Speaking about President Trump’s and his legal team’s myriad and baseless claims of massive voter fraud, an anonymous senior Republican official offered a rhetorical shrug.
“What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change,” the official said. “He went golfing this weekend. It’s not like he’s plotting how to prevent Joe Biden from taking power on Jan. 20. He’s tweeting about filing some lawsuits, those lawsuits will fail, then he’ll tweet some more about how the election was stolen, and then he’ll leave.”
*If you think that [insert your favorite stupid prediction here] was even more obviously stupider, I won’t argue. There is a lot to go around (see Zappa, Frank, above). But I think you get my point.
The Trump/QAnon cult is a national contagion, an immoral panic, a mass insanity. The woman shot and killed by Capitol police Wednesday when pro-Trump extremists overran the U.S. Capitol was a QAnon cultist from San Diego.
But Washington, D.C. was not the only place Trump’s insurrection manifested on Wednesday. Incidents took place in Washington, Georgia, Kansas, Ohio, Michigan, California, Oklahoma, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Texas:
From Atlanta to Salem, Oregon, and points in between, Trump backers repeated the outgoing president’s false claims that his victory was stolen by massive voter fraud, officials and local media reported.
In Oregon’s capital, where crowds protesting in favor of Trump and against state COVID-19 restrictions burned an effigy of the Democratic governor, Kate Brown, police declared an unlawful assembly and ordered protesters to disperse. Oregon state police reported at least one person was arrested in Salem on suspicion of harassment and disorderly conduct.
There were no immediate reports of serious violence, although a news photographer was sprayed with mace or pepper spray at a rally in Salt Lake City, Utah’s capital, police said.
Protesters entered the Kansas statehouse in Topeka and assembled inside the first floor of the Capitol rotunda, though they remained orderly, television station KSNT reported. State police later said the demonstrators had obtained a permit in advance.
In Denver, the Colorado capital, Mayor Michael Hancock instructed city agencies to close early “out of an abundance of caution” after about 700 demonstrators gathered at the statehouse.
In Georgia, a major courthouse complex and two other government buildings in Atlanta were ordered closed due to protests near the statehouse. Among those disrupted were aides to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the Republican election official pressured by Trump in a weekend telephone call to “find” enough additional votes for Trump to win the state.
Trump supporters and members of the neo-fascist group Proud Boys rioted outside the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday, clashing with Black Lives Matter protestors, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Hundreds of Trump supporters protested outside the Michigan State Capitol on Wednesday, the Detroit Free Press reported. The demonstrations have been peaceful, Michigan State Police said.
And still more. New Mexico, Wyoming and Texas closed their state capitol buildings, NBC reported. Some evacuated employees. Texas closed its state Capitol grounds in Austin Wednesday afternoon “out of an abundance of caution.”
The bulk of the violence occurred in Washington, D.C., closest to its source: Donald J. Trump.
One legislator estimated perhaps a thousand rioters breached the Capitol, yet authorities arrested barely 50 insurrectionists Wednesday, and those mostly for curfew violations. Four were arrested on firearms-related charges.
Investigations and prosecutions must follow. We have discussed here how allowing high officials walk away from crimes committed in office has contributed not only to the distrust of government but the downward spiral in official corruption. Arresting and prosecuting violent extrmists should be the easy part, right?
The FBI is seeking to identify individuals instigating violence in Washington, D.C. We are accepting tips and digital media depicting rioting or violence in and around the U.S. Capitol on January 6. If you have information, visit https://t.co/buMd8vYXzH.
In fact, many Republicans (45%) actively support the actions of those at the Capitol, although as many expressed their opposition (43%).
Among all voters, almost two-thirds (63%) say that they “strongly” oppose the actions taken by President Trump’s supporters, with another 8% say they “somewhat” oppose what has happened.
Overall, one in five voters (21%) say they support the goings-on at the Capitol. Those who believe that voter fraud took place and affected the election outcome are especially likely to feel that today’s events were justified, at 56%.
I guess that’s good? Only 21% of Americans — 45% of Republicans — think that an attempted coup is fine. How reassuring.
Protests at state capitals across the country turned threatening Wednesday as demonstrators entered legislative buildings and police escorted elected officials from their offices in response to violent threats.
