the last book I ever read (Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, excerpt nineteen)

from Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa:

Sanders had grown up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, the son of a Polish immigrant paint salesman who never made enough money to fulfill his wife’s dreams of not living in a rent-controlled apartment. Much of his family was wiped out in Poland during the Holocaust.

He told Biden and his colleagues they could not take anything for granted after January 6. Who says more horror could not happen here?

“As a kid, I read a lot about the Holocaust and Germany in the 1930s,” Sanders later told other. “Germany was one of the most cultured countries in Europe. One of the most advanced countries. So how could a country of Beethoven, of so many great poets and writers, and Einstein, progress to barbarianism?

“How does that happen? We have to tackle that question. And it’s not easy.”

the last book I ever read (Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, excerpt eighteen)

from Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa:

A regular on the nearly six-hour flight returning home on weekends and congressional recesses, Smith had noticed the plane had been mostly empty during the last year due to the pandemic. But this time he was lucky to get a seat. As the crowd grew loud, no one seemed to realize this man who looked like a friendly business traveler was a congressman.

Ugly talk about conspiracies to steal the election from Trump filled the plane. So did chatter about the QAnon group, which passengers said with confidence was a bulwark against a cabal of cannibalistic, anti-Trump pedophiles who worship Satan and run a global child-sex-trafficking ring.

Several passengers also mentioned “6MWE.” Smith did not know what they were talking about. He was horrified to learn, listening as some passengers explained and discussed openly that it meant “6 million weren’t enough,” a reference to the 6 million Jew exterminated in Nazi concentration camps.

the last book I ever read (Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, excerpt seventeen)

from Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa:

McCarthy had heard a shot fired. At 2:44 p.m., Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed by a police office inside the Capitol as she and others tried to breach a door near lawmakers.

“I’ll put a tweet out,” Trump said.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” McCarthy said. “You’ve got to tell them to stop. You’ve got to get them out of here. Get them out of here. Now.”

Trump did not seem to grasp the gravity of the situation. He never asked about McCarthy’s safety. And one remark stood out: “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”

the last book I ever read (Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, excerpt sixteen)

from Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa:

Quayle turned to Trump’s assertion that the election had been stolen from him. He told Pence those statements were ridiculous and eroded public trust.

“There’s no evidence,” Quayle said.

“Well, there’s some stuff out in Arizona,” Pence said, updating Quayle on the Trump campaign’s legal efforts there. There was a lawsuit in federal court to compel Arizona’s governor to “decertify” Biden’s win in the state, which had enraged Trump ever since Fox News called Arizona for Biden at 11:20 p.m. on election night.

“Mike, I live in Arizona,” Quayle said. “There’s nothing out here.”

the last book I ever read (Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, excerpt fifteen)

from Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa:

Barr believed Trump had acquired the worst possible team of attorneys to challenge the election. Rudy Giuliani was in ascension, along with the likes of conservative lawyer Jenna Ellis, whom Barr believed was a moron. And he thought Sidney Powell was certifiable. But Giuliani was the worst—“ a fucking idiot” who had gotten Trump impeached, Barr said. Giuliani was “drinking too much and was desperate for money, representing lowlifes and creeps like Lev Parnas,” the Ukrainian-born American businessman involved in various efforts to assist Trump.

“Sitting around with their shirts open and gold hanging out in the Trump Hotel,” Barr summarized.

the last book I ever read (Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, excerpt fourteen)

from Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa:

Inside the White House press office, inquiries about Powell and Giuliani piled up. A new refrain among junior staffers: Don’t let Rudy in the building. Don’t let Sidney in the building.

But the laughs faded. John McEntee made it clear to many Trump aides that no one should start looking for new jobs. A second term was coming, he vowed. No smile.

McEntee was known as Trump’s favorite enforcer—and had the look. He was tall, fit, and could pass as a Secret Service agent. He had lost his White House job in 2018 for a security reason, which was later found to be concerns over his gambling habit, often betting tens of thousands of dollars at a time.

But when Trump brough back Hicks in February 2020, he brought back McEntee, too. He wanted his core loyalists around.

the last book I ever read (Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, excerpt thirteen)

from Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa:

The next day, November 19, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell held a press conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington.

Giuliani was sweating and seemed almost like a cartoon caricature. “Did you all watch My Cousin Vinny?” he asked reporters, tying a legal reference to the 1992 comedy.

At one point, a dark brown liquid mixed with beads of sweat rolled down his cheek. The headline in Vanity Fair: “Rudy Giuliani’s hair dye melting off his face was the least crazy part of his batshit-crazy press conference.”

Powell, wearing a leopard print cardigan, went even further than Giuliani, insisting the voting machines made by Dominion, a company headquartered in Toronto and Denver, were part of a global communist conspiracy.

“What we are really dealing with here,” Powell said, “and uncovering more by the day, is the massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba, and likely China in the interference in our elections.”