Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Wednesday November 11, 2020
THE DAILY SIGNAL
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THE EPOCH TIMES
NOVEMBER 11, 2020 READ IN BROWSER
Protect Your Retirement from COVID-19 with a Home Delivery Gold IRA. Delivered right to your doorstep. You don’t have to worry anymore. Pursuing Truth, With You Our Readers, Without Fear or Favor Our nation faces a difficult time. On Nov. 3, Americans across the country voted for their next leader. We have since learned, however, that on Nov. 3 and in the ensuing days, the integrity of the election in certain locales might have been compromised as allegations of irregularities have emerged. Read more We sincerely hope you have been enjoying the Morning Brief and Breaking News emails we have been sending you! With all of the misinformation being spread by media outlets in today’s world, becoming an Epoch Times Subscriber is essential. To help keep you informed during these critical times, we would like to offer you a special invitation: Subscribe to The Epoch Times for 4 months for just $1: NOTE: This is our lowest priced offer ever, and it is available for a very limited time. Offer Ends Soon Cancel anytime “Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.” ALEXANDER HAMILTON “From the first appearance of the communist regime in the Soviet Union to today, within only a century, communism has caused the deaths of at least one hundred million people. Communist Party members have abducted, tortured, murdered, destroyed, and lied.” You can rollover Your IRA/401K into Physical Gold and have it delivered to your doorstep. Find out how 1,000s of American retirees are protecting their future with a TAX FREE Home Delivery transfer… The only way to personally control your Gold IRA yourself. For a limited time only Red Rock Secured is offering up to $3,500 in free gold or silver on new qualifying accounts. Click here for your free guide and find out if you qualify. 20 Reasons Election 2020 Is Far From Over PREMIUM Now that the media has declared Joe Biden the next president of the United States, let’s take a look at the state of play: Read more Media Disgrace Themselves in Calling Election Still Being Contested PREMIUM The elaborate pretense being conducted that the U.S. presidential election has been decided resembles the exaggerated excitement of a juvenile team when… Read more The Epoch Times Election Map:The Most Accurate, Unbiased Election Map Available, With Minute-by-Minute Updates ‘Computer menu option’, ‘Arms of God and Adam on the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling’, ‘Porridges’, ‘Additional emcee’, ‘Anything whatever’, and ‘Masked referee’ are some of the clues in this crossword puzzle. In this episode, Cosby, an Emmy-Winning TV host and longtime political reporter, gives her take on the 2020 election, the parallels to Bush v. Gore, and how allegations of fraud and irregularities may ultimately play out. Copyright © 2020 The Epoch Times, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive newsletter communications from The Epoch Times. Our mailing address is: The Epoch Times 229 W 28th St, Fl.5
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DAYBREAK
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THE SUNBURN
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AXIOS
Axios AM
🇺🇸 On Veterans Day … Thank you for freedom — to our neighbors, colleagues and fellow Americans who served us, often at incalculable personal cost.
- Today’s Smart Brevity™ count: 1,172 words … 4½ minutes.
🚨 President Trump “launched a dramatic shake-up at the senior levels of the Pentagon … installing three White House loyalists in influential roles,” a day after firing his defense secretary, the WashPost reports.
- “The changes … alarmed Democrats and some Republicans and promised to complicate a transition to a Biden administration.” (See the Pentagon release.)
With President Trump out of sight, a Marine stands guard outside the West Wing lobby yesterday. Photo: Tom Brenner/Reuters
With President Trump making little headway in courts, Republicans are hinting at an extreme last-chance way for him to cling to power using the Electoral College, Margaret Talev and Glen Johnson write.
In this long-shot scenario, Trump and his team could try to block secretaries of state in contested states from certifying results. That could allow legislatures in those states to try to appoint new electors who favor Trump over Joe Biden.
- If Trump were to pursue this course, it likely would become apparent the week before Thanksgiving, as states face deadlines to finalize election results.
