With the Georgia election having just been certified, there’s really no path forward for Trump at this point. Biden has him beat in too many states, and by too wide of a margin, to make stealing the election feasible. Despite his efforts, Biden’s victories are being certified, and Trump’s laughable legal challenges are being thrown out of court left an right. But yet Trump persists, refusing the concede, and spreading lies about how, had it not been for widespread election fraud, he would have won. As for why Trump has decided to go out of office like this, it seems as though it’s part of a deliberate strategy. A Republican official told CNN yesterday that the administration’s goal is “to set so many fires that it will be hard for the Biden administration to put them all out.” [This sounds like treason, doesn’t it?] But maybe Trump still thinks that he can pull off a coup, if he can just coerce enough electors to violate their oaths and support him over Biden when the electoral college convenes in December. According to the Washington Post, Rudy Giuliani, who is overseeing Trump’s response to the election, has been telling people that’s their plan. Their goal, according to Giuliani, is to “pressure GOP lawmakers & officials across the political map to stall the vote certification in an effort to have Republican lawmakers pick electors and disrupt the electoral college.” Once can’t imagine they think they have a legitimate shot at keeping Biden out of the White House, but maybe, as we’ve discussed before, they just want to sow enough doubt in people’s minds that it undermines the Biden administration the same way the vile lie of “birtherism” undermined that of Barack Obama.
And, yes, it’s dangerous as fuck. As Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz said earlier today, we’re watching a “coup” attempt in real time, as Trump and his people are “trying to overturn a free, fair election.” It’s gotten so bad, in fact, that even Mitt Romney can see what’s happening.
As for the pressuring state and local officials, it seems to be happening close to home, here in Michigan. Today word came out that Trump had invited Michigan Republicans to the White House before the Monday deadline to certify our election results. As Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe said earlier this evening, this isn’t a simple “meet and greet” with the President. This is “a meeting to implement a White House plot to steal Michigan’s 16 electoral votes, a criminal conspiracy.”
Michigan Senate leader Mike Shirkey, a Republican, is on record saying, “That’s not going to happen,” when asked about the possibility that Republicans might try to appoint their own slate of electors rather respect the will of Michiganders, who made it clear that they preferred Biden over Trump. But yet here we are, talking about the possibility that Shirkey might be heading into a meeting with Trump where — according to Politico — “the likely agenda involves the felony of attempting to bribe a public official.” As NBC’s Heidi Przybyla points out here, with a quote from Michigan Secretary of State spokesperson Tracy Wimmer, this isn’t how any of this is supposed to work.
Michigan election law is clear.
"The state’s electors must vote for the winner of the popular vote; anyone who attempted to deviate from that would be derelict in their duty and replaced as an elector."
Tracy Wimmer, spokeswoman for MI SoS, to @NBCNews https://t.co/EJ5hslFlh9
— Heidi Przybyla (@HeidiNBC) November 19, 2020
It’s worth noting that the Trump campaign, while still alleging election fraud in Michigan, today dropped their court case in the state. When asked earlier today why they never came forward with evidence of fraud, when they claimed to have a great deal of it, Rudy Giuliani, who’s hair dye was running down his face, said that he didn’t want his witnesses exposed to the press. He also said something about Michigan’s ballots being sent to Germany to be counted by a company sympathetic to Venezuela, which is a new, absolutely bonkers conspiracy theory that I wasn’t even aware of. Here with more background on this new fever dream of a theory is female Rudy Giuliani impersonator Sidney Powell.
This is unhinged stuff straight from the bowels of 4chan. https://t.co/7A64qJiSNc
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) November 19, 2020
None of this is even remotely normal. Trump got his ass kicked in the presidential election, and, instead of conceding, said that he won. Now, without offering any evidence to support the claim, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is talking about a “massive attack” on our electoral system, and how the FBI should be rounding people up. And Maggie Haberman at the New York Times is reporting that, while Republican leaders are finding all of this incredibly troublesome, they’re hopeful that Trump will eventually do the right thing, in spite of everything we’ve seen from him over the past several years, which would indicate that he’ll do the exact opposite.
I could go on forever, but I’m fucking exhausted. You’re on your own.
