There are plans afoot to mess with the congressional tally of the Electoral College vote on January 5, the New York Times says.
But as the president continues to refuse to concede, a small group of his most loyal backers in Congress is plotting a final-stage challenge on the floor of the House of Representatives in early January to try to reverse Mr. Biden’s victory.
Constitutional scholars and even members of the president’s own party say the effort is all but certain to fail. But the looming battle on Jan. 6 is likely to culminate in a messy and deeply divisive spectacle that could thrust Vice President Mike Pence into the excruciating position of having to declare once and for all that Mr. Trump has indeed lost the election.
Overturning the election at that stage would require a majority vote in both houses of Congress, which isn’t going to happen. But it’s Mike Pence’s constitutionally appointed task to tally the votes of the states and announce the winner. What if he refuses? And if he does his duty, what does that do to his political future? Not that I care about Pence’s political future, but it’s a measure of Trump’s narcicissm that he would ask his vice president to commit political suicide.
Trump has also turned against Attorney General Bill Barr and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. Nobody gave more fawning deference to Trump that these two, but it wasn’t enough. And in yesterday’s street theater in Washington, pro-Trump protesters chanted “Destroy the GOP” and booed the Georgia Republican Senate candidates.
Nick Fuentes speaks to a crowd of Trump supporters and gets them chanting “destroy the GOP!” for failing to protect Trump from not getting a second term. pic.twitter.com/AUAqU402Dz
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) December 12, 2020
This is radicalism worthy of la Terreur. And do not doubt these are dangerous people. If the Republican establishment has any sense left it will back away from Trump and Trumpism, now, to give people a couple of years to get over it before the 2022 midterms. Because there will be no such thing as being pure enough to appease these people. Even Trump may have to be careful they don’t turn on him eventually.
Last night a counter-protester was shot in Olympia, Washington, and several people in Washington DC were stabbed. This won’t stop any time soon.
On the streets in the District of Columbia last night.
Were last night's attacks our 21st Century Ft. Sumter?
It doesn't seem serious or large enough.
But the Reich-Wingers in this country have now smelled more blood. And there are a lot more of them, since over the last 5+ years, their presiDUNCE lifted the rocks covering them. He emboldened them. And he certainly will not demand that they cease and desist. Instead, he'll embolden them to do more, to go further, to save his fat stupid ass.
On top of that, as you said in your post, maha, RepubliKKKLAN KKKongressKKKritters seem willing to heighten their efforts at open sedition, by trying to fuKKK with the "peaceful transfer of power" on January 6th.
Speaking of assault, Russia has now hacked our Treasury Department, as well as other departments and other agencies.
And tRUMP will do nothing.
He won't tell Putin to cease and desist. He embolded Russia to do whatever he wants, since the fuKKKing moron backed Putin's Russian intelligence over our own agencies back in 2018, in Helsinki.
Joe and Kamala will really have their work cut out for them after noon on January 20th, 2021.
And so do we liberals, since we liberals are all that's left to "conserve" our form of representative democracy.
The damage tRUMP has done since he threw his dead-ferret toupee in the ring in 2015 is incalculable.
And it will take generations to undo what he's done – with help from the docile and sycophantic RepubliKKKLAN Party.
And that's IF things can be undone. Which I'm not sure they can be.
Russia has now hacked our Treasury Department, as well as other departments and other agencies.
Remember Chris Krebs, the Cyber Security guy Trump fired? That was his job.
Fort Sumter? Not yet. The sign to look for is when crimes are committed and the government looks the other way. The Proud Boys can riot all they want, but I read that many of them wound up in jail.
If the Republican establishment has any sense left it will back away from Trump and Trumpism
They can’t. A minority party has to become more undemocratic and despotic, or wither away.
Getting Trump out of the picture after Jan 20 will be paramount. Here’s hoping the he gets served before the White House door slams shut.
Spring can’t get here fast enough. Covid under control. Biden settled in.
It has been a long slog for the past 4 years. Just dreadful. And 2020 never again.
I'm particularly attuned to what Maha suggests in this post. Robespierre presided over the "reign of terror" for a year. Then, a faction of the revolution blamed Robespierre and he became a victim in the lawless and bloody purge for absolute purity. The GOP is consuming itself. The equivalent of the Bernie-or-Bust movement of 2016 may have cost HRC the presidency.
Now the most rabid Trump cultists are chanting 'down with the GOP.' This would be pure rhetoric after an election except for the GA runoffs. Will Trump adopt a scorched-earth policy – if Trump can't be POTUS, then bring down Mitch McConnell?
One of the GOP Georgia candidates was heckled this weekend at her own rally over Trump not winning. Who knows how it will play out. The runoff is Jan 5 – on Jan 6, Congress counts the electoral votes. Trump may still think he can force the election into the US House of Representatives if Mitch will go full-treason. Trump may have the clout to bring Mitch down on the 5th if Mitch doesn't back the play that's being discussed.
I believe there's a likelihood (not a certainty) that the RNC will reject Trump as president-in exile. This becomes even more likely if Trump cultists get more violent and Trump doesn't condemn the bloodshed. (And Trump won't.) Trump will start his own party and there will be a split that puts Democrats in play in every election that Trump puts up his third-party candidate in opposition to the GOP candidate.
It took the Great Depression to bring on the New Deal. Trump may be playing the part of Gollum, essential to the destruction of American fascism.
..Trump will start his own party
At the DC riot, I saw photos of AF – America First flags. Another party is forming, kind of like our Green party, but on the right.
Yeah, I guess the reference to Robespierre was too subtle.
The equivalent of the Bernie-or-Bust movement of 2016 may have cost HRC the presidency.
I am real tired of this Hillbot lie that keeps blaming Queen Hillary's loss on Bernie supporters. Comey's election intervention and Russian interference were larger reasons and the biggest reason of all was the Hillary campaign hubris where in mid October they were so over-confident of her election that they put resources into states like Texas and Iowa (to get her an overwhelming victory) and neglected Wisconsin and Michigan.
I did not mean to imply I'm a fan of HRC. She's vile but we'd have a better US Supreme Court if she'd been elected – a thousand affronts to decency would not have originated in the White House. But she's a vile and corrupt tool.
I was interviewed by a mover and shaker in the "Bernie or Bust" movement in late 2015. For the moment, I don't need to name him. My takeaway is that he's as stable as any of the Proud Boys – he has the same 'burn it down if my guy can't have everything' attitude. He was as active after the primary in defeating HRC as he'd been before the primary in supporting Bernie. I know these people exist and they were a factor in Trump's election. How much is the only question.
The Russian interference has been documented, at least some of the ads are in the public record. They didn't just try to fire up the Limbaugh nuts with the politics of resentment – they targeted the disappointed democrats to persuade them to vote third-party. They tried again in 2020, but Democrats who preferred Bernie (like me) slapped down the memes to boycott Biden as quickly as we saw them.
"Hilbot" kooks exist – I am not one of them. I see reality quite clearly and I find Bernie cultists quite as repugnant as Trump cultists. The power of Democracy is in the people, not any of the leaders we temporarily select.