Biden on the Electoral Vote

In Defying the Odds, we discuss the 2016 campaign, where Trump openly encouraged violence. .  His legal challenges to the election of Joseph Biden have toggled between appalling and farcical.    But his base continues to believe the bogus narrative.

 From President-elect Biden's statement on the formal vote of the electors:

In America, when questions are raised about the legitimacy of any election, those questions are resolved through a legal process.

And that is precisely what happened here.

The Trump campaign brought dozens and dozens and dozens of legal challenges to test the results.

They were heard. And they were found to be without merit.

Time and again, President Trump’s lawyers presented their arguments to state officials, state legislatures, state and federal courts, and ultimately to the United States Supreme Court, twice.

They were heard by more than 80 judges across the country.

And in every case, no cause or evidence was found to reverse or question or dispute the results.

A few states went to recounts. All of the counts were confirmed.

The results in Georgia were counted three times. It did not change the outcome.

The recount conducted in Wisconsin actually saw our margin grow.

The margin we had in Michigan was fourteen times the margin President Trump won the state by four years ago.

Our margin in Pennsylvania was nearly twice the size of President Trump’s margin four years ago.

And yet none of this has stopped baseless claims about the legitimacy of the results.

Even more stunning, 17 Republican Attorneys General and 126 Republican Members of Congress actually signed on to a lawsuit filed by the State of Texas. It asked the United States Supreme Court to reject the certified vote counts in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

This legal maneuver was an effort by elected officials in one group of states to try to get the Supreme Court to wipe out the votes of more than twenty million Americans in other states and to hand the presidency to a candidate who lost the Electoral College, lost the popular vote, and lost each and every one of the states whose votes they were trying to reverse.

It’s a position so extreme we’ve never seen it before. A position that refused to respect the will of the people, refused to respect the rule of law, and refused to honor our Constitution.

Thankfully, a unanimous Supreme Court immediately and completely rejected this effort.

The Court sent a clear signal to President Trump and his allies that they would be no part of this unprecedented assault on our democracy.

Every avenue was made available to President Trump to contest the results.

He took full advantage of each and every one of these avenues.

President Trump was denied no course of action he wanted to take.

He took his case to Republican Governors and Republican Secretaries of State. To Republican state legislatures. To Republican-appointed judges at every level.

And in a case decided after the Supreme Court’s latest rejection, a judge appointed by President Trump wrote: “This court has allowed the plaintiff the chance to make his case, and he has lost on the merits.”

Even President Trump’s own cybersecurity chief overseeing our elections said it was the most secure in American history.

Let me say it again, his own cybersecurity chief overseeing this election said it was the most secure in American history.

Respecting the will of the people is at the heart of our democracy — even when we find those results hard to accept.

But that is the obligation of those who have taken a sworn duty to uphold our Constitution.

Four years ago, as the sitting Vice President of the United States, it was my responsibility to announce the tally of the Electoral College votes that elected Donald Trump.

I did my job.

And I am pleased — but not surprised — that a number of my former Republican colleagues in the Senate have acknowledged the results of the Electoral College.

I thank them. I am convinced we can work together for the good of the nation.

For some perspective, Biden won 31.5% of the voting age population, the second largest victory since 1968 and only bit below Reagan's 32% in 1984. pic.twitter.com/bE0mBIUXyl

— Philip Klinkner (@pklinkne) December 15, 2020

Violence and Threats

In Defying the Odds, we discuss the 2016 campaign, where Trump openly encouraged violence. .  His legal challenges to the election of Joseph Biden have toggled between appalling and farcical.    But his base continues to believe the bogus narrative.

Allison Klein at WP:

A Black Lives Matter banner and sign were torn from two historic Black churches in downtown D.C. and destroyed during pro-Trump protests Saturday night.

D.C. police said they are investigating the events as potential hate crimes.

In one of the incidents, videos posted on Twitter show a group of people identified as Proud Boys marching with a Black Lives Matter banner held above their heads, then cheering as it is set on fire while chanting “f--- antifa.”

The banner was taken from Asbury United Methodist Church, one of the oldest Black churches in the city. Asbury United has stood at the corner of 11th and K streets NW since 1836.

“Last night demonstrators who were part of the MAGA gatherings tore down our Black Lives Matter sign and literally burned it in the street,” the Rev. Ianther M. Mills, the church’s senior pastor, said in a statement. “It pained me especially to see our name, Asbury, in flames. For me it was reminiscent of cross burnings.”

Lisa Lerer and Reid J. Epstein at NYT:

In Michigan, Democratic electors have been promised police escorts from their cars into the State Capitol, where on Monday they will formally vote for Joseph R. Biden Jr.

