Politico
Biden’s electors prepare to seal his victory, as Trump and coronavirus rage
In interviews, more than two dozen swing-state electors detailed plans for Monday’s vote — and a hint of anxiety about Trump.
Politico:
Senate Republicans shun House GOP bid to overturn the election
The failed Texas lawsuit backing Trump's effort to stay in power highlighted the different incentives facing GOP lawmakers.
Not a single GOP senator signed a “friend of the court” brief for the long-shot Texas lawsuit to throw out other states' results in a bid to keep President Donald Trump in power. And there was no coordinated effort to get Republicans on board, according to interviews with more than a half-dozen Republican senators before the Supreme Court rejected the case Friday night.
Greg Sargent/WaPo:
Chris Murphy’s surprise floor speech raises tough questions for Democrats
If there’s one thing that widespread Republican support for President Trump’s effort to overturn the election results suggests, it’s that we’re entering into uncertain and potentially treacherous territory when it comes to the long-term viability of our democracy.
And that raises hard questions for Democrats that they haven’t seriously begun to grapple with — about how they will deal with this ultra-radicalized Republican opposition, and relatedly, about how they should communicate with the American people about the true nature of that opposition.
All this is driven home by a speech that Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) gave on the Senate floor on Friday, in which he called out his Republican colleagues. Watch this full excerpt:
David A Graham/Atlantic:
The GOP Abandons Democracy
One hundred and six Republican members of Congress, and 18 state attorneys general, are asking the Supreme Court to overturn the election.
Instead of Republican officeholders waiting out Trump’s postelection tantrum, he is waiting them out, and slowly bringing the party around to his side. In this way, Trump is ending his presidency just the way he won it: by correctly recognizing what Republican voters want and giving it to them, and gradually forcing the party’s purported leaders to follow along.
Jamelle Bouie/NY times:
The ‘Trump Won’ Farce Isn’t Funny Anymore
Republicans are now seriously arguing that elections are legitimate only when their side wins.
To tell a joke to a crowd is to learn a little something about the people who laugh.
For our purposes, the “joke” is President Trump’s ongoing fight to overturn the election results and hold on to power against the wishes of most Americans, including those in enough states to equal far more than the 270 electoral votes required to win the White House.
“#OVERTURN,” he said on Twitter this week, adding in a separate post that “If somebody cheated in the Election, which the Democrats did, why wouldn’t the Election be immediately overturned? How can a Country be run like this?”
Unfortunately for Trump, and fortunately for the country, he has not been able to bend reality to his desires.
Poynter:
Rush Limbaugh backtracked a reckless claim that part of the country was ‘trending toward secession’
‘I am not advocating it, have not advocated, never have advocated it, and probably wouldn’t,’ the radio show host said after getting clobbered online.
Here’s a story of Rush Limbaugh being Rush Limbaugh. That isn’t a compliment.
Limbaugh made all kinds of noise on his nationally-syndicated radio show this week about part of the country maybe wanting to secede from the union. Then after getting clobbered online, he backtracked Thursday on his show, essentially saying that’s not what he was advocating, but it’s what he had heard others say.
Again, this is classic Limbaugh: saying something provocative, something controversial, and then later claiming that’s not actually what he was saying.
Tom Goldstein/SCOTUSBlog:
Editorial: Don’t just deny Texas’ original action. Decimate it.
A simple five-page per curiam opinion genuinely could end up in the pantheon of all-time most significant rulings in American history. Every once in a long while, the court needs to invest some of its accumulated capital in issuing judgments that are not only legally right but also respond to imminent, tangible threats to the nation. That is particularly appropriate when, as here, the court finds itself being used as a tool to actively undermine faith in our democratic institutions — including by the members of the court’s bar on whom the justices depend to act much more responsibly.