Trump hasn’t said he’ll pursue this strategy. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo each noted yesterday that the election results don’t become official until electors cast votes next month.
- Election totals don’t become official until states certify them.
“At some point,” McConnell said, “we’ll find out, finally, who was certified in each of these states, and the Electoral College will determine the winner and that person will be sworn in on January 20th. No reason for alarm.”
- A Senate leadership aide said McConnell wasn’t signaling an elector strategy, and was simply noting that litigation isn’t uncommon.
Pompeo, who said there’ll “be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” independently raised the Electoral College during a State Department news conference.
- “When the process is complete, there’s going to be electors selected,” he said. “There’s a process; the Constitution lays it out pretty clearly.”
How it works: If a lawsuit successfully stops certification of results in a state, legislators could step into the void and pick a pro-Trump slate of electors.
- Among key swing states, Arizona and Georgia have GOP governors and legislatures. Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have Democratic governors but GOP legislatures.
- The next step could be to try to get federal or state courts to enjoin secretaries of state from certifying results.
- Any move to provide an alternative slate of electors could force the first real test of the Electoral Count Act of 1887, and could land before the Supreme Court.
- Share this story.
🗞️ How it’s playing …
The N.Y. Times called top election officials in all 50 states: “No Evidence of Voter Fraud.” (Subscription)
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Geography, rather than race or age, paints the clearest picture of President Trump’s defeat — and illustrates the demographic trends that could hurt Republicans in future elections, Neal Rothschild and Stef Kight write:
1. Suburbs — which are growing, are racially and ethnically diverse, and are becoming new immigrant hubs — have shifted toward Democrats:
- Every sizable Pennsylvania county surrounding Philadelphia had a bigger Democratic margin than in 2016.
- That leftward shift repeated itself in areas around Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Dallas, Austin and Charlotte.
2. Blue areas got even bluer, while rural areas dug in for Trump.
- In Georgia, Biden’s margin over Trump in populous Cobb and Gwinnett counties was 12 points higher than Clinton’s in 2016.
3. The white working class vote in the Midwest didn’t deliver victory for Biden, even though that was one of his key selling points in the Democratic primary.
4. Latino support for Trump grew in several key regions — not just in Miami. The results highlight the complexity and diversity of the Latino vote in the U.S.
- While Democrats’ focus on Latino communities in Arizona might have helped Biden flip the state, they seemingly lost ground in Florida and Texas.
- “Hispanic erosion was catastrophic for Democrats in many places,” Dave Wasserman of The Cook Political Report told Axios.
- Three heavily Latino counties in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, while still supporting Biden, all swung by 19+ points toward Trump compared to 2016.
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
Here’s something to think about on Veterans Day: As tough as the pandemic has been on most Americans, it has hit many U.S. veterans especially hard and made their struggles with mental health even tougher, Ashley Gold writes.
Isolation during the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in increased instances of depression and suicide among veterans as coronavirus cases spike all over the country.
- “Sleep problems, post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression are the top reported problems for the injured veteran population, and these are some of the challenges that are being exacerbated by COVID-19,” said Melanie Mousseau, vice president of program operations and partnerships at the Wounded Warrior Project.
Several recent studies highlight the problems facing veterans:
- In a survey of 30,000 veterans wounded after 9/11, 52% said their mental health has gotten worse, and 49% said their physical health has become worse since they started social distancing during the pandemic.
- 61% said they felt more disconnected from friends, family and community, according to the survey by the Wounded Warrior Project.
- Veterans are delaying doctors’ appointments too, with 70% reporting having in-person appointments canceled or postponed.
People watch “Jaws” in Hong Kong’s first socially distanced outdoor entertainment park, which opened yesterday. Dive in.
“I expect a Biden presidency to attempt to revive an alliance of interests and values with the other advanced high-income democracies, notably Europe,” writes Martin Wolf, Financial Times chief economics commentator (subscription).
