Tag: 2020 election

Harvard Law Professor Hits Donald Trump With The Cold Truth: ‘You Are A Loser’

“You’ve got to move on,” Laurence Tribe told the president.

Harvard constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe on Tuesday condemned President Donald Trump’s futile bid to overturn the 2020 election result.

“Mr. Trump, you have lost,” Tribe said on CNN’s “Outfront” after the Supreme Court dismissed a Republican attempt to reverse Pennsylvania’s certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state.

“You’ve got to move on,” the commentator continued, noting that the United States needs to focus on things like the coronavirus pandemic and national security, not litigating the election. Continue reading.

Actually, all Minnesota GOPers in Congress signed brief to overturn election result

A clerical error left Reps. Jim Hagedorn and Pete Stauber off the list.

Rep. Tom Emmer wasn’t the only congressional Republican from Minnesota to sign an amicus brief to overturn the election result in favor of President Donald Trump.

Despite Joe Biden beating Trump in the Nov. 3 election, parts of the Republican Party and the Trump campaign have made numerous attempts to overturn the result through the courts, with the potential impact of disenfranchising millions of voters.

The latest attempt has seen the Texas Attorney General file a brief claiming the changes to mail-in and absentee voting in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Michigan were unconstitutional as the changes weren’t made by state legislatures. Continue reading.

Republicans Back Trump’s Election Lies To Please Their Base

And to protect their political future.

Hundreds of elected and appointed Republicans around the country are backing President Donald Trump’s false claims he won the 2020 presidential election, a widespread embrace that is likely to empower Trump’s grip over the GOP even after he leaves office and turn belief in Trump’s falsehoods into a litmus test for a significant segment of Republican voters. 

The Republicans embracing Trump’s cause, and the nonsensical conspiracy theories used to justify it, come from every level of government. They include prominent senators like Texas’ Ted Cruz, ambitious attorneys general, well-known conservative bombthrowers and little-known state legislators. They are egged on by a vocal portion of GOP voters who refuse to accept President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, and are unlikely to change their minds anytime soon. 

“This is going to be a long-term litmus test for some Republicans. Even though Trump’s leaving office, he’s not going to let go of the reins of the party,” said Ryan Williams, a GOP operative who was a top spokesman for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. He contrasted Trump with former Republican President George W. Bush: “He’s not going to go back to Crawford, Texas, to paint portraits of dogs and foreign leaders.”  Continue reading.

Letter from 1,500 attorneys says Trump campaign lawyers don’t have ‘license to lie’

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More than 1,500 lawyers condemned efforts by the Trump campaign’s legal team to reverse the election results in an open letter that urged the American Bar Association (ABA) to investigate the conduct of the team, including its leader, Rudolph W. Giuliani.

“President Trump’s barrage of litigation is a pretext for a campaign to undermine public confidence in the outcome of the 2020 election, which inevitably will subvert constitutional democracy,” the letter says. “Sadly, the President’s primary agents and enablers in this effort are lawyers, obligated by their oath and ethical rules to uphold the rule of law.”

The letter escalates the concerns of Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) who on Nov. 20 filed complaints with ethics boards in five states calling for Giuliani and other members of the team to be investigated and disbarred. The criticism has been echoed in op-eds and letters by attorneys who have rebuked the team for filing frivolous lawsuits and tarnishing the legal profession. Continue reading.

Tensions over Minnesota election outcome on display as Senate panel meets

At GOP-led hearing on election integrity, Secretary of State Steve Simon warns of ‘disinformation.’ 

Disinformation and conspiracy theories about this year’s vote are a danger to election workers and democracy itself, Minnesota Secretary of State Simon warned Tuesday at a state Senate hearing called to examine the election’s integrity.

With the presidential race’s outcome under continued but unsuccessful legal attack by President Donald Trump and allies, Republican state Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer of Big Lake raised questions about pandemic-driven changes to Minnesota’s voting procedures that have since been the subject of court wrangling.

Still, Kiffmeyer, a former secretary of state and frequent critic of Simon, said in a subsequent press release that “so far, claims of widespread fraud have not held up under scrutiny or in the courts.” Continue reading.

As Trump Rails Against Loss, His Supporters Become More Threatening

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The president’s baseless claims of voting fraud have prompted outrage among his loyalists and led to behavior that Democrats and even some Republicans say has become dangerous.

With a key deadline passing Tuesday that all but ends his legal challenges to the election, President Trump’s frenzied campaign to overturn the results has reached an inflection point: Certified slates of electors to the Electoral College are now protected by law, and any chance that a state might appoint a different slate that is favorable to Mr. Trump is essentially gone.

Despite his clear loss, Mr. Trump has shown no intention of stopping his sustained assault on the American electoral process. But his baseless conspiracy theories about voting fraud have devolved into an exercise in delegitimizing the election results, and the rhetoric is accelerating among his most fervent allies. This has prompted outrage among Trump loyalists and led to behavior that Democrats and even some Republicans say has become dangerous.

Supporters of the president, some of them armed, gathered outside the home of the Michigan secretary of state Saturday night. Racist death threats filled the voice mail of Cynthia A. Johnson, a Michigan state representative. Georgia election officials, mostly Republicans, say they have received threats of violence. The Republican Party of Arizona, on Twitter, twice called for supporters to be willing to “die for something” or “give my life for this fight.” Continue reading.

Supreme Court rejects Texas lawsuit challenging swing-state election results

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The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that sought to invalidate 10 million votes in four battleground states — Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin — that President Trump lost.

Why it matters: It’s the latest and most significant legal defeat for Trump and his allies in their floundering attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump tweeted Wednesday, “We will be INTERVENING in the Texas (plus many other states) case. This is the big one. Our Country needs a victory!”

What they’re saying: “The State of Texas’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot,” the Supreme Court wrote. Continue reading.

DFL Party Statement on Stauber’s Support for Overturning the 2020 Presidential Election

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement in response to Congressman Pete Stauber adding his name to an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election:

“By signing onto a clear plot to undo the decision of American voters, Congressman Pete Stauber has confirmed once and for all that he’s nothing more than a far-right extremist willing to place his political party ahead of the United States Constitution.

“If the lawsuit Stauber backs is successful, it will help bring about the end of American democracy by invalidating millions of votes and placing an unelected man in the most powerful office in the world. 

“Stauber’s support for a thinly veiled coup attempt should disqualify him from holding public office again in the eyes of all Minnesotans. Since Stauber is willing to place his political party before his country, Minnesota voters from across the political spectrum should respond by placing their country before their party and voting out Pete Stauber.”

Ex-election security chief Christopher Krebs sues Trump campaign, lawyer for defamation

Christopher Krebs, the government’s former election security chief who was fired for describing the November vote as the most secure in history, sued the Trump campaign and one of the president’s lawyers for defamation Tuesday, claiming that the attorney falsely characterized his remarks as treasonous while suggesting that Krebs be “taken out at dawn and shot.”

In the legal action filed in a Maryland state court, Krebs characterized Joseph diGenova’s statements during a Nov. 30 Newsmax broadcast as “shockingly irresponsible and dangerous.”

The former Department of Homeland Security official asserted that diGenova’s commentary was especially troubling because it was “released into the current climate of political toxicity and instability, in which public officials across the country…are being targeted with acts and threats of violence simply for performing their public duties.” Continue reading.