it's a lot of people it's bigger than most armies are in our
country if you add them up totally so we had 159 countries let's say but we have
massive numbers of people and what happened in Aurora today is incredible
because they basically have just taken over a swath and the building and they the people are petrified the people
living in the building they're leaving and when they tell the police
about it I mean the police you know they don't need uh AK-47s that's a very
powerful weapon I I learned a lot about weapons over the last uh six weeks I
will tell this it's a big difference between different weapons but they're coming
with very powerful weapons and the police you know you have a few policemen that's saying we're totally outnumbered
plus they have guns that are you know many times the power of what we carry we don't carry rifles and machine guns and
things like there wielding around pretty freely and know how to use them and this is affecting our schools
because we want to talk about schools then they're taking over schools we have MS13 gangs they're the toughest gangs
they say in the world probably are I got them out by the thousands I took them out by the thousands Obama couldn't get
them out because the country wouldn't allow him to come back in they were putting airplanes big airplanes on the
runway so you couldn't land the planes that have to come back to the United States loaded up with these same people that they were supposed to take out and
I got them to take them by stopping Aid 7750 million to different countries
and I won't go through this St too much but basically I said uh how much money do we pay to Guatemala and a few other
countries and the number was $750 million which is a lot but it's not that
much we give so much money away it's so crazy to countries that hate us by the way we give a lot of money away every
year to Afghanistan billions and billions of
dollars and I think that Harris and by now was starting now by Harris a Marxist
she's a Marxist by the way people are finding that out but she's a total she's a total Marxist her father's a Marxist
he's a Marxist Professor he teaches uh I
guess the economy from a Marxist perspective and he taught her well but
uh when you look at what was happening you couldn't get the people out and when
I said you're going to get these people out here the general came to me sir they won't take them back who won't take them
back the country is from where they came and they would put airplanes on the runway they block up the bus routes they
block up everything so we bring them back and you couldn't bring them back Tiffany so it's such a horrible thing
and I said how much Aid do we pay them sir we pay them $750 million combined I say that's a lot
of money that's a lot well tell them we're not paying them any more effective immediately
yes sir and they told them that and the
following morning I come into the beautiful Oval Office that Resolute desk which is so beautiful you know now Biden
goes around using that he didn't even know the name of the Resolute desk now he tells I sit behind the Resolute desk
he doesn't even know what the hell it is this guy that's a beauty boy I tell you
did they take a did they do a coup on him anyway so uh I said uh tell them that's
not happening so the following morning I get to the office and I get a call from
three countries let's not use names and all very smart leaders I'd be doing the
same thing about with them to tell you the truth I'd say I empty out my prisons dump them into the United States don't
ever let them back and I would be doing it every bit as much as them I don't blame them if they can get away with it
but they shouldn't be able to get away with it so I said uh you're not going to get the money they call me up they say sir I understand and I know all all
three of them I know all of them I know all the leaders they're all at the top of their game and we have a bunch of
dead weights okay we are being taken advantage of as a country so much I've
never seen anything like it so they said essentially the same conversation sir
good morning sir I understand is a problem sir you have to understand this has gone on for 10 years they wouldn't
take their people back they wouldn't take MS13 back they dumped them in our country wouldn't take them back I said
well you know you're sending them up in the Caravans and other ways and you're not taking them back you're never
getting any more money from the United States sir sir we would like to take them back we would love to have MS13
back with us we think they're such wonderful people anyway they made it very easy for us to get them back and we
took them back by the thousands and we took also a lot of others back and uh
then these clowns took over the country and nothing everything closed up and by the way they're paying them now $4
billion I understand can you believe it and they don't take them back it's just so sad to see what happens they're
paying much more money than U I was talking about they raised it they actually felt it was good to pay them
more they said why they said Economic Development it's not Economic
Development it's the development of a dictator because they keep the money
they're not doing any economic Dev vment we have the dumbest people in history running our
country okay the dumbest in history and we have
to get and we have to get these people so we brought it back at all but but
what's happening to our country our country is being poisoned poisoned and your schools and your children are
suffering greatly because they're going into the classrooms they're taking the seats and they don't even speak English
it's crazy and we have our people that aren't going into a classroom we have
students that were there last year that aren't allowed into the school this year they're not allowed it's crazy we have
our veterans sleeping on the streets and we have illegal immigrants coming into our country living in luxury hotels
above where the veterans are it's so reverse of what it should be so I know
you love New York City I'm from New York originally my dad grew up in Brooklyn in flat Bush yeah New York um but like many
other cities in America right now it's a city in Decline you were in New York when mayor Giuliani really did great
reforms great he was such a great mayor and uh you know he also fought for a lot
of things that he should hey he was right about the laptop from hell you know he was the one that came out Rudy
was right Rudy was right about a lot of things you know they have a hat Trump was right about everything but Rudy was
right about a hell of a lot he was right he got he was the first one to see the laptop I guess and he revealed what was
on there and everyone hit him hard he's actually a very brave guy but he was a
great mayor and he took over the city when it was in really bad shape and very
dangerous and he made it the safest big city in the country and made it beyond that it was a vibrant City and now it's
got tremendous problems and and in all fairness look you have hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants here here
how do you do it you can't run it I I read where they're spending billions of dollars I thought New York had no money
and yet they're spending billions of dollars of money and it's not given by the federal government so how are they
doing this the city is suffering and they're all suffering no City can take
in when you think that 21 million people came into our country that's bigger than New York 21 million people came into our
country no country can take that nobody can withand that it's going to bring us down and in addition to that many of
