The biggest question to my mind about the draft Executive Order dated December 16, 2020 continues to be why the Secretary of Defense and not the Attorney General should be ordered to seize voting machines that were used to elect President Biden.
Another good question that erupts -- not just arises -- from the draft XO is why the Secretary of Defense would be directed to use the National Guard. Why not the Army? Download Draft Executive Order dated December 16 2020.
Same answer as to why not the Attorney General: Because they wouldn't do it.
Recall the summer of 2020, specifically, the protests after the death of George Floyd. In June 2020, Attorney General Barr had to use prison guards and border guards to strong-arm the protestors in the streets of Washington, D.C. He and his boss the TFG just could not get the Army to do it. The closest they could get is ordering the 82nd Airborne Division to the outskirts of D.C. before the 82nd Airborne went back to their barracks.
The Army just wouldn't do it. They would not fire on their own countrymen. They wouldn't even beat them up. Thus the border guards, and thus the prison guards, from all over, who came to Washington instead.
Also recall that in the Summer of 2020 there was a lot of talk about the TFG invoking the Insurrection Act and using active-duty military to put the rioters away. The Secretary of Defense at the time was Mike Esper. He said then that he did "not support invoking the Insurrection Act." Mr. Esper also said that active-duty soldiers should be used domestically "as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations," which did not include the protests against the death of George Floyd.
As we noted yesterday, Mr. Esper was replaced as Secretary of Defense five months later, in November. His replacement was one Christopher Miller, who had been a White House aide to TFG.
The Attorney General obviously learned a lesson from the events of the Summer of 2020. Others did not.
So, same answer as before: The order is not directed to the Attorney General or to the Army because they could not depend on the Attorney General to order that the voting machines be seized, and they could not depend on the Army to do it.
But there are more questions, including who is the person who would be appointed Special Counsel with full resources "necessary to carry out her duties"?
To be continued ....
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