Tag: 2020 election

This is the face of radical-Republican contempt

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Joe Biden just won more votes than anyone else in American history, but the next four years may go down in history as the stymied presidency. That’s because it looks highly unlikely that the Democrats will get a majority in the Senate, leaving the chamber under the iron-fisted control of Mitch McConnell, patron saint of polluters and profiteers.

Even before noon on Jan. 20, 2021, Donald Trump will be in a position to do enormous harm that will complicate the Biden presidency. Indeed, we should expect Trump is already looking for ways to use his last eight weeks in office to punish our nation—or at least the states that voted for Biden.

That assessment comes not from me, but from Trump himself. His life philosophy is a single word: revenge. Continue reading.

Several Minnesota Republicans join Trump in raising election concerns

Prominent Minnesota Republican leaders joined President Donald Trump in questioning the results of an election that remained too close to call Friday, some raising unsupported doubts about the integrity of the election in the state, where Democratic challenger Joe Biden won by more than 233,000 votes.

The Trump campaign’s Minnesota chairman, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, said without evidence that he does not believe any of the results from Minnesota, including the 5 percentage-point victory of U.S. Sen. Tina Smith over GOP challenger Jason Lewis.

“I don’t know who would even vote for Tina Smith or Biden,” Lindell said. “People I talked to, everyone I know was voting the other way. I don’t know where this vote came from, I guess it’s this crazy liberal progressive stuff that starts downtown with the colleges.” Continue reading.

‘Hold on to your seats’: Trump facing reality of ‘2 avenues’ of criminal charges after loss to Joe Biden

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One day after Donald Trump learned he won’t be serving a second term, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said the president needs to prepare himself for the possibility of criminal indictments the moment President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.

Speaking with host Christi Paul, the former federal prosecutor said the country should expect a flurry of pardons from Trump including the possibility he may try to pardon himself.

“The president by law retains all of his power until January 20th with the inauguration. With that said, what do you expect is going to happen between now and Inauguration Day?” host Paul asked. Continue reading.

Denial, and Resignation, From Trump and a Handful of Aides

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Aides said the president had no plans to immediately deliver the kind of concession speech that has become traditional in past elections, and his campaign vowed to continue waging its legal battle across the country.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s motorcade was just pulling into the Trump National Golf Club in suburban Virginia on Saturday morning when news organizations ended days of waiting and declared that he had lost the presidency to Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Aides called Mr. Trump to let him know that their predictions over the past several days had come true: Every major news outlet had projected Mr. Biden to be the winner. But the president — who an hour earlier had said on Twitter that “I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!” — was not surprised, they said. And he did not change his plans to go ahead with legal challenges to the election results that several of his own advisers warned him were long shots at best, or to play golf.

The aides said Mr. Trump had no plans to immediately deliver the kind of concession speech that has become traditional in past presidential elections, and his campaign vowed to continue waging the legal battle across the country. In a statement issued while he was still on the golf course, Mr. Trump said Mr. Biden was trying to “falsely pose” as the winner. Continue reading.

How Trump’s erratic behavior and failure on coronavirus doomed his reelection

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The same impulses that helped lift the president to
victory in 2016 contributed to his undoing four years later.

Air Force One was descending into Detroit when President Trump posed a question that would come to define his entire approach to the deadly coronavirus pandemic: “Do you think I should wear a mask?” he asked the aides and advisers gathered in the plane’s front cabin.

Trump was headed to visit a Ford Motor plant in Ypsilanti, Mich., which by May was already a coronavirus hot zone, with more than 5,000 dead,thousands more sickened — and cases still spiking — in the critical Midwest battleground state.

But the responses were nearly unanimous, with senior White House officials arguing that wearing a mask was unnecessary and would send a bad signal to the public about the magnitude of the crisis. Continue reading.

Why Republicans and others concerned about the economy have reason to celebrate Biden in the White House

On day one, a newly inaugurated President Joe Biden will have to address a devastated economy – much like he and former President Barack Obama did a decade ago. 

What can the country expect? 

Forecasting how the economy will perform under a new president is generally a fool’s errand. How much or how little credit the person in the White House deserves for the health of the economy is a matter of debate, and no economist can confidently predict how the president’s policies will play out – if they even go into effect – or what challenges might emerge.  Continue reading.

Kamala Harris, daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, elected nation’s first female vice president

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A vice president-elect stepped forward on Saturday, and, for the first time in American history, she was not a man.

Kamala Devi Harris, a daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, is set to become the highest-ranking woman in the nation’s 244-year existence, as well as a high-profile representation of the country’s increasingly diverse composition.

Harris’s victory comes 55 years after the Voting Rights Act abolished laws that disenfranchised Black Americans, 36 years after the first woman ran on a presidential ticket and four years after Democrats were devastated by the defeat of Hillary Clinton, the only woman to win the presidential nomination of a major party. Continue reading.

How Biden got across the finish line

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There were many moments in Joe Biden’s campaign when his aides thought they would never reach the finish line. 

After the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, where Biden finished a dismal fifth with just 8.4 percent of the vote.

During difficult debate nights with rival Democrats who mocked the former vice president and challenged him. And in between when they couldn’t get donors to return their calls. Continue reading.

Trump’s wild claims test limits of Republican loyalty

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s wild and unsupported claims of voter fraud have emerged as a high-stakes Republican loyalty test that illustrates the tug of war likely to define the future of the GOP whether he wins or loses the presidency.

There is a pervasive sense among current and former GOP officials that the president’s behavior is irresponsible if not dangerous, but a divide has emerged between those influential Republicans willing to call him out publicly and those who aren’t. 

Driving their calculus is an open acknowledgement that Trump’s better-than-expected showing on Election Day ensures that he will remain the Republican Party’s most powerful voice for years to come even if he loses. Continue reading.

In Nevada, Republicans Accuse Military Voters Of Committing ‘Fraud’

A legal complaint filed by the Nevada Republican Party alleges that members of the military committed voter fraud by voting legally.

The criminal referral, sent by the party to the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday, baselessly alleges “at least 3,062 instances of voter fraud” in Tuesday’s elections in the state. “Thousands of individuals have been identified who appear to have violated the law by casting ballots after they moved from NV,” the party claimed.

But according to the Washington Post, Nevada law allows many people temporarily residing out of state to continue to participate in elections. This includes Nevadans serving in the military and their spouses as well as those attending colleges outside of Nevada. Continue reading.