Trump’s right, someone tried to steal the election…him
When Donald Trump first started screaming that he got cheated out of the presidency, a number of people – including me – said OK, if you got cheated, go to court and prove it.
A bunch of Republicans, who didn’t want to piss off Trump because he might not use his army of Kool-Aid drinkers to help them get reelected, didn’t want to come right out and admit Joe Biden won the election and instead said Trump had every right to go to court and prove his case.
OK, fair enough.
But unlike social media, when you make a claim in court you have to provide some evidence and when asked to put up or shut up, Trump did neither.
Over the weekend a federal judge did a nice job of summing up the legal community’s response to what Trump has alleged so far: "This Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations...and unsupported by evidence."
At least so far, the courts ain’t buying it.
So then Trump’s effort to stay in the White House went from going to court and proving he’d been cheated, to hoping election officials would ignore their duty and cheat Joe Biden. Trump changed horses in the middle of the stream and those horses aren’t even pointed in the same direction so I figured someone should point that out.
That’s what led to today’s cartoon.
Fortunately for America and democracy in general, three of the four members of Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers – a job most of us didn’t know existed – voted to certify the state’s election results, something Trump supporters hoped they’d find a way to avoid.
Because if a state doesn’t certify an election, Trump supporters were hoping to claim the state didn’t actually make a choice, so then state lawmakers could intervene and select pro-Trump electors who would go to the Electoral College and ignore what the voters of the state actually voted for.
This scheme is a long way from the original claim of getting cheated.
Had the Michigan board delayed a vote or opposed certification, a lawsuit was expected because the board does not have the power to audit returns or investigate complaints of irregularities. It’d be like the guys who hold the yardage markers at a football game running out on the field and calling pass interference…it’s not their job.
This morning the Kansas City Star published this quote from Norm Eisen, a constitutional law expert and former counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee:
“That is the clear mandate of state law. The reasons that they have advanced for doing anything other than (certify) is totally spurious. They carry no legal or factual weight whatsoever under the law.”
I believe Norm, even though I’m pretty sure that should have read “are” totally spurious, but I’m not an expert in election law or correct grammar and I think I have the evidence to back that up.
Now here’s another quote from today’s Star and this one comes from Wendy Gronbeck, a voter:
“It sometimes feels like officials are attempting to tear up my ballot right in front of me by stalling and recounting until they find a way to change the results.”
Right there with you, Wendy.
Just thought it was worth noting that Trump went from I got cheated to trying to cheat Joe Biden and was willing to go around the voters in the process.
Donald Trump was right, someone was going to try and steal the election…he just forgot to mention it was him.
And it turns out some of us are OK with that
According to Seven Letter Insight – and go ahead and add them to the list of people I never heard of – they conducted a poll and a majority of Republican voters would support Donald Trump running again in 2024.
Seems like getting food poisoning and then asking for seconds, but maybe that’s just me.
Apparently, 66% of self-identified GOP voters said they wouldn’t mind seeing Trump run again, but before you get too pissed off at the Republicans you should know 26% of Democrats said the same thing, although I’m convinced that group of Democrats must contain a high percentage of late-night talk show hosts, standup comedians and political cartoonists.
We need the material, people.
And just one more nugget of insanity before I call it quits for the day; 38% of GOP voters said Trump should refuse to give up power to Joe Biden and stay in the White House.
I’m pretty sure those people consider themselves patriots and good Americans, but when it comes right down to it, if they don’t get what they want at the polls, they’re willing to support what amounts to an overthrow of the government.
Jesus…I always knew there were a bunch of morons running around and I gotta give Donald Trump credit; he’s helped the rest of us identify them.
And it isn't over yet...Just hold your breath until late January