The protests against the November presidential election results, fueled in large part by unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud that were repeated often by President Trump and the White House, coincided with mob violence in the nation’s capital where Trump supporters overran U.S. Capitol Police and officers drew their firearms to protect lawmakers in the House and Senate.
In state capitals, police moved to protect elected officials who were threatened by pro-Trump mobs.
Staffers at the Utah state Capitol were ordered to evacuate the building, wrote Bryan Schott, who covers the legislature for the Salt Lake Tribune. In Georgia, police escorted Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to safety as militia members gathered outside the Capitol building in Atlanta.
Protesters at a rally in Salem burned Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) in effigy, as city police urged people to avoid the area around the statehouse. Fistfights broke out in Sacramento, where police struggled to contain clashes between dueling groups of demonstrators.
In Kansas, state police monitored a group of protesters who entered the statehouse in Topeka. The state Highway Patrol said they had no plans to increase security, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. The protesters later dispersed without incident.
Peaceful protests urging the overthrow of President-elect Joe Biden’s win in November gathered in Austin, Texas. Protests were calm and controlled in Little Rock, Ark., though some Trump supporters showed up with automatic firearms and riot shields.
These people are all like their Dear Leader — spoiled, childish fools who simply cannot accept that they didn’t get their way. We have never seen anything like this. It was a violent coup attempt.
This is what the world is seeing in their morning papers:
The Republican effort to contest the presidential election results on the Senate floor this week is raising questions about how media outlets should cover the moment, and whether the Trump-supported action should be called an attempted “coup.””
Should TV networks show the proceedings live when the GOP objectors are boldly lying?” asked CNN Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter. Should they call it a “coup?”
“I’ve been using that word for months now,” historian and author Timothy Snyder told Stelter on “Reliable Sources” Sunday. “Because he announced in advance, it numbed us all and then we’re scared to use the word,” Snyder added.
“Is it accurate to call this a coup attempt? … Is President Trump betraying his oath of office? Are the lawmakers supporting him seditious? These words matter a lot right now,” Stelter said at the start of his show.
A whopping 83% of Fox News viewers say Biden was not elected legitimately, according to a new Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll, but Snyder said that “unlike previous elections, we actually did have an election in 2020 that people around the world could admire.””The coverage has to keep reiterating what is true, what is real.”
Here’s what is true, what is real:
That is the statement from Fox News board member and former Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, RINO extraordinaire. Is anybody listening.
Singed by Donald Trump’s and Republicans’ efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the Washington Post Editorial Board this morning urges the nascent Biden administration to assign a high-level commission the task of developing recommendations for overhauling our democracy:
The nation needs a top-to-bottom review of how it conducts elections, counts votes and assures the public of the democracy’s health, so that it resists those who want to restrict voting, trash legitimate ballots and leverage positions of trust to upend valid results.
The Post already has a short list for the commission to consider: abolish the electoral college (or assign electoral votes proportionally), institute universal voter registration, make Election Day a holiday, expand mail-in voting, improve ballot security, make voting mandatory, etc.
Changes like these, the Post believes, are necessary to prevent a more competent autocrat than Trump from stealing a future election. The commission’s guiding star would be “to prevent fraud and promote voter confidence,” including reforms to prevent partisan officials from rejecting election results.
Perhaps they are naive. They are missing the forest and most assuredly missing the point.
Not that their suggestions are bad ones. But improving democracy will not change the attitudes of those who have demonstrated they no use for it. Have we not seen enough bad-faith arguments in the last couple of decades to recognize them by now?
“If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy,” former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum wrote in January 2018.
“A realignment of America’s two major parties is under way,” Jeremy D. Rosner, former Special Adviser to President Clinton and senior staff member National Security Council, wrote in December that year. “To put it simply, we are headed for an era in which America may well have a Democratic Party and an Anti-democratic Party.”
Both predictions have come to pass.
As others observed before me, Republicans do not want to govern, they want to rule. The first rule once was, heads they win, tails you lose. Now it is heads they win, tails “Nice constitutional republic ya got there….”
“So what’s a plutocrat to do?” asked Paul Krugman at a time before openly rejecting democracy was de rigueur for Republicans. Since they could not come straight out and say only the wealthy should have the franchise, they resort to propaganda about voter fraud, etc. More democracy, better democracy is the last thing they want.
