In the 50 weeks since Donald Trump left the White House, nothing he has done has burnished his reputation and much that has been revealed has tarnished it.
That conclusion stems from both the disclosure of details about how Trump sought to overturn the 2020 results – climaxed by his role in the 6 protest to prevent congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election -- and his efforts to pressure fellow Republicans to make that easier the next time.
Several deeply reported post-election books detailed how Trump pressured election officials in key states to reverse the legitimate results as fraudulent and spurred the demonstrations that turned violent and nearly kept Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called Trump “practically and morally responsible” for what happened that day.
The former president faces possible legal jeopardy for urging Georgia officials to reject the 2020 results and his real estate empire remains under scrutiny by New York prosecutors. A key member of the panel probing the Jan. 6 insurrection suggested it may recommend prosecuting him for trying to obstruct congressional certification of the result.
As in office, Trump has behaved like no prior president. Most losers retreat into silence. None since Herbert Hoover even contemplated trying to regain the presidency four years hence, though a future race was likely one reason Richard Nixon sought the California governorship in 1962.
Trump has persuaded a majority of Republicans to believe the false narrative he launched weeks before the 2020 election – that the only way he could lose to Biden was in a rigged election. His chief targets were state officials who encouraged expanded use of mail ballots amid health concerns about in-person voting in the COVID-19 pandemic.
After the election, Trump rejected entreaties by some advisers and family members to concede Biden’s victory. Instead, he and an array of old and new advisers started strategizing on how to overturn it.
He phoned election officials and legislative leaders in key states, urging them to change the results. An Atlanta grand jury is investigating one call in which he asked Georgia’s secretary of state to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn Biden’s majority.
Trump slowed the presidential transition to hamper Biden in forming his administration and replaced key justice and defense department officials with people less likely to challenge him.
Bolstered by questionable legal arguments from his allies, he pressured Vice President Mike Pence to recognize congressional challenges to Biden’s electoral victory and help overturn the result, almost to the hour Pence presided over the joint session certifying the election. To Pence’s credit, he rejected Trump’s entreaties.
Many Trump supporters who gathered Jan. 6 to support his false election claims said they were heeding his desires. When they stormed the Capitol, the president stayed silent for several hours, reportedly watching the protests on television, despite repeated pleas by congressional allies, top aides, family members and several Fox News commentators to call them off.
Refusing to attend Biden’s inauguration, Trump continued efforts to reverse the results, encouraging post-election audits seeking the fraud dozens of state and federal judges rejected. In Arizona, a pro-Trump organization’s lengthy audit concluded Biden won the state.
Nevertheless, Trump claimed the audit proved his case. Urged by Trump, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin Republicans launched post-election probes. And he pressured Texas officials who launched audits in four key counties, three carried by Biden, though Trump won the state. An initial, partial result showed few discrepancies with the official count.
He also encouraged Republican officials to change state laws to make voting harder, limit absentee voting and give Republican-controlled legislatures new authority to replace local officials and overturn future election results.
He endorsed dozens of 2022 candidates for governorships, Senate and House seats and, most significantly, key lower-level offices like secretaries of state who manage state elections.
Trump has sought revenge against his critics. He spurred a primary challenge to Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who voted to impeach him and joined the House panel Democrats created to investigate the Jan. 6 uprising. And he urged the ouster of McConnell, who declared Biden victorious in December 2020 and criticized Trump’s role in the insurrection.
He encouraged former Georgia Sen. David Perdue, who lost his seat last January, to challenge Gov. Brian Kemp, because the Republican governor rejected Trump’s unproven fraud claims and certified Biden’s election.
Trump has resisted providing documents to the House committee, claiming “executive privilege” though Biden as sitting president rejected his claim. Federal district and appeals courts ruled against him, and the Supreme Court is considering it. At issue are materials the committee hopes will show the extent Trump was involved in the insurrection.
Cheney suggested the panel might consider a criminal referral against Trump, reading the federal statute on obstructing congressional proceedings during a session that voted contempt action against Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
So far, the Justice Department has not indicated if it is investigating Trump, an action that would be fraught with political consequences. A criminal referral would complicate Attorney General Merrick Garland’s vow to run a non-political department.
On this anniversary of one of the darkest days in American history, it is clearer than ever that Trump surmounted his office’s legal authority and flouted traditional political proprieties in seeking to overturn the will of the American people.
In the next year, the appropriate authorities will determine if that was a crime.
