The most visible part of Donald Trumps attempt to hold on to power. Tonight we talk to those who witnessed the whole plot unfurl and tried to stop it. The lies. This election was stolen from you, from me, and from the country. If you ask how Many Republican congressmen believe donald trump was reelected, id say maybe a couple. 60 of our base does. Reporter Conspiracy Theories. That could have been mickey mouse. Im watching going this is the craziest thing ive ever seen. And then people just bought it whole cloth. Reporter lawsuits. They tried to not have your votes counted. They did not want your vote to count. Reporter potentially illegal Pressure Campaigns. I just want to find 11,780 votes. What he was asking for wasnt supported by the facts, wasnt supported by the constitution. Reporter extraordinary scheming. Lets talk about the eastman memo. Just breathtaking that you would have laid out such a clear game plan that so clearly violated the constitution. Reporter and all too many in the Republican Party do you believe this was a free and Fair Election . Reporter and maga media who followed along. Verifiable dumps of votes. We will never give up, we will never concede. Stop the steal stop the steal reporter and it all might have worked if not for a few people in key places. Notably among them brave republicans. In the moments of truth you need the right people to pass the most difficult tests. We had just enough people on january 6th pass the test. Pursuant to the constitution of the laws and the United States. Do you think donald trump attempted to stage a coup . I dont know what you could call it other than a coup. I have real concerns about the future of this democracy. Im deeply afraid for our country. Reporter tonight, a cnn special report. Trumping democracy an american coup. Youll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength. O. January 6th was the line that cant be crossed. January 6th was an unconstitutional attempt led by the president of the United States to overturn an American Election and reinstall himself in power illegitimately. Treason thats fallen nation territory. Thats third world country territory. My family left cuba to avoid that fate. I will not let it happen here. Reporter thats republican congressman Anthony Gonzalez of ohio. I rise today in support of the cuban people and against reporter grandson of an immigrant. He has a quintessentially american success story. A talented Wide Receiver who played three years for ohio state. Five more in the nfl. And when injury sidelined him he got a Business Degree from stanford. All this before age 34, when gonzalez felt called to republican for congress. I got into this because look, my family came here from cuba. My fathers family came here from cuba. We come from a country that has falln. We come from a failed nation. And weve seen what happens when the rule of law is dismantled, when a strong man is allowed to take hold, and democratic norms cease to exist. Stop the steal reporter and now the conservative republican has a warning for all of us about what trump and his minions tried to do p when they tried to steal the election. This countrys been through a lot. We fought through it. And weve persevered. As much as i despied almost every policy of the biden administration, the country can survive a round of bad policy. The country cant survive torching the constitution. Thats the one thing the country cant survive. Theres going to be fraud all over the place. A rigged election. Theres going to be fraud. Reporter Donald Trumps plan to undermine American Democracy began months before the voting started. Whats he going to do with these ballots . Where are they going . Reporter with a return to lies he had been telling for years. In 2012 he tweeted, more reports of Voting Machines switching romney votes to obama. Pay close attention to the machines. Dont let your vote be stolen. Not true. In 2016, ted cruz didnt win iowa. He stole it. Not true. And this after he won the Electoral College, hence the presidency in 2016. I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally. Also not true. President trump started a commission to look for that in 2017. They could find nothing. They disbanded beforell they could even file a report. Reporter in 2020 mailin ballots, which were going to be more prevalent because of the pandemic, became a perfect new foil for trumps old claim. Voting by mail is wrought with fraud and abuse. When you do all mailin voting ballots, youre asking for fraud. Reporter Alissa Farah Griffin was the White House Communications director for then President Trump from april through december 2020. We actually had to pull together a meeting in the oval to remind him that many of or voters, particularly senior citizens, were going to vote by mail and that we were deterring people from turning out and from voting in the way that they would. Reporter all this caught the attention of congresswoman liz cheney. A rockribbed conservative and daughter of former Vice President dick cheney. At the time she was number 3 in House Republican leadership. The conference chair. It concerned me because we wanted to r. People to be able t votes republicans. I was kerntd about it from a constitutional perspective at all. Those concerns clearly came later on. There are going to be millions of missing ballots rbi. Reporter cheneys constitutional concerns came about five weeks before election day. Then President Trump was asked if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Win, lose or draw in this election, will you commit here today for a peaceful traveler of power after the election . Were going to have to see what happens. You know that. Ive been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster. You tweeted a response to that. You wrote, the peaceful transfer of power is enshrined in our constitution and fundamental to the survival of our republic. Americas leaders swear an oath to the constitution. We will uphold that oath. That suggests to me that you were worried. I was. It is such a basic fundamental thing. Every president really is responsible for safeguarding the peaceful transfer of power. Were going to have to see what happens. And so for President Trump not to be willing to make that commitment was stunning. Reporter that was September Of 2020 when donald trump also stunned republican al schmidt. We either need to get them on board or move the polling place. Reporter at the time schmidt was one of three City Commissioners in philadelphia. His job was to oversee the citys elections. It was a big problem. In philadelphia they went in to watch. They were called poll watchers. They were thrown out. They werent allowed to watch. You know why . Because bad things happen in philadelphia. Bad things. So youre watching the