Tag: 2020 election

Right-Wing Media Figures Still Refuse To Admit Biden Won

The new era of competition between Fox News and its would-be rivals, Newsmax and One America News Network, appears to be fueling an unwillingness by commentators at all three networks to accurately describe Joe Biden as the president-elect, even after the Electoral College met this week.

Since losing the election, President Donald Trump has increasingly trained his criticism on Fox News. He has ranted that his personal propaganda outlet has proven insufficiently supportive of his illegitimate effort to overturn the results based on phony voter fraud claims, urging his supporters to instead watch Newsmax or OAN. Fox has aggressively course-corrected in hopes of maintaining its audience, while the smaller networks have lashed out at the dominant player in hopes of ripping away more of its viewers.

Overnight, for instance, OAN’s Pearson Sharp highlighted that his network “will officially not be calling Joe Biden the president-elect.” He went on to say that OAN is “the only broadcast news network out there with the integrity to report that this election isn’t over,” criticizing Fox, Breitbart.com, and Newsmax for having “caved.” Continue reading.

Once friends, Biden calls Lindsey Graham ‘a personal disappointment’ for not recognizing election win

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When Stephen Colbert asked Joe Biden on Thursday whether he could patch up his once-close friendship with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), the president-elect’s expression turned somber.

Graham, a close ally of President Trump, has declined to acknowledge Biden’s election victory and was accused of pressuring Georgia to discard mail-in ballots in a state that went for the Democrat.

Biden, who has made his willingness to work with Republicans a key campaign promise, declined to say whether their relationship was salvageable. Continue reading.

Legislative survey shows deep GOP divide on election

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Republican state legislators are torn between moving past an election that President Trump lost and fighting tooth and nail to get him a second term, even if that means calling for Congress to overturn the certified results of an election.

The Hill asked every Republican legislator in the country for their thoughts on the election, including whether they recognized President-elect Joe Bidenas the winner.

About half of the 200 or so Republican legislators who responded to The Hill acknowledged Biden as the winner, while about a quarter said they did not believe Trump had lost his election, or that Biden’s win was legitimate. Continue reading.

Top Republicans offer conflicting messages about Trump’s loss while campaigning in Georgia

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COLUMBUS, Ga. — When Vice President Pence took the stage here Thursday for a lunchtime rally with Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, he said that President Trump was still fighting to win reelection, even though the electoral college formalized Joe Biden’s victory Monday.

But in television ads airing across the state, allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are making a different argument: that Trump has lost the election, and Democrats could control Washington if they win these two seats on Jan. 5.

These very different messages highlight the conflict within the Republican Party about the best way to win an election that will determine control of the Senate. While Trump and his supporters continue to push baseless claims of voter fraud, McConnell’s allies have warned that Democrats would run rampant if they gain control of both houses of Congress and the presidency. Continue reading.

‘The ultimate flashpoint’: Former officials address fears Trump will refuse to leave the White House

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The presidential election is over and the Electoral College has affirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s win. However, President Donald Trump still refuses to acknowledge the results of the election and, to make matters worse, the latest reports suggest that he is even considering refusing to leave the White House on Inauguration Day. So how might the Biden administration proceed if this happens? 

According to Business Insider, it is a gray area that former Secret Service agents have been discussing. Since no United States president has ever had to be escorted out of the White House, there are many questions about how this might be done if the situation presents itself. According to a former DHS official who served under the Obama administration, this particular discussion has been a hot topic among former officials for the U.S. Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security. Continue reading.

While Biden’s transition team has made it clear that trespassers would be removed, how does that work when the former president of the United States is the trespasser? The seemingly bizarre encounter would, no doubt, place many agents in a very awkward position. Continue reading.

Dominion Voting Systems fires back with legal action against Sidney Powell

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Dominion Voting Systems is now taking steps toward legal action against Sidney Powell.

Dominion and its voting machines have been at the center of several conspiracy theories and falsehoods surrounding the 2020 presidential election. Although President Donald Trump initially spread misinformation about mail-in voting, he and his allies began circulating falsehoods targeting Dominion voting machines as election results proved favorable for Biden.

Since then, Dominion Voting Systems claims it has been subjected to a “‘relentless and reckless disinformation’ campaign, led by Powell, Rudy Giuliani, other allies of President Donald Trump, and Trump himself,” according to Law & Crime. Continue reading.

Rep. Tom Emmer will attend Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration — but still won’t call him president-elect

Emmer, Klobuchar sparred over election outcome on Thursday. 

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer refused again Thursday to refer to Joe Biden as president-elect, days after the Electoral College certified Biden’s victory and a week after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a GOP bid backed by Emmer to overturn it.

Making his first public comments since both developments, Emmer acknowledged the Electoral College’s recognition of Biden as the winner and said President Donald Trump’s options for challenging that outcome were “diminishing.”

But in a panel discussion with Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Emmer rebuffed attempts by moderator and CBS correspondent Major Garrett to refer to Biden as president-elect. Emmer instead said that Jan. 6, the date Congress will officially count the Electoral College’s votes, marks the end of the line. Continue reading.

‘Everything’s great’: GOP ditches election post-mortems

Mitt Romney lost by 5 million votes in 2012 and sparked a 100-page RNC autopsy report. Donald Trump lost by 7 million and there isn’t a peep.

Democrats in Texas and New Hampshire are forming committees to examine the party’s failings in last month’s election. Less formal autopsies are underway in states across the country.

But the party that lost the presidential election isn’t soul-searching at all.

For the final act of his showman-like presidency, Donald Trump has convinced the Republican Party that despite losing the White House by 7 million votes — and despite seeing five states flip in 2020 — things could hardly be better inside the GOP. Continue reading.

Judge dismisses GOP lawsuit against Georgia absentee voting rules

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A federal judge on Thursday rejected a Republican lawsuit seeking to change Georgia’s absentee voting procedures ahead of two Senate runoff elections next month, according to media reports.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall dismissed the lawsuit from the 12th Congressional District Republican Committee during a hearing on Thursday.

Hall, a George W. Bush appointee, said the plaintiffs’ allegations that the absentee ballot process increases the likelihood of voter fraud was not substantial enough to warrant changing the rules amid a runoff election. Continue reading.

How Geraldo Rivera, the sensationalist showman of ’80s TV, became the voice of election reason on Fox News

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The investigative reporter-turned-freeform celebrity is now a seasoned pundit delivering a firm message to Trump fans about the 2020 race: “It’s over.”

Geraldo Rivera thought he “would never work again” after hosting one of the highest-watched busts of all time in 1986, when he cracked open a vault belonging to gangster Al Capone on live television and it turned out to be empty.

The famously mustachioed Rivera has had several other acts since then. He hosted a tabloid talk show in the late 1980s and 1990s, where he got decked in the face by a chair during a scuffle involving white supremacists. He attempted to resurrect his once-serious journalism career by joining Fox News in 2001 as a war correspondent but was essentially booted out of Iraq in 2003 for divulging troop positions. He bravely tried the cha-cha on ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” in 2016 — and was the first to be eliminated.

But now in 2020, at 77, Rivera might be playing the most important — and unexpected — role of his life, as a contrarian truth teller who has been pleading with President Trump, whom he considers a friend, and the president’s most passionate supporters to accept that their side lost the election. Continue reading.