Several things are making me angry and very concerned. (1) The failure of Senate and House Republicans to bluntly deny and refute the big lie when the election was called [btw 90% of votes have paper ballots which can be used to verify the accuracy of the counts ] (2) The incitement of the insurrection by Trump and other Republicans based upon the bullshit and (3) The intentional delay of the use of the National Guard to stop the insurrection (4) The future of the republic.
..
This is a comprehensive and long diary organized historically [the election happened, it was called, Congressional Republicans failed to affirm the integrity of the election, some prominent republicans began to speak out and Trump lost court cases, Trump incited the insurrection, and the future of the republic].
It has taken a lot of time to put this together, to transcribe videos, to find the sources , collect relevant quotes and to write this. For all but maybe one or two people on Daily Kos this diary won’t be a good fit. It will be far too long for them. That’s fine. In any event, the information and links are available as a reference. The point of this is to properly frame everything that has happened backed up by evidence. I know that a huge percentage of Trump voters will not be convinced by evidence. They will either reject that evidence or interpret it in a way that is consistent with their original view. However, the difference between 15% of Trump voters knowing and acknowledging the truth and 33% of Trump voters knowing and acknowledging the truth is enormous. Even just one third of Trump voters, 70% of independent and unaffiliated voters knowing the truth, and 95% of Democratic voters knowing the truth would be a huge advantage for the future and the health of the republic. It would enable us to have a solid 70% or more of voters who reject the big lie. That would enable us to limit and contain the damage that they do by controlling the White House and Congress. We haven’t been able to harness the capacity of the federal government to contain this danger to the republic. We have not seen what the federal government can do to fight it. In fact, the danger came from the president and was pushed by the Congressional Republicans. With 70% of voters and control of the White House and Congress, we can contain and attack this. Right now, 75% of Trump voters have an irrational belief; they believe the big lie. We far outnumber them. However, having a heavily armed group of up to 50 million people believing against the evidence the big lie and that they no longer live in a democracy is dangerous. The Biden Harris administration and a Democratic Party controlled Congress can be the turning point for the country. However, each of us can play some role in this fight for the country.
.
.
Historical prelude
.
.How did we get to this point ? There was an explosion of white grievance after President Obama won his election. Trump tapped into it by latching onto the racist birther conspiracy. His entire candidacy revolved around white grievance. White people were not used to having to compete and lose their unrivaled supremacy. Their heritage and culture was the dominant force in society. They saw a completely different world coming into existence with diverse demographic groups challenging their supremacy. White evangelicals and fundamentalists showed that they cared more about white supremacy than morals. The vast majority of republican voters completely identified with Trump in a way that nothing could break their connection to him. Nothing else was as important as his restoration of white supremacy in culture and value and society. So, they dismissed and didn’t care about anything else he did. Trump is a complete narcissist and could not ever acknowledge defeat or even the possibility of defeat. It would crush his ego to the core. So, he had to protect himself and his ego by beginning to make claims about voter fraud even before the election. His voters believe everything he says because they care more about his promotion of white supremacy than anything else and thus, he could never be wrong. He did lose. He kept promoting the big lie.
.
Failure of Congressional republicans and Senate republicans to affirm that Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in a free and fair election devoid of widespread fraud immediately after the election was called for Biden
However, Congressional republicans should have nearly universally taken a stand against the big lie once the election was called. It’s simple. Every other losing presidential candidate besides Al Gore (who was in a special situation) has conceded within a day of the election being called for the winner. Neither recounts nor litigation have ever altered who won a presidential election in modern American political history when the margin was three states each won by over ten thousand votes. Virtually everybody in Congress knows this. Therefore, at a minimum all Senate republicans who didn’t believe the big lie should have immediately affirmed that Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in a free and fair election devoid of widespread fraud right after the election was called for Biden. There was no reason to believe that things would get better by giving Donald Trump far more time than other losing candidates in modern political history to accept their loss. There was no reason to believe that Trump would ever accept the fact that he lost a free and fair election devoid of widespread voter fraud. The more time he was given, the more he would have promoted his big lie. Waiting to make a statement worsened the situation. The Senate republicans either knew or should have known this. There is no history of the claimed amount of voter fraud in modern American political history. There is no precedent and the courts rejected the claims as false.
I asked myself, “What is the percentage in the House of those who push bullshit they don’t believe to please Trump and Trumpster voters in their district or state, and what is the percentage of those who are actually so fucking stupid as to believe the bullshit ? I had thought certainly these people can’t really be that stupid. It’s not possible is it ? However, it actually is. It appears to me that despite all the evidence to the contrary that almost all House Republicans who voted to object to counting the electoral college votes are really that dumb, dumb enough to actually believe easily and repeatedly disproven lies.
However, I am convinced that at least 90% of the Senate Republicans know better than to believe the lies. If the Senate republicans had almost all universally refuted the big lie together, then likely only half of the Trump voters who bought the big lie would have believed it. They had several opportunities to prevent this. First, if they had all united together around a different candidate in the primary. Second, if they stood together to contain him at the beginning of the administration. Third, if they had voted to convict him, then he would have lost much of his power. Finally, they had an opportunity immediately after the election was called for Biden, they could have come together and refuted it. If they had done that, I am convinced that the problem would be half of its current size and scope. This problem is a direct result of their failure to stand up for the country.
.
Yet, Trump’s claims about the election were completely false.
.
.
[transcript by diarist — my best effort — it likely isn’t perfect]
.There is no shredding of ballots going on. That’s not real. That’s not happening. There is shredding of envelopes, non used ones, or there is shredding of the secrecy envelopes that came through that we saw some of those in the Senate hearing and it’s obvious that they are the secrecy envelopes which have no evidentiary value because there is no signature on it , there is no way to match it back, they are basically trash. The law requires that you keep the signature and oath envelopes and the ballots themselves for 22 months. Those are all being kept.
