During a half-hour segment devoted to Trump's coup attempt, CNN New Day anchor Brianna Keilar welcomed election lawyers Jerry Goldfeder and Lincoln Mitchell, who warned of a potential Trump coup in 2019, to get their thoughts.
"Look, you're not the only one predicting doom here," Keilar said.
"Lincoln, we had on an election expert who says this is, he is, quote, 'scared shitless' about Republicans changing votes, about what held last time not holding this time. What do you think, Lincoln?"
"I might not use that precise language or wording. I would agree with that sentiment," Mitchell said.
"It is very important for all of us who believe in democracy to recognize the depths of this crisis. And we keep hearing this, even one of your earlier guests we're approaching -- how close we were to a crisis. We're in the midst of a crisis. It is a few -- had those insurrections turned right instead of left at one point, literally right instead of left as they stormed the Capitol and ran up the stairs and the brave police officer or guard helped get them out of the way, we could have had a very different outcome here.
"Now imagine that happening, Jerry talked about in Republican-controlled state legislatures. Imagine what happens if Kevin McCarthy, not Nancy Pelosi, is speaker of the House and this goes to Jerry's point that this is not just Donald Trump. It is the official position and I don't say that with any exaggeration, it's the official position of the Republican party one that the election was somehow fraudulent. Liz Cheneys of the world but very few prominent Republicans will come on your station or any other station and say, look, Joe Biden is the real president.
"For goodness sake, it's also the official position of the Republican party that January 6th wasn't a big deal. Just think about that for a moment. So as we end, we have these voter suppression laws and the laws that make it possible for the state legislatures to not just play with the electoral college votes but to simply decide we don't like this election outcome, we're going to change and give those votes the Republican in the electoral college. We're in this crisis very, very deeply.
"And what almost made Trump's coup possible was the insistence by so much of the punditry it can't happen here-ism, apple pie, this is America. Which is a dramatic misreading of American history. American democracy."
