Tag: 2020 election

Mitch McConnell Warns Republicans Not to Fight Biden’s Electoral College Win

WASHINGTON — Fending off a messy fight that could damage Republicans ahead of Georgia Senate runoffs, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned fellow GOP senators on Tuesday not to join President Donald Trump’s extended assault on the Electoral College results.

In public remarks and private warnings, McConnell worked to push ahead to the Biden era and unite a fractured Republican Party ahead of the runoff elections that will determine Senate control.

First, the Republican leader heaped praise on Trump’s “endless” accomplishments as he congratulated President-elect Joe Biden during a morning Senate speech. Then he pivoted, privately warning Republican senators away from disputing the Electoral College tally when Congress convenes in a joint session Jan. 6 to confirm the results. Continue reading.

Ron Johnson gambles his political future on Trump

The Wisconsin Republican is holding a hearing on alleged election “irregularities” even after Biden secured an Electoral College victory.

Ron Johnson is embracing President Donald Trump as tightly as possible as he decides whether to run for reelection to a must-win Senate seat for Republicans.

Johnson, a steadfast Trump ally who has endeared himself to the president with his various investigative pursuits, is defending his approach, even as he faces a possible reelection campaign in a state that President-elect Joe Biden won in November. And Democrats are taking notice.

The Wisconsin Republican, who says he has not yet decided whether to seek a third term in 2022, has used his perch as the chairman of the Senate’s chief oversight body to investigate Trump’s political foes — from Hunter Biden to Hillary Clinton and the slew of Obama administration officials who launched the Russia probe — and is set to hold a hearing Wednesday on alleged “irregularities” in the election even as he recognizes Biden as the president-elect. Continue reading.

After electoral college backs Biden, Trump continues falsely insisting he won: ‘This Fake Election can no longer stand’

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After the electoral college cemented his victory on Monday, President-elect Joe Biden urged the nation and the GOP to “turn the page” on weeks of false claims by President Trump and his allies that massive fraud had flipped the election.

Trump, though, soon made it clear that he has no intention of moving on.

In a cascade of tweets sent after midnight, the president shared more dubious claims of electoral fraud and falsely insisted, yet again, that he was the true victor. Continue reading.

Michigan House punishes GOP Rep. Gary Eisen for hinting at Electoral College disruption

Michigan Republican legislative leaders pulled a GOP lawmaker from his committee assignments Monday after the lawmaker hinted he was part of a group that sought to disrupt or otherwise undermine the Electoral College vote slated to happen at the Capitol in the afternoon. 

State Rep. Gary Eisen, R-St. Clair Township, made the comments Monday morning during an interview with Port Huron-area radio station WPHM-AM (1380). He was asked about the Electoral College, members of which were set to meet Monday in the state Senate chamber to cast the state’s 16 electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden. 

Eisen made the comments in the context of he and others in Lansing having some sort of event, either at the Capitol or somewhere else. He said he could not rule out the possibility of violence.  Continue reading.

Can Congress Overturn the Electoral College Results? Probably Not

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Republicans are planning one final showdown. They are almost certain to fail, but not before Vice President Mike Pence is thrust into having to declare President Trump the loser.

The Electoral College’s certification on Monday of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory left just one final venue for President Trump and his supporters to challenge the results of the 2020 election: a joint session of Congress in January.

Every four years, the House and Senate come together to formally tabulate the electoral votes and raise any final concerns about the results. Normally, it is a perfunctory confirmation of the Electoral College vote. But this year, some of the president’s most strident supporters are threatening to transform it into a messy last stand by objecting to the results.

They are all but certain to fail, but not before a potentially divisive spectacle on the floor of the House that could thrust Vice President Mike Pence into the politically perilous position of confirming that Mr. Trump lost. Here’s how the process works. Continue reading.