This one I don’t fully understand : No one is changing parts or pieces out of Dominion voting machines . I don’t even know what that means. That’s not a real thing. That is not happening. The president mentioned on the call yesterday or from two days ago . Again, not real. I don’t even know how exactly to explain that.
.Secretary Raffensperger does not have a brother named Ron Raffensperger. That is also not real. The president tweeted that out as well.
.The other fantastical thing that we saw the other day was a potential hacking of Dominion equipment during a Senate hearing last week. That did not happen either. First of all, ballot marking devices, scanners, neither one have modems. It’s very hard to hack things without modems. There is nothing to talk to . So, let’s get that clear.
.The poll pads which is a Nowink device does have the ability to connect to wifi which we use for loading purposes and in case there is an issue on election day, but they are not hooked up live all the time. And if they saw anything, they could see traffic back and forth , but it would basically be like watching a river go by, you couldn’t get in. It’s essentially if they did this which we have no proof of, we have claim after claim after claim with zero proof. Zero. And signed affidavits are part of an evidentiary trail, but they have to be investigated and let’s remember , everybody who came and gave testimony and public testimony at the state senate hearing , this office was never asked to come and discuss those items with that state senate hearing, subcommittee. That didn’t happen either. Which I find interesting because obviously they are making wild claims that again undermine people’s faith in the system. Let’s see.
Oh yeah, this is another one that came in over the weekend from the founder of Overstock dot com that they found thousands and thousands of fake ballots in Fulton County warehouse. For any of you all in the press who have been to the Fulton County Warehouse, these are the emergency ballots that have been sitting in that warehouse since before the November election very much in plain view of everybody to see. And what happened, the reason they had a high number, first of all, every county has to have those emergency ballots by rule. The State Election Board Rule says that you have to have ten percent of the available ones for each polling location and they have to be printed for that polling location for the ballot styles so that they can track it properly . In Fulton County’s case, you all may remember that there was a COVID outbreak in their warehouse, not long before the logic and accuracy testing period was happening for the general election . In a very wild abundance of caution, they had what they referred to as not plan A, not plan B, but they referred to it as plan C which was if we can’t get people in to do the logic and accuracy testing on all of our equipment , we’re going to print up 100% of our ballots we need to land hand-marker ballots be what we have to do if we can’t get the machines done. They did that out of an abundance of caution given the unknowable unknowns surrounding COVID and their ability to get employees in to do that. They were thankfully able to get the employees in and Dominion staff came in to make sure that they got the logic and accuracy test done so they were able to deploy all of their B and Bs and their B and D’s carriers , their scanners, so that they did not have to use those ballots, but that’s why those ballots existed . They are not fake ballots; they are real ballots. They are unused ballots. And what I find really interesting about this is that they were in shrink wrap items in boxes that are sealed. What can you do with those ? They are sitting right there. Everybody saw them.
Um. Let’s see. Trying to think. What other .. Here’s part of the problem, y’all. I sit down and try to write down every thing that we see that comes over the internet as a potential thing of disinformation. It gets exploded. We all get these exploded because we know that there are lots of bots that are doing it . We have foreign powers that are pushing these things at the same time. So, here’s the takeaway from all of this: This office has been open and transparent . We are continuing investigations.
There are questions about pristine ballots. That’s one last thing, the pristine ballot thing. There are three reasons why you can have the so called “pristine ballot” which is the absentee/emergency/provisional ballot . There’s first one military and oversees voters will oftentimes get what they call an “electronic ballot” . What happens is, once we get the ballot built starting on the 49th or 45th day , we will send email alerts out to those people who want to have electronic ballot delivery which is many of our military service men and women . So, they take that, they print it. And they bubble in their choices. Now obviously that’s on an eight and a half by eleven piece of paper or eleven by fourteen or whatever you print it on. So, it’s not sized properly to go through a scanner . So, when that comes back to the county, they duplicate that on a flat, unfolded piece of paper on the absentee ballot / emergency ballot. That’s a normal process for many of the military overseas voters that are electronically delivered.
.
The other situation you might see that in is an emergency ballot situation. If a ballot marking device goes down or wasn’t used which is the case we see in the morning in Spalding County on election day, they will use the emergency ballot as backup and those will be scanned directly into the machine and not folded.
.
And the final place that you would see that is on a damaged or adjudicated ballot that was not adjudicated through the electronic system or in Fulton County’s case was they were putting so many of the absentee ballots through their cutters that occasionally it will catch the ballot itself and slice it. In Fulton County’s case, they did the vast majority I think 100% of their duplication on a BMD. In Cobb County’s location, I think they did all those on hand-marked paper ballots. So, there’s a difference of use and process in each one of the counties. So, that’s why you would see “pristine ballots”.
.
Wednesday, we have all heard the reports that there is going to be several senators and Congressman who will be objecting to the electors being seated. We anticipate that each time that they do that, they are going to go , separate out, have a debate for two hours, the state of Georgia’s electors will get seated. They will look at this evidence as best they can in such a way and it will be voted on by the House and Senate. We anticipate that and that will prove that our certification was proper at the end of the day. And that we follow the process properly . And I give you back to Senator Tom Cotton’s statement from earlier today that says that this is the process that we’re supposed to follow , it was the appropriate step under the constitution and the laws of Georgia and laws of the United States.
..
.So with that, I want to say if you’re a Georgia voter , if you want your values reflected by your elected officials, I strongly beg you and encourage you, go vote tomorrow. Do not let anybody discourage you. Do not self-suppress your own vote. Do not make a self-fulfilling prophecy out of doing this. Don’t let anybody steal your vote that way. And that’s what’s happening. If you self-suppress you are taking away your important voice from this election.
.
.
.Gabriel Sterling : We are going to find that people did illegally vote. That’s going to happen.