these people are hard criminals and we have to get them out and we're going to have deportation at
the level at the highest level we've ever had as a higher level you know the
highest deportation was a pretty moderate guy but Dwight Eisenhower he
hated that our city was that our country is being swamped and Dwight D Eisenhower
president of the United States a good president good General he won because he's a general and you know generals by
the way I don't know little statistic so of the presidents 92% were politicians
and 8% before me 8% were Generals and then I came
along and I don't think no I don't think any rich guy will ever do it they're
looking at Trump they're saying I don't know they all wanted to do it they said if Trump can do it I can do it I can do
it but they see what you have to go through they're saying you know maybe I won't give it a shot so let's talk a little bit about
family because we really feel at moms for Liberty that family and parental rights are under attack in America all
of America got to meet your granddaughter Kai at the Republican National
Convention it's very obvious that you love being a father and a grandfather um
so I'd love to know why you choose and continue to choose to work with your children in business in politics and do
you have any advice for people with working with your kids well I've always liked it I don't know that I'll be doing
it very much politically because I think it's been very unfair to them like Ivanka was a great she she could have
done anything great student great beautiful girl beautiful everything she was a perfect person worked hard she you
know she gave up do you remember the ianka line and I loved those shoes please tell your daughter she made great
shoes she was making so much money with that thing I was saying what the hell is going on it was so
hot and then I ran for politics and the truth is she wanted to come she she
pretty much gave it up it was really good great shoes great everything very stylish and a lot of people still talk
about it but she gave it up because she wanted to go and and she didn't want
something like the United Nations secretary I wanted it to do that I said you would be a great uh ambassador to
the United Nations United Nations secretary you there'd be nobody to
compete with her I tell you she may be my daughter but nobody could have competed with her with her rat tatat the
whole deal she's got and and she said Daddy I don't want to do that I just
want to help people get jobs and she would go around not a glamorous job but she felt
so good about it she would go around to see Walmart to see Exon to see all these
big companies to hire people and she had hired like millions of people during the
course of her stay and I mean always there was nothing ever good it was just
very tough I think if she were a Democrat it would have been it's much easier to be a Democrat let me put it
that way apparently you don't have to take any interviews that's right you don't have to you don't have to do
anything we saw that the other night and you won't see too many more interviews and I have a debate coming up with this
one and she didn't she didn't want a debate she didn't want a debate they were not
happy about it but they got the network that they wanted this network is the worst of all uh George slobad dolos you
know who he is but they are the worst in in terms of that so they wanted the network and you
know it's like with Biden they came to me they want to do a debate I said uh isn't it a little bit early like you
know we just started do you want to do do it now yes oh yes and they thought
that if they said it was going to be Dana Bash who last night was extremely
easy she there was there was no like why aren't you doing this or why did you say
a thousand times that there'll be no fracking in Pennsylvania and then all of a sudden say oh we'll have fracking it
felt like a multiple choice quiz you would give her like several answers that she could have given they were feeding it to I was surprised actually I mean I
was surprised she didn't do a lot of interviews but she's not good at it I guess and they knew that they knew
something that we didn't know I think she would have been better off if she just had interviews even if they weren't
great it would have been better then because now everyone's watching and now we see she's defective she's a defective
person and we don't need another defective person as president of the United States we just had
that I've heard you talk about your mom in interviews before she was obviously a very strong woman um was she hard on you
with school tell us about your mom a little bit no she wasn't she was great I had a great mother great father very
different people my mother came from Scotland and she came over to this
country is are there people from Scotland you know actually that's hidden do you know that some of the
biggest smartest most brilliant leaders in business come from Scotland and
nobody knows it or at least you know know their parents came from Scotland but it's
Scotland Scotland did very well in this country I tell you it's very like we have people and I know that one group
they very successful group now she came from Scotland great place and she came
over just for the summer and uh she was 19 I guess and she
met my father and they had a very long marriage I said I'll never tap you on that pup you know you always want to be
a little bit better than your father if you can a little more and my father loved that you know some fathers don't
like it when you have a father that doesn't want his son to be a successful you got a problem with a father but
there are plenty of them I've seen plenty of them they make it actually hard for the son but no I had the
opposite I had a father that loved what was happening but they met they fell in love they got married and they were
married for six and a half decades wow a long
time I said pop I'm not going to be able to beat you with that but anyway and they had just a
great marriage very different people but they had a great marriage very very strong
marriage so I want to talk to you a little bit about The Apprentice um we talk a lot at moms for Liberty that
we're in the middle of a cultural revolution in America people like to be dismissive and say it's a culture War
but truly the culture is being changed I look at you as a a president and and
perhaps our next president hopefully our next president president that's
right and you are a cultural icon so you had The Apprentice it ran for am I right
is it 14 Seasons 14 Seasons 12 years yeah we had uh actually one season Wars
on for three times during the season that means they liked it but uh but it
was basically 12 years and and 14 Seasons you how do you think you kept
the audience that long well it just worked I mean we had um Mark Bernett is
great producer he did Survivor and he came to me and uh they rented the wman
rink he wanted to rent it for the finale of Survivor so it have like this uh
jungle setting facing New York City right in the middle of Central Park it was gorgeous it was beautiful and he
invited me I didn't know him but he was a young producer he was the producer of the Survivor and he was hot cuz Survivor
was a very successful show in CBS and and I went there I said wow this is great I rented him the the rink so I
wanted to see it also but he invited me I went there watch the show and he said I really invited you because I have a
concept of a show and it's sort of Survivor uh with the asphalt jungle aspect of it right deep prce and he told
me and I said wow that's interesting he said I'll only use you there's nobody else I want to be to do it if you don't
