Kraken up.
There are two possibilities. One, which is kicking around today, is that Powell’s theory of a grand conspiracy to rig the vote involving Venezuelan communists was too nutty even for Trump and Giuliani. Which is unlikely. The president and his lawyer are not known for being overly discerning, shall we say, about the quality of information they consume, especially when that information flatters the president’s ego. If Powell claimed that Democrats are lizard people wearing skin suits who are trying to take over the planet by engineering the president’s defeat, Trump would say, “You know, Biden does look a lot different now than he did 20 years ago.” Nonetheless, the “too crankish even for Trump” theory has its adherents. Trump told allies that Sidney Powell was too much, even for him, after Thursday. He sees the fight as uphill but fleeting and doesn’t see her as helpful anymore, per several advisers. Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) November 22,2020 Explanation of Sydney Powell’s sacking by an anonymous Trump campaign official: “She was too crazy even for the president.” — Harry Litman (@harrylitman) November 23,2020 “She was too conspiratorial even for him,” said one Trump adviser. Other advisers note there’s little daylight between what Giuliani and Powell have been serving up. — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 23,2020 Examiner reporter Jerry Dunleavy was told that even Trump’s team hasn’t seen the, ahem, “kraken” that she keeps promising to produce: Sources close to the president told the Washington Examiner neither the White House nor the Trump campaign have seen any of the evidence she claims to have related to assertions about voting machines switching millions of votes from President Trump to President-elect Joe Biden. They argued that her claims overshadowed what they see as legitimate concerns about the mail-in ballot process… A source close to the Trump family told the Washington Examiner that “Tucker isn’t the only one that has asked Sidney for evidence only to get stiff-armed by her — lawyers in the White House and on the campaign, White House advisers, and advisers to the first family have been asking and all got the same response as Tucker.” The source added, “Lots of folks were nodding and cheering when Tucker described his experience with her.”… “Based on everything I’ve seen — which is a lot more than Sidney Powell, to say the least — there is no basis for what she is saying,” a senior national security official told the Washington Examiner. “At this point, it would be more believable that she’s a Democratic plant designed to overshadow legitimate voter fraud issues with insanity.” You can’t con a con. A Twitter pal last night compared the layers of crankishness in the legal effort to Russian nesting dolls, where each layer disclaims the nuttiness of the layer underneath.
