Trump’s Closing Arguments: Fear, Loathing, and Lawyers
There are plenty of reasons to be uptight about the results of the 2020 general election. I’m walking around with a knot in my stomach, an insatiable craving for sweets, and spending too much time doom scrolling on Twitter.
Now is the time to remember that millions of Americans --largely led by women and inspired by the resolve of people of color-- have worked long and hard to save our country from anti-democratic forces intent on eliminating the rule of law.
For now, we’ve got to focus on what we can control: voting if we haven’t and encouraging others to vote. If things break bad, we’ll have to deal with those things as they come up.
https://twitter.com/tbonier/status/1322879299926532097?s=20
A legion of lawyers are ready to jump into action. Numerous activists have drawn up plans (here’s the local effort). And there are institutions nationwide ranging from unions to faith groups ready to act if needed.
Meanwhile, you’re supposed to be afraid and confused. It’s okay to have those feelings; it’s also important to hang in there and not overreact.
Knowing his chances of winning the 2020 election are minimal, President Donald Trump wants the American public to think he won no matter what the numbers say.
He and his cult following are pulling out all the stops to create an atmosphere of chaos which will create space for his claims and justify actions having the effect of endangering democracy.
Convoys of pickup trucks flying flags known as Trump Trains are creating incidents nationwide in the hope of intimidating voters. A Biden campaign bus in Texas was surrounded by gun brandishing MAGAts and forced to stop on the freeway. President Trump tweeted his approval of the action.
Highways have been blocked in New York and New Jersey, I’m assuming that copycat actions will occur throughout the country.
In Fort Worth,Texas a Trump caravan, accompanied by police, attempted to intimidate voters by driving through a polling station in a predominantly Black neighborhood. But the community wasn’t having it, as people poured onto the street, surrounded the vehicles, and encouraged them to change their route.
https://twitter.com/leahmcelrath/status/1322985161689096193?s=20
Speaking of police, officers in Alamance County, North Carolina, attacked a peaceful march to the polls sponsored by a church group. They had permits. Children were sprayed with pepper spray. A woman in a wheelchair suffered a seizure due to the chemicals; good samaritans who tried to help her were sprayed.
From the News & Observer:
At one point, the marchers held a moment of silence in the street in honor of George Floyd, the Black man killed while in police custody in Minneapolis earlier this summer.
After the moment of silence concluded, law enforcement told people to clear the road.
Then, deputies and police officers used pepper spray on the crowd and began arresting people. Several children in the crowd were affected by the pepper spray.
Melanie Mitchell said her 5-year-old and 11-year-old daughters were pepper-sprayed just after the moment of silence.
Alamance is one of the key North Carolina counties that will likely decide which party controls the state legislature next year
People still made it to the polls, according to observers.
The President’s frenetic pace of campaigning now includes increasing vile and despicable claims.
His supporters picketed the suburban home of Attorney General William Barr on Saturday, upset with the failure of the Justice Department to arrest Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, there is mounting evidence about how those gatherings are enabling the spread of COVID-19.
From Vox:
A study conducted by four Stanford University economic researchers determined that 18 Trump campaign rallies, the bulk of which took place over the past summer, “ultimately resulted in more than 30,000 incremental confirmed cases of COVID-19” and “likely led to more than 700 deaths.”
The study examined 18 counties that hosted Trump rallies in locations such as Tulsa, Oklahoma; Phoenix, Arizona; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, held between June 20 and September 22. It then compared the rate of post-rally Covid-19 infections in the host counties to that of comparable counties that did not host a rally. Attendance at individual rallies varied, but Trump often draws thousands of supporters to these events.
Given that the nation is now experiencing a third surge in coronavirus infections, the next few weeks in areas where the campaign has chosen to make its closing arguments are going to be perilous for too many people. While overall death rates are down due to the experiences of health providers in the previous two waves, the number of people who do not recover quickly from the disease is rising.