do it I'm not going to do it so I thought about it and I had an agent from a very big agency and he said don't do
it you don't do it there's never been a business show in history that's been successful business shows are not
successful in prime time there's never been I guess a business show successful I said well this isn't really a business
show this is sort of a different kind of a show than a business show it's got a little business to it but really it's more than a business show he said don't
do it he was a very respected guy actually he was a good guy but he told me not to do it don't do it and then I
made the deal with ABC and the deal was done and then Eisner you remember Eisner
previous guy a while ago H he's heard about the deal and he broke the deal he
said I can make a better deal than that so let's make a better deal and I got
angry about it and so did Mark Bernett and everybody wanted us they wanted us
so we get a call from Jeff zuker of all people from from uh at the time from
NBC then he was heading up NBC and they were having a real drought they hadn't had a top 10 show in a long time and
they were not doing well and I'll never forget we walked into his office he took the key out of the door and threw it
under the chair and Rockefeller Center he locked the door he said you're locked in we're not going to leave the room
until we have a deal so we made a deal and ABC was not
happy Happ about it actually the man from ABC that made the deal with us top person I think like the president uh he
quit over this and uh he quit he said we made a deal with these people and he was
second guest by Eisner and he actually quit and had a lot of there was a lot of
anger about it but we made a deal with NBC instead of ABC we did have the original deal with ABC anyway it goes on
television and the first week it was like at number 10 which is uh very very hard and by the way the
agent told me you've got to break the deal you're going to be embarrassed because you're going to have a total
failure and you're going to be embarrassed so it goes on it opens at 10 which is
amazing and NBC was happy because now they have a top 10 show and then it went through various things like number eight
number seven it got progressively better and it finished up as the number one
show on television I'm sitting there can you you believe this and I mean you remember it was just
I watched The Apprentice we love the show yeah the finale actually had of that season had 42.5 million it was
second to the Super Bowl it was always the Academy Awards and we beat the
Academy Awards since then the Academy Awards has gone to hell it's incredible you know why cuz all they do is you know
political stuff what a they've destroyed it but uh so it finished up and number
number one and I'll never forget and and I enjoyed I said I have the number one show and I didn't even have an agent and
so I get a call from the agent I'll never forget 6:00 in the morning he called me he says I want to congratulate
you Show's number one I said yeah it is thanks a lot I appreciate it he said uh
could I come over and see you I said why he said so we could work out a fee I
said you told me not to do it there's no way I'm paying you a commission you told me not they wanted to get a commission I
said there's no way I said if it was up to you I would have never done it I've have the number one show you said it
couldn't make it so there a little little things but it it was successful for years it just did well and
then around the 13th actually the 12th
season they put me into a poll with a real stiff named Mitt Romney total stiff
this guy's bad news he he's worse than a rhino and they they and he was
running and they just put me into a poll I think it was NBC and I I was watching
the uh I was watching Meet the Press actually and with sleepy eyes Chuck Todd
did you ever hear of him he's a sleepy guy isn't he sleepy eyes another Beauty
so so they put me into a pole and in the poll I go to number one iated
number one Romney's a and I was in very and all and I kept
saying you know I'm always like rated number one and I wanted to get out but I
couldn't get out of the contract cuz I had an apprentice plus I had two buildings that I was finishing I wanted to get them finished not good when you
don't finish them rely on somebody else you don't want to do but I said you know maybe if I have a chance I'll do it the
next time and I did it the next time I ran and we had 17 people it was a rather
violent uh series of debates if you remember right Rosie O'Donnell only
Rosie O'Donnell that was a tough one only Rosie o' Donald you've said this
and that I won't use the terms you've called women this and that and that and
lot A lot of it was show business related I said only Rosie o' Donald the
place went crazy and the second question I got was Brett
Bear he said this was a fox one he said uh please raise your hand if you will
not support the winner of the group of 17 people whoever
wins the nomination so I raise my hand I was the only one I said I can't say for
sure I'm going to support I don't like certain other people I don't know them a couple of them I do do you remember that
that was my those were my first two question questions only Ros o Donell and I raised my hand and uh I said that I
was honest and the place went crazy so uh actually they were two the more interest they were the first two
questions I had

Part 2 of 2

[Convicted Felon Donald Trump] I went through a lot of debates I went through like 14 15 debates that then we had the debate with
uh crooked Hillary Clinton remember that one oh that was pretty good who doesn't remember that debate that was a pretty
good one crooked Hillary she was a crooked one and uh we had uh what what
you so uh so politics has been very interest never stops right then we had
the debate last time with with sleepy Joe Biden how did he do he was sharp as
attack I thought I would just like to say I thought you handled yourself so beautifully in that interview I have to
be honest thank you thank you for many
Americans who have watched as their family members have aged and have experienced dementia it was difficult to
watch president Trump I think there were a lot of parents that were watching with their children and there was a moment when he had a very hard time collecting
his thoughts and I just thought that you handled it with such Grace so thank you for that well I was a little I was a little
surprised and you know I was surprised by a lot of things so I I came on the stage and I looked and he I I you know I
looked at him just for a brief moment cuz I really didn't look at him I didn't want to look at him I was I was angry at
him because I think he's done a horrible job for the country I think he's been the worst president we've ever had and
that includes the worst vice president she's been rid the worst vice president and don't forget she was last in terms
of getting the job you know she competed for his job and I think they had 22 people or something and she was the
first one to quit she she bombed and she quit and then all of a sudden she's now
running and from my standpoint I I spent $100 million fighting Joe Biden and even
during the convention you know we're only talking about Biden Biden Biden and then we're not fighting him anymore
we're fighting somebody else he got 14 million votes I'm not saying he should have gone on but I think uh it seems
unfair because a lot of people did a lot better than him like you had a person that came in second and third and fourth
and you know it's Bernie Sanders actually essentially came in second place I guess right and uh so you'd say