Oh, one last thing. As for why the likes of Giuliani and Bannon might be fighting so hard to illegally intend the term of Donald Trump, here’s something to consider from Marcy Wheeler.
Again: Several of the people (Rudy and Bannon, at a minimum) who are attempting this coup face criminal prosecution if Trump does not succeed. That should be emphasized at every whack presser. They have nothing to lose. https://t.co/Lq7YrhjsBW
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) November 20, 2020
71 Comments
For balance, you need to track back here to your call for faithless electors in 2016.
One man’s treason is another man’s working within the system.
What Trump is doing is all within the system. It’s ridiculous but he has always stress tested the limits of executive authority. Calling for faithless electors in 2016 wasn’t much different. The behavior of the losing candidate is.
Neither attempt to overturn an election had a chance of working. All of thisrighteous, hyperbolic crap just deepens existing divisions to no end at all, making eventual governance by Biden that much harder.
PS Trumps margin of loss in the swing states was 48,000 votes. He didn’t get his ass kicked. Not even close.
Actual Treason:
https://abc7chicago.com/disturbing-new-details-in-alleged-plot-to-kidnap-michigan-governor/8079861/
I’m waiting to see what John Barr Jr. says on the subject before I make any final judgements. But he hasn’t posted to his Facebook page since Halloween.
Yeah but fuck Mitt Romney. What a gutless schmuck he is. Always making these little overtures and then running back to Trump when it counts. There isn’t a single Republican of real courage in Washington.
Jeff Irwin by Proxy:
The Oversight and Elections Committees are meeting again to call into question the results of the election.
We should be meeting to discuss the pandemic and our response to it. But instead of talking about fixing unemployment, how to open schools safely, or how to protect seniors in nursing homes, we are here to advance Republican party politics with baseless and non-specific allegations of fraud.
I don’t generally respect the opinion of actors on issues like these, but this seems to make a lot of sense to me.
Donald Trump has called Michigan’s legislative leaders to the WH to overturn the will of the Michigan’s voters. This is not just crazy, it’s potentially a crime. I’d turn the plane around. Or wear a wire.
This is looking worse and worse. Rudy Giuliani says that he’ll be meeting with the Michigan delegation in DC. I hope this ends the politics career of everyone who attends.
Here. I did it for you, Mark. While you didn’t quite call for an electoral coup over your weeks of coverage, you did call it an ‘electoral coup’— with some trepidation about the potential for civil civil war but no mention of nor concern about reason:
http://markmaynard.com/2016/12/our-electors-vote-on-monday/#comments
*treason not ‘reason’
Ha!
Word on the street is that black fluid smells like sulfur.
Shirkey and Chatfield just issued a statement from D.C. and it sounds like they understand they cannot assist Trump in his stupid coup fantasy.
Donny Trump Jr. has COVID-19
BREAKING NEWS: Cocaine does not prevent Covid-19
Your side, the deep state side committed treason by trying to cheat the people of the USA out of their right to a free and fair contest. Many will be tried for it and will be executed. Others will spend the rest of their life behind bars. Follow Sidney Powell and Lin Wood.
Have we finally reached the moment when the 150,000 indictments are unsealed, Turnip?
John Barr Jr.: “Many will be tried for it and will be executed.”
I assume you’ll be judge, jury and executioner, seeing that no courts agree with you. Shoot, you have even been abandoned by your fellow Trumpanzees on this blog. Will they be your first targets?
Mark, it really made me happy to see that. It really is reassuring.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/21/opinion/impeach-president-again/
The meat of the article is here:
“If ever a presidential act qualified for impeachment, it would be openly trying to reverse an election outcome. While it sounds almost bizarre to make such a suggestion when the president’s term is over in two months, the move would have a useful byproduct: The Senate could prevent Trump from running again in 2024.
The impeachment clause of the Constitution allows the Senate to impose two possible punishments: “removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.” While two-thirds of the Senate is required for removal from office in an impeachment trial, precedents involving the impeachment of judges indicate that only a majority vote would be required to make the penalty a disqualification from future office.
In other words, the House of Representatives could impeach Trump before his term ends, and the Senate could take up the matter after he leaves office. The question of removal would be moot at that point, but disqualification would still be on the table, and the Senate could determine that a majority vote would suffice.”