In Arizona, state officials are holding the vote at an undisclosed location for safety reasons, far from what is expected to be a heated hearing on election integrity issues that Republicans will conduct in the Statehouse.

Even in Delaware, the tiny, deeply Democratic home state of the president-elect, officials relocated their ceremony to a college gymnasium, a site considered to have better security and public health controls.

For decades, Electoral College voters have served as the rubber-stamping bureaucrats of American democracy, operating well below the political radar as they provided pro forma certification of a new president. Despite its procedural nature, the role has long been considered an honor, bestowed as a way to recognize political stature or civic service.

This year, the Electoral College is another piece of routine election mechanics thrown into the cross hairs of President Trump’s sustained assault on voting integrity. After five weeks of lawsuits, recounts and Republican inquiries into unfounded claims of fraud, Americans will turn to the 538 members of the Electoral College to provide a measure of finality to Mr. Biden’s decisive victory.

And as small-town electors face harassment and more prominent figures adapt to increased security measures, a duty long considered a privilege has also become a headache. Even as the electors prepared to vote on Monday, Mr. Trump on Sunday railed on Twitter against the “MOST CORRUPT ELECTION IN U.S. HISTORY” and suggested that swing states could not certify “without committing a severely punishable crime” — further raising concerns about electors’ personal security

Lin Wood & Sidney Powell, having lost in federal & appellate courts, are now urging the president to sign an executive order declaring martial law to “clean up the election.” pic.twitter.com/JQfe60CQOC

— Brendan Keefe (@BrendanKeefe) December 14, 2020

Russia and Secession

 In Defying the Odds, we discuss Russian involvement in the 2016 campaign. 

Robin Abcarian at LAT:

Texas Republicans, who just lost their bid to have the Supreme Court overturn the legitimate results of our recent presidential election, talk constantly about secession. They call it #Texit.

In 2018, Teo Armus reported at The Texas Tribune:

A sprawling Russian disinformation campaign aimed at influencing the 2016 elections found success with social media accounts promoting the idea of Texas secession, according to a report commissioned by the U.S. Senate that was released Monday.

When it came to stirring up social divisions and exerting political influence, two accounts about the Lone Star State proved especially effective: a “Heart of Texas” Facebook page and a @rebeltexas account on Instagram.

Both accounts were created and managed by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company that’s been characterized by the U.S. government as a “troll farm” and was indicted by a federal grand jury.

Heart of Texas, which amassed hundreds of thousands of followers on Facebook, promoted an image of the state as a land of barbecue and guns while sharing posts that attacked immigration.

An example of the Russians' work:

In 2015, Casey Michel reported at Politico:

Nathan Smith, who styles himself the “foreign minister” for the Texas Nationalist Movement, appeared last Spring at a far-right confab in St. Petersburg, Russia. Despite roaming around in his cowboy hat, Smith managed to keep a low-key presence at the conference, which was dominated by fascists and neo-Nazis railing against Western decadence. But at least one Russian newspaper, Vzglyad, caught up with the American, noted that TNM is “hardly a marginal group,”and quoted Smith liberally on the excellent prospects for a partial breakup of the United States. Smith declared that the Texas National Movement has 250,000 supporters—including all the Texans currently serving in the U.S. Army—and they all “identify themselves first and foremost as Texans” but are being forced to remain Americans. The United States, he added, “is not a democracy, but a dictatorship.” The Kremlin’s famed troll farms took the interview and ran with it, with dozens of bots instantly tweeting about a “Free Texas.”

 

Not Accepting the Outcome of the Election or the Litigation

In Defying the Odds, we discuss Trump's dishonesty and his record of disregarding the rule of law.  His legal challenges to the election of Joseph Biden have toggled between appalling and farcical.    But his base continues to believe the bogus narrative.

Amy Howe at SCOTUSBlog:

The Supreme Court on Friday rebuffed Texas’ request to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in four states – Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – that provided key electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden. In a brief order issued just before 6:30 p.m., the justices explained that Texas lacked a legal right to sue, known as standing, and did not have a legal interest in how other states carried out their elections. As a result, the court rejected Texas’ lawsuit without considering the merits of the state’s case. Virtually all legal experts had given the lawsuit little chance of succeeding from the moment it was filed on Monday.

...

Justice Samuel Alito filed a short statement regarding the court’s disposition of the case that was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. Alito and Thomas have previously argued that the Supreme Court must take up any case that properly invokes its original jurisdiction, and Alito repeated that belief here. Therefore, Alito explained, he would allow Texas to file its lawsuit, but he “would not grant other relief.” Moreover, Alito added, he “express[ed] no view on any other issue” raised in the case.