you know why aren't you doing a democratic process so you know I'll give them some of their stuff they are a
threat to democracy they say that's right they are a threat to democracy so so she and she was also she
was the nastiest person to him you remember she called him a racist uh the bus you remember the story of the bus
you know fake Story Probably well she also said I worked at McDonald's it
turned out she didn't work at McDonald's anybody see that after an exhaustive study that took about 20 minutes they
found out they found out she never worked there so you know there's a lot of fake
stuff going on but we don't need that for a president and our country can't stand it we we are really in trouble
we're a failing Nation whether you like it or not and I'm sure you don't like it but we are a very sick Nation we're a
failing nation and on top of it we have millions of people in here that they can't we can't have them if they were
great if it were but you're not going to have people where they're emptying the doors to jails and emptying the doors to
mental institutions where seriously sick people are coming into our country and
you no country can stand this there's no country can stand it so I was not happy
with him because you know I only did it because I want to help the country you know I didn't need this I had a very
nice life some of you know I see some of you in here you know how you've known me for a long time long before politics I
had a nice life but uh even running again if I thought he was good and I
thought he was doing a good job I would have been happy but he's not he's doing a horrible job and you know he's been
absent for a long time if you go back 25 years he wasn't The Brightest Bulb in
the ceiling I can tell you that and he was not doing a job and and I've told
this and I minut it I would have been happy if he were a great president and I wouldn't have run I
wouldn't have run I also wouldn't have run if I didn't think I won the election I mean I think we won that election by
so much by so much if I thought I lost if I thought I lost that election I
absolutely would you know I wouldn't have read because I would have lost the election but I think we did phenomenally I mean honestly we got millions of more
votes than we did in the first election we did great in the first one we won and I was told we got 63 million votes in
the first election I was told if we get 60 63 million votes same number there's no way we can be defeated I
got 10 or 12 million votes more than that more than anybody had ever got we
got the most votes of anybody of any sitting president in history
and he beat us by a whisker and it was a terrible thing they
used Co to cheat and it was was a terrible thing and then I watched and I
thought it was very very sad because of you know the election was it brought great division to the country but uh I
watched and I saw how bad they were how bad things were I saw the border the
open border and everything you know I found out about Tiffany I found out about the open border when we built
hundreds of miles and then we had a little bit more that I was going to add because there were certain areas that
you needed it and we had everything found fabricade very expensive wall those walls are expensive they steel
concrete and rebar and they have a lot of wiring in them for all sorts of security equipment but but it's very
expensive stuff it's exactly what border patrol wanted they have anti climb bars and everything on them so we built we
did them they it could have been erected in 3 weeks and they kept saying we're
not going to do it we're not and then I realized they weren't going to do it and they sold much of that wall for cents on
the dollar so you know that's when I realized they actually want open borders
because you say to yourself who would want open borders think who would want
Men playing in women's sports I mean just think of this stuff think of this stuff no but who would want that all the
thingsa Harris apparently yeah no she wants it you know you you talk about
like cars I I'm a big fan of Elon Elon gave me tremendous endorsement it's good
isn't it he said going to have to send a rocket up to get those people out of there that's crazy you know he's great I
said when are you sending a rocket up well you know Elon is a very different
kind of a guy as he thinks he talks whereas a lot of people you know
they want the words to be perfect and all and they think less and talk more right with Elon it's like well you know
I'm doing a new stainless steel Hub that can get us around the engines
much quicker cuz there's a problem with the type of engine going into space nowadays and I'm hearing
the and uh but in the end I think we can have a good hookup because of the new
foils that are coming up and I'm hearing everything that's going through his
mind but he is like he's a Super Genius guy oh I loved that conversation that
you had on Twitter I listened to the whole thing I thought that was absolutely fantastic that was I think
we're going to do another one too they had a number like I heard 750
million they had a number that was so crazy and large and we had a good time
we talked for two and a half hours and uh yeah it was the number one ever
there's never been anything like it in terms of people listening or watching or whatever but uh but he he's a great he's
a great guy but but I said to him you know uh the one thing is that and I'm a huge fan of his electric car I think
it's incredible his car I think what he does and I'm a big fan of electric but they don't go far and they are expensive
and China does have the material we have gasoline more gasoline than anybody else has called called I call it Liquid Gold
we have liquid go but um and and electric absolutely has a place you know
you have elect but you have to have gasoline powered cars and hybrid powered cars and maybe hydrogen is going to be
next who knows but you know the things that they're proposing you know it's
interesting I mentioned Men playing in women's sports so the Olympics we
watched the Olympics right and did you see the boxing situation right yes sir we did so you had this beautiful
Champion Italian female boxer and she was supposed to be very
good against women and I watched I was watching it for some reason I find it very
interesting and she was fighting a person that transitioned and I wouldn't want to
fight this person but transitioned and met certain qualifications so can we
talk about that for a second because Elon you're talking about Elon Musk Elon Musk recently did an interview with Jordan Peterson and he talked about the
fact that one of his children um has decided that they're transgender he talked about the woke mind virus when
you look at Tim Waltz who is now camela Harris's running partner he has made his State a sanctuary CI sir which means
that um a sanctuary State excuse me for children that they can go there and have gender surgeries paid for by the
government and so I just ask you there's been an explosion in the number of children who identify as transgender um
and children are being taught that they were born in the wrong body it's an incredibly abusive message to send so
let's talk a little bit about some of the things that you might be able to do as president well you can do everything
president has such power it does it has such power for instance you can close
the border you don't need a bill you know they keep saying well just give us a bill just a they had the worst Bill I've
ever seen it was a disaster and they wouldn't have signed it anyway cuz they
