Wisconsin GOP Chair Expressed Concern About Fake Electors Plan, Then Joined In
Andrew Hitt said Trump's advisors were "up to no good" in text, January 6 Committee report reveals.
Then-Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Andrew Hitt texted a colleague on Dec. 12, 2020 that top advisors to former President Donald Trump were “up to no good” as they discussed plans to use fake presidential electors to contest Trump’s defeat.
But two days later, Hitt and other Republicans met at the state Capitol to participate in those plans, casting what they portrayed as electoral votes for Trump on the same day Wisconsin’s actual electors cast their votes for Democrat Joe Biden.
According to the panel’s report, Hitt was notified in November that the Trump campaign wanted a list of Republican electors. The request prompted Hitt to text Mark Jefferson, the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s executive director.
“I am def concerned about their inquiry,” Hitt wrote at the time. “I hope they are not planning on asking us to do anything like try and say we are only the proper electors.”
The false electors scheme was set in motion by the Trump campaign shortly after the November 2020 election. A Nov. 18, 2020 memo from Trump campaign advisor Kenneth Chesebro laid out the strategy in a memo to Wisconsin attorney Jim Troupis, a longtime GOP lawyer who was overseeing the Trump recount in Wisconsin.
“It may seem odd that the electors pledged to Trump and Pence might meet and cast their votes on December 14 even if, at that juncture, the Trump-Pence ticket is behind in the vote count, and no certificate of election has been issued in favor of Trump and Pence,” Chesebro wrote at the time. “However, a fair reading of the federal statutes suggests that this is a reasonable course of action.”
The Jan. 6 committee said Hitt testified to the committee, saying of the false electors plan that he “was told that these would only count if a court ruled in our favor” and that he wouldn’t have supported anyone using the Trump electors’ votes without a court ruling.
Hitt did not respond to an email from Wisconsin Public Radio seeking comment. He stepped down from leading the state GOP last year and is now a partner at Michael Best Strategies.
While Republicans in other swing states also attempted to use the false elector strategy, there was an added complication to the plan in Wisconsin, as well as in Michigan.
According to the committee’s final report, those states’ fake elector vote certificates were not properly delivered and had not arrived in Washington D.C. by early January. The Trump campaign arranged to fly them to Washington just before the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 to deliver them to then-Vice President Mike Pence with the help of Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson.
Johnson’s chief of staff later tried to arrange for the senator to hand the electors to Pence, but he was told by member of Pence’s staff not to try.
“Do not give that to him,” said Pence aid Chris Hodgson. “He’s about to walk over to preside over the joint session, those were supposed to come in through the mail.”
The Jan. 6 committee’s final report said the fake electors never made it to Pence but would have been invalid even if they did arrive on time.
Listen to the WPR report here.
Former state GOP chair expressed concern about fake electors plan just days before participating was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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More about the Chaos at the Capitol
- Police Officer Who Survived Jan. 6 Has a Warning for America - Erik Gunn - Apr 10th, 2024
- 3 Years After Jan. 6 Insurrection Where Do Wisconsin Cases Stand? - Sarah Lehr - Jan 7th, 2024
- Wisconsin Man Arrested for Assaulting Law Enforcement During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach - U.S. Department of Justice - Sep 7th, 2023
- State’s Top Elections Official Interviewed By Jan. 6 Investigators - Anya van Wagtendonk - Jul 19th, 2023
- Op Ed: Kaul Should Charge Ron Johnson, 10 Fake Electors - Matt Rothschild - Jan 8th, 2023
- WisDems Chair Ben Wikler Statement on the Anniversary of 1/6 - Democratic Party of Wisconsin - Jan 6th, 2023
- Congresswoman Gwen Moore Statement on Two-Year Anniversary of January 6th - U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore - Jan 6th, 2023
- Wisconsin GOP Chair Expressed Concern About Fake Electors Plan, Then Joined In - Shawn Johnson - Dec 23rd, 2022
- Report Calls For Criminally Charging State’s Fake Electors - Henry Redman - Dec 19th, 2022
- Vos Sues Jan. 6 Committee - Shawn Johnson - Sep 26th, 2022
Read more about Chaos at the Capitol here
More about the False Electors
- Back in the News: Josh Kaul Investigating Fake Electors? - Bruce Murphy - Apr 17th, 2024
- Democratic Proposal Would Bar Fake Electors From Serving As Election Officials - Anya van Wagtendonk - Mar 21st, 2024
- Documents Suggest Trump Fake Elector Scheme Originated In Wisconsin - Rich Kremer - Mar 8th, 2024
- Lawyers Who Conceived and Executed the 2020 Fake Elector Scheme Agree Not to Participate in a Similar Scheme in Any Future Presidential Election - Law Forward - Mar 4th, 2024
- Former Wisconsin GOP Chair Said He Feared Trump Supporters During Fake Elector Scheme - Robert D'Andrea - Feb 19th, 2024
- New Call For Bob Spindell To Resign Elections Post - Anya van Wagtendonk - Feb 9th, 2024
- Former Wisconsin GOP Chair Says Fake Electors Were ‘Tricked’ - Anya van Wagtendonk - Dec 19th, 2023
- Back In The News: Ron Johnson Looks Foolish on CNN - Bruce Murphy - Dec 13th, 2023
- Secretary of State Godlewski calls on Senator LeMahieu to remove Robert Spindell Jr. from WEC for submitting a fraudulent Certificate of Votes - Sarah Godlewski - Dec 11th, 2023
- Op Ed: Wisconsin a Major Front in War Against Democracy - Ruth Conniff - Dec 10th, 2023
Read more about False Electors here
It is likely that Ron Johnson, Andrew Hitt and other bit players involved in the attempt to end democracy in this country are likely to walk away without any consequence. Before they do, it is worth thinking about what life would be like today in this country if their coup had been successful. Would we, as a Trump supporting congressman urged, be living under martial law? Almost certainly, yes. What would a country with the fascist and racist Stephen Miller dominating social and immigration policy be like? Would an independent Ukraine survive with a Trump administration aligned with Putin and Russia? What would the 2022 mid-term elections been like? For the majority of the population, the non-Trump fans, what would their recourse be in a former democracy?
Someone might want to ask Johnson and the others these questions because it is a failure of imagination to not think about the consequences if Trump and his fans had succeeded.
Traitors. They will go down in histories as being guilty of treason.
rCons. Suck.