That’s right, the republican paragon saint of instilling confidence in our elections and who called out others for destroying confidence in our democracy said, “We are going to find that people did illegally vote. That’s going to happen ! There are going to be double voters. There are going to be people who shouldn’t have voted who did not have the qualifications of a registered voter in this state to vote ! That will be found ! “
.
.
.
[29 minutes too long to transcribe all of. So I transcribed only a small part of it. Transcription of what I found to be the more important false allegations refuted. up to twelve minutes. ]
If you go to securevoteGa.com , we have posted all of the videos from State Farm for that day that cover the relevant periods . Explanation of leak in State Farm building. The table in question . Nothing underneath the table . Frame by frame shown. Chain of custody preserved.
They claim that there were 2,056 felons that voted (no six , so if I want a six to appear on the screen, I have to copy and paste it. So, first I do a google search for the number six, then I copy the number six and then I paste it wherever it needs to go. ). Our research because they have better data .We are directly tied to the state government on this, the Department of Corrections, and probation. We know exactly how many people voted for this because we have an outer bound of 74 potential people who were felons voting . What that means is that that’s the biggest number it could be. We will investigate and find out some of these people completed their sentences, some of these people have the same name and birth date and so there will be some crossover there, so 74 is the supremum, the outward bound. It’s going to be lower than that.
Then there is the claim that 66,248 people below the age of 18 voted. The actual number is 0. The reason we know that is because the dates are on the voter registration . There were four cases, four cases, where people requested their absentee ballot before they turned 18, but they turned 18 by election day. That is a legally cast ballot.
They say that there are 2,423 people who voted without being registered. Let’s just be clear about this: you can’t do it. There cannot be a ballot issued to you , there’s no way to tie it back to you, there’s no way for there to be a name to correspond back to unless they are registered voters. So that number is 0.
Then we’ve got 1,143 illegally voted using a PO Box. Again, we’re going through the investigation on this. So far, every one we’ve seen has been when there’s a mail box etc or something like that in a multi family building like an apartment. So, it will have what looks like PO Boxes listed in the system, but there actually residential addresses of record for people who live in multi family housing like apartments. So, we haven’t seen anybody actually registering to vote at a USPS PO Box.
.Next one is 4,926 voted past the legal registration deadline . Again, it’s zero. 0. We have zero record of anybody doing that because the voter registration cut off is the voter registration cut off. So, there’s no corresponding way to do that. They couldn’t be issued a ballot because they are not legally within the system to have ballots issued.
.10,315 who died before the election . Again, our information from the Department of Auto Records, we go through county by county shows potentially 2 . So far 2. It could change. It could go, but it’s not 10,000.
.
395 cast ballots in two states . We’re investigating that but again we got double voters which we are investigating, but again we are talking handfuls, not tens of thousands . Let’s remember and I think we’re all very clear on the number now, it’s 11,779.
.
We have seen nothing in our investigations in these data claims that shows that there are nearly enough ballots to change the outcome.
.
.And the Secretary and I at this podium have said since November 3 that there is illegal voting in every single election in the history of mankind because there are human beings involved in the process. It’s a question of limiting it and putting as many safeguards as you can in place to make sure it doesn’t happen.
.
.We had part of the hand tally we discussed in relation to the potential double scanning . Let’s just go to the other ridiculous claims that Dominion voting machines are somehow using fractional voting or flipping votes. Again, by doing the hand tally it shows that none of that is true.
.
.
.
.
Sterling: It goes both ways because 50% of Democrats believe Russians flipped votes. Responsible people need to act responsibly.
Answer: The presidential candidate for the Democratic Party in the previous election immediately conceded and did not make these kinds of statements like Trump is. Hillary Clinton conceded within an hour of the AP call. She did not go on and make these CT claims and litigate the election in court. Her claims were limited to what Robert Mueller documented. I tweeted back at Sterling : That our responsible people did act responsibly.
.
.
Claim : Dominion voting systems switched votes from Trump to Biden.
Krebs: I think that’s the Antwerp County Michigan issue. And that was just two databases that weren’t synching up properly based upon some alignment issues. They detected it. They fixed it. And no issues. Again, they had paper ballots, by the way, they always had ground truth.
Claim: Votes made on a Dominion voting system are counted in foreign countries
Krebs: Ah, this one again. All votes are counted in the United States. I don’t even understand this one. I just don’t.
Claim : In Pennsylvania, the ballots were taken and counted at a top secret location away from poll watchers.
Krebs: Yeah, I understand that one to be false. In fact, I think that the president’s own lawyer said that there was a non zero number of observers in the room.
Claim: The president said in Nevada you can sign your name as Santa Claus and your vote would be accepted.
Krebs: That depends. Is your name Santa Claus ? If your name is Santa Claus, then yes. But they check signatures.
Claim: In Arizona, mail in ballots were stolen and hidden under a rock.
Krebs: That one is true. They were ballots that had not been cast yet, but it’s being investigated. And those voters whose ballots were stolen were contacted and given the opportunity to still vote afterwards. They were notified.
Claim: In Wisconsin, at 3:42 am on election night, there was a massive dump of suspicious votes for Biden. He had a chart.
Krebs: I’m uncomfortable talking about the massive dumps thing. But look what happens is votes are sorted , sometimes before they are entered into the system. And you might see stacks of Biden votes and stacks of Trump votes and what happened is that they sorted and they entered it in. But again, paper ballots, paper ballots, paper ballots . The ones and zeroes are not the important thing; that’s the paper ballots.
Claim: Rudy Guliani personally saw dead people voting . It was bitten by one of them, a zombie situation and that’s why he is slowly melting before our eyes.
Krebs: Stephen, I think we can move on to the next one.
.
.
And all of these claims by Trump continued to mount while the evidence that shows that Trump’s claims were lies accumulated; evidence piled up that showed Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in a free and fair election devoid of widespread fraud.
.
.