do want open borders they want to have open borders they want to have all sorts of things that almost nobody in this
room once who I think 85 90% of the country doesn't want if they actually abely agree with you but uh the
transgender thing is incredible think of it your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later
with an operation the school decides what's going to happen with your child
and you know many of these Childs 15 years later say what the hell happened
who did this to me they say who did this to me it's incredible just to finish that boxing the so the Italian girl is
and a left is not a Hard Punch for those of you not into pugilistic
Affairs but a left is just sort of a guarding punch right so she's fighting
this person that transgendered and the guy boom hits her with the left it was
like she got hit by a horse and then she she backed up it was
weird she sort of like and then he hits her with another left and she said
that's enough I can't take that he ended up winning the gold medal and there was
another one who also transgendered and he or she she ended up
also winning the gold medal he Tiffany said it I didn't
see I'm a politician I have to be politically correct I'm a mom I have to protect my
kids no but think of it so the two people the
transgender it's the whole thing is crazy have you seen the swimming records lately have how about the weightlifting
records that's one of the best you know a a record that was like for 18 years
they put a quarter of an ounce on one side quarter of an ounce a little bit on one a little bit I think held for 18
years this guy walks along I what did he beat the record by 115 lbs it's crazy the volleyball we a a
championship volleyball players playing against a team and one or two of the
people had transitioned and the ball was hit so hard into the head of the other girl on
the other side that she was knocked out had a concussion and she said you she
was a championship player like an All-American player she said I played volleyball all my life I've never seen a
ball travel at that speed it's crazy and even with all of that they won't change
and you know what everyone's afraid to talk about it even the people not
Tiffany not Tiffany we're going to fight to keep our
girls safe president Trump we're going to fight to make sure that our girls have privacy and safety in their
bathrooms and that they have they that they have Christy gome I think said it
best she said we will not allow mediocre men to beat extraordinary women
yeah that's right it's also very demeaning to women I
don't know how they get away with it but the Olympics was the best thing that I've seen because you really see when
these boxes came out it was so ridiculous and they just go through it like nothing and why should women have
to swimming too why should women have to compete now it was sort of hard to get in I don't know how these two people got
in but they got in because in some cases you know they weren't allowed in so they have a crazy standard going on but it
it's so demeaning to women and women are working so hard to like make a team or
to make a record and these records that are being sent you know set now by
people that transitioned will not be broken that's right maybe a thousand years from now by a woman I don't know
but they're not going to be broken by you're right a woman it's a very it's a
very sad thing and and you know kamla is totally in favored now she's gone away
from everything you know she's called the greatest flip-flopper in history she loves uh fracking now she said there
will never be fracking we will never Frack Frack frack and everything that she said would
do she's now doing it there's like 12 or 14 things there's never been anything
like this and you know in one way it makes you very dishonest because you know if you could I could see somebody
throughout history people have gone into one or two areas where there's a difference you know you like something
and then all of a sudden it's but almost every single thing in fact we're
seriously thinking about sending her tomorrow a Maga hat because she loves everything we're doing so we're going to
send her a nice bright red make America great again hat you should do that I
loved I loved I loved when JD van said that he thought maybe she might come out at the debate with a blue suit and a red
tie on that's right that could happen it's crazy so president Trump you know
our moms are are busy women and they have families and and busy lives right and many of them never thought that they
would get involved in politics and run um you did you ever think about running for office at other times in your lives
and then just some advice because you come Under Fire a lot our moms are standing for things that often the media
attacks them on we'd love to get some advice from you about run running for office yeah so I would say don't do
it no no run for office we want you to run for office I I do say this though it is
nastier to run as a republican it is now I'm the ultimate you know I mean uh they
suffer from a thing called TDS do you know what that
is TDS a it's a horrible horrible terminal disease
it destroys the mind it destroys the Mind before the body but the body eventually goes TDs is Trump derangement
syndrome they have it at levels they can't even stand their life
they can't stand anything and you know part of the reason is I won an election which everybody said couldn't be won
couldn't be won for a lot of reasons number one he had never done that before you know it's not that easy to be a politician I mean you have to have a
some something and we won and we really did a great job
you know we had we rebuilt the military we gave the largest tax cuts ever the largest regulation Cuts uh in terms of
health we did something that was amazing we had uh right to try you know we have
great we have the greatest scientists in the world greatest doctors in the world greatest Laboratories in the world better than anybody else much better
than China China is very good but much better acknowledged and we have uh
things to fight off diseases that will not be approved for another five or 6
years that people that are very sick terminally ill should be able to use but
there was no mechanism for doing it and I got everybody into a room the uh insurance companies didn't want to allow
it because they're terminally ill they don't want to do it because then they'll get sued for somebody dying even though they're terminally ill the states didn't
want it the uh government didn't want it the federal government uh most of all
the doctors and the labs didn't want it because they didn't want to say that we're going to try and make somebody
better they didn't get better and now everyone's going to say whatever it is doesn't work and I got them all into a room everybody and I said here's what
we're doing you're going to sign these documents nobody's going to have liability if somebody wants to come
because you know they'd fly to Asia they'd fly to Europe they'd fly most of them didn't have money they'd go home and they'd die it was a hopeless
situation but if they had money they'd go to Asia they' go to Europe we have much better
technology and what happened is I got everybody in the room I said listen there's not going to be any liability
people are going to sign a document that they're not going to sue the country they're not going to sue the state they're not going to sue the uh doctors
or the medical platforms they're not going to sue anybody they just want the
drug and we have saved thousands and thousands of lives it's amazing actually
worked out differently the drug companies now are liking it to a certain extent because it's the ultimate test
