The Next Big Lie: The Contours of a Federal Coup Attempt Taking Shape

An array of experts has been warning us for some time now. In their view, there's a radical, antidemocratic plot afoot, cooked up at the highest levels of the Trump executive branch—drawing in the Department of Justice, the leadership of the intelligence community, and possibly even the Pentagon—to tilt November's midterm elections to Republican candidates. Former Democratic senators Richard Gephardt and Tim Wirth have gone so far as to call these activities nothing less than a 'rolling coup,' one that has been slow, strategic, and incremental. Michael Tomasky, in a new essay in The New Republic, asserted, 'It Can Now Be Plainly Said: Trump Is Planning a November Coup d'Etat.' This month, Trump dismissed the remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission, a bipartisan federal agency created to help states administer elections, currently leaving precisely no one in a position of authority for polling-place workers to contact should anomalies arise in November. In June, Trump replaced his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, appointing an acting DNI, Bill Pulte, a loyalist who has long sown doubt about election integrity.