A very American coup attempt: Jan 6 panel lays bare Trump’s bid for power

It was, all in all, a very American attempt at a coup. Or self-coup to be exact.

The world watched its denouement dumbfounded on 6 January 2021 as thousands of Donald Trump's supporters stormed the heart of US democracy, the Capitol in Washington, with cries to hang the vice-president, in an attempt to overturn an election and keep Trump in power.

But, as the detailed executive summary of the report released by the congressional committee investigating the insurrection lays bare, Trump's bid to usurp power began while the votes from the November 2020 presidential election were still being counted.

That kicked off what amounted to a rolling coup attempt as an increasingly desperate president sought to compromise and corrupt officials from the US justice department to state election boards in an effort to find a way, any way, to have his defeat declared null and void.

The seeds were sown by Trump as he watched the results roll in on election night. The president's own campaign manager, Bill Stepien, had told him that the way the count was conducted in several states meant that early results were likely to give Trump the lead but that would be eroded as absentee and other postal votes were tallied.

The count panned out as Stepien predicted and Trump's aides cautioned the president that, for all his euphoria at the prospect of pulling off another astonishing upset, it was way too soon to be declaring victory. But all Trump saw was his numbers go up and then down. He brushed off his advisers and went on television.

"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. We did win this election," he declared.