And I have great respect for him for this, if for nothing much else in his career.
Yet Trump himself didn't back it. He slunk away. He went home and packed.
The legal wranglings had nothing coup-ish either. They begged the courts. The courts said nah. Trump complied.
Do you guys not get that that is actually the opposite of a coup??? They tried to work the system within its rules (comically), and submitted to the courts authority. Coups, um...don't care much about the legal process, pretty much by definition.
Trump supported the Eastman plan, he was saying till the end that Pence should back the play. Still says it now last time I checked. The Eastman plan would not have needed the courts (except for the inevitable rubber stamp from the 6-3 Republican Supreme Court). Pence would just throw out enough Biden votes so neither side had a majority, then hand it over to the House where a majority of Republican state delegations would give the win to Trump. Sure it would be procedural poppycock, but what would the Dems actually be able to do about it?
A coup doesn't need a mountain of dead bodies, just an unlawful seizing of power.