Recently, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff under former US President Trump, submitted a 38-page PPT to the US House of Representatives Special Committee responsible for investigating the congressional riots. The PPT suggested that Trump declare a state of emergency in the United States and overturn the election results, using a funny reason - "China and Venezuela gain control of multi-state election facilities"...
Meadows claimed that he did not make any processing after receiving the email containing the PPT, and it was not clear who made the PPT.
However, according to the US "Washington Post" reported on the 12th, Phil Waldron, a retired US Army colonel and Trump supporter who had released this PPT, said that he had introduced the content of the PPT to Meadows and several other members of Congress before January 6.
Screenshot of us media report
According to the New York Times and the British Guardian, Meadows submitted the PPT entitled "Election Fraud, Foreign Interference and the Option of January 6", suggesting that Trump continue to serve as president based on lies and debunking the so-called "election fraud conspiracy".
The 38-page PPT declares that members of Congress should first understand the existence of "foreign interference" in the election, that is, China and Venezuela have "gained control of the election facilities" in the 8 major battlefield states in the United States. Trump could then declare a national emergency and invalidate all electronic votes, overturning the election results.
The PPT also offered several options for then-U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, including unilaterally sending Trump back to the White House after delaying Biden's presidential certification.
Meadows' lawyer said on Friday (10th) that Meadows only received the PPT file through an email in his inbox and did not process it in any way.
But Waldron, a retired U.S. Army colonel and cybersecurity expert, has a different view. Waldren is a Trump supporter and has been working to overturn the election results, including releasing and promoting the "coup PPT" to the public.
White House Chief of Staff Meadows during Trump's tenure (data map), pictured from the surging image
Waldren told The Washington Post that he had visited the White House several times before Jan. 6 to talk to Meadows about overturning the election results. But he believes that the content of the PPT is "constitutional, feasible and appropriate" because it contains evidence of "foreign interference in the election".
According to Waldron, there are different versions of this PPT, and it is unclear who made it.
On January 6 of this year, demonstrators who supported then-US President Donald Trump's reversal of the results of the 2020 presidential election forcibly broke into the US Capitol for several hours, and the joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives, which was certifying the results of the election, was interrupted. The riots killed five people, including a capitol police officer, and injured about 140 law enforcement officers.
On June 30, the U.S. House of Representatives decided to create a Democratic-led special committee to investigate the "facts, circumstances, and causes" of the Capitol Hill riots. As The White House chief of staff under Trump, Meadows was seen as a key witness to the incident.
It is worth mentioning that the House special commissioner has repeatedly summoned Meadows to testify, but all of them have been refused. On December 8, the committee recommended that Meadows be charged with "contempt of Congress." Subsequently, Meadows preemptively took House Speaker Pelosi to court on the grounds that "freedom of speech and privacy rights" had been violated.
In addition, the House Special Committee demanded that the National Archives, which houses white house archives, provide "all documents and communications within the White House" on the day of the Jan. 6 riots, including call records, schedules, and minutes of meetings involving senior Trump administration officials and outside advisers. But Trump said on Oct. 7 that he would exercise executive privileges and refuse to submit some of the above documents to Congress.
Trump supporters stormed Congress on January 6, pictured from the surging image
On December 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed Trump's claim, ruling that the committee was entitled to obtain the White House documents and records needed to investigate the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill.
Trump and his team have condemned the investigation since the special committee was founded, and many Republicans in Congress have accused the special committee of being too partisan. Analysts believe that the Democratic and Republican parties are preparing for next year's midterm elections in the United States, and the special committee's investigation is likely to continue into next year, which is expected to spark new disputes between the two parties.
Politico has analyzed that even if he has not been re-elected president, Trump is still the "political center" of Republicans and exerts great influence in the party. Some of the Republican lawmakers who have publicly broken with Trump have already been strongly ostracized by the party.
In an interview on Nov. 8, when asked if he would run in the next U.S. election, Trump said: "I'm definitely thinking about it, and we'll see." He added that it is "likely" that a formal response will not be made until after the 2022 midterm elections.
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