Leaked Audio: Steve Bannon revealed before Election Day Trump's plans to lie about results

[Mister Mets]

Mother Jones has what seems to be a really big story with leaked audio from October 30 2020 of Steve Bannon telling associates that Trump is going to take advantage of the red mirage (the likelihood that early election results would be skewed towards Republican-friendly in-person voting) to claim victory

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/07/leaked-audio-steve-bannon-trump-2020-election-declare-victory/

Speaking to this group of mostly Chinese immigrants, Bannon explained US electoral processes—and Trump’s plans to exploit them—in some detail. He emphasized that in 2020, Republicans were more likely to vote in person, casting ballots that, in many states, would be counted first. Democrats disproportionately voted by mail. Their ballots would take days to tally in a number of states. That meant that when it came to public perceptions about who was winning, Democrats would “have a natural disadvantage,” Bannon said. “And Trump’s going to take advantage of it. That’s our strategy. He’s gonna declare himself a winner.”

“So when you wake up Wednesday morning, it’s going to be a firestorm,” Bannon continued. “You’re going to have antifa, crazy. The media, crazy. The courts are crazy. And Trump’s gonna be sitting there mocking, tweeting sh**t out: ‘You lose. I’m the winner. I’m the king.'”

It’s not clear how much influence Bannon, who had previously been Trump’s top White House strategist before being ousted, really wielded over Trump at this time. But Bannon has suggested that he was a key architect of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results and has reportedly asserted that he convinced Trump to make January 6 a moment of reckoning in that bid. Bannon was also among the Trump associates who gathered in a set of rooms and suites in the Willard Hotel on January 6 to advise on the president’s attempt to remain in power.

Bannon’s remarks to Guo’s supporters indicate that he was working with a group, led by Giuliani, that wanted Trump to take particularly aggressive steps to contest unfavorable election results. Other advisers have said they opposed these steps. Bannon said during the October 31 meeting that he was collaborating closely with Giuliani, who was preparing to oversee Trump’s planned legal efforts.

It shows that people in Trump's orbit (who his lawyers say are so close to him that conversations fall under executive privilege) planned to use the red mirage as pretext to claim the election was stolen when they knew it was nonsense. This is the biggest smoking gun I'm aware of when it comes to Trump's post-election BS.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

It's good to have the confirmation (and ty for posting the link) - thisconfirmation from Bannon is absolutely new. That the in-person votes would lean Trump was well known as early as September 2020.

People here were predicting it in August 2020:

Someone who's better at math than I am, what does the Election Night gap look like if Biden is really up by 8 points and no mail-in ballots have been counted yet?

I actually expect Trump to declare victory on election night based on the in-person vote results trickling in, and demand that Biden concede that night.  Then throw tantrums of various sorts several times per day for the next 2-3 weeks.  (This assumes the mail-in votes actually get counted.)

And this Trump "game plan" had leaked before the election:

President Trump has told confidants he'll declare victory on Tuesday night if it looks like he's "ahead," according to three sources familiar with his private comments.

That's even if the Electoral College outcome still hinges on large numbers of uncounted votes in key states like Pennsylvania.

Behind the scenes: Trump has privately talked through this scenario in some detail in the last few weeks, describing plans to walk up to a podium on election night and declare he has won.

For this to happen, his allies expect he would need to either win or have commanding leads in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Iowa, Arizona and Georgia.

Trump's team is preparing to claim baselessly that if that process changes the outcome in Pennsylvania from the picture on election night, then Democrats would have "stolen" the election.

Trump's advisers have been laying the groundwork for this strategy for weeks, but this is the first account of Trump explicitly discussing his election night intentions.

https://www.axios.com/trump-claim-election-victory-ballots-97eb12b9-5e35-402f-9ea3-0ccfb47f613f.html?utm_campaign=organic&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=twitter

It's interesting to look back and see where it went wrong (for his initial coup plan) - I think a key element was, of all things, Fox News declaring AZ for Biden (very prematurely, even if it proved accurate in the end). Doing so spiked Trump's wheels at a key moment.

[Mister Mets]

It's good to have the confirmation (and ty for posting the link) - thisconfirmation from Bannon is absolutely new. That the in-person votes would lean Trump was well known as early as September 2020.

People here were predicting it in August 2020:

Someone who's better at math than I am, what does the Election Night gap look like if Biden is really up by 8 points and no mail-in ballots have been counted yet?

I actually expect Trump to declare victory on election night based on the in-person vote results trickling in, and demand that Biden concede that night.  Then throw tantrums of various sorts several times per day for the next 2-3 weeks.  (This assumes the mail-in votes actually get counted.)

And this Trump "game plan" had leaked before the election:

President Trump has told confidants he'll declare victory on Tuesday night if it looks like he's "ahead," according to three sources familiar with his private comments.