somebody's terminally ill and all of a sudden they get better and it's happening a thousands and I got that
done they they've been trying for 60 years to get it done and we got it done
they don't have to fly away and it's really had the reverse people were finding cures to things that when a
terminally ill person a person that's almost ready to die goes in and starts taking something and now all of a sudden
that person gets better it's an amazing thing and we save thousands of lives so we did a we've done a lot of done a lot
of things a lot of things we'll talk about parental rights if we could for a little bit we're a
parental rights organization um and we saw Terry mccauliff lose his bid for
governor yeah in Virginia remember that yeah he I actually do remember this and
and he he said famously that he didn't think that parents should be making decisions about what their children were
learning in school and we believe that every parent has a fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children
right includes their education so what do you plan to do at the federal level to help us to protect parental rights
and education Freedom like school choice okay so I like to say that we're the party of common sense I mean we're
conservative and all of that but walls are common sense right all of
the things we're talking about no men and women sports no gender operation I
mean this these operations it's crazy you know I don't know if you know Europe has G totally away from it now sir we're
way behind them they don't do it anymore and this is just horrible but who could
even believe this is happening so think of it you have these parents that end up
in fist fights at school meetings and the parents mean well they end up
getting arrested put in prison I I've seen things especially Lowden County
right Lowden County it's a hot bed anybody from CL but it just you know I
have the property I have the big uh great golf course there right on the I off actually I offered you had the head
of your one of your groups that was very impressive to me and I said anytime you
want to use my land along the pomac river right under the American flag I
mean I have sort of an unlimited capacity there's a lot of it's a lot of acres and uh it's miles along the
Potomic it's truly beautiful but you know I'm I'm for parental rights all
the way I don't even understand the concept of not being thank you and no but when you see some of the things
neither do we when you see some of the things that doesn't that's another you know like uh why would somebody want to
have an open wall why would some when you see some of the things that that they want people to do in these School
boards and they become like dictatorships and the parents are
screaming for the life of their child a lot having to do with transgender a lot
having to do with a lot of other things you've got to give the parents the parents truly love the kids okay some of
these people on the boards I think they don't like the kids very much what they're doing so you have to give the
rights back to the uh parents and I can't imagine it well okay this Administration has been the opposite
this Administration it's like the FBI goes after the people that like it's some
kind of an Insurrection it's crazy they called us domestic terrorists president Trump speaking out at Schoolboard
meetings defend well we'll change that on the first day I promise
you no can you believe it you are not a domestic terrorist or a
terrorist we do have terrorists coming in and they're coming in by the thousands but you're not one
Tiffany thank you very much we'll get that change and and you know the president can do that very easily
but but you just wonder where's the mindset to take the parents rights I see
those meetings and it does seem like Lowden has a lot you know that Lowden is the ultimate example of it it's so vocal
but uh tell the people in Lowden County if you would like to be on the pomac river beautiful having a picnic and
talking about taking your rights back where you're allowed to say could my son study a little bit of arithmetic onstead
instead of something else that could we teach the kids to read should that's correct that's right yeah let's teach
him how to read please so uh yeah let them know that though that would be my
honor I absolutely will and thank you for that we appreciate the support so uh Tina deskovich the co-founder of moms
for Liberty and I we do a lot of interviews yeah and um there's a lot of international interest specifically
Japan we get asked for a lot of interviews and we were talking with a reporter and we said you know why is
there so much much interest in moms for Liberty in Japan and he said we are watching America's light dim and we're
very concerned and we want to know what you're doing about it and you guys are doing something and so I feel like
America is slipping back from the freedom and liberty and the beacon of light that we've been so how will you
take us forward We're a nation in Decline we are and it's because of the
people that we have leading our nation we are a nation you know I say this and and I said it a
little bit in 2016 and I meant it we had a bad border but it was like unbelievably good compared to what we
have now I mean we had a bad border but it was a regular bad border this this is
a border the likes of which there's never been anything like it this is a horrible you know many people are killed
coming up in the Caravans it's rough stuff you go through snake country you go through oh it's just these these what
happens and by the way remember I said rape when I first came well rape rape is
massive percentages of women are being raped and just beat to Hell coming up in
the Caravans it's I mean I say this I look this a very sophisticated audience mothers give
their girls uh big bottles big big bottles of birth control pills because
they know bad things are happening to their daughters coming up and you know we're allowing it to happen we're we're
telling them come up we're going to give you education we're going to give you this we're getting them to come up if
you say the border is closed and it is closed people aren't going to even come
up those Journeys up when you talk about death many people are dying especially women many people are dying on the trips
up they're being mutilated and it is a nasty and when I first came I said I I use the word rape
I remember I got great marks for this speech when I first announced I was running remember in the lobby of Trump
Tower and two days later I think the times called did you say rape I got
great marks they said it was a great speech and then they said did he say rape and I said yeah I said rape that's
what's happening tremendous levels and after that it was like that that's when
it all began and it was like incredible they said well what I said is nothing
compared to what the fact is it is it is a horrible thing those Caravans are mean
mean and you know you have people 10 to 20 25,000 people coming up in these massive Caravans and this tremendous
death and injury and problems that uh nobody would even believe and uh we're
causing we're causing this but I did mention that word and now everyone is saying you know Trump was right Trump
was right but you have to go through hell and you have to say it and you know
I respect you so much cuz you speak up like you said no with all for that right
very few people would say what Tiffany said a couple of moments ago about something that was a little bit
controversial that shouldn't be controversial at all but they just wouldn't do it so when you said that I
