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The Plot Lengthens
Largely because we learned bit-by-bit the elements of Donald Trump's plot to overturn the 2020 election, and also because of the ragtag band of wacky, unscrupulous characters who helped him carry out his plot, many of us thought Trump's attempts to retain power were the last-minute, haphazard endeavors of a desperate lunatic who could not "face" the loss he had suffered. But as the House's January 6 select committee hearings have brought into focus, Trump had developed a multi-faceted approach to overturning the election. So we can forget Rudy Giuliani's press conference in the Four Seasons Total Landscaping parking lot and all the other laughably inept post-election shenanigans. As it turns out, Donald Trump had planned at least some of his nefarious scheme for six months.
As early as May 2020, Trump kicked in one part of his plot to overturn the election if he lost in November. He began repeatedly badmouthing mail-in ballots. This was much to the consternation of Republican operatives who knew that many older Republicans voted by mail, that voting by mail was generally fair and safe, and that Trump's opposition to vote-by-mail would depress Republican vote totals. Some Republicans attempted to explain this to Trump and urged him to embrace vote-by-mail. But he remained adamantly opposed to mail-in ballots and declared them an important element in an election-year "fraud" and "hoax." No one understood why. At first he was claiming that "foreign countries" were flooding the system with counterfeit ballots, which would result in a "rigged" (or "RIGGED") election. By early September, Trump was repeatedly claiming that Democrats were mailing out 80 million unsolicited ballots.
Recently, we learned from an audio recording which Dan Friedman of Mother Jones obtained that on October 31, 2020 -- a few days before the election -- Steve Bannon told a group that Trump would declare victory late on voting-day night, whether or not the AP & television networks had called the election. Bannon explained that Trump knew that early counts in close, key states would show Trump ahead of Joe Biden -- precisely because masses of Democrats had voted by mail, and that their ballots would take days to tally. Friedman notes that other reporting backs up Bannon's claim about Trump's strategy. ~~~
Trump did just what Bannon had predicted. In the wee hours of the morning following the election, he stepped to a White House podium and announced he had won. He carried his declaration a step further: he called for all vote-counting to stop. "We don't want them to find any ballots at 4 o'clock in the morning," Trump said. On Thursday of that week, he tweeted, "STOP THE COUNT!" The AP & networks would call the national race for Biden two days later, on Saturday.
So now we understand Trump's opposition to mail-in-ballots. It had nothing to do with voting integrity, of course. It was part of his plot to "win" even if he lost. And he set it in motion way back in the spring of 2020.
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Reader Comments (3)
None of this should come as a surprise to anyone who has paid attention to 60 odd years of this crook’s adult life. Trump has never played it straight a single day on this earth. He has ignored federal laws in order to stick it to Black families who sought to rent one of his apartments. He has routinely stiffed employees and contractors. He forces people to take him to court than turns around and sues them. He has weaseled out of paying taxes for years. He cheated on all his wives. He lies about everything. He even cheats at golf, fer crissakes. The first time around, in 2016, he repeatedly declared that the election could only be considered fair if he won. He begged an antagonistic foreign power to help him screw his opponent. They did.
Then, after slithering into the White House, he broke law after law in an attempt to get his way on virtually every front. Sure, courts stepped and told him to knock that shit off, and he called those judges corrupt and sicced his thugs on his perceived enemies. He used his position to further enrich himself, against the express direction of the Constitution and federal laws.
Who thought it was possible that, now in control of the full power of the federal government, he’d play fair in a second election, especially one that looked like it could be close after he had allowed hundreds of thousands of Americans to die in order to make himself look better. This asshole killed people in order to improve his chances of winning a contest!
Of course he planned to cheat. Again. To weasel the biggest trophy in his life, bugger than any other he’d stolen or finagled before.
He’s a crook, a thug, a cheater, a liar, and…the biggest loser. No way he was going to let everyone call him that.
@Ak: You left out fat and repulsive....beauty is in the eye of the
beholder. I don't behold a smitherine of beauty there.
And before he became president he declared that "I told lies all the time and the paper printed them." Where were the voices that asked "what were those lies? What paper printed them? His University scam was just one of those many notches in his belt that became a wisp in the wind like all the rest of his circus barking. Republicans––not all–- embraced him because their base needed this kind of Mob boss to win an election to beat a democrat–-a woman, this time–-enough of a disaster to put up with a Black man for all those years! And look at how so many flock to his rallies––-he's so entertaining plus he speaks their language.
"I don't like losers"––––Yup! You have made that crystal clear, you poor excuse for a human being!