People who have asserted that the election results are accurate include many republicans, republican elected officials who voted for Trump, republican appointed judges, people who served in Donald Trump’s administration and even judges and justices appointed by Donald Trump.
..
.
.Rush Limbaugh
.Rush Limbaugh Criticizes Trump Campaign for Hyping Up 'Blockbuster' Voter Fraud Evidence: 'Nothing Happened… Not Good'
..
.Chris Christie
.
.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (KXAN) — As the legal Pres. Donald Trump continues pursuing still unproven claims of widespread voter fraud affecting the outcome of the 2020 Election, a longtime ally of the administration says it’s time to call it a day.
In an interview on Sunday, former New Jersey Governor and frequent Trump aide Christie condemned the Trump team’s challenges against the victory of president-elect Joe Biden as “a national embarrassment.”
Christie said: “I have been a supporter of the president’s. I voted for him twice. But elections have consequences & we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn’t happen.” He says an unwillingness to present evidence “must mean the evidence doesn’t exist.”
The former governor pointed to the fact that the Trump legal team won’t accuse Georgia’s governor of crimes inside a courtroom, where they would be forced to produce evidence.
.
.Brad Raffensperger:
.
Brad Raffensperger: Georgia’s election results are sound
.The successful November election and the smooth hand recount have proved our critics wrong
.Georgia’s voting system has never been more secure or trustworthy. A newly implemented statewide voting system gave Georgia voters paper ballots for the first time in nearly 20 years. This month, voters could review those paper records and verify that their choices were correct before casting their ballots. Partnerships with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Georgia Cyber Center at Augusta University, experts from Georgia Tech and election security specialists from around the country help ensure that Georgia’s election system remains secure from whatever threats loom on the horizon.
In Georgia, signatures for absentee ballot voters are verified twice to ensure that each voter gets one vote — and only one vote. Voters who request an absentee ballot through the state’s new online portal provide a driver’s license number for verification. Voter rolls are maintained to ensure that only living and qualified voters remain on the registration lists — and, importantly, that each ballot goes to the correct address.
Georgia just finished its first statewide hand recount, a cutting-edge process that was developed for verifying the accuracy of election results and that is considered the gold standard in election integrity. The General Assembly passed legislation that allowed time to match signatures on ballots as well as creating guides for automatic recounts. The closeness of the presidential race in Georgia required that all ballots be hand-recounted — a process that is in place to ensure the machines are working properly and every ballot has been accounted for.
.
.
.
.Senator Pat Toomey:
.
.
Toomey said the "evidence is overwhelming that Joe Biden won this election."
.
.
.Chris Krebs :
.
.Trump fired me for saying this, but I’ll say it again: The election wasn’t rigged
.
Opinion by Christopher Krebs
Dec. 1, 2020 at 5:23 p.m. CST
Christopher Krebs is the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Post columnist David Ignatius interviewed Krebs Dec. 2 about the 2020 election on Washington Post Live.
On Nov. 17, I was dismissed as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a Senate-confirmed post, in a tweet from President Trump after my team and other election security experts rebutted claims of hacking in the 2020 election. On Monday, a lawyer for the president’s campaign plainly stated that I should be executed. I am not going to be intimidated by these threats from telling the truth to the American people.
This point cannot be emphasized enough: The secretaries of state in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania, as well officials in Wisconsin, all worked overtime to ensure there was a paper trail that could be audited or recounted by hand, independent of any allegedly hacked software or hardware.
That’s why Americans’ confidence in the security of the 2020 election is entirely justified. Paper ballots and post-election checks ensured the accuracy of the count. Consider Georgia: The state conducted a full hand recount of the presidential election, a first of its kind, and the outcome of the manual count was consistent with the computer-based count. Clearly, the Georgia count was not manipulated, resoundingly debunking claims by the president and his allies about the involvement of CIA supercomputers, malicious software programs or corporate rigging aided by long-gone foreign dictators.
.
.
.Republican Governor of Arizona Doug Ducey :
..
.Gov. Doug Ducey: 'Joe Biden did win Arizona'
.
.Republican Governor of Georgia Brian Kemp recertified Joe Biden’s victory of Georgia
.
.
.Ned Staebler isn’t a republican, but he made some strong points about the Wayne County results when a republican tried to pretend there was a reason to oppose certification of the results and ultimately the vote was 3-0 with one abstention by a dishonest republican who didn’t want to be charged for breaking the law.
.
.
Staebler called out the board's August certification saying, "Your legal arguments are rubbish."
"You talked about not certifying Detroit, even though you acknowledge that Livonia, a city by the way, I know you know is 95% white and bigger variances than Detroit, which is 80% Black, we understand and you know added your name," he said.
Videos of Staebler's public comments are being spread over social media and gaining upward of 10 million views.
.
.Attorney General of the United States Bill Barr who was nominated by Donald Trump and who served in the Trump administration until the winter holidays :
.
.WASHINGTON (AP) — Disputing President Donald Trump’s persistent, baseless claims, Attorney General William Barr declared Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.“to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.
.
.Trump appointed judges and justices and those on his short list ruled against him and none ruled in his favor :
.
.
The most remarkable rebukes of Trump’s legal case: From the judges he hand-picked
At least nine Trump-appointed judges or Supreme Court short-listers have declined to bolster his claims of election fraud. None have ruled in his favor.
Over the past three days, all three of those Supreme Court justices declined to weigh in in favor of the campaign’s far-flung effort to overturn the election results, and another Trump appointee issued a blistering ruling in Wisconsin.
All told, at least eight judges appointed by Trump have ruled against or declined to bolster the pro-Trump effort pushing baseless allegations of massive voter fraud and irregularities, as did another on his Supreme Court shortlist.The big one was Friday’s Supreme Court decision, in which the court declined to even accept a dubious filing from 18 Republican state attorneys general and the Trump campaign seeking to overturn the results in four states. Two justices offered a slightly more nuanced view — that the case should be accepted — but none were Trump appointees Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch or Brett M. Kavanaugh. What’s more, the two justices (Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas) also said they wouldn’t grant the requested relief, which was a significant rebuke in and of itself.