The latest wrinkle in our Trumpist saga is the effort among elected Republicans to raise objections to the decision of voters on January 6 when the U.S House and Senate meet to accept electoral vote certifications from the states. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas proposes a special commission charged with yet another examination of electoral college votes from “disputed states.”
Edward B. Foley has a clearer-eyed view of what is afoot than his Washington Post colleagues:
… the fact that a dozen senators and senators-elect, along with apparently more than 100 House members, want to disrupt congressional ratification of the electoral college result is one more horrendous sign of the severity of the disease afflicting the United States’ democratic system.
Anti-democrats do not want a more perfect democratic republic. They want the answer they want. They want to rule or else. Like a former client, like Donald Trump, he of the bottomless cup of lawsuits, they will keep raising objections to the will of the people, they will wear down opponents until they get the answer they want. If they lose, they try to will get even, Donald Trump-style. No presidential commission will remediate that.
John Thune has been one of Trump’s most loyal henchman. This is the thanks he gets:
I hope to see the great Governor of South Dakota @KristiNoem, run against RINO @SenJohnThune, in the upcoming 2022 Primary. She would do a fantastic job in the U.S. Senate, but if not Kristi, others are already lining up. South Dakota wants strong leadership, NOW!
Thune is pretty popular and Trump may not have the power he thinks he will have. But I think it’s obvious that Trump is signaling that he’s not going anywhere.
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley announced on Wednesday that he would take the courageous step of trying to overthrow an American election. When Congress formally counts the Electoral College votes on January 6, Hawley said he would try to challenge at least one state’s results, which requires at least one member of the House and Senate each. There aren’t enough votes in either chamber to toss out a state result, so the maneuver will only delay President-elect Joe Biden’s final victory by a few more hours.
“I cannot vote to certify the electoral college results on January 6 without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws,” Hawley said in a statement. “And I cannot vote to certify without pointing out the unprecedented effort of mega corporations, including Facebook and Twitter, to interfere in this election, in support of Joe Biden. At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act.”
This move is unsurprising from Hawley, who has been running for president ever since he arrived in Washington. Trump is using his lies about voter fraud as a litmus test of sorts for GOP office-holders across the country, implicitly conditioning his future political support for them on their willingness to support his false claims about the 2020 election. For ambitious conservatives like Hawley who aspire to even higher office, undermining the legitimacy of this election is just another step on the path to winning the next one.
There’s a feedback loop of sorts at work here: The more that Republicans validate Trump’s Lost Cause narrative now, the more they will have to do so in the future. “The idea that the election was stolen from Trump will be maintained as a kind of foundation myth of the post-Trump era—one that Republicans will have to tiptoe around for years,” The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent wrote on Wednesday. There is just one problem with this calculation by 2024 hopefuls: Trump himself isn’t going anywhere.
A 2024 bid by Trump himself wouldn’t be wholly unprecedented. Grover Cleveland lost to Benjamin Harrison in 1888, then defeated him for a second non-consecutive term in 1892. Theodore Roosevelt ran against William Howard Taft, his own successor, in 1912. But most presidents since World War II have served two terms, and the few who’ve lost their re-election bid haven’t sought to return to office again. Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush transitioned into elder statesmen roles after their defeats, mixing semi-retirement hobbies with humanitarian and diplomatic activities. They and other ex-presidents also generally avoided involvement in electoral politics, either out of respect for their successors or relief at escaping from it.
Can you imagine Trump taking such a placid, secondary role in public life? All of his moves so far suggest that, at minimum, he wants to remain the axial figure in Republican politics for the foreseeable future. Trump hasn’t yet publicly signaled that he would run again in 2024, of course. Such a move would effectively concede that he lost this election, after all. But he has reportedly told aides that he would do so in private, perhaps even announcing the decision on Inauguration Day to steal some of Biden’s thunder. His false claims about this election are also a lucrative fundraising tool—more than $200 million, and counting—as he amasses a financial war chest for the future. Even serious legal trouble may not deter Trump from mounting a 2024 bid: Socialist candidate Eugene Debs ran for president in 1920 from an Indiana prison and won 3 percent of the vote.
If Hawley and his cohorts genuinely believed there was electoral fraud, their moves would be slightly more defensible. But all of the available evidence suggests that cynical self-interest is the real motive at play. Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican and an occasional critic of Trump, confirmed those suspicions in a Facebook post on Wednesday night. “When we talk in private, I haven’t heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent—not one,” he wrote. “Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will ‘look’ to President Trump’s most ardent supporters.”
