Trump's Last Stand Part IV: The Point Of No Return

How It Happened

Axios

News, History, Politics

4.8 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2021

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

National political correspondent Jonathan Swan chronicles how President Donald Trump destroyed his most valuable political relationship — his partnership with Vice President Mike Pence — and set the events of January 6 into motion. Swan uncovers the surprising catalyst that drove a wedge between Trump and his most loyal ally, a vice president often described as "subservient." Swan tracks Trump's increasing desperation as December became January and how he turned up the pressure on Pence to refuse to certify the election. 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	You know, sometimes it's the smallest, most unexpected things that set off a chain of events,
0:06.9	the cliche of the flap of the butterfly wings and the butterfly effect.
0:12.1	There actually is a version of that in this story, the story that leads to these violent events on January 6th,
0:20.0	with President Trump turning on his vice president with a mob of Trump supporters marching up to the capital,
0:26.6	chanting, hang Mike Pence. That thing here was a TV commercial.
0:33.2	The end is coming, Donald. Ethan Mike Pence knows.
0:38.4	It was a TV ad that probably none of you listening to this podcast even saw.
0:43.5	And the reason probably none of you saw this ad was because it was only shown in the DC
0:48.4	Marked on Fox News. It was booked for an audience of one with a clear goal to get inside Donald Trump's
0:57.1	head and to poison his relationship with Mike Pence. And it worked. On January 6th, Mike Pence will
1:05.4	put the nail in your political coffin when he presides over the Senate vote to prove Joe Biden won.
1:11.2	It's over. I wanted to understand how one TV ad could set off a chain of events that would
1:22.2	ultimately demolish President Trump's most valuable relationship. For this story, like all the stories
1:31.1	in this series, I spoke to a range of senior White House and Trump administration officials,
1:36.6	senior campaign officials, and sources close to the president. They spoke to me on the basis of
1:42.2	what we call deep background, which means I can use the information but not say where it came from.
1:48.9	I'm Jonathan Swan. This is how it happened. Trump's last stand.
1:55.2	Part four. The point of no return.
1:58.2	It's early December. Attorney General Bill Barr's resignation is all but a foregone conclusion.
2:11.6	Trump's fabulous, conspiracist lawyers are running out of stories to tell him about how he can
2:17.2	overturn the election. Trump announces on Twitter that his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has
2:23.6	tested positive for COVID. It's in this state of mind that Donald Trump while watching his favorite
	...

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