While there was no vote count, the silence from Trump’s appointees spoke volumes.
Other Trump appointees haven’t been so silent, though. Chief among them is Brett H. Ludwig, whom Trump nominated to a U.S. District Court in Wisconsin in 2017. Earlier this month, he called the Trump campaign’s request to have the GOP-appointed Wisconsin legislature pick new presidential electors “bizarre.” And he followed that up Saturday by ruling against the “extraordinary” lawsuit.
“A sitting president who did not prevail in his bid for reelection has asked for federal court help in setting aside the popular vote based on disputed issues of election administration, issues he plainly could have raised before the vote occurred,” he wrote.
Ludwig added: “This court allowed the plaintiff the chance to make his case, and he has lost on the merits. In his reply brief, plaintiff ‘asks that the Rule of Law be followed.’ It has been.”
.
.Judges from across the political spectrum including republican judges ruled against Trump
..
.‘The last wall’: How dozens of judges across the political spectrum rejected Trump’s efforts to overturn the election
.
They are both elected and appointed, selected by Democrats and Republicans alike.
Some have served for decades — while others took the bench only months ago.
One is a former high school teacher, another the first Native American woman appointed to a federal judgeship. A third worked for years for a Republican governor who has been a vocal supporter of President Trump.
Since the November election, they have all ruled in court against Trump or one of his allies seeking to challenge or overturn the presidential vote.
In a remarkable show of near-unanimity across the nation’s judiciary, at least 86 judges — ranging from jurists serving at the lowest levels of state court systems to members of the United States Supreme Court — rejected at least one post-election lawsuit filed by Trump or his supporters, a Washington Post review of court filings found. “Voters, not lawyers, choose the President,” declared U.S. Circuit Court Judge Stephanos Bibas, a former prosecutor and law professor appointed in 2017 by Trump, as he rejected an attempt to throw out Pennsylvania’s votes for Biden. Trump’s attempt to block certification of Biden’s win in Georgia “would breed confusion and potentially disenfranchisement that I find has no basis in fact or in law,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Steven D. Grimberg, whom Trump named to the bench last year. But conservative jurists are among those who have balked at the sweeping attempts by Trump and his allies to throw out millions of votes after they were cast — rejecting claims of irregularities as unfounded and challenges to the voting process as belated. The Post found that 38 judges appointed by Republicans dealt blows to such suits, with some writing searing opinions.
.
.
Thus, above the big lie is completely refuted. Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in a free and fair election devoid of widespread fraud. This evidence is easily accessible to any honest person searching for the truth. There is no history in modern American political history of the kind of widespread fraud that Trump falsely claimed. 90% of the votes cast had a paper ballot trail. The burden of proof is upon the ones making the allegation of something that we haven’t ever seen in modern American presidential political history. Three states with margins of over ten thousand votes is simply never going to be overturned by recounts and litigation. There is no precedent for this kind of widespread fraud in modern political history. With margins of three states each won by over ten thousand votes, there would have needed to be a large conspiracy without precedent in modern American political history to create such an outcome had Trump won apart from voter fraud. The more people a conspiracy theory would require, the more likely it is that a conspirator would admit or acknowledge or give away information about the conspiracy. Allegations without evidence are not proof of anything but commitment to the conman. Yet these people had such a deep commitment to Trump that they would believe anything he said.
So, by his big lie, he got fifty to seventy million of his voters to believe that Biden would not have won if not for voter fraud. Thus, they believed crimes had been committed in order to give Biden the win. They believed that injustice had prevailed. They were very angry. Finally, Trump incited the insurrection :
.
The incitement of the insurrection by Donald Trump and Michael Flynn and Donald Trump jr and Rudy Guliani
.
.
However, even though evidence shows that the claims are false, Trump not only kept repeating them but he even continued to incite the insurrectionists on January sixth. He even stated that he would go with them to the Capitol.
.Link to transcripts :
.
.FLYNN: Those of you that don't have the moral fiber in your body, get some (rest) tonight because tomorrow we the people are going to be here, and we want you to know that we will not stand for a lie.
GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: We can't forget, though, what Ulysses S. Grant said, there are but two parties right now - traitors and patriots.
RUDY GIULIANI: Let's have trial by combat.
CORNISH: And so did the president's son, Donald Trump Jr.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DONALD TRUMP JR: Guess what, folks? If you're going to be the zero and not the hero, we're coming for you, and we're going to have a good time doing it.
.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede when there's theft involved.
(CHEERING)
CORNISH: On Twitter last month, Trump called on supporters to gather January 6 saying, quote, "Be there. It will be wild."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DONALD TRUMP: We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.
.
.Here is more of his speech inciting the insurrection :
.
.Trump Told Crowd ‘You Will Never Take Back Our Country With Weakness’
.
Mr. Pence repeated what he had told Mr. Trump a day earlier:
Mr. Trump listened, and stewed and chastised Mr. Pence as soft
.he made clear in his roughly 70-minute speech that he was furious with Mr. Pence and that he wanted the people gathered on the National Mall to go to the Capitol immediately afterward in protest of what he falsely claimed was a stolen election.
.
“And we are going to have to fight much harder. And Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us, and if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country. Because you’re sworn to uphold our Constitution.”
Calling the outcome of the election “this egregious assault on our democracy,” he said his supporters should “walk down to the Capitol.”
“We are going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women,” he continued, “and we are probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them — because you will never take back our country with weakness.”
Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., warmed up the audience by warning of challenges to Republican members of Congress who did not back the pro-Trump efforts: “We’re coming for you,” he said.
In urging his supporters to see the routine act of certifying the election results as an illegal affront against him and against them, Mr. Trump helped set in motion hours of violence and chaos that continued as darkness fell on Wednesday.