Most of Sasse’s post was devoted to discussing why Trump’s claims of election fraud didn’t hold water. But he also threw an implicit jab at grandstanding by Hawley and other “institutional arsonist” members of Congress. “Let’s be clear what is happening here: We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage,” Sasse wrote. “But they’re wrong—and this issue is bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government.”
The Trump era is, in some respects, a long chain of Faustian bargains between various prominent conservatives and the soon-to-be-former president. They embraced an incompetent authoritarian in exchange for Supreme Court seats, a Senate majority, tax cuts, regulatory rollbacks, and raw political influence. Now Josh Hawley is cutting a deal with the devil—except this time, the devil may be the one who knocks him out of the running in 2024.
Sasse is also positioning himself for president by saying this, so he’s also being self-serving. But, at least, he isn’t trying to destroy democracy in this instance as Hawley is.
I think Ford is right. Trump isn’t going to graciously pass the baton to the next generation. In fact, I don’t think he’d even graciously pass it on to his own offspring.
Trump’s guiding philosophy in life is “get even.” He’s established the narrative that he was cheated out of his 2nd term and he’s not going to let it go. Whether he actually runs depends upon circumstances but let’s not kid ourselves that he’s just done. He is not.
I have to admit that I’m going to enjoy the massive battle that’s going to take place among the GOP 2024 hopefuls. I think it’s going to be a bloody, bloody fight and I would be very surprised if Josh Hawley comes out on top. He seems to think Trump’s appeal is about issues.
There is a lot of jockeying among Republicans for the job of who will inherit the Trump cult going forward. A lot depends upon Trump himself, of course. If he keeps up his crusade for the next four years it’s hard to see how any mere politician can unseat him. But you never know. He’s no spring chicken and the bloom could come off the rose as time goes by. He’s exhausting.
However, Republicans have discovered that minority rule through white nationalist “populism”, whether it grows into an American version of the right wing German Christian Democrats or a more familiar straight up neo-fascism, is one way they might be able to maintain their power. That would be a long-term project and we can see who the young turks are who are jumping on the possibilities.
Marco Rubio has been screeching about elites on his twitter feed and Tom Cotton has been going on about America First military might. But it’s everyone’s favorite Missouri “populist” Josh Hawley who seems to see the future most clearly. He teamed up with Bernie Sanders to ask for more cash for the folks. And now he’s announced that he will object to the certification of the vote on January 6th:
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced Wednesday that he would object next week when Congress convenes to certify the electoral college vote, a move that will force a contentious floor debate that top Senate Republicans had hoped to avoid before President-elect Joe Biden’s victory is cemented.
President Trump has repeatedly and falsely suggested that the ceremonial milestone presents a last-ditch way to reverse the election results. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other leading Republicans, who have conceded it is bound to fail and will put their members in an awkward position.
In a statement, Hawley said he feels compelled to highlight purported election irregularities.
“At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act,” Hawley said.
He will force his fellow Republicans to vote on this, which Mitch did not want to happen because anyone who votes against Dear Leader will have a problem with the cult. But who knows, maybe they’ll all vote to overturn the election which will save them from the wrath of the conspiracy addled base, even as it further destroys our democracy.
This “constitutional coup” attempt can’t work unless the House votes to overturn the election too which isn’t going to happen. But the mere fact that this gambit has gotten this far is absolutely chilling. Trump and the right wing media managed to create a stolen election myth out of whole cloth and then use it as an excuse to restrict voting. It’s the Reichstag fire of vote suppression.
Hawley seems to have a real understanding of what makes the Trump cult click beyond Trump himself. He sees the utility of giving white working class people money. (I’ll be interested to see whether that holds. White racists generally really do not want Black and Brown people to have anything, even if it means they don’t get it themselves.) And he understands the usefulness of feeding the right’s ongoing sense of grievance. If he can put that together in a way that gives the Trump cult that same tribal feeling of togetherness he might just have a winning formula.
The one thing he’s missing is the fun factor that has been a huge aspect of Trump’s triumph. Hawley is basically a wonk. Trump is an entertainer and I think that’s actually the most important part of his appeal. He makes hating fun.