From the Wall Street Journal:
Nearly a year into the global coronavirus pandemic, scientists, doctors and patients are beginning to unlock a puzzling phenomenon: For many patients, including young ones who never required hospitalization, Covid-19 has a devastating second act.
Many are dealing with symptoms weeks or months after they were expected to recover, often with puzzling new complications that can affect the entire body—severe fatigue, cognitive issues and memory lapses, digestive problems, erratic heart rates, headaches, dizziness, fluctuating...
And while voting may be over after this week, the Trump superspreader rallies are likely to continue. It’s all part of continuing to create uncertainty among the population. I’m sure we’ll see acts of violence triggered by the Dear Leader’s rhetoric
https://twitter.com/rweingarten/status/1322623244021731329?s=20
Please don’t allow yourself to take his bait.
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https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/1322993565199380491?s=20
Media reports are now saying that Trump is planning to declare victory on Tuesday evening, regardless of how many votes have been counted.
Via Axios:
Trump's team is preparing to falsely claim that mail-in ballots counted after Nov. 3 — a legitimate count expected to favor Democrats — are evidence of election fraud.
Details: Many prognosticators say that on election night, Trump will likely appear ahead in Pennsylvania — though the state's final outcome could change substantially as mail-in ballots are counted over the following days.
Trump's team is preparing to claim baselessly that if that process changes the outcome in Pennsylvania from the picture on election night, then Democrats would have "stolen" the election.
Trump's advisers have been laying the groundwork for this strategy for weeks, but this is the first account of Trump explicitly discussing his election night intentions.
The fact is that the final vote counts are historically never known on November 3rd, or even the 4th. News organizations, in their quest to keep readers/viewers often make claims about election victories and defeats, based on their best guess of what the trends are.
The rules for voting are set by the states, not the federal government. Some states allow registrars to continue validating and counting votes for several weeks. The aim is to get as complete a vote as possible.
This is the American way, not Trump’s made up version of how things work.
From the New York Times:
In some states — like Colorado, which has been conducting elections by mail for years, or Florida, which allows officials to begin processing mail-in ballots before Election Day — it may still be possible to call winners on election night, depending on how close the races are.
But in many other states — including the all-important Pennsylvania, where some counties will not begin counting mail-in ballots until Nov. 4 because of limited resources — it could take several days to get an accurate picture.
If this happens, it will be evidence not of a conspiracy but of the electoral system working as it should, by counting every vote. And while much about this year’s election is abnormal, delayed results would not be. Even in the smoothest elections, we don’t necessarily get quick calls in close races.
Republican efforts to block or discourage mail-in and early voting have largely failed, and their strategy going forward is to try to get as many already cast ballots invalidated as possible.
From the Washington Post:
“The other side has given every indication that they will challenge every ballot they can, at every step of the process,” said Chad Dunn, general counsel for the Texas Democratic Party and co-founder of the UCLA Voting Rights Project.
“The mask is off. This isn’t about rooting out any mythical voter fraud. It never was,” Dunn said. “This is about raw power and obtaining power by any means necessary.”
The shift in strategy comes after Republicans largely failed to limit expanded access to absentee balloting aimed at ensuring people could vote safely during the pandemic. In late September, a Washington Post review of 90 state and federal voting lawsuits found that judges had been broadly skeptical of GOP claims that the possibility of voter fraud required limits on mail-balloting.
As much as I wish we could wave a magic wand and declare this national nightmare over in the coming days, the reality is that Trump will continue to sow chaos and confusion. And it is important to recognize that what we’ve experienced over the past four years was no fluke; the outrageousness of this man has all-too-often masked policies crafted on the far right for decades.
Our job at this point is to focus on a brighter future and prepare for the challenges that will be required to rebuild this country on every level. Take a deep breath. Eat some ice cream. Post a cute picture of your pet. Smell the roses.
https://twitter.com/brooklynmarie/status/1323048699908431872?s=20
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