“It was kind of like the eye of Sauron,” said one senior adviser about Trump. “As long as you stayed out of it, you were okay.”
In July, when Trump was asked if he’d accept the results of the election, he replied, “I’ll have to see,” then added, “I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election.” A few months later, from the podium in the East Room, Trump declared, “There won't be a transfer; frankly, there'll be a continuation.” Still, Liddell kept the train on the tracks.
Traditionally, the day after a presidential election, the GSA anoints the apparent winner. The act, known as ascertainment, not only formally acknowledges the victor; it also makes available to the incoming administration office space, funding, access to federal agencies, intelligence briefings, and other vital governing infrastructure. But in a startling break with precedent, the GSA administrator, Emily Murphy, a Trump appointee, refused to ascertain Biden’s victory.
A few days later, Liddell called his confidants Marchick and Bolten. "Remember that dinner we had where we talked about ‘the nightmare scenario’?” Liddell asked. “That's what we have." The nightmare scenario was Trump losing the election, but not by enough to convince him that he’d lost. Marchick explained: “Clearly, Liddell was in meetings in the White House where Trump said, ‘We're going to fight this and we're going to overturn it.
To avoid the appearance of a power grab, Biden’s camp didn’t speak directly with Milley. Instead, they communicated through an intermediary, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I asked Ted Kaufman if the speaker kept the president-elect informed of Milley’s contingency planning. “Oh, sure,” he said. “Absolutely.”
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