Hawley isn’t fun. Neither are Rubio or any of the other wannabes. It’s going to take a good long while for the cult to come down from that high.
Nonetheless, they are using Trump’s loss to their own advantage. They are Republicans, after all.
Cheerleaders for people like Hawley insist the 2020 results show that "conservative populism" has potential for genuine majoritarian appeal. They must be deeply disappointed that one of its leading champions wants to overturn millions of votes, right?https://t.co/GrHzMWkdugpic.twitter.com/ckGNYs6npc
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Trump had a tantrum and held up the signing of the Omnibus and COVID relief bills for no real reason. It’s likely that his impulse was that he could flex his muscles in a show of strength to get the GOP Senators to hand him the election. But mostly it was just acting out like a child who didn’t get his way upending the playing board out of pique and then flouncing off to his resort to pout for a while. He has the mind and temperament of a three year old:
Getting a cranky, stubborn President Trump to belatedly sign the COVID relief bill, after unemployment benefits had already lapsed, was like being a hostage negotiator, or defusing a bomb.
Driving the news: The deal was closed on a Sunday afternoon phone call with Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy. “This is good,” Trump finally said, an official familiar with the call told me. “I should sign this.”
How it happened: Over many days, Mnuchin and McCarthy — aided by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who golfed with Trump in West Palm Beach on Friday — indulged the president’s rants, told him there was great stuff in the bill, and gave him “wins” he could announce, even though they didn’t change the bill.
Playing to his vanity, they invoked his legacy,and reminded him he didn’t want to hurt people.
They convinced the author of “The Art of the Deal” that he had shown himself to be a fighter, and that he had gotten all there was to get.
Trump’s sweeteners, from his 8:15 p.m. statement: “[T]he House and Senate have agreed to focus strongly on the very substantial voter fraud which took place in the November 3 Presidential election.”
“The Senate will start the process for a vote that increases checks to $2,000, repeals Section 230, and starts an investigation into voter fraud. Big Tech must not get protections of Section 230! Voter Fraud must be fixed! Much more money is coming. I will never give up my fight for the American people!”
Reality check … Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who worked hard to understand Trump, told me: “It may be too late. Too late for him, too late for the economy, too late for Covid, and too late for the Georgia senators.”
“The Senate will start the process…” “Much more money is coming …” Such a bullshit artist.
But I have to laugh whenever I see these people talking about Trump protecting “his legacy.” Here’s his legacy and it’s really special:
His legacy is that he is the biggest loser in American history. The only one who even comes close is Andrew Johnson, previously known as America’s worst president. Trump has won that title, hands down.
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You know he did not have a flash of conscience or a flicker of concern for his fellow man. Or woman. Especially not for women (Reuters):
PALM BEACH, Fla./WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday signed into law a $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package, restoring unemployment benefits to millions of Americans and averting a federal government shutdown in a crisis of his own making.
He choked (Al Jazeera):
“I have told Congress that I want far less wasteful spending and more money going to the American people in the form of $2,000 checks per adult and $600 per child,” Trump said in a statement announcing he had signed the bill.
White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said the president was “sending a strong message” that “wasteful items” needed to be removed from the bill and added that a “redlined” version would be sent back to Congress with a requirement that such items be removed from the bill.
Other conditions include a review and possible repeal of Section 230, under which social media giants cannot be held legally responsible for objectionable words, photos or videos that people post to their platforms.
“Sending a strong message.” In other words, Trump choked.
Deere says Congress also agreed to “focus strongly on the very substantial voter fraud” in the November elections.
Congress agreed to “focus strongly” knowing he’s weeks away from leaving the White House? Not likely. In other words, Trump choked.
Republicans both privately and publicly tried to sway Trump to change his mind after days of attacks on the bill.
“I understand he wants to be remembered for advocating for big checks, but the danger is he’ll be remembered for chaos and misery and erratic behavior if he allows this to expire,” Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said on “Fox News Sunday” of Trump’s demand for larger stimulus checks.
He’ll be remembered for chaos and misery and erratic behavior whatever he does. He will be remembered for kowtowing to global adversaries, for being the most corrupt and inept president in American history, for being a developmentally stunted knot of personality disorders trying to pass himself off as an adult, and for failing to lead during a deadly pandemic that killed more Americans than any war since the Civil War. And he will be remembered for choking.
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