From the Washington Post:
“The conservative Michigan Freedom Fund, which the DeVos family finances, issued the following statement Friday: ‘The election is over. The results are in, and here in Michigan, they’re not going to change.’”
It looks like the DeVos family is beginning to embrace reality.
Pretty fuckin’ wild shit being stated the public by Mr. Big Time Lawyer who helped Nick Sandmann get rich off the media’s lies (that you parroted). Read carefully to the end. Sound familiar? How come what I have said all along is getting backed by a heavyweight like Wood now?
Attorney Lin Wood: So the Supreme Court is being aligned. They Department of Defense was recently realigned by the president. Take a look at how he put in place, a cyberterrorism and terrorism expert. As I said look at what he did in 2018 with the executive order to deal with foreign interference in our national elections. Look, I’d like to see in a perfect world, John Durham’s report come out and people go to jail. I’d like to see Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and a lot of people go to jail. I’d like to see what’s on Hunter Biden’s laptop. I’d like to see those people go to jail. I’d like to see what’s on Anthony Weiner’s laptop. I’d like to see a lot of people go to jail. And then when we get to the final phase of the election fraud I’d like to see people go to jail. The one thing I’ll say is there’ll be an intermingling. There will be people going to jail I believe who are involved in all of those or some of those same investigations. So there is potentially a great awakening. The truth has to come out. I believe it will. I do not think that you can hide the truth. I do say it and I believe it, every lie will be revealed. This country’s going to be shocked when the find the truth about who’s been occupying the Oval Office for some periods of years. They’re going to be shocked at the level of pedophilia. They are going to be shocked at what I believe is going to be a revelation in terms of people who are engaged in satanic worship.
Stated to the public
Let me school you some more: 12th Amendment to the Constitution of the USA, bitch. Fraudulent elections (and this is fraudulent, you’ll see) are decided by the House. Not every member votes; only one per state. That’s right: each state has one vote for President in case of fraud.
You were totally right about the COVID-19 hoax disappearing after the election. It’s like all of a sudden it never existed. How did you predict that so accurately?
Trump’s legal team has won one of thirty-five cases filed in courts. Turnip is impressed with that.
The storm is always coming but it never arrives. Meanwhile the syphilis fuhrer delays transition information that will cost more American lives. Those deaths are on his head. And the heads of every one of his sycophants. That’s including you, John Barr jr. You crazy fuck.
In case you haven’t noticed, bright guy: the election isn’t over.
FYI, the sitting President does not have to declare an election to be over for it to be over.
Here’s something you might also find interesting.
Chris Christie: “I have been a supporter of the president’s. I voted for him twice. But elections have consequences & we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn’t happen.” He says an unwillingness to present evidence “must mean the evidence doesn’t exist.”
The election isn’t over until Turnip says so.
Just found out that Linn Wood, Kyle’s (the Kenosha murder) lawyer is also one of The Leaders lawyers. He is so incompetent that Wood was already in the news earlier Friday after a failed election affidavit filed in defense of President Donald Trump reportedly confused the postal code for Michigan with that of Minnesota.
Kyle is doomed with these incompetent grifters using him.
So incompetent he made CNN and the Washington Post pay up big league for the same lies you told about Nicholas Sandmann.
Hey HW
Do you like ZillaKami?
https://youtu.be/Jsu9xEWSXqg
Guiliani was once one of the most respected prosecutors and then mayors in the country. He’s clearly a crackpot now.
Lin Wood’s success in some previous case does not say anything about the legitimacy of the case he’s taken now. The 34 defeats in various courts of this comedy team of lawyers says a lot more.
HW seems to think hauling some one into court and getting a settlement demonstrates some kind of legal acumen. Lin seems to be practicing what ever law fools like HW send him money to pursue. Civil litigation, criminal defense, election law. He must be the most accomplished lawyer in the land, if only he could tell the difference between Minnesota and Michigan.
Large corporations frequently settle nuance law suits. I had an aunt who sued Safeway for a slip and fall accident. She got a few bucks to go away.
https://lawandcrime.com/media/some-lawyers-think-covington-catholics-nick-sandmann-walked-away-from-media-lawsuits-with-peanuts/
I love peanuts, but not the same as millions.
I think the Supreme Court is going to have a little something to say about the massive evidence of fraud.
