Watch: Jamie Raskin details 'surprise visit' at White House that turned into 'craziest meeting of the Trump presidency'
The former constitutional law professor on the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol detailed a White House meeting that he said was a key moment in Donald Trump's unsuccessful coup during Tuesday's televised hearings.
"Four days after the electors met across the country and made Joe Biden the president-elect, Donald Trump was still trying to find a way to hang onto the presidency," Rep. Jaime Raskin (D-MD) said.
"On Friday, Dec. 18, his team of outside advisors paid him a surprise visit in the White House that would quickly become the stuff of legend," Raskin said. "The meeting has been called unhinged, not normal, and the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency."
"The outside lawyers who have been involved in dozens of failed lawsuits have lots of theories supporting the big lie, but, no evidence to support it," Raskin continued. "As we will see, however, they brought to the White House a draft executive order that they had prepared for President Trump to further his ends, specifically they proposed the immediate mass seizure of state election machines by the U.S. military."
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"The meeting ended after midnight with apparent rejection of that idea. In the wee hours of Dec. 19, dissatisfied with his options, Donald Trump decided to call for a large and wild crowd on Wednesday, Jan. 6, the day when Congress would meet to certify the electoral votes."
"Never before in American history had a president called for a crowd to come contest the counting of electoral votes by Congress or engaged in any effort designed to influence delay or obstruct the joint session of Congress in doing its work required by our Constitution in the electoral count act," Raskin said. "We will see Donald Trump's tweet electrified and galvanized his supporters, especially the dangerous extremist and the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and other white nationalist groups spoiling for a fight against the government."
Watch Rep. Raskin's opening below or at this link.
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