debate and President Trump says bad things happen in philadelphia. What goes through your mind . I think i said out loud, i see what youre doing. We had the sitting president trying to discredit the results coming from the city of philadelphia before a single vote was cast in the city. Watch those ballots. I dont like it. Thousands of ballots all over the country are being reported. Some thrown in garbage cans with my name on them. Oh, did you see today . There was a big mishap with the ballots. Another one. Reporter not only was trump spreading distrust of the electoral process. Did you see they found 50,000 ballots in like a river. He was doing it in states such as pennsylvania and michigan where the margins were expected to be tight and the wait for results was expected to be unusually long. In most of america, there is a big traditional skew between early votes and election day votes. The republicans usually win election day and the democrats usually win early voting and absentee voting. Weve got all this vote flowing in in pennsylvania. Reporter Chris Stirewalt was part of fox newss 2020 Decision Desk. The question is do republicans do well enough on election day to offset it . In 2020, the divide was expected to be more pronounced than usual because trump had been telling republicans not to trust mailin ballots. This set the stage for what experts predicted would prompt misleading early vote counts. There may be what some folks call a red mirage, so that trumps numbers may be highest on Election Night, and then theres a long tail called the blue wave as more votes, absentees come in that in the last couple of decades have come in overwhelmingly democrat. The big caveat is weve never had early voting like this. We all knew that some states were going to show him up and then it was going to get closer. Did he not know that . No, he had been told that repeatedly and he didnt care. He had decided before the summer, frankly, when it was clear that the pandemic was going to change the way by mail voting worked in a number of states and expanded. He started laying the groundwork for this cant be trusted. This is not right. What theyre doing is not right. Everyone who followed the elections closely knew about this. But then breaking news. Weve got to talk about. Right before the actual election day a convenient alternative explanation. This project, this system called hammer reporter a false Conspiracy Theory popped up in right wing media. Its going to look good for President Trump, but theyre going to change it. Reporter there would be many, many more Conspiracy Theories in the days ahead. Voters are in the final hours of making a monumental decision for this country. Were keeping an eye on voting under way across the country, especially in those key battleground states. Projects President Trump will win the State Of Florida. Former President Trump was in his residence. He had people coming up and down. But there were staffers, aides, hangerson, all sorts of people in the east room munching on mini burgers and celebrating what they believed once the State Of Florida was called for trump was going to be a repeat of 2016. A big win for President Trump in florida. Trump was in a decent mood until fox called arizona for biden. The fox news Decision Desk is calling arizona for joe biden. That is a big get for the biden campaign. He believed what he was being told by some advisers after he won florida, which is this is looking good for us, this is looking just like 2016, these states that were supposed to go for biden are going for you. And then we got to the arizona call and it all fell apart. Its a significant victory for joe biden. As i say, the first flip of the night. In the president ial race. The fox news Decision Desk made that call hours before the Associated Press, and days before the major news networks. People were sending me what people were saying on social media. And it was this sort of, you know, Psychotic Murderous Rage about us. And we dont do anything. Were just the weathermen. Im just telling you where the storm is going. I dont make the weather. He started calling talent at fox and urging them to retract it. Right. As though it was the call that made that true, not the votes that were cast. He had made up his mind weeks before that he was going to go to the podium if Election Night showed he was losing and he was going to say he won. And thats exactly what he did. This is a fraud on the american public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election. And then he said this. We want all voting to stop. We dont want them to find any ballots at 4 00 in the morning and add them to the list. Okay . But nobody was voting. They were just counting. The focus at this point was mostly on mailin ballots. In 2020, more democrats voted this way than republicans. We were winning everything. And all of a sudden, it was just called off. What an ideal time to stop the counting if youre a republican president who wants to hold on to office no matter what the voters actually want. Ive been saying this from the day i heard they were going to send out tens of millions of ballots. 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Im one of these kind of alex im one of these kind of alex p. Keaton kids from the 80s. Ive been a republican my whole life. Hes part of the governing board for the county which is arizona most populous. Among the boards responsibilities, running elections. This election was run well. There was no fraud involved in this. No corruption. Why do i feel confident about that . Because this has been the most scrutinized election weve ever run. My job was to make sure there wasnt anything improper or fraudulent that was going on. You werent discounting anything. No. My job is to investigate what was being brought to me. And so i followed up on those with our elections officials. And . And there was nothing to it. Hey, ken. Good morning, sir. Reporter for gates and his colleagues the madness began in the hours after the polls closed. As far as im concerned, we already have won. Before the tally was finished, supporters who believed then President Trump when he said he won arizona began flocking to the counting site. Usa usa it was a circus. It was really lalapalooza for the alt right. And they were outside of the election center, which is i mean really off the beaten path. Across the u. S. , local Election Officials were scrambling to get a Record Number of mailin ballots counted. Among them, in philadelphia, was al schmidt. At the time he was one of three City Commissioners, the only republican. He ran for office, promising to protect Election Integrity. One of the things that i was involved in as part of the Republican Party in the city and the Republican Party in the state, was Election I