Nearly Everyone's On The Same Page As GOP Gets To Work Early To Delegitimize Election

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Four days after the 2020 election, when Rudy Giuliani took the podium in front of a small gathering of reporters in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping — and not the in the lobby of the nearby Four Seasons Hotel as many in the media and possibly in the Trump campaign had expected — you had to wonder if this was going according to plan. Of course, there was no plan. Not really. Trump and his team, which included Giuliani, were in the early stages of rolling out what would come to be called the Big Lie — an attempt to undermine the election won by Joe Biden. We now know, thanks in part to Mark Meadow's text messages, that Trump and his allies had the makings of a plan. But it was largely composed of unorthodox, tenuous, or incorrect legal theories and held together with bombastic improvisation. Still, they came a lot closer to subverting the election results than anyone could have predicted.

Worse, they have learned from their mistakes.

This week, TPM's Khaya Himmelman explains how this time around nearly all of the GOP and the broader conservative-movement infrastructure is on board with the plan to delegitimize the election, and is falling in line behind a single strategy. And election subversion isn't the only area the Trump team plans to improve upon if they get another chance. Josh Kovensky talked to experts about what Trump might have learned from the failed immigration policies of his first term and how the military might factor into mass deportations of immigrants.

Also, an exclusive on a trio of Democratic senators in favor of a Senate investigation into the claims surfaced last month by the Washington Post that Egypt allegedly funneled $10 million to Donald Trump to boost his 2016 campaign — an allegation that was being probed by federal investigators until they were, reportedly, stymied by the Trump DOJ.

And in this week's edition of the Josh Marshall Podcast featuring Kate Riga, Kate and Josh break down the state of the race in the wake of Kamala Harris' debate dominance. 

Why The Military Is Central To Trump Advisors' Plans For Mass Deportations

By Josh Kovensky

Unlike previous Trump plans for immigration crackdowns, Trump allies squarely address the resource constraints that limit the federal government's deportation capacity, and bring in a simple answer: use the military to do it.

"What is that all about? Why is he possibly taking ten million dollars from another country? And what did he provide to them?"

The Post-Debate Universe

Kate and Josh break down the state of the race in the wake of Kamala Harris' debate dominance. 

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