Tag: 2020 election

Pennsylvania AG blasts Texas election suit as ‘seditious abuse’ of judicial process

The Hill logo

Pennsylvania’s attorney general on Thursday called Texas’s bid to invalidate the election results of Pennsylvania and three other battleground states a “seditious abuse of the judicial process.” 

The fiery Supreme Court brief from state Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D), which urged the justices to “send a clear and unmistakable signal that such abuse must never be replicated,” came as battle lines hardened in the unprecedented and long-shot legal dispute.

Texas on Monday filed a petition to the Supreme Court seeking to stop presidential electors in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin from finalizing President-elect Joe Biden‘s victory. Continue reading.

Legislatures across country plan sweeping election reform push

The Hill logo

State legislatures across the country are contemplating sweeping changes to the way elections are administered after a tumultuous presidential contest, one that ended with both the highest voter turnout in American history and the outgoing president baselessly calling its integrity into question.

In its wake, election rules have become the hottest topic for state legislatures, especially in presidential battleground states. 

Lawmakers in a handful of states have begun introducing legislation in so-called pre-filing periods, windows that open before a session begins that enable lawmakers to propose bills. At least 60 election-related bills have been introduced in Texas, 26 are pending in New Hampshire and 41 in Montana, according to a count compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Continue reading.

Federal judge reminds Sydney Powell how US elections work in yet another blow to ‘kraken’ conspiracy suits

AlterNet logo

Things are not going well for President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Sydney Powell after a federal judge on Wednesday reminded her of how elections work in the United States.

In a 45-page ruling on Powell’s lawsuit in Wisconsin, U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper reminded Powell that federal judges do not appoint the President of the United States, according to Law & Crime.

“Federal judges do not appoint the president in this country,” Pepper wrote. “One wonders why the plaintiffs came to federal court and asked a federal judge to do so. After a week of sometimes odd and often harried litigation, the court is no closer to answering the ‘why.’ But this federal court has no authority or jurisdiction to grant the relief the remaining plaintiff seeks.” Continue reading.

Supreme Court deals reality check to Trump’s post-election legal fight

The Hill logo

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dealt a reality check to President Trump’s far-fetched bid to overturn his election loss through the courts, just hours after he implored the justices to clear a path toward his second term despite having lost the race by more than 7 million votes.

To court watchers, it came as no surprise to see the justices deny an emergency bid by Trump-allied Pennsylvania Republicans to nullify President-elect Joe Biden’s certified victory in the Keystone State — a state Biden won by more than 81,000 ballots.

For Trump, however, the justices’ defiance of his plea prompted a now-familiar refrain amid his series of disappointing post-election court fights, with Trump downplaying the significance of the loss while reassuring supporters that his increasingly desperate legal campaign would ultimately secure his reelection.  Continue reading.

Most Trump voters live in states won by Biden

Washington Post logo

A colleague posed an interesting question to me Wednesday morning: What was the largest city that supported President Trump over President-elect Joe Biden in last month’s election?

I won’t make you read any further to learn the answer. It was Oklahoma City, the nation’s 25th-largest city.

The answer itself undersells the nuances that a look at the country’s most populous places can reveal. We tend to think of cities as heavily Democratic, and with good reason. They are. There are a lot of reasons for that, which we’ve explored before, including that cities are less densely White than suburban or rural areas and that they have in recent decades been a magnet for younger, college-educated people, who tend to be more liberal. So we aren’t surprised when we hear that the top 24 largest cities backed Biden. It’s what we’d expect. Continue reading.

Trump’s embarrassing Four-Pinocchio claim about Florida and Ohio

Washington Post logo

“No candidate has ever won both Florida and Ohio and lost. I won them both, by a lot! #SupremeCourt”

— President Trump, in a tweet, Dec. 9, 2020

“President Trump prevailed on nearly every historical indicia of success in presidential elections. For example, he won both Florida and Ohio; no candidate in history—Republican or Democrat—has ever lost the election after winning both States.”

— Trump attorney John C. Eastman, in a filing to the Supreme Court, Dec. 9, 2020

This is false. Is anyone surprised?

The president has never shown a command of U.S. history and has been lying, misleading and peddling baseless conspiracy theories like a sludge pipe since losing the Nov. 3 presidential election to Joe Biden, who earned 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232.

This falsehood appears both on Twitter and in a Trump filing to the Supreme Court. It’s a good example of how hollow and easily disprovable Trump’s claims are as he seeks to delegitimize and overturn the election results. It takes seconds to fact-check this false claim — for those who bother with the truth, anyway. Continue reading.

Relax, A Trump Comeback In 2024 Is Not Going To Happen

We’ve seen this president’s type before. They always fade away.

Donald Trump lost the presidency, but his opponents so far have not achieved the victory they want most: A fatal puncturing of the Trump movement, a repudiation so complete that it severs his astonishing grip on supporters and leaves him with no choice but to slink offstage and into the blurry past.

For now, Trump dominates conversations about both present and future. His outlandish claims that he won the election except for comprehensive fraud have helped raise more than $200 million since Election Day. Many of his partisans share his dream of recapturing the presidency in 2024. For those who despise him, to paraphrase a famous Democratic speech, it seems clear the work goes on, the cause endures, the fear still lives, and the nightmare shall never die.

Except it will die — most likely with more speed and force than looks possible today. Continue reading.

Trump pressures congressional Republicans to help in his fight to overturn the election

Washington Post logo

President Trump is shifting his focus to Congress after the courts roundly rejected his bid to overturn the results of the election, pressuring congressional Republicans into taking a final stand to keep him in power.

Trump’s push is part of a multipronged approach as he also seeks to lobby state lawmakers and officials to give him cover for his unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, as well as rally support for a last-gasp legal challenge in the Supreme Court that election law experts almost universally dismiss.

The president has been calling Republicans, imploring them to keep fighting and more loudly proclaim the election was stolen while pressing them on what they plan to do. He spoke to Arizona GOP Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), head of the conservative Republican Study Committee, on Wednesday, and is meeting Thursday at the White House with several state attorneys general. Meanwhile, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer and point man in the legal fight, has been making similar calls from the hospital, where he is being treated for covid-19. Continue reading.

Even in Defeat, Trump Tightens Grip on State G.O.P. Lawmakers

New York Times logo

In Pennsylvania, the president’s false claims of a rigged vote may inflame the party base for years to come. One lawmaker said that refusing to back up his assertions would “get my house bombed.”

Last week, allies of President Trump accused Republican leaders in Pennsylvania of being “cowards” and “liars” and of letting America down.

Mr. Trump himself called top Republicans in the General Assembly in his crusade to twist the arms of officials in several states and reverse an election he lost. The Pennsylvania lawmakers told the president they had no power to convene a special session to address his grievances.

But they also rewarded his efforts: On Friday, the State House speaker and majority leader joined hard-right colleagues — whom they had earlier resisted — and called on Congress to reject Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s 81,000-vote victory in Pennsylvania. Continue reading.

Here’s how Trump undermined Texas’ Hail Mary election lawsuit with a single tweet: law professor

AlterNet logo

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this week sued four key battleground states lost by President Donald Trump in the hopes of overturning the 2020 presidential election.

Legal experts have picked apart the lawsuit and have said it stands little chance of even being heard by the United States Supreme Court, let alone succeeding.

And according to University of Texas School of Law professor Stephen Vladeck, Trump may have further undermined an already-shaky case with a tweet that he posted on Wednesday morning. Continue reading.