Trump incited an attempted coup against the federal government that was carried out by his supporters who attacked the capitol in early January, but there was another attempt to organize a coup according to a new report from Axios.
Axios reports that on December 18th, a group of quack advisers including former national security Michael Flynn, crackpot attorney Sidney Powell, and Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne tried to persuade Trump to take more direct action and invoke national security powers to stage a coup.
These people were reportedly allowed into the Oval Office where they made the case for a coup directly to Trump.
"How the hell did Sidney get in the building?" White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann grumbled from the outer Oval Office as Sidney Powell and her entourage strutted by to visit the president. [...]
As Powell and the others entered the Oval Office that evening, Herschmann — a wealthy business executive and former partner at Kasowitz Benson & Torres who'd been pulled out of quasi-retirement to advise Trump — quietly slipped in behind them.
The hours to come would pit the insurgent conspiracists against a handful of White House lawyers and advisers determined to keep the president from giving in to temptation to invoke emergency national security powers, seize voting machines and disable the primary levers of American democracy.
Axios' description of the meeting that lasted for hours is almost too absurd to believe, but perfectly moronic for Trump and those he usually surrounded himself with.
There's cursing, shouting, and blunt questions that essentially amount to actual lawyers asking the quacks some version of 'who the fuck are you?'
Flynn went berserk. The former three-star general, whom Trump had fired as his first national security adviser after he was caught lying to the FBI (and later pardoned), stood up and turned from the Resolute Desk to face Herschmann.
"You're quitting! You're a quitter! You're not fighting!” he exploded at the senior adviser. Flynn then turned to the president, and implored: "Sir, we need fighters."
Herschmann ignored Flynn at first and continued to probe Powell's pitch with questions about the underlying evidence. "All you do is promise, but never deliver," he said to her sharply.
Flynn was ranting, seemingly infuriated about anyone challenging Powell, who had represented him in his recent legal battles.
Finally Herschmann had enough. "Why the fuck do you keep standing up and screaming at me?" he shot back at Flynn. "If you want to come over here, come over here. If not, sit your ass down." Flynn sat back down.
The fact that this occurred inside the Oval Office is just disgraceful. I don't have another word for it.
It seems clear that while Michael Flynn was calling on Trump to launch a coup during his appearances on right wing media, he was also encouraging Trump to launch a coup face-to-face.
Flynn was ousted from his position in the early days of the Trump regime because he was lobbying on behalf of foreign governments while advising Trump. The Trump regime ended with Flynn encouraging Trump to launch a coup and end the United States as we know it. And he was pardoned.
To call Flynn treacherous feels like an understatement. And these people call themselves patriots.