said that's refreshing to hear thank you
I just want to thank you for taking the time to meet with so many of the victim's families of crime that we've
seen Lake and Riley's family for example um I'm just going to ask what is that
experience like for you meeting with the parents of children who are being killed by illegal immigrants it's terrible uh
they're being killed by uh illegal aliens you know there's no correct term
because any term you use they criticize you shouldn't use the word alien you shouldn't use the word migrant they want
to take all the words away so that you can't talk about the subject anymore Bas exactly right but uh Laken was his
beautiful young woman who was savagely beaten and killed by u a migrant and but
there are many of them there are many of them I can tell you the parents will never be uh will never be the same I had
it I was at the border 3 days ago with uh three people to where their
child was killed and one where she was badly injured beautiful woman she was uh
badly badly hurt they stole her car she tried to stop him and they ran her over
and this and that she was you know thought she was going to be dead but she had a terrible fracture of the head and
uh I mean I had a case it was very interesting uh the uh 13 people that
were killed in Afghanistan you all know about that that was grossly incompetent getting out
was fine because I was going to get out I would have been out before them but we had an election that happened uh but we
would have been out with dignity and strength we would have taken the military out last not first they took the military out first but they had 13
people killed and I got to know many of the families of the 13 it was a terrible tragic thing none of them should have
died those people were essentially killed by a stupid Administration that
didn't know what they're doing and and bad generals like Millie who was a bad General bad General and you know nobody
was fired it was the most incompetent I think it's the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country the way it
happened you know remember the planes taking off and people falling off the planes many people fell to their death
they were hanging onto the wings you know they probably thought they could take the plane and fly on the plane and
they didn't realize the plane's going 500 mil an hour and they fell off at 3,000 F feet that's three times the
height of the Empire State Building they fell off they started falling off and then they all were off and a lot of
people but it was a horrible horrible moment but uh you had 13 people killed
many people badly injured meaning no legs we had one no
arm no legs and the arm that was left was
battered face was badly hurt and these are people you know these this is is
just horrible casualties but I got to know the people I felt very badly and
they viewed me as their president frankly they and I don't want to do anything about I don't want to say that
but they viewed me and I I I you know everybody knew because it was covered
but shouldn't not covered like the Press should cover it I mean the Press doesn't talk about bad things I mean they they
don't talk about what happened in Afghanistan anymore with the Taliban with you know with that horrible leing
it wasn't the leaving it was great to leave because you know they were there for like 20 years and we were leaving
but we were going to keep barram which is one of the biggest Air Force bases in the world and we're keeping it not
because of Afghanistan but because of China because it was 1 hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons so
we were keeping that and it would have been fine but we you know it was time now to turn it over despite the threat
to democracy I did turn that over I didn't I didn't say you know they said he'll never give it over were these
people are crazy they're crazy but anyway so I gave it over and they they
then they took over and I didn't have anybody killed in Afghanistan for 18 months I had a long talk with the head
of the Taliban who's really the boss and his name is Abdul and I said Abdul don't
do it don't do you don't do it and he said uh but why why sir why do you send
me a picture of my home ah Abdul you have to figure that one out
he went but why but why do you send me a picture of my home your Excellency call me your Excellency and he was fine look
I said you can't do it you can't do it you hit any they had snipers that were killing our people our wonderful uh
soldiers you know snipers from a long distance and uh we didn't lose one
person in 18 months and then we had this catastrophe happened which it should have never happened we had them in good
shape but we had to get out it's ridiculous that we would were there and we left $85 billion worth of equipment
you know they became brand new equipment too equipment that I bought they left
brand new goggles tanks planes we left it there instead of taking it out I
remember when Millie told me General Millie he's one of the woke guys you know he was saying you know all about
him he's bad new bad General but he was saying sure I think we should leave the
equipment behind I said why cuz I was talking about getting out and I was going to get out I brought it down to
the number of men but we had to keep bam you got to keep the Air Force the big base built many years ago for billions
and billions of dollars but I say sir we should leave the equipment behind why well it's much less expensive I said
wait a minute we got a $150 million airplane and we could fill it up with a
little gas a little tank of Airplane Fuel and fly it to Pakistan or fly it
all the way back home you think think it's cheaper to leave it and it's a new plane you think it's cheaper you think
it's cheaper to leave army tanks where we can put them in a trailer and take yes sir it's cheap I said this guy is
really bad it's true and that's when I lost total respect for the guy I didn't have
a lot cuz you know you never got good news I want people where there's good news you know like the general I used to
knock out the you know I knocked out 100% of Isis it was supposed to take 5
years it took about four weeks right we have a great military I'll tell you we have a great I had a great general in
charge of that and he knocked the hell out of him he said sir I can do it in about four weeks they said why didn't
they do it before sir they didn't want to really fight they wanted to be politically correct sure but uh it was
amazing we have you know I just say to this room we have a great military and our military our real military is not
going to be woke you couldn't convince him to be woke if you screamed at them all day for the next 10
years but you know but the guys on television awoke and a lot of the top people awoke but they'll all be gone
pretty quick they're could to all be gone get them out they get them
out when I was in Milwaukee I got to meet some of the gold star families and so what yeah we had a big problem um so
I was called by these families uh there were probably four of them there was
also somebody very badly injured with with the legs and everything and they
asked me would it be possible two days ago right to go to Arlington National
Cemetery to celebrate the life of their children who had been
killed uh three years ago and this was the whole thing the whole disaster in
Afghanistan where they set off a bomb and probably 500 people were killed all
together to see and we get got to think of the other side also but it was it was a terrible thing but we lost 13 soldiers
we had 45 soldiers that were really badly hurt too you know nobody ever talks you ever notice somebody loses
