Trump had a lot of plans about voting machines

Trump was directly involved in plans to seize voting machines in the 2020 election; the Iran nuclear deal may soon be revived.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

Trump was involved in plans to seize voting machines

Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Image

• Former President Donald Trump directed his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to ask the Department of Homeland Security if it legally could seize voting machines in swing states based on the myth of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. [NYT / Alan Feuer, Maggie Haberman, Michael S. Schmidt, and Luke Broadwater]
• Giuliani called Kenneth Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary at the Department of Homeland Security fulfill Trump’s request; however, Cuccinelli said the agency lacked the authority. [Business Insider / Sarah Al-Arshani]
• Trump's campaign to overturn the 2020 election also involved pressuring Attorney General Bill Barr to get the Justice Department to seize machines, on top of previously reported attempts to get the department to investigate claims of voter fraud. [Washington Post / Greg Sargent]
• The effort came as unnamed Trump advisers drafted two executive orders asking the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to seize voting machines. [CNN / Zachary Cohen and Paula Reid]
• Though neither order was issued, these latest revelations show the extent to which Trump and his advisers contemplated overturning President Biden’s election win. [Reuters]

Restoration of the Iran nuclear deal could come in weeks

• The US and its allies appear close to restoring the 2015 deal that limited Iran’s nuclear capabilities. The Biden administration says it is now up to the Iranian government to decide how much of its program it wants to destroy in exchange for lifting sanctions. [NYT / David E. Sanger, Lara Jakes and Farnaz Fassihi]
• After weeks of negotiations ended in Vienna last week: “We are in the final stretch. This can’t go on forever because of Iran’s nuclear advances,” the State Department official told reporters on Monday. [The Hill / Laura Kelly and Morgan Chalfant]
• In 2018, President Donald Trump pulled the US from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and reimposed sanctions on Iran. Since then, Iran’s nuclear capabilities have grown, raising fears that the country could soon build an atomic bomb. [NBC / Dan De Luce, Andrea Mitchell, and Abigail Williams]
• The Biden administration is also preparing for the possibility of the deal falling through. If it does, and Iran continues developing nuclear capacity quickly, the US will likely increase its sanctions. [CNN / Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood]

Over a dozen HBCUs temporarily canceled classes after receiving bomb threats on the first day of Black History Month. [ABC / Kiara Alfonseca]

• Denmark became the first EU country to lift restrictions on Covid-19, which it says is no longer “a socially critical disease.” [AP / Jan M. Olsen]
• West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said the Build Back Better bill is “dead.” Narrower legislation may still have a chance. [Business Insider / Oma Seddiq and Joseph Zeballos-Roig]
• A day before voting against changing the filibuster rules, Democratic Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema told a group of Republican fossil fuel donors they could “rest assured.” [Guardian / Peter Stone]

“We want to know about the whole operation. Certainly, a former attorney general of the United States has an obligation to give us all of the information that he knows about criminal plans and potential criminal plans to overthrow the election.”

[Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) on reports that Trump pressured Attorney General Bill Barr to seize voting machines / The Washington Post]

Joe Rogan built a massive audience by speaking to fringe figures in culture, business, and science. During the pandemic, that got him in trouble with Neil Young, among others. [Spotify]

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