In November, Donald Trump became the first president in US history to attempt to hold on to the power that voters had given to someone else in a national election.
The plot was not set in one dramatic scene. Instead, Trump provoked Republicans to commit a series of coercive acts on his behalf under a false flag of non-existent electoral fraud – the attempted stealing disguised as a security measure.
It could have worked. Many Republicans went along actively or quietly. These include well-known national figures such as Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Lindsey Graham, and most other Republican senators.
But to succeed, Trump’s plot depended not only on the best Republicans he dominates, but on the cooperation of hundreds of state and local officials. For three pivotal weeks in November, some of those officials made individual decisions that could have seen the plot through, while others thwarted it.
Here is an incomplete list of some of the lesser known Republican friends and enemies of American democracy who emerged in November 2020’s historic battle over its fate.
Enemies
To stay in power, Trump had to prevent states from certifying the results of their ballots on Nov. 3, or persuade Republican lawmakers to try to throw out state results. Trump’s main targets included officials in Michigan and Pennsylvania. He found some accomplices.
Norman Shinkle
A former state senator in Michigan who declined the result of the state despite independent certifications by all 83 Michigan counties and no evidence of fraud to cast doubt on Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in the state. Shinkle said he thought the result in black-majority Detroit “should be viewed”. A district clerk called Shinkle’s abstinence “shocking and disgusting”.
Monica Palmer and William Hartmann
Republican seekers in Wayne County, Michigan, who tried to un-certify the election results after Trump made a phone call to Palmer. She demanded, in violation of the law, an audit of the Detroit vote prior to the certification of the outcome. She later said she did not know the law.
Mike Shirkey and Lee Chatfield
Republican Senate and Michigan House leaders who accepted an invitation to visit Trump in the White House while the president tried to prevent the state from certifying Biden’s victory by 82,000 votes. In the Oval Office, Shirkey and Chatfield received a telephone briefing from Rudy Giuliani about false election fraud. They later lied, saying the meeting with Trump was about Covid-19’s economic aid. After their meeting, they were photographed drinking Dom Pérignon at Trump’s Washington DC hotel.
Grant Hermes
(@GrantHermes)Shirkey, chooses to sing a hymn to the press instead of answering questions here. When asked if he had anything to say to MI voters, he replied, “I love Michigan” @ Local4News pic.twitter.com/YFycvj9tRp
Joe Gale
A member of the Republican Electoral Council in the Philadelphia suburbs who declined to certify a Biden 27-point victory in his county. “I think the US Supreme Court should review the travesty that happened in Pennsylvania,” says Gale said. Trump’s campaign has never yielded any evidence of voter fraud to the courts of Pennsylvania, which have thrown out nearly every Trump case.
Keith Gould and Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt
Republican Election Commissioners in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, were so committed to Trump’s electoral fraud fairy tale that they refused to certify the vote in a county that Trump won by 14 points. Three Democrats on the board have outvoted them to certify Trump’s victory in the province.
Kayleigh McEnany
After an absence of nearly two months from the White House briefing room, the press secretary appeared 17 days after the election to spread Trump’s lie about electoral fraud. “There are very real claims that the campaign will continue,” she said. Separately, she lied about Trump’s meeting with Michigan lawmakers, who said it was “not an advocacy meeting, there will be no one from the campaign there – he regularly meets with lawmakers from all over the country.”
Josh Marshall
(@joshtpm).@PersSec says today’s meeting with Michigan legislature leaders in the White House is not “advocacy,” not about the election. pic.twitter.com/c5q6Ckgx2s
Ronna McDaniel
The chairman of the Republican National Commission and Michigan resident appeared at a press conference two days after the election, spreading lies about “discrepancies” and “irregularities,” demanding an audit of Michigan’s vote before certification in violation of the electoral law the state. Under her leadership, the Republican National Party spread wild and conspiratorial claims that Trump had actually won in a “landslide.” A majority of Republican voters are now telling pollsters they think the elections were fraudulent.
GOP
(@GOP)“We’re not going to be intimidated … We’re going to clean up this mess now. President Trump won by a landslide. We’re going to prove it. And we’re going to reclaim the United States of America for the people who vote for freedom.” – Sidney Powell pic.twitter.com/8KCEOGuL7w
Friends
Opposite the state and local officials who refused to certify the election results were Republican officials confirming Biden’s victory.
Never in American history has such an action been interpreted as heroism – with election results always routinely certified no matter who won, as the constitution would like.
But in 2020, these officials had to face a pressure campaign from Trump, which many of them mentioned in tweets, leading to death threats against them and their families.
Al Schmidt
A Republican election commissioner in Philadelphia who stood up to Trump. The weekend after the election, Schmidt went on with 60 minutes and said Trump’s claims about fraud in Philadelphia were bogus.
“At the end of the day, we count the eligible votes cast by voters. The controversy surrounding it is something I don’t understand, ”said Schmidt. “The counting of votes cast on or before election day by eligible voters is not corruption. It is not cheating. It’s democracy.
“From the inside when you look out, it all feels very disturbed.”
60 minutes
(@ 60 minutes)Philadelphia City Republican Commissioner Al Schmidt says his office, which counts the votes, has received death threats. https://t.co/LNXfXwJrbk pic.twitter.com/ouxX0xGhKX
Aaron Van Langevelde
Republican vice chair of a state conservation committee that voted to certify Biden’s Michigan victory. Langevelde broke through what would have been an impasse caused by Shinkle’s betrayal. “We have a duty to certify this election based on these results, that’s very clear,” he said.
“We should not try to exercise power that we simply do not have,” Langevelde continued. As John Adams once said, ‘we are a government of laws, not men.’ This board here today must adhere to that principle. This board must do its part to uphold the rule of law and comply with our legal duty to certify this election. “
The recount
(@therecount)After earlier postponements, now is when Republican Aaron Van Langevelde of Michigan’s State Board of Canvassers said he will vote to certify Michigan’s election results.
This is it: Michigan’s 16 electoral votes officially go to Joe Biden.pic.twitter.com/EZemjFxaSD
Christopher Krebs
The former director of the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, fired by Trump for defying the president’s voting fraud. Nine days after the election, Krebs’s office issued a statement that began: “The November 3 election was the safest in US history.” Krebs was fired a week later, but he continued to speak out on the integrity of elections. After a Trump campaign attorney said that Krebs should be “ taken out at dawn and shot, ” Krebs said he would sue.
TODAY
(@TODAYshow).@SavannahGuthrie speaks to Christopher Krebs in his first live interview since he was fired as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Krebs points to the record of paper ballots as proof that the 2020 election was safe. pic.twitter.com/R9tdsTNBgZ
Gabriel Sterling
Sterling, a Republican official who oversaw the implementation of Georgia’s new voting system, gave a passionate speech warning about death threats against election officials, saying Trump is “inspiring people to commit possible acts of violence.”
Sterling told Trump:
We’re investigating, there’s always a possibility, I get it. You have the right to go to court. What you can’t do – and you have to go a step further and say this – is to stop inspiring people to potentially commit violence. Someone will be hurt, someone will be shot, someone will be killed, and that’s not right. It is not correct.
Brad Raffensperger
The Republican Secretary of State in Georgia who stood up to Trump and insisted that Biden’s upset victory in the state was legitimate. ‘I am a conservative Republican. Yes, I wanted President Trump to win. But as Secretary of State we have to do our job, ”said Raffensperger in an interview with the Guardian. ‘I’m going to walk that beautiful, straight line with integrity. I think integrity still matters. “
In response, Trump said of Raffensperger, “He is an enemy of the people.”