“There’s no question the president formed the mob,” Representative Liz Cheney, Republican from Wyoming, told Fox News. “The president incited the mob. The president addressed the mob. He lit the flame.”
.
Trump’s speech hours later :
.
.I know your pain. I know you hurt. We had an election. That was stolen from us it was a landslide election and everyone knows it especially the other side. But you have to go home now we have to have peace we have to have law and order to we have to respect our great. We are people of law and order. We don't want anybody hurt. It's a very tough period of time. There's never been a time like this where such a thing happened to where they could take it away from all of us from me from you from our country. This was a fraudulent election. But we can't play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home we love you you're very special. You've seen what happens to you, see the way others are treated better. So bad and so have we all. I know how you feel. But go home and go home it peace.
.
Then, Trump stated that it was because not enough people helped him overturn a free and fair election devoid of widespread fraud that he lost to Joe Biden into a Trump dictator for life outcome.
.
.These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been unfairly and badly treated for so long . Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever !
.
.Trump’s weakness has even angered the insurrectionists to some extent !
.
.
.
There was a delay in deploying National Guard Troops and other needed support during the insurrection and it appears clear that the reason for the delay was Donald Trump would not support deploying them because he sided with the insurrectionists
.
Governor Hogan called repeatedly to get the National Guard deployed and was repeatedly told that it had not been approved. Donald Trump sided with the insurrectionists because he not only had stated falsely that he would be going with them into the Capitol, but even afterwards he told them that he loved them and that they were special people. After the fact, Donald Trump falsely attributed the acts of the insurrectionists to the election being stolen. These people went to the Capitol right after they listened to Trump tell them to go to the Capitol. Ivanka called them patriots. Clearly, Donald Trump sided with the insurrectionists. When he did say that he opposed the violence and the insurrection, then he later expressed regret for that video. He clearly read a speech written for him and put on a teleprompter that he did not agree with. It was supposed to be the president who called to authorize the deployment of the National Guard, but he never did that. Vice President Pence who lacks the authority to do call to deploy them did so anyway. It took several hours before they were finally deployed.
.
There was plenty of intelligence and obvious evidence that an attack on the Capitol was likely on January sixth as Donald Trump invited his voters to come for a “wild” time , clearly inciting them to act violently on that day. That day was the day when Congress was scheduled to count the electoral college votes. This clearly was not a coincidence. Trump attributed the insurrection attempt to the election, making the connection himself. This was an attempt to prevent Congress from performing its constitutional duties. Furthermore, it was apparent that Trump was building up his voters to this act. Therefore, it was clear that strong security was needed for that day. Yet, security forces were put where they would be of little to no use and others like the National Guard were simply not approved for deployment. Decisions made ahead of time allowed the insurrection attempt to be as successful as it was.
.
We are now learning of tours given to the insurrectionists by extreme seditionists among Congressional republicans. The insurrectionists had detailed knowledge which makes it appear that they had help from some who work within the Capitol. Representative and Majority Whip Clyburn’s office is out of the way on the third floor. So, he wondered how they would have found it. Representative Sherrill stated that her chief of staff called the Sergeant at Arms after seeing a crowd because the Capitol had been closed off due to COVID and was told that a member must have met the group and allowed them in. Congresspeople have concerns that this may well have been an inside job. Police are investigating whether Congresspeople gave tours to insurrectionists. One extremist Congressional republican even tweeted Today is 1776 while the insurrection was taking place. One of the very, very best writers on all of Daily Kos who does a tremendous amount of research before publishing expressed concerns that this may have been an inside job as well and why.
.
.We would have to believe that the results of the two run off elections in Georgia are a part of the story, both partly as a result of what had happened before and and partly a cause of what came later.
.
This was all avoidable
.
.
.Republican voters could have chosen a different nominee. Congressional Republicans could have stood together and contained him from day one of his administration. Senate Republicans could have removed him after he was impeached. After the election, they could have all congratulated Joe Biden on winning a free and fair election devoid of widespread fraud right after the election was called. Other than 2000, every losing presidential candidate in modern American political history has conceded within 24 hours of the election being called. Never in modern American political history has who won a presidential election been altered by recounts or legal challenges when the margin of victory was three states, each won by more than 10,000 votes. Virtually ALL of these Congressional Republicans had to know that this was the case and that it was irrational to believe or assert that there was so much widespread fraud that it would change who won the presidential election when the margin was three states won by ten thousand votes or more each. Virtually all of them had to know, therefore, that the president’s claims were false and could not possibly be true. They knew this when the election was called for Biden , November 7th.
.
That can only mean that this decision for virtually all of these Congressional Republicans was made for purely political reasons and that they thought that this would yield a better outcome. However, it should have been always clear that going along with and supporting Trump’s lawsuits and saying nothing while he made these false claims was the wrong strategy, one that could only lead us to the insurrection that we experienced. After all, seventy six percent of republican voters believe Trump more than their pastor and if he kept repeating these claims that the election was stolen from him, that in reality he won it but Biden cheated and that Biden only gets to become president because Biden cheated, then his voters were going to think that democracy had been subverted and that there was almost a coup . These people don’t listen to mainstream sources or sources that contradict the president. So, they were going to believe that message. And if they believe that their hero was literally cheated out of a second term, then a great many of them would do whatever they could think of to stop this. They would feel like a crime had been committed against their hero, President Trump, and that they were simply trying to make things right. These insurrectionists were, in no way whatsoever, justified in their insurrection attempt. Their choice to eliminate all other sources of information was not a morally neutral act. And what they did was commit serious crimes including sedition. And there was no evidence presented to demonstrate that Trump’s claims were true. The information disproving it is widely available and was given by many republicans. So, there is zero excuse for the insurrection attempt. The point I am making, however, is that this outcome was eminently foreseeable. Congressional Republicans and especially Senate Republicans either knew or should have known that this insurrection attempt would be the outcome.