Texas GOP chair floats secession for "law-abiding states" after Supreme Court defeat https://t.co/rCYe0fWSHs pic.twitter.com/IQOOjj7SLM

— The Hill (@thehill) December 12, 2020

Matt Lewis at The Daily Beast:

For some time now, NeverTrump conservatives like David French and Peter Wehner have been warning that “the Trump-evangelical alliance has inflicted enormous damage on the Christian witness in America, particularly among Millennials and Gen Z.” And for some time now, Christian leaders like Jerry Falwell, Jr. have beclowned themselves and ruined their reputations via their servile support of Trump. But what we are witnessing now is next-level stuff. “The stolen election narrative is becoming a new religious phenomenon,” warns author and blogger Rod Dreher, an Orthodox Christian who writes about religion, culture, and politics for The American Conservative.

Indeed, some Christians are attempting to intercede—to use the power of prayer and faith—to miraculously and supernaturally give Trump a second term. In one video, former Rep. Michele Bachmann prays: “Would you deliver these races in Georgia, O Father? Would you deliver various local and state races, Father… and O God, I personally ask, for myself, Michele Bachmann, Lord, would you allow Donald Trump to have a second term as president of the United States?” At least she was asking. In an attempt to supernaturally overturn the election, televangelist Kenneth Copeland performatively laughed at the notion that Biden would become president (this was after the AP called the race for him).

Texas Lawsuit

In Defying the Odds, we discuss Trump's dishonesty and his record of disregarding the rule of law.  His legal challenges to the election of Joseph Biden have toggled between appalling and farcical.    But his base continues to believe the bogus narrative.

Daniel Dale and Tara Subramaniam at CNN:

President Donald Trump filed a brief at the Supreme Court on Wednesday that featured some of the same false and misleading claims Trump has been making on Twitter.

The brief asks the Supreme Court to allow Trump to intervene in support of a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Republican attorneys general of 18 other states are supporting Texas as well. They are asking the court to invalidate the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, all of which were won by President-elect Joe Biden.
...

The brief says, "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."

Facts First: This is false. Richard Nixon lost the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy even though Nixon won Florida and Ohio.

Also, it would merely be an interesting fact, not evidence of fraud, if Trump was indeed the first candidate to lose an election while carrying Ohio and Florida. Different candidates build different geographic coalitions.

Ross Ramsey at The Texas Tribune:

Paxton said this week that the changes in the four states he named potentially fouled the election and turned the results on their head. He offered no evidence that any fraud took place.

Paxton’s lawsuit was missing some pieces, as The Texas Tribune’s Emma Platoff pointed out in her story on the filing. The Republican attorney general said in the lawsuit that changes made to voting procedures in those states had the effect of “weakening ballot integrity” and resulted in voter fraud. But he didn’t detail any such fraud.

He also made no such allegations against Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott modified election procedures without consulting the Legislature, like adding a week to early voting and citing the pandemic’s need for social distancing as justification.

The case was also missing a fact-checker. As retired legal reporter Lyle Denniston pointed out this week, Paxton wrote in his lawsuit that 72 Electoral College votes were at stake. For the record, Georgia and Michigan each have 16 votes, Pennsylvania has 20 and Wisconsin has 10. That’s 62 votes.

Jonah Goldberg:

It is an act of cynical, unpatriotic, undemocratic hypocrisy unrivaled in American history, a pure power play on behalf of a president whose disregard for the very Constitution these people have long claimed to adore is total. It is shameful. Infuriatingly shameful.

California House Seats

In Defying the Odds, we discuss state and congressional elections as well as the presidential race.   Our next book, title TBA, discusses the 2020 results.

Michael Blood at AP:

Biden, despite his dominating win in the state, did not have coattails in key House races.

In the 25th District north of Los Angeles, Republican Rep. Mike Garcia held on for a 333-vote win over Democrat Christy Smith while running as a Trump apostle in a district with a 7.5-point Democratic registration edge. The son of a Mexican immigrant father, the former Navy combat pilot won the seat in a May special election after the resignation of former Democratic Rep. Katie Hill.

In the Central Valley’s heavily Democratic 21st District, Republican David Valadao, a dairy farmer and son of Portuguese immigrants, reclaimed the seat he lost in 2018 to Democratic Rep. TJ Cox. Valadao had endorsed Trump but also emphasized he has broken with the White House, including criticizing the administration for family separations at the border.

Young Kim defeated Democratic Rep. Gil Cisneros in a rematch in the Democratic-leaning 39th District, anchored in Orange County. A former state lawmaker, she was born in South Korea and grew up in Guam.

