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Former Trump deputy campaign manager David Bossie felt that Sidney Powell was peddling 'concocted bullshit' about the 2020 election: book

Sep 19, 2021, 20:29 IST
Business Insider
Donald Trump, left, reacts to the crowd as he shakes hands with co-host David Bossie at the Freedom Summit, Saturday, May 9, 2015, in Greenville, S.C. AP/Rainier Ehrhardt
  • David Bossie felt that Sidney Powell peddled "concocted bullshit" in challenging the 2020 election, per a new book.
  • As Bossie saw Giuliani and Powell walk into the White House, he panicked, according to the book.
  • Bossie was reportedly set to lead Trump's election challenge but was sidelined by the coronavirus.
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Days after the November election, then-President Donald Trump was continuing to plot a strategy for getting enough votes to secure a second term in the White House, despite the reality that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden had just been declared the president-elect.

David Bossie, a former Trump deputy campaign manager in 2016 and an outside advisor, told the president that he had a tough road ahead, according to a new book by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, an early copy of which was obtained by Insider.

While Trump was intent on forging ahead with his battle, Bossie knew that the process needed to be done "the right way," a feeling that was even more pronounced when former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and lawyer Sidney Powell were set to deeply influence the Trump campaign legal strategy, as Woodward and Costa detailed in "Peril."

During a conversation with Trump, Bossie, who is the president and chairman of the conservative organization Citizens United, stressed that an election fight would require an inordinate amount of work.

"You know, this is going to be hard," he told the president, according to the book. "We need to do this the right way, methodically, and work hard at it. But we can fight this and win."

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He emphasized: "It's going to be difficult. It's going to be an uphill battle."

When Trump pushed back and asked Bossie whether they should pursue a challenge, Bossie reiterated that fighting "for every legal ballot" would be the mission.

"How do we find the 10,000 votes that we need in Arizona? How do we find the 12,000 that we need in Georgia?" the president asked, according to the book. "What about the military ballots? Are they all in?"

The next day, Trump suggested that Bossie could "keep the trains running" in leading the effort to challenge the election and "let Rudy do Rudy," according to the book.

However, Bossie would soon test positive for the coronavirus, which effectively sidelined him from the election challenge as he would need to self-quarantine.

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"Bossie was angry. He knew Trump was about to give him the reins of the election fight. It would be a huge public role. But he now had to isolate and leave the White House grounds. Those were the rules," the book said.

From where Bossie was sitting at the Old Executive Office Building just west of the White House, he could see Giuliani and Powell.

Powell had emerged a key figure in the spread of election conspiracy theories, falsely claiming that Dominion Voting Systems tilted the US presidential election to help Biden. She also alleged - without evidence - that Dominion secretly aided a rival election-technology company, Smartmatic, and had links to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The voting-machine companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic have filed defamation lawsuits against Powell over her involvement in spreading the baseless conspiracy theory.

As Bossie saw Giuliani and Powell walk into the White House, he panicked, according to the book.

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Bossie thought that Powell peddled "concocted bullshit," according to the book, but he was now helpless to stop her, as she would soon become part of Trump's inner election circle, with some added turbulence that would arise.

Giuliani and Powell would later clash spectacularly, with the former mayor, an ardent Trump backer, even questioning some of her most outlandish election theories.

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