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Exclusive: Book reveals Trump vowed to stay in White House after defeat

the former president Donald Trump repeatedly told aides in the days after his defeat in the 2020 election that he would remain in the White House rather than let new President Joe Biden take over, according to a report provided to the press. CNN from a book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.

“I’m just not leaving,” Trump told an aide, according to Haberman.

“We never leave,” Trump told another. “How can you leave when you’ve won an election?”

Trump’s insistence that he would not leave the White House, which was not previously reported, adds new details to the chaotic post-election period in which Trump’s refusal to accept his defeat and numerous efforts to reverse the election result led to the attack. to the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 by pro-Trump protesters.

Haberman’s book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, will be released on October 4.

The book’s revelations come as investigators from the US House and Department of Justice investigate Trump’s refusal to cede power after the 2020 election. The House select committee investigating January 6 is planning more hearings and a report. finale this fall (coming soon in the Northern Hemisphere), while federal investigators recently served several former Trump aides with subpoenas.

Haberman, political analyst at CNN has covered Trump for the New York Times since his 2016 presidential campaign. Her reporting has made her a frequent target of Trump’s Twitter hate.

Haberman writes that shortly after the November 3 election, Trump seemed to recognize that he had lost to Biden. He asked the counselors to tell him what had gone wrong. He comforted a counselor, saying, “We did our best.” Trump told junior press aides, “I thought we had it,” apparently almost embarrassed by the result, according to Haberman.

But at some point, Trump’s mood shifted, Haberman writes, and he abruptly informed aides that he had no intention of leaving the White House in late January 2021 for Biden to move in.

He was even heard asking Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, “Why should I leave if they stole it from me?”

Trump’s promise that he would refuse to vacate the White House was unprecedented, Haberman writes, and his statement left aides uncertain about what he might do next. The closest parallel may have been Mary Todd Lincoln, who stayed in the White House for nearly a month after her husband, President Abraham Lincoln, was assassinated, the author noted.

Publicly, Trump rejected questions about whether he would step down. On November 26, 2020, he was asked by a reporter if he would leave the White House if the Electoral College voted for Biden. “Certainly I will, and you know it,” Trump said in response, as he continued to spread lies about the election being stolen.

A longtime New York reporter who worked for the city’s two tabloid newspapers, Haberman writes that Trump’s post-election period was reminiscent of his attempts to recover from dire financial difficulties three decades earlier, in which he tried to keep all the options open while I could.

But Trump couldn’t decide which path to take after his 2020 defeat. Haberman writes that he questioned almost everyone about which options would lead to success — including the valet who brought in Diet Cokes when Trump pressed a red button at his Oval Office table.

The report provided to CNN from the next book also reveals new details about what those around Trump were doing after an electoral defeat he refused to accept. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was reluctant to confront Trump for the defeat, according to Haberman.

When he encouraged a group of aides to go to the White House and brief the then-president, Kushner was asked why he was not joining them. Trump’s son-in-law likened the scene to a deathbed scene, writes Haberman.

“The priest comes later,” Kushner said.

Source: CNN Brasil

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