The month after the presidential election in 2020, Democratic and Republican electors representing the candidate who won the popular vote in their states gathered across the country to formally cast electoral votes for president.
But in seven states that Joe Biden won, Republican electors got together anyway and cast phony votes for Donald Trump. They’ve become known as fake electors. And according to federal prosecutors, they were part of a plan to overturn the election, orchestrated by pro-Trump attorneys with Trump’s support. State criminal charges have been filed against fake electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada.
Wisconsin’s fake electors haven’t been charged, and as we first reported in February, one of them, Andrew Hitt, an attorney and former chairman of the state Republican Party, agreed to sit down with us to explain how he says he and Wisconsin’s other GOP electors were tricked by the Trump campaign.
Anderson Cooper: You were head of the Republican Party in Wisconsin. Were you a big Trump supporter?
Andrew Hitt: I worked tirelessly for him. I, you know, day and night–
Andrew Hitt
60 Minutes
ANDREW HITT: Let’s put it together for the president of the United States one more time!
Andrew Hitt: — oftentimes phone calls would start by 6:00 in the morning, and wouldn’t end until 10:30 at night. I did everything I possibly could.
DONALD TRUMP: The Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Andrew Hitt.
Andrew Hitt was often singled out by President Trump at rallies in Wisconsin.
DONALD TRUMP: Andrew Hitt!
DONALD TRUMP: Andrew Hitt!
DONALD TRUMP: How we doing, Andrew? Gonna win this state? We gotta win it.
But Trump didn’t win in Wisconsin. He lost to Joe Biden by some 20,700 votes. The Trump campaign appealed, challenging more than 200,000 absentee ballots on technical grounds in two Democratic counties.
RUDY GIULIANI: If you count the lawful votes, Trump won Wisconsin by a good margin.
Andrew Hitt: That was false. What he said was false.
Anderson Cooper: The Trump campaign wanted the votes in Dane County and Milwaukee County tossed. Did you support that idea?
Andrew Hitt: – it wasn’t something that I was comfortable with.
Anderson Cooper: Dane County and Milwaukee County in Wisconsin– are the most liberal counties. The majority of the Black population in Wisconsin live in those two counties.
Andrew Hitt: Correct. Correct.
Anderson Cooper: Personally, you did not believe all those absentee ballots should be thrown out?
Andrew Hitt: Well, I voted that way, you know. I voted that way.
Anderson Cooper: You didn’t think your own vote should be thrown out?
Andrew Hitt: No.
On Nov. 30, Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers certified Joe Biden’s victory — authorizing the state’s Democratic electors to gather at the state capitol on Dec.