The future of the American republic
I have grave concerns about the future of the republic. As documented above, we got here because of republicans, both a republican president, a republican senate, House republicans, and republican voters. They are why we are here. After Nixon’s “Southern Strategy”, the Republican Party started down this road due to their hatred of people of color, especially African Americans. Trump latched on to the false, bigoted “birther conspiracy” and the white supremacist nationalist party swooned and fell in love. Thirty years of lies against her and a system that favors the minority of voters and collaboration with the Russians, other crimes committed by the Trump campaign, and Comey defying DOJ policy, and a failure of Democratic leaning voters to understand the consequences of failing to vote for the Democratic Party’s nominee for president led us into this disastrous and deadly four year period as we approach nearly 400,000 dead unnecessarily due to a narcissistic, extreme present hedonist, sociopath and maniac of a president. He suspected the truth that he could not win a free and fair election and so he sought to persuade republican state legislatures to select his slate of electors even if he lost the popular vote of the state. He lost. His conceit and narcissism wouldn’t allow him to admit that he lost a free and fair election.
He is the first president since Herbert Hoover to have fewer people employed at the end of his term than at the beginning. His opponent won the greatest percentage of the vote against an incumbent since Herbert Hoover. The margin in the popular vote was not particularly close. Biden won seven million more votes than Trump. Biden won 4.5% more of the vote than Trump. However, Biden also won the electoral college by three states each won by more than 10,000 votes, a margin that Trump had previously called a “landslide” when he won by that margin. The margin was too great to have been influenced by cheating. It would have involved three states and republican election officials in two of them. Some prominent republicans, some elected, some election officials, two Trump appointees, the previous republican nominee, the previous republican president, and republican and Trump appointed judges and justices acknowledged that Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in a free and fair election devoid of widespread voter fraud. Yet, the overwhelming number of republicans in both the US House of Representatives (where they almost all believed the big lie) and in the US Senate (where they knew the big lie was false but were silent and complicit) said nothing to acknowledge the truth that Biden won a free and fair election devoid of widespread voter fraud.
So, Trump’s lie went unrefuted by republicans in the US Congress. Thus, it became more and more widely believed even while it lost in federal court over and over again and as evidenced adduced showing to the honest conservatives that Biden did indeed win a free and fair election devoid of widespread voter fraud. As Trump kept repeating his big lie, his voters got more and more angry while it lost credibility among the educated and all outside of the cult. Trump kept lying to his voters that things could somehow change and that somehow he could stay in power if they fought hard. January sixth is a ministerial day for Congress during which they simply count the electoral college votes. Who knows what would have happened if the republicans had a majority in both chambers. Trump signaled for his voters to wildly protest on the sixth in a tweet inviting them to come to Washington, D.C. . They did and he spoke to them that morning. He told them that he would go with them and that they needed to “fight hard” . That group included some republican elected officials, off duty and retired police officers and retired military and militia with evil plans beyond simply trespassing. These people were violent, they broke the glass, broke into offices of the members, and some came to restrain using zip ties Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi , hold a sham “trial” for them, and execute them. Five people were killed during the insurrection by these domestic terrorists. They came to impede Congress doing its constitutionally mandated duty to count the electoral college votes of a free and fair election devoid of widespread fraud, votes that had all been certified by their states. They came to stop the peaceful transfer of power that has made America unique for centuries.
There was plenty of intelligence to indicate that a strong security presence was needed at the Capitol on that day ahead of time. It was available and yet not deployed. During the insurrection, Governor Larry Hogan, republican of Maryland, tried repeatedly to get approval to deploy the National Guard and was denied because Trump had not approved it. It took hours and a VP Pence without authority to deploy them acting before it happened. Some of the insurrectionists demonstrated inside knowledge. Radicalized off duty and retired policy and military as well some republican elected officials participated. These people told themselves that they were patriots and claimed to be brave patriots on social media and to their friends while seeking to prevent the peaceful transfer of power to the candidate who won a free and fair election devoid of widespread voter fraud. They committed acts of sedition. Trump intentionally incited them. Yale and Princeton Law grads Hawley and Cruz encouraged them while knowing better.
So, now we have about three fourths of Trump’s voters, 75% of 74 million people, who believe the big lie. About half of them approve of the act and, in any event, they feel it was justified because they wrongly believe that if Biden had not cheated, then Trump would be getting a second term. They believe that a fraud of enormous magnitude was committed in which three states were awarded to the wrong candidate . Yet, each of these states was won by more than ten thousand votes. So each state must have had a large conspiracy against their candidate. Two of these states have republican governors and republican secretaries of state. These people believe their hero was cheated. They don’t believe in American democracy any longer. To a lot of them, this means that anything that they do to oppose the incoming administration is justified. This is going to be used to radicalize huge numbers of them. And these people are heavily armed. Many of the insurrectionists are avowed white supremacists, other are white supremacists but don’t realize it or won’t admit it. Then there are the militia, some of whom were part of the insurrection. While there are exceptions, the vast majority of Trump voters are not very well-educated.
.
What does a future that includes a radical group of 50 plus million angry, heavily armed white supremacists who believe that their hero was robbed of a second term and who don’t believe in American democracy any more look like ? Trump voters already demonstrated that they don’t have an actual ethical code of conduct that they stand for because they supported him despite everything criminal and unethical that he did. Large groups of heavily armed, uneducated and very angry white supremacists who are very susceptible to being even more radicalized could carry out violent acts against the government or the American people. They will believe that their acts are justified because they believe the big lie. We are entering a very dangerous and likely very violent time. They will appoint more and more radical extremists and considering how radical the vast majority of Congressional republicans are, that’s quite a statement. We need to consolidate the support of sixty percent of the voters and retain control of Congress to try to contain this threat.
.
.
