Thirteen days after the 2020 election, I had lunch with President Trump. I told him that if his legal challenges didn’t work out, he would simply accept the results, move forward with the transition, and start a political revival, leading to the Georgia Senate run-off vote, the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election, and his said he could win the House and Senate in 2020. 2022. Then he could run for president in 2024 and win. He seemed unmoved and tired.
During the Dec. 5 conference call, the president mentioned for the first time that he would challenge the election results in Congress. By mid-December, the internet was filled with speculation about my role. An irresponsible TV ad by a group calling itself The Lincoln Project told me that when I presided over a joint session of Congress to count the January 6 electoral votes, it knew I was “done.” and suggested that he would prove it by fulfilling his constitutional obligations. , I would be “putting the final nail in the coffin” of the president’s re-election. To my knowledge, it was the first time I hinted that I might be able to change the outcome. It was designed to annoy the president. done. At a Cabinet meeting in December, President Trump told me the ad “looks bad on you.” I replied that it was not true. I fully support legal challenges to the election and will continue to do so.
