jonathan, i m going to be really blunt today about what my conclusions were after two years of talking to ex trump officials from the cabinet level, all the way down to staff assistance, footsteps from the oval office. if i was going to sum up what these people told me, it would be that the second term of trump would equal the third reich. of course, i m making a connection to the not see party that ruled germany a couple years ago, stephen like i just made would have been on a managed in ubly reckless in my mind. but now, it is in sober minded forecast based on what his own loyalists have told me they would do. what does that look like? what are you saying that we do? they will use the powers of the government to spy on rivals, they would use the powers of the government to prosecute political opponents, to administer loyalty tests to federal employees. to gerrymander the federal courts in their favor. to deploy department of homeland security forces in to democratic cities to exert
be secretary of state. you have ultra trumpians who will do their master s bidding, whatever that might be, lined up to populate a trump administration. there would be no jeff sessions wrestling with conflicts of interest as attorney general. there would be people who would be ready from day one to shut down the deep state, as trump keeps calling it, and to, you know, impose the loyalty tests on federal bureaucrats, on civil servants. right. willie, he named two people, kash patel and ri grenell, a dark and stupid force. you know, this goes back to what anne applebaum wrote about when she was talking about authoritarians. you know, they substitute competence for blind loyalty. we ve seen that with donald
anticipating a potential defense that the president may put forth, which is reliance on council. i have lots of people telling me that they there were problems with the election. and that is what motivated my actions. that s an unreasonable belief. and as the select committee found, there were four more voices and more credible voices explaining directly to the president that there was no evidence of by-election fraud, as chris krebs said in that statement, no evidence that he voting the scenes were compromised in any way. so, the stuff that the special counsel can really lay a foundation that there were true sellers surrounding the president, telling him, again and again, truthfully, that there was no such evidence, it makes his reliance on other witnesses less and less reasonable. and that s why it s directly relevant to potential criminal prosecution on the former president. and you see special counsel smith s interest in the loyalty
towards the end of the trump administration john mcentee was on a mission to find and fire employee seen as disloyal to president trump. employees applying for political them appointments within the trump administration had to fill out a questionnaire, with questions like, what part of candidate trump s campaign message most appeal to you, and why? this is not the usual process for vetting white house job applicants. and now the new york times reports that special counsel jack smith is looking into these loyalty tests as part of his investigation into trump s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. in particular, smith is interested in the firing of the trump administration s top cybersecurity official, a man named chris krebs. trump has gone so far as to subpoena the the firing was very public when it happened. five days after the 2020 election was called for biden, krebs s cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, known as cisa, he put out this
why? this is not the usual process for vetting white house job applicants. and now the new york times reports that special counsel jack smith is looking into these loyalty tests as part of his investigation into trump s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. in particular, smith is interested in the firing of the trump administration s top cybersecurity official, a man named chris krebs. trump has gone so far as to subpoena the the firing was very public when it happened. five days after the 2020 election was called for biden, krebs s cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, known as cisa, he put out this remarkable statement about the election. in it, krebs assured the public, in a line bolded for emphasis, but that there is no emphasis that changed votes or was in anyway compromised. that statement was a big deal. because, at the time, trump was insisting that the election had been stolen. and his lawsuits were popping up all over the country. and here was his administra