Tag: 2020 election

Newsmax and One America News gain prominence as they push Trump’s baseless theories

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Since his reelection loss, President Trump has launched a campaign against Fox News and encouraged his allies to tune into more extreme conservative news outlets such as Newsmax and One America News. Trump still harbors a grudge after Fox News called states and the presidency for Joe Biden, and he has expressed admiration for Newsmax and OAN’s more credulous coverage of his baseless voter-fraud allegations.

A new survey suggests it’s having an impact.

The survey from Gallup and the Knight Foundation shows an increase in the number of Americans who name Newsmax and OAN as being among two to three news sources they rely most upon. Continue reading.

Trump’s options dwindle as safe harbor deadline looms

President Donald Trump’s effort to snatch a second term through a series of state and federal court challenges has been flaming out for weeks. Now, the calendar has all but extinguished it.

Dec. 8 is the so-called “safe harbor” date for the presidential election, a milestone established in federal law for states to conclude any disputes over the results. Trump’s failure to gain traction in litigation, with his lawyers and allies failing to block crucial states from declaring Joe Biden the winner, means the safe harbor deadline stands as another potentially insurmountable reason for the courts to decline to intervene.

Trump’s legal team publicly says the safe harbor deadline is meaningless and they’ll simply disregard it. Set by a 140-year-old statute, the date isn’t enshrined in the Constitution, they say. But the campaign’s legal filings tell another story, as Trump’s lawyers pressed courts for urgent action ahead of the deadline midnight on Tuesday and warned of irreparable consequences if they don’t. Continue reading.

Trump asks Pennsylvania House speaker for help overturning election results, personally intervening in a third state

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President Trump called the speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives twice during the past week to make an extraordinary request for help reversing his loss in the state, reflecting a broadening pressure campaign by the president and his allies to try to subvert the 2020 election result.

The calls, confirmed by House Speaker Bryan Cutler’s office, make Pennsylvania the third state where Trump has directly attempted to overturn a result since he lost the election to former vice president Joe Biden. He previously reached out to Republicans in Michigan, and on Saturday he pressured Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) in a call to try to replace that state’s electors.

The president’s outreach to Pennsylvania’s Republican House leader came after his campaign and its allies decisively lost numerous legal challenges in the state in both state and federal court. Trump has continued to press his baseless claims of widespread voting irregularities both publicly and privately. Continue reading.

These 1,500+ attorneys argue Trump’s legal team must face sanctions for ‘historic abuse’

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As President Donald Trump continues what critics have called a “narcissistic crusade” contesting his loss of the November election with lies and baseless lawsuits about election fraud and security, by Monday more than 1,500 attorneys across the country had signed on to a call for bar associations to condemn and investigate his campaign’s lawyers.

Although even some Trump allies like U.S. Attorney General William Barr have admitted there is no evidence of mass voter fraud that led to President-elect Joe Biden’s victory last month, the president’s attorneys have continued to pursue suits that “have become so transparently filed in bad faith that state and local officials are beginning to call for judges to sanction Trump campaign and Republican lawyers,” as Vox noted Saturday.

Those calls are coupled with the Lawyers Defending American Democracy (LDAD) open letter, which has now been signed by hundreds of attorneys—among them, former American Bar Association (ABA) and state bar presidents, retired federal judges and state Supreme Court justices, and former leaders of lawyer disciplinary bodies. Continue reading.

US election spending exceeds GDP of numerous countries

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Americans spend more on politics and political campaigns than any other nation on Earth, and the 2020 election once again rewrote the fundraising record books.

U.S. spending is such that it’s barely comparable to the amounts in other countries.

In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party spent 16 million pounds on the 2019 campaign that handed them a majority in Parliament, about $21.3 million based on today’s exchange rate. That’s less than the amount Democrats and Republicans spent on the 21st Congressional District in Texas, where Rep. Chip Roy (R) held off a challenge from former state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) last month. Continue reading.

Conservative nonprofit group challenging election results around the country has tie to Trump legal adviser Jenna Ellis

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A conservative legal organization that has filed lawsuits challenging the election results in five states has a tie to President Trump’s legal team, raising questions about the independence of what has appeared to be an endeavor separate from the president’s last-gasp legal maneuvering.

Senior Trump campaign legal adviser Jenna Ellis serves as special counsel to the Thomas More Society, which has filed lawsuits through the newly formed Amistad Project alleging problems with the vote in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The Thomas More Society confirmed her relationship to the group but said she is playing no role in its election-related activities. Continue reading.

Georgia secretary of state recertifies election results after recount

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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) recertified the results of the state’s presidential election on Monday after a recount completed last week reaffirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

“It’s been 34 days since the election on Nov. 3,” Raffensperger said at a news conference at the Georgia Capitol earlier in the day. “We have now counted legally cast ballots three times and the results remain unchanged.”

The recertification of the results amounted to a major blow to President Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the presidential race. Trump has repeatedly refused to acknowledge his loss to Biden and has falsely claimed that the election outcome was marred by widespread voter fraud and systemic irregularities.

Federal judge rejects Michigan Republicans’ effort to decertify election results

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A federal judge on Monday rejected Michigan Republicans’ effort to have their state’s election results decertified.

Judge Linda Parker denied a request for an injunction submitted by a group of President Trump‘s electors against state officials, finding that their lawsuit is “far from likely to succeed in this matter.”

“In fact, this lawsuit seems to be less about achieving the relief Plaintiffs seek—as much of that relief is beyond the power of this Court—and more about the impact of their allegations on People’s faith in the democratic process and their trust in our government,” Parker wrote in her 36-page decision. “Plaintiffs ask this Court to ignore the orderly statutory scheme established to challenge elections and to ignore the will of millions of voters.  This, the Court cannot, and will not, do.”  Continue reading.

New electoral districts are coming – an old approach can show if they’re fair

When the results of the 2020 U.S. Census are released, states will use the figures to draw new electoral district maps for the U.S. House of Representatives and for state legislatures. This process has been controversial since the very early days of the nation – and continues to be so today.

Electoral district maps designate which people vote for which seat, based on where they live. Throughout history, these maps have often been drawn to give one party or another a political advantage, diluting the power of some people’s votes.

In the modern era, advanced math and computer algorithms are regularly used to analyze potential district boundaries, making it easier to spot these unfairnesses, called gerrymandering. But there is a simpler way – and it’s based on a system used early in the country’s history. Continue reading.

Trump’s Re-Election Is Confederacy’s New ‘Lost Cause’

You can tell a lot about people by studying their priorities.

President Donald Trump is not spending too much time worrying about coronavirus surges and more than 270,000 Americans dead, as Dr. Anthony Fauci offers warnings about being vigilant while waiting for vaccine distribution. You did not hear the president express sympathy for those waiting in long lines for food over the holidays.

Instead, he has played a lot of golf and wailed on Twitter and television, refusing to accept his loss last month to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. Oh, yes, and the Justice Department found time to amend protocols to allow firing squads and electrocutions as a means to execute as many federal prisoners as possible before a new administration takes over. Continue reading.