Durbin: Trump's Coup Attempt Was a 'Conscious Plan, Strategy That Did Not Work'

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) said Monday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that he believed former President Donald Trump attempted a coup with a “conscious plan, strategy, that did not work.”

Anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “We’re learning some stunning new details about the former president’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election result, thanks to testimony from his former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. Rosen told the Senate Judiciary Committee over the weekend about efforts by his own deputy to enlist the DOJ in sowing doubt about the election results. Our next guest sat through Mr. Rosen’s testimony and concluded that Trump’s post-election efforts were ‘leading up to a coup.’ Joining us now, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Democratic Senator from Illinois Dick Durbin.”

She asked, “I wonder if you could elaborate, I saw your interview with my friend Dana Bash and you know we covered coup attempts in countries like Turkey. Would you describe it as a coup attempt?”

Durbin said, “Well, it is its own version. I would say just look at the progression of events. First, the onslaught of lawsuits going through the Judiciary with many of the judges that he appointed. He figured he would find a friend who would open up the conversation about there being some sort of fraudulent voter count in one of the states. Didn’t work. He tried 50 or 60 times. Then he went to the Department of Justice and decided he would manipulate the attorney general into really initiating an investigation into particular states.”

He continued, “Then came finally January 6th, we know what happened then, he turned the mob loose on the United States Capitol in an effort to subvert the constitutional process. So we should not dismiss this as just a bad day for Donald Trump. It was a conscious plan, strategy that did not work. Thank goodness the Constitution held, and we finally have the new president.”

On Trump, Durbin said, “He was trying every trick in the book. First the courts, then the attorney general, then the mob. I don’t know what else he would have tried at that point, but he was trying everything he could think of. Mr. Rosen fit into the second scenario, where the president was virtually threatening to replace the attorney general if he didn’t do his bidding.”

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