Nutjob: anyone you feel is threatening to your “narrative”.
HW: “I think the Supreme Court is going to have a little something to say about the massive evidence of fraud.”
If any case manages to have the merits to get there, what they will have to say will be a disappointment to you HW.
Maybe when you get a chance you can share the “massive evidence of fraud.”
This would be funny … if it weren’t so sad and ultimately, a danger to our democracy:
Washington Post: The president’s legal team was thrown into tumult Sunday when two Trump attorneys — Rudolph W. Giuliani and Jenna Ellis — released a statement abruptly distancing the campaign from a third attorney, Sidney Powell.
“Giuliani, Ellis and Powell all appeared together at a news conference Thursday, when they made a range of baseless accusations about the integrity of the election. Powell, in particular, has lobbed some of the most convoluted claims, alleging a conspiracy that involved “communist money,” the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and an algorithm favoring Democrats.
“Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own,” Giuliani and Ellis said in their statement Sunday. “She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/11/22/giuliani-releases-statement-distancing-trump-campaign-lawyer-sidney-powell/
3, 2, 1 … “Trump believed she was causing more harm than help, a campaign official said: ‘She was too crazy even for the president.’ “
HW: “Pretty fuckin’ wild shit being stated the public by Mr. Big Time Lawyer who helped Nick Sandmann get rich off the media’s lies”
It’s like you only read headlines.
https://lawandcrime.com/media/some-lawyers-think-covington-catholics-nick-sandmann-walked-away-from-media-lawsuits-with-peanuts/
Dirtgrain,
Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe the anonymous twitter was ta$ked to offer that opinion? Regardless, when an organizations (or individuals) fraud is exposed there is always a great cost. As there should be.
I suspect the Republicans on the State Canvassing Board have about as much courage of their convictions as FF. I doubt very much the 2 Republicans are interested in serving jail time for attempting to disenfranchise Michigan. I suspect that once again the grifters never bothered to look at the details of the penalties for the crimes they are contemplating.
Don’t be like Kyle, think before doing.
https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2020/11/23/michigan-canvassers-who-could-face-felony-charges/6388235002/
Why would I have a conviction about an UNKNOWN and arbitrary dollar amount that Sandmann received? The lies of the media were exposed. The lying media payed a price that is likely much higher than any payout. Just as it should be.
“Courage of conviction”
What are you talking about word salad boy?
Word Salad Boy, I don’t suppose that is supposed to be derogatory is it? I was not speaking specifically about the Sandman settlement. I was addressing your lack of standupishness (how is that for tossed words salad?) in general. EOS is an obvious fanatic. Ready to sacrifice us all and our children’s future for his religious/ideological goals. HW is an unhinged fanatic who lives in a totally different reality–than even you do. You attempt to be more reasonable, and are actually an inhabitant of real world reality–as a result you have some trepidation about going out on that lack of independent reasoning limb that EOW and HW have climbed out on. An inquiring mind, even if some what distorted by a privileged position in life, is still better than blindly following some one else’s faulty reasoning. More power to you my Squishy Champion.
here is a pretty good interview with some one who is a lot smarter than me, also has far more integrity than the average person
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_xmYwr6qt8
Glenn’s comments about Trump and the Democrats at about the 12:40 mark seems about right to my dimwitted mind.
Poor HW…
The amount of energy you expend propping up your narrative must be exhausting.
When it’s all over and Trump leaves office will you call it a coup?
Many Dems did in 2016 so I wouldn’t blame you.
It was as hard for them to accept how deeply entrenched racism and sexism are in our nation. What’s your excuse? Oh I remember, you and Trump are actually defending the world against injustice. It just looks like you are doubling down on it.
And Jean needs to expend zero energy propping up THE narrative. She has Benjamin Wittes and similar powerful people who do the propping up for her. Friend of Comey. Brookings colleague of the primary sub source. Tool.
I trust the truth Wobblie. 100%. Eventually the side of truth always wins. That is what I believe.
A few days ago, HW told me to follow Sidney Powell. So I did…down a rabbit hole and over a cliff.
Bye Bye, Sidney.
Draft Trump 2024!
I’m starting the movement.
I’m working on campaign slogans.
Let’s finish the job. America’s still breathing.