their leg or both legs or their arm in one case an arm and two legs and nobody
ever talks about them they talk about because we have to remember that those
people are boy nobody ever talks about
him and we had some people that were horrifically injured anyway they called
and they said sir would you be able to come now I got to know them because I have a place in
Bedminster New Jersey which is a spectacular place and they wanted to know whether they like New Jersey they
New Jersey is good New Jersey is some of the most beautiful things but so this is
a beautiful place and I had most of the families
uh there about a year and a half ago and they all want to know whether or not I'd be showing up I didn't know if I could
and when I heard they were there I I went out and I saw them and they thought
I was going to stay for 5 minutes or 10 minutes Shake everyone's hand and leave I ended up staying with them like for 4
and a half hours we listen to music up with the members we have this beautiful deck overlooking everything and you're
looking at the sky great food very luxurous ious place I me beautiful and
we had I don't know like 20 25 people you know members of of the family of
these 13 people of most of the 13 and we ended up listening to music Elvis and
Elton John and everybody and certain songs were very
sad and I'd point to the sky I said your son your son is looking down at you and
he's very proud oh the the people it was like crazy I was with him like for 4 and a half hours my my 15 minutes do you
think we could get him stay for 15 minutes could he sign something a picture of my son so I ended up saying
there and I got to know him and I got a call a little while ago like a week two
weeks and they asked whether or not it would be possible to go to Arlington National Cemetery two days ago and also
could I say for the uh Changing of the Guard and the whole thing which was beautiful I did that and but it was very
tough for me to get there cuz I was doing something else I had to get out of something that was not easy to get out of and I did that and I did the changing
and then they said could you come with us to the graves of whicher quite a bit
away you know you had to go into cars and go into you know through the cemetery beautiful Arlington Cemetery
and I did that and I was getting absolutely killed because they're calling me they're saying sir we got a
lot of people waiting said don't don't worry about it let them wait and I did it and they're looking at the graves and
they're explaining one of the the mothers was saying and I I've had this a lot
actually uh sir could I tell you about my son yes he said sir he was a good
football player he was a quarterback he had a very strong arm and you know he
was playing another team a b and this was and it was a long story and I just
listened to it because I saw the it was like therapy she was so proud of him oh
they loved you so much president Trump they had such wonderful things to say about you when we spoke so they really
appreciated that it was so good but just a so they said sir could you take some
pictures with us at the graves of our child and you know the child the child
because the child maybe 22 or 24 but that's their child right they're not saying uh at the grave of the man you
know there's nothing political or anything this was their child this was their baby could you take a picture with
and and these people are devast these people can never ever be the same and it was all because of Bing okay P I'll get
in trouble I don't care get me in trouble this should have never ever happened nobody should have been killed
they should have left from bam which is this massive base they shouldn't have left from this little local airport
where the whole city ends up piling in and everyone went crazy and and by the
way they shouldn't have taken the military out first they should have taken the military out last when everything was gone they took the
military out and I could just imagine Abdul who's smart as hell Somebody went
to Abdul and they said Abdul Abdul the American soldiers have left he said you're a stupid man to say that of
course that didn't happen no Abdul they've left they've left I could just see it the conversation then he found
out they left he said I can't believe it and once they left they had a field day what they did to us was incredible but
they kept everything but thanks so uh the people were coming up to me and said sir could I have a picture of you at the
grave of my son I said absolutely I would love to do that so
the whole family gathered around we had the the Beautiful You Know Stone the uh
marble with the name of the soldier on shouldn't have been on it because they shouldn't have been dead and we took
pictures at the different grave sites and that was it it was beautiful and they were all crying everybody was
crying you know it was it very sad Terri terrible it's even worse when there was no reason for it to happen you know it
makes it even worse it's one thing it's a war but here's a thing it shouldn't have happened just in incompetent it was
the most embarrassing day in the history of our country but it shouldn't have happened and these kids shouldn't have
been uh dead and the 45 people that were so badly hurt and the and frankly the
300 people mostly civilians from the other side they shouldn't have been dead
just a grossly incompetent group of people so thank you for respecting our dead Mr President oh thank you very much
thank you just to finish so thank you very much appreciate it so but just to just a
so I took I took pictures I I said to people I tell Theory I told the story
once today I said should I tell it cuz I think it's a terrible thing so I stood
with the mothers fathers sometimes both sometimes a sister there was a sister who beautiful sister who also had some
difficulty because of a war injury but I stood with different people over different Graves and took pictures I
didn't want to take pictures but I wanted to take them if they wanted to take them and I you know the former president of the United States is with
them they're very happy about that as happy as they can be cuz they'll never be happy and I took pictures and that
was it and I left and we said goodbye and it was beautiful actually and then I
get a call that night Sir uh we're getting a complaint from the White House
that you used the soldiers for publicity
pictures and for public relations and I said I can't believe it and I said I
can't believe it so here's a guy that he killed he killed those people okay these people were killed by Biden as far as
I'm concerned and then I get and I get a call and I'm taking pictures these are
people pictures with parents Etc sisters brothers people that are laying in the
ground right there shouldn't be shouldn't be dead and I get a call and I actually got a lot of bad publicity they
said uh Trump uh president Trump spent time at Arlington National ctory taking
pictures of things it's just so disgusting and I'll tell you if you haven't noticed I get a lot of publicity
I don't need that publicity that's I don't need that publicity it doesn't I get a lot I get too much I'd like to
have half the publicity i' like I want to hire a PR person to get me half the
publicity all right but normally what you hire PR people for you I just
thought it was such a terrible thing so I just want to tell you I think it meant an incredible amount to them I know it
did they've spoken about it and thank you for loving the American people thank you for working to make America great
again thank you very much thank you so thank we thank you for your time today
spending time with us