Tag: Trump attempt to steal the 2020 election

Trump and Justice Dept. Lawyer Said to Have Plotted to Oust Acting Attorney General

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Trying to find another avenue to push his baseless election claims, Donald Trump considered installing a loyalist.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results.

The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Mr. Trump’s continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the president’s entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. Trump was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark.

The department officials, convened on a conference call, then asked each other: What will you do if Mr. Rosen is dismissed? Continue reading.

Senate Democrats signal hope for bipartisan Trump impeachment trial

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As President Trump’s historic second impeachment trial looms, the Senate Democratic leader’s office is emphasizing cooperation with Republicans rather than conflict — suggesting that Democrats want their latest effort to convict Trump to be more bipartisan than the last one, which saw a lone GOP senator break ranks with his party.

Despite the unprecedented speed with which the House acted Wednesday — impeaching the president one week after the deadly storming of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has rebuffed Democratic calls for the chamber to reconvene before Tuesday, its scheduled date and one day before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

Nonetheless, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) signaled Thursday that Democrats are far from taking a go-it-alone approach. Continue reading.

The Fox News Coup Turns Ultra-Violent

As I write this, the U.S. Capitol has been breached by a riotous mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters who are bent on preventing the peaceful transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden. The House of Representative and the Senate, whose members had convened in their separate chambers after some Republicans objected to the counting of Arizona’s electoral votes, are locked down, while Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding, has left the area. Insurrectionists continue to stream into the building. It’s unclear when or how the legislators will be able to proceed with their constitutional duty.

A coup attempt is underway in the United States of America, which prides itself on being a beacon of democracy.

It was not an accident. It did not just happen. Democracy in this country has enemies.

The American people spoke, and Trump lost the election by a sizable margin. But rather than accept that reality, he claimed that the election had been rigged, stolen away from him by fiendish Democratic operatives in a number of states. These were wild conspiracy theories, the dregs of the internet fever swamps. Continue reading.

Latest Trump Lawsuit Demands Court Cancel Georgia Vote

Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on New Year’s Eve demanding that a federal judge decertify the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, alleging without any evidence that “illegal voting” occurred and therefore the results were invalid.

The suit, filed with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in their official capacities, claims the existence of violations of election law that “have resulted in more than 11,779 ‘illegal’ votes to be counted in the State of Georgia which is sufficient to change the outcome of the election or place the outcome in doubt.”

President-elect Joe Biden won the state by exactly 11,779 votes. Continue reading.

Why Congress Should Impeach Trump Again

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And this time, he should be convicted. The country cannot risk his becoming president again.

The emergence of an audio recording of President Trump pressuring the Georgia secretary of state to overturn the results of the election is a harrowing moment in the history of our democracy. And though the number of his days in office is dwindling, the only appropriate response is to impeach Mr. Trump. Again.

Whether he acknowledges it or not, President Trump is leaving the White House on Jan. 20 — but right now, there is nothing stopping him from running in 2024. That is a terrifying prospect, because the way he has conducted himself over the past two months, wielding the power of the presidency to try to steal another term in office, has threatened one of our republic’s most essential traditions: the peaceful transfer of power.

Fortunately, our founders anticipated we would face a moment like this, which is one reason Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution entrusts Congress with the power not only to remove a president but also to prevent him or her from ever holding elected office again. Mr. Trump’s conduct over the past two months has left our legislators with no choice but to use it. That impeachment inquiry would take time, far more than Mr. Trump has left in office. But it would be well worth it. Continue reading.

How Trump drove the lie that the election was stolen, undermining voter trust in the outcome

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Elena Parent, a Democratic state lawmaker from the Atlanta area, listened incredulously in a small hearing room in early December as a stream of witnesses spun fantastical tales of alleged election fraud before the Georgia Senate’s Judiciary Committee.

A retired Army colonel claimed the state’s voting machines were controlled by Communists from Venezuela. A volunteer lawyer with President Trump’s campaign shared surveillance video that she said showed election workers in Atlanta counting “suitcases” of phony ballots that swung Georgia’s election to former vice president Joe Biden. The president’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, told the panel: “Every single vote should be taken away from Biden.”

“Since this has been debunked repeatedly, what evidence can you give to us that counters what our elections officials presented us with only an hour ago?” Parent asked one of the witnesses, her voice rising in exasperation. When she tried to ask a follow-up question, the Republican committee chairman cut her off. Continue reading.

Republicans faced a simple choice: For or against democracy.

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HOUSE REPUBLICANS have faced what amounts to a choice between standing for or against democracy: whether to sign on to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s delusional lawsuit to overturn the presidential election. A large majority of them failed the test. More House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), on Friday signed an amicus brief supporting Mr. Paxton, just hours before the Supreme Court unceremoniously rejected the suit. This is a disheartening signal about what these members of Congress might do on Jan. 6, when at least some Republicans probably will object to the counting of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral votes.

Mr. McCarthy and the other extremists and toadies who have signed their names to President Trump’s antidemocratic plot may think their complicity is costless, because the Supreme Court was bound to reject the Paxton lawsuit, as it did on Friday, and there are enough Democrats on Capitol Hill to foil any GOP mischief during the electoral vote counting. They are wrong. Their recklessness raises the once-unthinkable possibility that a Congress controlled by one party might one day flip a presidential election to its candidate in defiance of the voters’ will, citing claims of mass fraud just as bogus as the ones Republicans have hyped up this year.

Some Republicans described the Paxton lawsuit honestly, including two senior Texas lawmakers. “I frankly struggle to understand the legal theory of it,” said Sen. John Cornyn. “I’m not convinced.” “I’m not supporting it,” said Rep. Kay Granger. “It’s a distraction.” Continue reading.

Stop The Steal’ Protests Are Getting Smaller — And More Violent

Right-wing demonstrations protesting the November election results on Donald Trump’s behalf began winding down in numbers this weekend—but decidedly picked up intensity in the violence and threatening rhetoric that have accompanied them all this month, thanks mainly to the presence of armed paramilitary groups such as the Proud Boys and various militia groups.

The pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” protests seemed to lose some momentum this week, with just over a dozen such rallies recorded. However, what they lacked in numbers they made up for in ugliness: A demonstration in Olympia, Washington, on Saturday turned into a running series of brawls, culminating in gunfire, though no one was seriously injured. And in Michigan, a couple dozen armed protesters showed up at the home of the secretary of state during the evening as she was finishing up Christmas decorations and shouted threats at her and her family.

According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED), the total number of demonstrations, including those against COVID-19 pandemic health measures, declined this week. The majority of protests were Stop the Steal events, though both the numbers of the rallies and the numbers of participants declined sharply. Continue reading.

Forcing Trump’s Election Lawyers To Tell The Truth

There is no penalty for lying on television, as anyone who watches cable news already knows. It is considered normal today when Fox News personalities — to name one prominent group of habitual liars — repeat absurd falsehoods, even if the result is that people contract the coronavirus and die.

There is no penalty for lying on the radio, as everyone has known for decades. It is a highly lucrative daily routine for talk jocks such as Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage — among the most successful of their ilk — who are often exposed but never feel embarrassed.

There is no penalty for lying on the internet, where spreading the most implausible conspiracy theories, bogus rumors and fake videos is literally a billion-dollar industry and, in some countries such as Russia, a government function. Continue reading.