Where’d John Barr, Jr. go? What a wuss.
https://theweek.com/articles/951759/parents-warned-internet-break-brains-broke-theirs-instead
Excellent little article on the recount in Iowa’s second congressional district. The vote difference is like 8 votes out of 400000. This is what a close election looks like.
The death cult is still in shock. It is looking like Biden is going to win by nearly 8 million votes. It is only Republican gerrymandering that made this at all look like a contest. As long as the leader continues to deny reality–
https://iowastartingline.com/2020/11/26/ia-02-race-narrows-to-eight-vote-margin-one-county-remains/
You liberals who believe that working folks want employer provided health care vs. Medicare for All are plain and simple anti-worker, here is an example of why the bosses want employer provided health care–gives them a really big stick to threaten workers with.
https://www.cleveland19.com/2020/11/27/cleveland-heights-university-heights-schools-say-theyll-cut-benefits-teachers-who-strike/
Dems shouldn’t have tried to use fake ballots.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-fundraising-insigh-idUSKBN27R309
Did you give yet?
Did you give to Cheatin’ Joe?
Are you drunk driving right now Warlord?
Can someone explain the drunk driving references? Was HW recently arrested?
Wobblie, it is entirely possible to believe that a lot of working people who currently get health care from their employers prefer it while also understanding that it does give employers a lot of power that it probably would be better if they didn’t have.
And guess what? We will never get Medicare 4 All unless we can convince those people that divorcing health care from employment is actually really to their advantage. Not an easy task I am afraid.
HW, do you wonder at all why Trump, Barr, and the rest of the administration and Republican Party has not conducted an investigation? They’ve provided no evidence in court and have presented no witnesses to testify under oath about any of this “massive fraud” you have suggested exists.
Do you have any explanation for that? Are you ever going to present the details of your accusations? When are those 150,000 indictments going to be unsealed? Why haven’t they been long ago? You’re not able to answer these simple questions are you?
How did they get hundreds of affidavits then? They just fell into their lap I guess. Phony ballots with the wrong watermark, late ballots, long dead people’s ballots, Biden-only ballot dumps, it goes on and on.
Hw: “How did they get hundreds of affidavits then?”
Have you read the claims in the affidavits? They are almost all nonsense and not evidence of anything.
HW: “They just fell into their lap I guess.”
Most of them haven’t been presented in any legal action. It doesn’t take a genius to read them and know why.
HW: “Phony ballots with the wrong watermark, late ballots, long dead people’s ballots, Biden-only ballot dumps, it goes on and on”
The watermark story has been pure bullshit. There is no single source of election equipment or material. Ballots which are being called “late” by stupid Trumpanzees are being proven to having been cast in time to be legal and valid. There were no “Biden-only ballot dumps.” That has been shown over and over to be a fabricated story. If it were ever true, Trump and/or his AG would have the evidence of that being presented to a court right now. The only thing that goes on and on is your gullibility. Your a sucker. Give all your money to the Trump legal fund, please.
Chris Krebs Is going to be interviewed on 60 Minutes at 7pm tonight (on CBS). But I’m guessing you Trumpanzees will avoid watching it. You don’t want to see or hear anything that challenges your bullshit fantasy.
Chris Krebs 60 Minutes interview:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chris-krebs-presidential-election-security-60-minutes-2020-11-29/
It is beginning to look like the death cult has figured out to operate a circular firing squad,
President Trump on Sunday said he regretted endorsing Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), taking a swipe at the top Republicans in the state ahead of two critical Senate runoff elections.
The president decried the use of Dominion Voting Systems machines in Georgia, which are the subject of unproven conspiracies among some conservatives. He placed blame at the feet of Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) for approving the rules of the election.
“Everything has to be approved by the legislature, and they had judges making deals, and they had electoral officials making deals like this character in Georgia who’s a disaster,” Trump said of Raffensperger, who has defended the integrity of the presidential election in Georgia, where President-elect Joe Biden defeated Trump by just more than 12,000 votes.
“And the governor’s done nothing. He’s done absolutely nothing,” Trump added of Kemp. “I’m ashamed that I endorsed him. But I look what’s going on. It’s so terrible.”
If the Leader continues with his brilliant leadership the Dems might take control of the Senate yet.