Episode 11. The Fat Lady is Humming…
November 12, 2020
Today’s Big Numbers
7 days that the number of cases of covid exceeded 100K. Yesterday, the number was 144, 133 Wednesday.
2 Two states have reached the 1 million covid case mark Texas and now, California
290/217 Electoral vote count in presidential race
Big Dates: Certification
November 20 Georgia (DONE)
November 23 Pennsylvania/Michigan
November 24 Nevada
November 30 Arizona
December 1 Wisconsin
December 8 Guarantees Safe Harbor and the Electoral College is good enough to prevent needing to go to congress.
December 14 Electoral College
Words of the Day
Coup d’etat Removal of an existing government from power.
Georgia
Ascertainment: The formal process of determining “for certain” the apparent or likely winning candidate. The Government Services Administration GSA can use a variety of means to ascertain the presumptive president. This is what initiates the transition process. She (Emily Murphy, GSA Administrator) has indicated she’s waiting until the states certify the votes. All recounts and legal challenges impact the date that will happen.
Where we are: Brian Karem, recently stated, “The political press has struggled to understand the Donald from the moment he threw his hat in the ring. At first we mistakenly dismissed Trump as a political sideshow, a mere circus freak. Collectively we underestimated who Trump was and what he brought to the table. Some say the media created him. We certainly gave him enough free air and fanned the flames.”
CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta recently said on-air that “Donald Trump is incessant: ‘He hopes to wear you out.’ That’s how Trump survives.”
Trump never thought he’d lose. His rallies, his impeachment survival and his recovery from coronavirus convinced him he was invincible. As it turns out, the con man conned himself. Now he’s trying to con the rest of us one more time.
Experts and those in a position to know are offering a variety of options to explain what we are experiences now that the election is over and Trump is not conceding.
#1Tantrum. Trump just needs time to work through his grief.
#2 Reliance on Faithless Electors. There is a push to delay “certification” of election results and create enough confusion to give faithless electors the space they need to go against the will of the people who voted in swing states (only places these schemes are likely to unfold).
According to NPR, The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously upheld laws across the country that remove or punish rogue Electoral College delegates who refuse to cast their votes for the presidential candidate they were pledged to support.
The July 2020 decision was a loss for "faithless electors," who argued that under the Constitution they have discretion to decide which candidate to support.
Writing for the court, Justice Elena Kagan, in a decision peppered with references to the Broadway show Hamilton and the TV show Veep, said Electoral College delegates have "no ground for reversing" the statewide popular vote. That, she said, "accords with the Constitution — as well as with the trust of the Nation that here, We the People rule."
The decision was a relief to election law experts as well as Democratic and Republican party officials, who have long supported faithless elector laws such as those upheld Monday.
If the case had gone the other way, it would have been a "nightmare scenario" in which people unhappy with the general election results could "go after electors and try to threaten them or cajole them or bribe them to vote in a particular way," said Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine.
Theory #3 Coup d’ etat A scenario has been set up where legislatures and, ultimately Congress, would be the determiners of the outcome by ignoring the popular vote on Trump’s behalf if there isn’t a clear choice with the Electoral College. In that instance, each congressional delegation gets one vote and there are more Republican Party led delegations than there are Democratic Party led delegations, presumable leading to them all casting votes for Trump victory.
Theory #4 Georgia, Georgia, Georgia Mitch wants to keep Trump voters on board until January 5. But can the county hold on that long?
Theory #5 Fundraising Trump has been sending out solicitations for his supporters to contribute to legal defense although there is sufficient evidence that most of the proceeds do not go to legal defense and there is no true legal strategy.
Trump’s solicitation website carries a banner headline that says “OFFICIAL ELECTION DEFENSE FUND” and “CONTRIBUTE NOW.” Scrolling down the page would take a donor to the fine print, which shows that donations are split between “Save America,” which gets 60% of the money, and the RNC, which gets the other 40%. None of the money flows to Trump’s official “recount” committee fund until Trump’s Save America share reaches the legal contribution limit of $5,000, according to the disclosures.
Theory #6 Set up his post-term life. TrumpTV? Many suspect Team Trump is working to set up a media company, and that Trump isn’t trying to stage a coup—he’s just trying to bilk his supporters for money. When he leaves the White House, his circus will go on the road. He will scream he was robbed, vow to run again in 2024 and rake in all the cash he can before disappearing into the night, like every con man before him.
According to a report for NBC, by Carol E. Lee, Peter Alexander, Monica Alba and Hallie Jackson, “He’s setting himself up as the main opposition leader,” one ally said. Aides expect him to leave open the possibility of running in 2024, effectively freezing the GOP field.