That's even if the Electoral College outcome still hinges on large numbers of uncounted votes in key states like Pennsylvania.

Behind the scenes: Trump has privately talked through this scenario in some detail in the last few weeks, describing plans to walk up to a podium on election night and declare he has won.

For this to happen, his allies expect he would need to either win or have commanding leads in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Iowa, Arizona and Georgia.

Trump's team is preparing to claim baselessly that if that process changes the outcome in Pennsylvania from the picture on election night, then Democrats would have "stolen" the election.

Trump's advisers have been laying the groundwork for this strategy for weeks, but this is the first account of Trump explicitly discussing his election night intentions.

https://www.axios.com/trump-claim-election-victory-ballots-97eb12b9-5e35-402f-9ea3-0ccfb47f613f.html?utm_campaign=organic&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=twitter

It's interesting to look back and see where it went wrong (for his initial coup plan) - I think a key element was, of all things, Fox News declaring AZ for Biden (very prematurely, even if it proved accurate in the end). Doing so spiked Trump's wheels at a key moment.

I'm aware that the red mirage was discussed in advance. Here the importance is that we have a major player in Trump's orbit planning to take advantage of the red mirage.

It seems to me that this should be a bigger deal, as someone admitting that is largely speculated.

[Inmate Trump]

Fuzzy Bear, you there?

[Santander]

There is nothing wrong or illegal about what Bannon described.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

There is nothing wrong or illegal about what Bannon described.

Nothing wrong with lying and declaring yourself the winner based on information you know to be incomplete and misleading?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

There is nothing wrong or illegal about what Bannon described.

Nothing wrong with lying and declaring yourself the winner based on information you know to be incomplete and misleading?

It's not illegal, but it is wrong.

[Sir Mohamed]

The red mirage just gave him a perfect excuse. I don't think Trump would have conceded under any circumstances. Even if there was no Covid, ergo not that much VBM, and if Biden had won a 2008-style victory. Trump was never conceding.

[Mr. Reactionary]

There is nothing wrong or illegal about what Bannon described.

Nothing wrong with lying and declaring yourself the winner based on information you know to be incomplete and misleading?

Doesnt look he said "we will lie".

[Koharu]

I mean, he already hinted that he was going to call the 2016 election rigged if it didn't go his way, so no one should have been shocked by his behavior in 2020.

That said, having Bannon on tape saying this is still huge for actual criminal concerns. Thanks for sharing this, as I had not heard anything about it, and it's been out for nearly a day already.

[BG-NY]

Bannon said this on his show at the time too. There's nothing new about this. And nothing wrong with what he said.

Supporting this slow roll of provisional and mail ballots that come in late is no way to run elections in a serious country.

Can't wait until Trump and Bannon are back in the White House in 2025.

[SWE]

There is nothing wrong or illegal about what Bannon described.

Nothing wrong with lying and declaring yourself the winner based on information you know to be incomplete and misleading?

Doesnt look he said "we will lie".

Yeah saying you're going to say something that isn't true isn't lying unless you clarify you're lying. Similarly, if you steal something, it doesn't actually become stealing until you announce "I am currently stealing this." Really weird loophole, can't believe they haven't closed it.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Declaring yourself a victor in an election you lost is not a crime and has no legal meaning, though it can inform intent and provide information as to the context of other acts, which may be of criminal quality. Violating the law to maneuver yourself into a position where you can be in a situation akin to one in which you did win is much more legally dicey, for obvious reasons.

[Mister Mets]

There is nothing wrong or illegal about what Bannon described.

It's certainly wrong to use supporters' misunderstanding of election reporting procedures to trick them into thinking an election was stolen. This can also connect to the January 6 committee's findings on how Trump and associates have been raising money from their supporters.

Whether it's illegal is beyond my pay grade. It definitely hurts one of the arguments for why Trump said what he did: he legitimately believes the election was stolen. Here we have one of his political allies aware of the red mirage, and taking advantage of it.

[ProudModerate2]

The whole disgusting lot of them, should be thrown in jail.
And yet we still have idiots in our society that support the Orange Buffoon.

[Schiff for Senate]

Fuzzy Bear, you there?

Fuzzy, if he ever has the courage to post in this thread: “This is a lie from the liberal and biased media”

[Progressive Pessimist]

I mean, he already hinted that he was going to call the 2016 election rigged if it didn't go his way, so no one should have been shocked by his behavior in 2020.

That said, having Bannon on tape saying this is still huge for actual criminal concerns. Thanks for sharing this, as I had not heard anything about it, and it's been out for nearly a day already.

Truly the GOP was lucky that Trump won the primary. If he didn't his s***fit would have made them the victims of his rage.