In the coastal, Republican-leaning 48th District, it appears Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Michelle Steel benefited from unrest over the state’s coronavirus restrictions, an issue she highlighted in her campaign against Democratic Rep. Harley Rouda. Huntington Beach, in the heart of the district, has been a hotbed of opposition to the rules.

Steel and Kim join Washington state’s Marilyn Strickland as the first Korean American women elected to Congress.

Democrats sought to nationalize the races and hitch the GOP House candidates to Trump, while Republicans stressed “issues that people cared about the most, that impacted their daily lives,” said Sam Oh, who helmed winning campaigns for Steel and Kim.

Rose Kapolczynski, a longtime consultant to former Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, credited Republicans with recruiting able contenders. In Orange County “voters saw a different face to the Republican Party in Steel and Kim,” she said. And it was a different year from 2018, when Trump wasn’t on the ballot and many voters sent a message with their House votes, contributing to the Democratic rout.

Post-Election Division

 In Defying the Odds, we talk about the social and economic divides that enabled Trump to enter the White House. In our next book (title TBA), we discuss how these divides played out in the 2020 and its aftermath.

Trump yesterday at a vaccine summit."

Now, let’s see whether or not somebody has the courage — whether it’s a legislator or legislatures, or whether it’s a justice of the Supreme Court or a number of justices of the Supreme Court. Let’s see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right.

I received almost 75 million votes, the highest number of votes in the history of our country for a sitting President — 12 million more than the 63 million we received four years ago. President Obama received 3 million less in his second term, and he won easily. I received 12 million more, which, by the way, is a record. Twelve million more.

And they say that when the numbers came out — and the numbers came through machines. And all of those ballots were taken away and added. All you have to do is turn on your local television set and you’ll see what happened with thousands of ballots coming out from under tables — with all of the terrible things you saw. All you have to do is take a look.

They got caught because we were leading by so much more than they ever thought possible. Late night ballot “dumps” went crazy! https://t.co/gPpVWUUs91

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2020

SCOTUS speaks:

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2020

ORDER IN PENDING CASE

20A98 KELLY, MIKE, ET AL. V. PENNSYLVANIA, ET AL.

The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice

Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied.

Melanie Zanona at Politico:

Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) introduced a resolution to condemn lawmakers who call on Trump to concede … Senior Republicans on an inauguration committee rejected a symbolic measure that would have essentially affirmed Joe Biden as president-elect … Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) is spearheading a letter urging Trump to appoint a special counsel to investigate voter fraud allegations … and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) said he’s talked to 10 senators about joining his long-shot bid to challenge the election results in Congress.

From the Knight Foundation:

In partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Gallup conducted pre- and post-election surveys with members of Gallup’s probability-based national panel to assess Americans’ views of how key U.S. institutions, including the news media and major internet companies, were supporting democracy during the election campaign. The pre-election survey was administered Sept. 24-Oct. 5 with 1,552 respondents, and the post-election survey was completed Nov. 9-15 with 2,752 respondents. More than 1,000 respondents completed both surveys. The research is part of Knight Foundation’s Trust, Media and Democracy series.

This study reveals that, while most believe the U.S. news media and democratic institutions met the challenges of the 2020 election campaign, skepticism runs deep among many Americans, particularly Republican Party supporters. Major findings include:

• Americans felt increasingly informed, prepared to vote: During the 2020 election campaign, Americans became increasingly likely to follow national news and the election campaign closely and grew more confident they had the necessary information to make informed decisions about voting.
• Republicans and Democrats disagree on how well the electoral process worked: Fifty-five percent of Americans think the democratic voting process worked well, including 92% of Democrats. Close to nine in 10 Republicans disagree.
• Partisans also diverge on how responsible the media was in results coverage: Overall, 59% of Americans say the news media was responsible in its reporting of the election results and outcome. This figure includes 93% of Democrats but only 21% of Republicans. Sixty-three percent of Americans, including just 17% of Republicans, say they believed news media projections of Joe Biden as the winner of the election were accurate.
• Americans say their favorite news source covered the campaign well, but Republicans sour on cable news: Eight in 10 U.S. adults say the news source they use most often covered the election campaign well, and majorities say the same about national network TV news, local TV news, national newspapers and radio, generally. Democrats’ ratings of various news sources’ campaign coverage tended to improve after the election, while Republicans’ ratings were worse, particularly with respect to cable TV news.
• Voters worry about the influence misinformation had in the election: More than four in five U.S. adults believe they were exposed to misinformation during the election campaign. Six in 10 Americans, including a broad majority of Republicans, think misinformation swayed the outcome of the election.
• A nation divided is interested in hearing others’ opinions: Solid majorities across party lines perceive the nation as greatly divided, though most say they are interested in learning about the opinions of those with whom they disagree politically.