Soon to be former-President Donald Trump keeps tweeting that his supporters should storm into Washington to help overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential Election. On January 6, Congress, in what was traditionally a ceremonial role, is scheduled to approve the Electoral College report that Joseph Biden was elected with 306 Electoral Votes to Donald Trump’s 232. Vice-President Mike Pence, as head of the Senate, is supposed to announce the final tally.
Meanwhile, Trump engages in increasingly bizarre behavior that should be investigated as criminal, and if he weren’t leaving office in two weeks, would be clear grounds for impeachment. On Saturday, Trump called Georgia’s top election official and threatened him with prosecution if he did not “find 11,780 votes” so Trump would win the state. In an hour long taped conversation, Trump kept claiming “There’s no way I lost Georgia” and repeated debunked conspiracy charges that ballots were shredded and machines were tampered with. When he did not get the response he wanted, Trump called the Georgia Secretary of State a “child,” incompetent,” and a “schmuck.” The Washington Post, which secured a tape of the conversation, describes Trump as “rambling and at times incoherent conversation.” In a Sunday tweet, Trump admitted he had spoken to the Georgia Secretary of State, who he derided as “unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!”
As many as 100 Republican members of the House of Representatives and at least a dozen Republican Senators have announced they will challenge the Electoral College report hoping to derail or delay Biden’s election and keep Trump in office. They are expected to introduce motions to throw out the result or at least to postpone certifying Biden’s election while a special commission investigates fraudulent fraud charges. Pence, who also lost his reelection bid in November, announced he welcomes the challenge. The federal Justice Department has already declared there is no evidence of voter fraud and Trump campaign attempts to reverse the election result lost in multiple court challenges because of lack of evidence. These moves will fail because the Democrats control the House of Representatives and even some Senate Republicans can’t stomach the blatant attack on democracy in the United States and may fear that Trump is not mentally stable. Debate on motions to overturn the election is expected to be cut off after two hours.
The disruption is only theater and is really being staged for future political advantage. Republican Representatives and Senators want to forestall primary challenges from rightwing fringe candidates by proclaiming their Trump loyalty, while some like Senators Hawley (Missouri) and Cruz (Texas) are maneuvering to become the 2024 Republican Presidential nominee in 2024 and they want television soundbites for their campaign.
When the circus is over, Congress will recognize Joseph Biden as President-elect. Nobody knows if Trump supporters will riot or what Trump himself will do, but legal challenges and staged political opposition to the election result will be over. Unfortunately, the American people will have two more weeks of Trump outrage to live with until Biden is inaugurated as President on January 20 and even once out of office Trump is unlikely to go quietly into the sunset.
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