Trump was fed so many 'bonkers' coup memos it's getting hard to keep them straight: columnist

The accounting for the Jan. 6 insurrection has reached the point where multiple members of Donald Trump's inner circle advancing competing views for overturning his election loss.

Recent reporting has revealed that Trump legal adviser John Eastman wrote a memo laying out a theory for vice president Mike Pence to undo the election results, while former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark crafted a similar plan, and campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis and White House aide John McEntee also advanced strategies to subvert the election, reported MSNBC.

"We've reached an awkward point in American history: When the political debate turns to Team Trump's coup memo, we now have to ask, 'Which one?'" wrote columnist Steve Benen.

Pence ultimately concluded he didn't have the authority to overturn the election, but that doesn't excuse the multi-pronged effort to convince him otherwise -- and which provoked the deadly U.S. Capitol riot that came within a few strokes of luck from succeeding in keeping Trump in power.

READ: Trump just handed 'more disturbing evidence' to riot committee

"To be sure, by any fair measure, this strategy was utterly bonkers," Benen wrote. "Nevertheless, on New Year's Eve, the then-White House chief of staff thought it'd be a good idea to send a copy directly to Pence's top aide, as part of an effort to lobby the then-vice president to help overturn the results of an American election that Trump didn't like."