Trump's Last Stand Part II: The Legal Team

How It Happened

Axios

News, History, Politics

4.8 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2021

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

National political correspondent Jonathan Swan traces how Donald Trump's strategy to dispute the result of the 2020 election evolved from targeted lawsuits to embracing — and amplifying — conspiracy theories. Starting with the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference and digging into subsequent meetings, Swan offers new reporting on how Rudy Guliani and Sidney Powell became the faces of Trump's legal strategy. Swan's reporting takes listeners behind closed doors, where President Trump's inner circle and a group of conspiracy theorists clashed over how best to advise the President. Note: This episode contains some explicit language. Credits: This show is produced by Amy Pedulla, Naomi Shavin and Alice Wilder. Dan Bobkoff is the executive producer. Additional reporting and fact checking by Zach Basu. Margaret Talev is managing editor of politics. Sara Kehaulani Goo is Axios’s executive editor. Sound design by Alex Sugiura and theme music by Michael Hanf. For more on this series and our sourcing, click here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the Saturday after Election Day.
0:02.4	President Trump's legal team supposedly has a big announcement.
0:06.1	When the President tweeted,
0:07.2	lawyers press conference at four seasons, Phil Delphi 11am.
0:13.3	And I thought, oh, they're having it in a nice hotel. That's interesting.
0:17.6	People assumed he meant here the four seasons hotel,
0:20.7	but another tweet followed with a clarification.
0:23.2	Come to find out it was the four seasons total landscaping parking lot.
0:28.0	Honestly, I was just befuddled.
0:30.7	You would never think of holding a press conference at this
0:34.8	landscaping business in Philadelphia.
0:37.1	Like, how is this real?
0:38.0	Between a crematorium and a sex toy store.
0:41.4	A porn shop, not PAWN, P-O-R-N.
0:45.8	I'm here on behalf of the Trump campaign.
0:49.8	What was shocking even to Trump campaign officials who are used to
0:54.5	mishaps and disasters on a daily basis was just how appallingly planned
1:01.3	this press conference was.
1:03.6	And you know, it was just as much of a shit show as the planning suggested.
1:08.2	The friend of mine says I don't believe in conspiracies,
1:11.2	but I also don't believe in courts.
1:17.1	So what kind of legal team holds a press conference at a landscaping company?
	...

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