Patrick Byrne: How DJT Lost the White House, Chapter 4: The Christmas Doldrums (December 23- noon January 6)

On the morning of January 6, Flynn and I and a dozen others walked over to the south side of the White House. We were surprised that no special arrangements had been made for us, and we had to fight our way through the throngs. We were both seated in a special section up front…. and learned that our speaking slots had been cancelled. We were perplexed, to put it mildly, wondering whom they could get that would possibly explain the situation as well as we could…

The show started, and soon Flynn and I were sinking into our seats in despair. One of Trump’s children got up and sang “Happy Birthday” to a girlfriend, or boyfriend. Rudy got up and spoke, I think about Joe Frazier voting. Another lawyer got up and spoke. Don Jr. got up and with his chest puffed out, strode the stage talking about how the Republican brand was now the Trump brand, or the Trump brand was now the Republican brand. Someone with some sense among the organizers had a change of heart, and came running over asking Flynn is he would take the stage: he refused. Around that time, Flynn and I caught eyes and shared looks of horror: it turned out later we were both asking if the other wanted to leave, but misunderstood each other. Trump got up and spoke, and did a talk like he would at any campaign event or pep rally. In fact, the whole thing was more or less a pep rally: no effort was made to explain to the crowd, to the Americans who were watching at home, to the Senators who would begin voting in an hour, to the world that counts on America to be the leader of free, fair, and transparent elections, what had gone wrong with the November 2020 election, why we believed there were deep irregularities demanding investigation. No effort at all.

Instead, it was a pep rally. That’s it. A Trump pep rally.

The moment we could make a break from the front as it ended, Flynn and I and everyone with us made a dash for the exit. Flynn could barely contain his fury as we shared impressions: this had been the one last chance to explain the situation to the whole world, and instead Trump had used it as a pep rally. “He just does not get it,” we repeated to each other as we stormed through the crowd back towards the hotel. “He does not get that it is not about him. He put on a fucking pep rally. He does not understand that it is not about him,” we repeated over and over in anger and despair. In 15 minutes we were back at the hotel, both packing our bags, both sick to our stomachs, and did not leave to join the throngs moving towards the Capitol.

https://www.deepcapture.com/2021/02/how-djt-lost-the-white-house-chapter-4-the-christmas-doldrums-december-23-noon-january-6/