PRESS RELEASE Contact: [email protected]
For Immediate Release
Date: October 13, 2022
Trump Planned to Declare Victory Far in Advance of the Election – No Matter the Actual Results
Washington, DC – Over the past year, the House Select Committee on January 6th has laid out, with compelling evidence, that Donald Trump and Trump Republicans engaged in a criminal conspiracy, knowingly made premeditated false claims, and promoted and paid for a violent attack on our country in order to overthrow the results of the 2020 election. The Committee closed their meeting by issuing a subpoena to the former president himself to testify before the committee.
“New evidence demonstrated by the Committee today that Trump planned to declare victory no matter what happened on election night,” said Defend Democracy Project Communications Director Nicole Haley. “Even after he knew he lost, he spread lies that he won the election and incited his supporters to attack the Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes and overturn the election. Today’s committee vote to subpoena the former president is the right next step to ensure he is held accountable.”
1. Trump’s election night victory speech was planned far in advance – proving he was planning on declaring victory no matter the actual result.
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- Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien revealed that Trump planned to declare victory regardless of the vote count. Other White House officials raised similar concerns to Vice President Mike Pence on Election Day. Rep. Lofgren noted, “The evidence shows that his false victory speech was planned well in advance before any votes had been counted. It was a premeditated plan by the president to declare victory no matter the actual result.”
- Far-right media figures like Tom Fitton and Steve Bannon even confirmed they communicated with Trump on October 31 about plans to declare victory and urge the ballot count to stop by midnight on Election Day.
- Trump was in contact with extremist militia figures before the election through former adviser Roger Stone. Indicted Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio visited the White House on Dec. 12.
2. Trump privately admitted he lost the election and took actions consistent with those of a president whose term is ending.
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- Rep. Adam Kinzinger revealed that Trump privately acknowledged the reality of his election loss: “Although he publicly claimed that he had won the election, privately he admitted that Joe Biden would take over as president.”
- Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Trump told Mark Meadows, “I don’t want people to know that we lost,” after his many election lawsuits were rejected.
- According to Rep. Elaine Luria, Trump’s efforts weren’t “random or disconnected, rather they were part of a coordinated, multi-part plan to ensure he stayed in power.”
3. The Secret Service knew about violent plans and Trump supporters with guns gathering days before the attack on our country on January 6th.
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- Even though House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy has long claimed that Trump was ignorant of the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, the Committee revealed new evidence that the Secret Service had advanced information more than ten days before the Capitol was breached, warning the White House of armed Trump supporters planning to gather in Washington, D.C.
- Rep. Adam Schiff: “[Trump] knew they were armed and dangerous – all the better to stop the peaceful transfer of power.”
- The Secret Service communicated dozens of reports about armed supporters gathering in the days before the attack on our Capitol, and attempted to alert officials about a spike in violent rhetoric targeting former Vice President Mike Pence.
4. Liz Cheney argued our institutions only held because some officials in his administration stood up to Trump – and warned that they may not be there next time.
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- Liz Cheney argued that former Republican officials like Vice President Pence and Attorney General Bill Barr stopped Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, warning, “we have no guarantee that these men and women will be in place next time.”
- Rep. Stephanie Murphy concluded that these Republican officials “stood strong in the face of President Trump’s immense pressure. But as we now know, President Trump had already summoned tens of thousands of his supporters on Jan. 6 to ‘take back’ their country.”
5. The Committee voted unanimously to subpoena the former President to testify under oath.
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- All nine members of the Jan. 6 Committee voted to subpoena Donald J. Trump by the end of the proceedings. While introducing the proposal, Chairman Thompson argued: “This is a question about accountability to the American people. […] So it is our obligation to seek Donald Trump’s testimony.”
- Rep. Cheney declared, “we have sufficient information to recommend criminal charges for multiple individuals,” noting that more than 30 witnesses have invoked the fifth amendment to avoid testifying about their dealings with Trump. “We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this in motion.”