My appeal on social media to any who voted for Trump
.
Finally, in a social media post, I asked people to consider how they would view these acts by Trump, by the sedition caucus, by House republicans, and by the insurrectionists if the big lie is false. I first wrote that I had thought of how I would look at things if I were a Trump voter who believed the big lie. I expressed how I would feel if I thought that was true. I gave numerous reasons why the big lie is a lie also, but I did express how I would feel. I also stated, however, that the appropriate response is to fight it legally and trust my candidate and the courts, especially since my president (blech) would have filled so many judicial posts in the federal bench. I, then , recalled an episode of Law and Order in which a father reacted to what his daughter had told him. His adulterous wife had recently passed away from cancer and he had become very religious. His sixteen year old daughter was going to a religious school, but which at least understood that evolution is true. He found out that his daughter had sex with some school official. He already strongly disliked the evolution teacher. His daughter knew this. He demanded that she tell him who she slept with. She did not want her lover, a young high school counselor, to get in trouble. So, she said the name of the evolution teacher. He killed the evolution teacher. The district attorney brought him in with his daughter so that he could learn the truth. He had thought that his action was justified. The district attorney pressed her to admit the truth to her father and the district attorney had evidence to prove the truth. She did.
The father now had to re-examine his actions because the supposed justification that he thought was true and justified his acts was false.
I wrote consider the acts of Trump repeatedly telling you and all of his voters that he was cheated out of the election when in reality he lost a free and fair election devoid of widespread fraud. How would you view that act knowing that Trump was lying when he kept repeating these lies ? Do you see how dangerous it would be for the country to lie and tell your 74 million voters that you were cheated out of the office when it just wasn’t true. How would you view inciting the insurrection knowing that Trump’s claims were all a lie ? Would you not realize that Trump was trying to subvert democracy by overturning the valid and accurate results of a free and fair election that was devoid of widespread fraud ? Would you not see that this would be an attempt to be dictator because if he lost the election and he was trying to stay in power anyway, then that’s what he was trying to do. How would you view members of Congress refusing to accept valid results of a free and fair election devoid of widespread fraud , especially when many of them know that it is not true and the only reason that they were silent or went along with it was fear of you ? Would you not view them as complicit in an attempt to overturn democracy , especially since the better educated of them know that the type and scope of voter fraud asserted is simply impossible in three states each won by over ten thousand votes and it has no history in modern American political life ? How would you view the act against the Capitol knowing that some went there with zip ties (which there are pictures of) in order to tie up Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, put on a sham trial and then execute them both ? Would you not view it as an act or an attempt to overthrow the valid incoming US government ?
Trump lied. The fact is that he lost a free and fair election. It was devoid of widespread voter fraud. Those aren’t just my words. Those are the words of Bill Barr whom he personally nominated to be Attorney General. While great majorities of Congressional republicans were silent due to fear , so many prominent republicans, elected republicans, republican election officials, Trump appointees, prominent Trump supporters, the last republican nominee, the last republican president, and numerous republican and even Trump appointed judges and justices came out and acknowledged the truth, that Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in a free and fair election devoid of widespread fraud. These judges and justices did not simply rule against Trump on standing but also ruled against him on the merits and excoriated him for his lack of evidence. Why did all of these republicans admit that Biden legitimately won if that was not the case ? Were all of them in on the conspiracy too ? Some of you believe that there is video evidence of fraud. There isn’t. The videos are easily explained. Votes were not thrown away, envelopes were and other trash. Nobody would do that in front of observers and a video camera. If there were such evidence, then why the hell didn’t the Trump legal team present this video evidence in court ? He lost numerous times on the merits and if he had video evidence, you can bet his team would have presented it. Why would people who voted for Trump to win the election in 2020 cheat to help Biden win ? Election officials in three states, two of which have republican secretaries of state and governors ? And each of these conspiracies that has been pushed has been explained and refuted by republicans. There were found three instances of voter fraud in Pennsylvania. Three. And they were ALL TRUMP VOTERS. That’s a fact. And it is not in dispute.
So, consider all of these acts by Trump, silence or worse by Congressional republicans who know better, the ignorant go along, and then the insurrection at the Capitol trying to overturn the valid results of a free and fair election won by Biden, an election devoid of widespread voter fraud, and some of the insurrectionists seeking to murder Pence and Pelosi (one a hard care extremist republican who serves as Trump’s VP and the other a progressive Democrat) ? Consider those acts understanding the truth that Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in a free and fair election devoid of widespread voter fraud.
On a positive note:
I am noticing that President Elect Joe Biden really relies a lot in public on Vice President Elect Kamala Harris. I suspect that this is true even more behind the scenes. It shows Joe is smart and humble and it means that she is going to have an extremely strong voice and strong influence on this administration. That’s a really good thing. Biden certainly is going much bigger and more progressive than any of us could have expected. I’m encouraged by what I have seen !
Monday, Jan 18, 2021 · 2:48:32 AM +00:00
·
Dem
.
.
.
Statement by President George W. Bush on Insurrection at the Capitol
"Insurrection could do grave damage to our Nation and reputation. In the United States of America, it is the fundamental responsibility of every patriotic citizen to support the rule of law.
Laura and I are watching the scenes of mayhem unfolding at the seat of our Nation’s government in disbelief and dismay. It is a sickening and heartbreaking sight. This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic – not our democratic republic. I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions, and our law enforcement. The violent assault on the Capitol – and disruption of a Constitutionally-mandated meeting of Congress – was undertaken by people whose passions have been inflamed by falsehoods and false hopes. Insurrection could do grave damage to our Nation and reputation. In the United States of America, it is the fundamental responsibility of every patriotic citizen to support the rule of law. To those who are disappointed in the results of the election: Our country is more important than the politics of the moment. Let the officials elected by the people fulfill their duties and represent our voices in peace and safety. May God continue to bless the United States of America.