Trump And His Allies Have Lost Nearly 60 Election Fights In Court (And Counting)

The campaign’s latest legal failures come as the Electoral College votes to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s win on Monday.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump had another brutal weekend in court, with the US Supreme Court and other judges across the country rejecting his latest efforts to overturn his loss to President-elect Joe Biden.

Trump and his allies have lost 59 times in court since Nov. 3, according to a running tally on Twitterfrom Marc Elias, the lawyer leading Democrats’ fight against the GOP’s post-election challenges. The Supreme Court’s one-paragraph rejection of Trump and Texas’ bid to invalidate more than 20 million votes on Friday night was just one of a string of fresh losses that the president has faced over the past 72 hours alone.

The odds that the justices would step in on the eve of Monday’s Electoral College vote to throw the presidential race into turmoil were slim to none. The justices stopped Texas’s unprecedented attempt to sue Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Michigan — all states that Biden won — at the door. But judges ruled over the weekend in other, narrower legal fights that the president filed in recent weeks, and rejected those, too. Continue reading.

GOP strategist reveals the ‘trap’ Republicans ‘fell into’ — prompting Trump to lash out at Georgia’s Brian Kemp

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President Donald Trump is still lashing out at Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, as the president attacked him as a “fool” on Twitter early on Monday morning.

The Washington Post reports that Trump has been unhappy with Kemp for the last year, starting when Kemp told Trump that he planned to appoint Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) to the Senate even though the president felt there were better options.

The tensions all came to a head last month when Trump lost Georgia and Kemp refused to intervene to steal the state for him. Continue reading.

Secession And Martial Law Obsess Right-Wing Media Outlets

After the Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to overturn the election, many far-right pro-Trump media figures, social media personalities, Republican Party officials, and former congressional candidates expressed support for secession from the United States or the use of the military to overturn the election which President Donald Trump lost.

The lawsuit sought, in a “seditious abuse of judicial process,” to invalidate the election results from several swing states that contributed to President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. This extreme attempt to overthrow our democracy garnered mainstream Republican support, with 17 GOP state attorneys general and more than half of House Republicans signing on in support of it.

The Supreme Court’s rejection of the lawsuit did not end Trump supporters’ calls to overturn the election results. While treason talk — fueled by Rush Limbaugh — had already begun in the right-wing circles before the Supreme Court announced its decision, it really took off afterward. Continue reading.

‘A dark, empty place:’ Public officials face personal threats as tensions flare

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State and local officials of both parties have warned that President Trump’s increasingly desperate tweets about election fraud are fueling the potential for violence as well as another ominous trend of 2020, in which public servants and others who disagree are targeted at their offices and homes with armed protests, harassing phone calls and stalkers.

Last week, an “enemies” list of state and federal officials who rejected Trump’s baseless election conspiracy theories floated up from the dark corners of the Web, with home addresses listed and red targets over their photos, the latest in a string of threats to public officials.

The list falsely accused swing-state governors, voting systems executives and the former top U.S. cybersecurity official responsible for securing November’s presidential election of “changing votes and working against the President” in a treasonous attempt to “overthrow our democracy.” The names from the list shared on social media included the hashtags #remembertheirfaces and #NoQuarterForTraitors. Continue reading.

Trump allies in Wisconsin legislature are stiffing Dane, Milwaukee Co’s $3 million recount costs

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It appears that the Trump campaign’s promise to pay for the work of Wisconsin ballot workers for the added costs incurred in unnecessary and pointless vote recounts Trump demanded as part of his futile effort to overturn the 2020 election has gone the way of that equally imaginary $200 “Medicare Card” promised to seniors, just before they went to the polls in November.

As reported in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

MADISON – The Republican-led Legislature’s budget committee is holding up reimbursements to two counties for their recount costs.

President Donald Trump’s campaign paid $3 million for recounts in Dane and Milwaukee counties, Wisconsin’s two most Democratic areas.

But two top Republicans said Friday they were withholding the money from the counties for now. They did not explain why.

Continue reading.