Tag: Trump fake voter fraud crisis

Threats of violence and the virus grip Capitol Hill

The new Congress confronts a week of unrest.

Their first week back in Washington, lawmakers are grappling with an unprecedented mix of dangers on the job: intense pro-Trump rallies that authorities fear could turn violent and a deadly pandemic that has already claimed one of their own. 

And that doesn’t include what many in both parties consider an entirely different threat to American democracy — a historic effort by a growing band of Republicans to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential victory on the floors of Congress.

Congressional and D.C. officials are bracing for clashes in the streets on Wednesday, when dozens of GOP lawmakers will launch that doomed attempt to challenge the election results. President Donald Trump has encouraged his hardcore supporters — who have framed Jan. 6 as a battle akin to the American Revolution and encouraged each other to bring firearms — to march in the “wild” protests in hopes of pressuring Congress to keep him in power. Continue reading.

Business leaders urge Congress to certify Biden win

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Almost 200 of the country’s top business leaders urged Congress to certify the electoral results for President-elect Joe Biden in a letter Monday, arguing that “attempts to thwart or delay this process run counter to the essential tenets of our democracy.”

The letter marked the business community’s most significant push yet to ensure President Trump’s efforts to overturn the November election are unsuccessful. Signers included a wide array of executives of Fortune 500 companies, from the leaders of banks, airlines, investment firms, pharmaceutical companies, professional sports leagues, real estate conglomerates, top law firms and media companies.

“The presidential election has been decided and it is time for the country to move forward,” the letter reviewed by The Washington Post said. “ … The incoming Biden administration faces the urgent tasks of defeating covid-19 and restoring the livelihoods of millions of Americans who have lost jobs and businesses during the pandemic.” Continue reading.

Rep. Louie Gohmert Backpedals On ‘Be Violent’ Comments After Election Lawsuit Loss

The Texas lawmaker compares his philosophy to Martin Luther King’s, even as he rails to overthrow the democratic election.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) issued a statement Saturday backpedaling on his controversial comments indicating that street violence is the only recourse in the wake of his lawsuit loss to overturn the results of the democratic presidential election.

Gohmert made the remarks about violence Friday on the far-right news channel Newsmax. He spoke after U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle shot down his court case that argued Vice President Mike Pence has the power to unilaterally reappoint Donald Trump as president by selectively choosing the electoral votes he’ll recognize, and replacing the others with votes for Trump.

The judge ruled Gohmert had no standing to sue. Continue reading.

All 10 living former defense secretaries: Involving the military in election disputes would cross into dangerous territory

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Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Mark Esper, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, James Mattis, Leon Panetta, William Perry and Donald Rumsfeld are the 10 living former U.S. secretaries of defense.

As former secretaries of defense, we hold a common view of the solemn obligations of the U.S. armed forces and the Defense Department. Each of us swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We did not swear it to an individual or a party.

American elections and the peaceful transfers of power that result are hallmarks of our democracy. With one singular and tragic exception that cost the lives of more Americans than all of our other wars combined, the United States has had an unbroken record of such transitions since 1789, including in times of partisan strife, war, epidemics and economic depression. This year should be no exception.

Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived. Continue reading.

Ex-GOP Speaker Ryan denounces effort to challenge Electoral College results

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Former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Sunday blasted Congressional Republicans’ efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

“Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden’s victory strike at the foundation of our republic. It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans,” Ryan said in a statement.

“The Trump campaign had ample opportunity to challenge election results, and those efforts failed from lack of evidence,” the statement continues. “The legal process was exhausted, and the results were decisively confirmed. The Department of Justice, too, found no basis for overturning the result. If states wish to reform their processes for future elections, that is their prerogative. But Joe Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate.” Continue reading.

Fox News host rips ‘outrageous’ GOP Electoral College plot: ‘It’s a very dangerous precedent’

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Fox News host Jedidiah Bila on Sunday criticized Republicans who want to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory by officially objecting to the results of the Electoral College.

“I actually find it really outrageous,” Bila explained to Fox News host Howard Kurtz. “And the reason is that if you look at what’s gone on here, I think the media has actually been pretty fair, particularly the news divisions.”

“This has gone through the courts,” she continued. “Sixty cases have been brought to the courts, oftentimes widespread voter fraud has not even been alleged in court because there simply isn’t evidence to support that. If you look at the evidence that has been shown, it does not support that.” Continue reading.

‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’: In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor

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President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that election experts said raised legal questions.

The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking “a big risk.”

Throughout the call, Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel rejected Trump’s assertions, explaining that the president is relying on debunked conspiracy theories and that President-elect Joe Biden’s 11,779-vote victory in Georgia was fair and accurate. Continue reading.

GOP Rep. Gohmert Openly Calls For Violence In The Streets After Losing In Court

At this point, Republicans might as well just open fire on Fort Sumter and be done with it. That’s the only way they could show more evidence of their “patriotism” and love for the Constitution. The only question is: Who’s going to be first? The whole right-of-center portion of the American political spectrum has fallen into a system where the selective pressure is all about being the most outrageous, the most extreme, the most willing to trample all the meaning of the American system into the mud while waving the symbols of that system overhead. It’s not a race to the bottom, because there is no bottom. But there is a point of no return, and Republicans have gone way, way past that point.

On Saturday, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz set out to prove just that when he arranged a whole legion of Republican senators who intend to “reject the electors” from certain states. “Certain,” in this case, means those states that didn’t vote for Donald Trump. But Cruz’s play to regain some of that sweet Traitor Energy that’s been going to Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley isn’t even the slimiest play of the day.

Because after losing in court, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert is flat out calling for people to commit violence to overthrow democracy. Continue reading.

George Conway only needed 11 words to sum up Pence’s embrace of GOP scheme to overturn the election

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More Republicans embraced the scheme by far-right supporters of Donald Trump to ignore the results of the 2020 election.

Trump lost the Electoral College and popular vote to President-elect Joe Biden, but some Republicans have joined the president in refusing to accept the fact that voter reject the GOP presidential ticket.

On Saturday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and ten additional GOP senators received harsh criticism after announcing they would go along with the effort to reject the will of the voters. Continue reading.

Pence Welcomes Futile Bid by G.O.P. Lawmakers to Overturn Election

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Vice President Mike Pence signaled his support as 11 Republican senators and senators-elect said that they would vote to reject President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory.

WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence signaled support on Saturday for a futile Republican bid to overturn the election in Congress next week, after 11 Republican senators and senators-elect said that they would vote to reject President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory when the House and Senate meet to formally certify it.

The announcement by the senators — and Mr. Pence’s move to endorse it — reflected a groundswell among Republicans to defy the unambiguous results of the election and indulge President Trump’s attempts to remain in power with false claims of voting fraud.

Every state in the country has certified the election results after verifying their accuracy, many following postelection audits or hand counts. Judges across the country, and a Supreme Court with a conservative majority, have rejected nearly 60 attempts by Mr. Trump and his allies to challenge the results. Continue reading.