At the White House presser today, there was the usual daily dose of trump insanity on display. But two things stuck out, as trump looks more and more desperate to hold on to power, while his poll numbers continue to slide.
On a question about a peaceful transfer of power, trump essentially said No!
A reporter asked — “Mr. President, real quickly, win, lose or draw in this election, will you commit here today for a peaceful transfer of power after the election?”
trump answered -
- Well, we’re going to have to see what happens.
- I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster and
- Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very trans — we’ll have a very peaceful ..
- There won’t be a transfer, frankly, there’ll be a continuation
- The ballots are out of control. You know it. And you know who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats know it better than anybody else.
- The reporter interjected — I don’t know that
On the face of it, this may sound like empty bluster. But within the context of all the other news such as the SCOTUS appointment before election day, about declaring a winner on November 3, about the sabotaging of the USPS and suppressing mail-in ballots, about sending the military and militia to cities and using sedition laws to punish protesters, about red states possibly conspiring to toss away the popular vote and attempts to strip away the FDA’s authority to make decisions on the vaccine, this is another ominous sign that trump and republicans are not going to accept defeat and they will bend every rule and use every dirty trick to keep their power.
Yesterday, trump made it quite clear why he wants to fill RBG’s seat before the election — so that the conservative SCOTUS can hand him the presidency -
Will GOP controlled states toss away the popular vote and simply send EC votes to trump? They seem to be making plans. This article in The Atlantic sent some alarm bells ringing.
Sources tell Gellman that the Trump campaign is discussing contingency plans to bypass election results and appoint pro-Trump electors in battleground states where Republicans hold the legislative majority, claiming rampant fraud as justification.
With various media outlets describing the trump GOP openly discussing their dirty bag of tricks to win the elections, #TrumpCoupPlot is trending.
On the COVID-19 front, this is what he said today — that he will override the FDA’s announcement of tougher standards for the EUA release of the vaccine —
This is in response to the announcement from the FDA yesterday that they are raising the success criteria for COVID-19 vaccine trials, which makes it very unlikely that they will issue an EUA before November 3.
The new guidance includes —
- Participants must be followed a median of at least two months, starting after they receive a second vaccine shot.
- The trial must include at least five severe cases of COVID-19, in the placebo group for each trial, as well as some cases of the disease in older people. Current protocol allowed mild and asymptomatic cases to be sufficient in the trial analysis.
This obviously upsets trump’s plans to trumpet a vaccine by the end of October. So, he is going to twist some arms (like he did for the plasma therapy announcement) and release a vaccine one way or the other.
What the heck is trump’s endgame on the COVID-19 front anyways?
On the one hand, he downplays the virus and claims that “COVID-10 only affects the elderly with heart problems” and that “it affects virtually nobody.”
To emphasize his point, he attends MAGA rallies with maskless supporters packed like sardines, screaming and shouting.
trump and his minions throw around the term herd immunity with abandon.
On the other hand, he is spending billions of tax-dollars on vaccines and pressuring vaccine developers and the FDA to rush release the vaccine in October. See diary “COVID-19 - Politics trumps Science. Again and again in trump-world” for more info.
Yesterday, in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, he stated “Seventy-five years after the end of World War II and the founding of the United Nations, we are once again engaged in a great global struggle - the China virus”. (see diary “At the U.N. today: Trump talks China Virus. Xi talks about Multilateralism” for more info)
There is no logic to any of this, trump is just gaslighting, and creating chaos, and thinking that somehow it will help his election chances when millions more get infected between now and election day.
Countermeasures
We are not alone; there are plenty of Democratic organizations who have been preparing for these possibilities for many months and who are getting ready with teams of lawyers and activists for the impending chaos.
We can sign up in these grassroots organization and make a difference.
Also, check out this diary by hahne — “A roundup of anti-coup efforts, resources, and upcoming trainings” for more info on countermeasures.
We are entering uncharted waters as we now have a rogue party and a desperate president, who will stop at nothing to stay in power. Hopefully all these shenanigans will shift a few more votes away from trump and republicans, which seems to be happening, based on recent polls.
Panic vs silence are false choices. Vigilance and preparation are what we should strive for. We have to anticipate all the dirty tricks trump and the GOP will use to steal the election and plan ahead with countermeasures.
Let’s stay vigilant, let’s do out part, lets volunteer, let’s GOTV and let’s keep working towards an overwhelming win in November.