- “I expect it will put the Russian president and his ideological acolytes in central and eastern Europe back in a box marked ‘hostile.'”
- “I expect, too, that Mr Biden will make an effort to create an engaged, yet demanding, relationship with China … Somehow, the US and China must learn how to confront, compete and co-operate, at the same time.”
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly tells AP overall passenger revenue is down 70%.
- Business travel — normally more than a third of Southwest traffic — is off 90%.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian suggested business travel might settle into a “new normal” that’s 10% to 20% lower than before.
- TSA screenings yesterday were one-third of what they were the same day in 2019 — 800,000 vs. 2.5 million.
Overall spending for the 2020 cycle more than doubled 2016’s total, lobbyist Bruce Mehlman shows in one of his famous decks.
- See the deck, “America Decided … America’s Divided: Everything Changed and Nothing Changed.”
CNN edged Fox News among total viewers for election week, averaging 5.9 million to Fox’s 5.7 million and MSNBC’s 4.6 million, AP reports.
- Fox viewers tuned out Biden’s victory speech on Saturday night: CNN drew 13.5 million viewers, to MSNBC’s 9 million and Fox’s 3.1 million.
- On Election Day, Fox averaged 14.1 million viewers to CNN’s 9.4 million and MSNBC ‘s 7.6 million, according to Nielsen.
Cable news outdrew the broadcast nets for election coverage: Tuesday’s viewership was ABC 6.3 million … NBC 5.8 million … CBS 4.5 million.
- Go deeper: See the week’s top 20 shows.
Today in 1918 … Armistice Day at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street: This was a peace demonstration to celebrate the end of World War I. (Hat tip: Michael Beschloss)
Treat yourself to this video of Jon Rahm of Spain — at Augusta, during a practice round ahead of The Masters (starts Thursday) — skipping his ball across water for “one of the most preposterously unlikely hole-in-ones you’ll see” (3.1 million views):
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THE WASHINGTON TIMES
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THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nov 11, 2020 View in Browser AP MORNING WIRE Good morning. In today’s AP Morning Wire:
TAMER FAKAHANY
The Rundown AP PHOTO/PHOTOGRAPHER US states cite smooth, well-run election, disputing Trump’s baseless claims; Analysis: GOP lets doubts about Biden’s legitimacy flourish
State officials and election experts say the bitterly contested 2020 election unfolded smoothly across the country and without any widespread irregularities.
That’s a stark contrast to the baseless claims of fraud being leveled by President Donald Trump following his defeat to President-elect Biden, Christina A. Cassidy, Anthony Izaguirre and Julie Carr Smyth report. Trump has made numerous claims of fraud, though he hasn’t provided any evidence to back up those claims.
“The 2020 general election was one of the smoothest and most well-run elections that we have ever seen, and that is remarkable considering all the challenges,” said a Democrat appointed by Trump to serve on the Election Assistance Commission, which works closely with officials on election administration.
Election experts say the large increase in advance voting helped take pressure off Election Day operations. There were also no incidents of violence at the polls or voter intimidation.
Analysis: Republicans are largely standing with Trump as he launches false attacks on the integrity of the 2020 election. The effort appears aimed at trying to discredit Biden, who has secured more than the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. The GOP efforts to malign the election could create challenges for Biden as he seeks to govern next year and address the nation’s pressing problems, including the pandemic and economic uncertainty, AP Washington Bureau Chief Julie Pace and Political Editor Steven Sloan report.
AP Explains: Election’s validity intact despite Trump claims. The election was not tainted by widespread voter fraud or irregularities in how ballots were counted, despite a huge effort by Trump to prove otherwise. In refusing to concede the election, Trump claims that he would have won were it not for “illegal” votes counted in several states that he lost or where he is currently trailing. Trump and his allies have repeated specious claims that don’t have proof or have been rejected by the courts, Nomaan Merchant reports.
AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s claims on vaccine, election are wrong. Refusing to concede a presidential election he lost, Trump is spreading false claims about voter fraud and drugmaker Pfizer’s news about its COVID-19 vaccine, Hope Yen, Lauran Neergaard and Linda A. Johnson report.
EXPLAINER-US Media Calling Races: Fifty-one separate elections — one in each state and one in Washington, D.C. Each with different rules and regulations, and no national elections commission to tell the world who wins on Election Day. How, then, to determine who won the highest office in the land? That’s where the news media comes in — and has done so since 1848, when it declared the election of Zachary Taylor.
The Electoral College actually chooses the president under the U.S. Constitution, acting on the popular vote across the republic. But its work takes weeks. In that strange vacuum, news organizations emerged as major players in announcing the victor based on data collected from election offices around the U.S., Alexandra Olson and David Koenig report.
Social Media Misinformation: A week after the final polls closed on Election Day, falsehoods about dead people voting and ballots being thrown out by poll workers are still thriving on social media, reaching an audience of millions. Trump and his supporters are pointing to those debunked claims on social media as reason to not accept that Biden won the election. Tweets and retweets with terms such as “steal,” “fraud,” “rigged” and “dead” referring to the election spiked more than 2,800% from Nov. 2 to Nov. 6, Amanda Seitz, David Klepper and Barbara Ortutay report.
Posts falsify ties between election tech firm and Democrats. Ali Swenson reports.
Election breathes new life into false ‘dead voter’ claims. Arijeta Lajka reports. AP PHOTO/CAROLYN KASTER President-elect Biden vows to ‘get right to work’ despite Trump obstruction; Some big, early shifts on immigration policy expected
“We’re going to get right to work” President-elect Joe Biden has promised, while downplaying concerns that Donald Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his victory could undermine national security.
Trump has blocked his Democratic rival from receiving the intelligence briefings traditionally shared with incoming presidents.
Asked about the Republican stalling and obstruction, Biden said it “does not change the dynamic at all in what we’re able to do.” He says additional intelligence briefings “would be useful,” but “we don’t see anything slowing us down.”
He described Trump’s position as little more than an “embarrassing” mark on the outgoing president’s legacy, while predicting that Republicans on Capitol Hill would eventually accept the reality of Biden’s victory, Steve Peoples and Will Weissert report.
Immigration: Some quick and dramatic moves on immigration are expected in the early days of the incoming administration. Biden will likely use executive orders to reverse some of Trump’s most controversial and punitive actions, rolling back moves that were a central feature of his administration and important to his base. But it will take time to undo many actions taken by Trump. Biden will also likely face a divided Congress, making it difficult to enact any kind of sweeping, comprehensive changes to the nation’s immigration system, Ben Fox and Elliot Spagat report.
The Economy: Biden will inherit a shaky economy recovery under threat from a resurgent virus and will pursue a sharp shift in economic policy. He has vowed to reverse much of the Trump administration’s aggressive deregulation and indifference to social spending programs in favor of big investments in education, infrastructure and clean energy. He wants stricter rules to rein in big tech companies and fight climate change. To help pay for it all, he would turn to tax increases for corporations and wealthy individuals by reversing much of Trump’s tax cuts, Christopher Rugaber and Tali Arbel report.
Harris’ Husband: The husband of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Doug Emhoff, plans to leave his private law practice by Inauguration Day to focus on White House duties. Emhoff’s decision to leave DLA Piper also avoids any appearance of conflicts of interest, as the firm has a lobbying presence in Washington. Emhoff is the first man to hold the role of vice presidential spouse, as Harris is the nation’s first female vice president. His decision to leave his high-profile job tracks with choices female political spouses have made for years. He hasn’t yet said what issues he’ll take on, Kathleen Ronayne reports. AP PHOTO/TED S. WARREN US hits record COVID-19 hospitalizations amid surge; In Iran, a massive cemetery struggles to keep up with virus
The U.S. has hit a record number of coronavirus hospitalizations and surpassed 1 million new confirmed cases in just the first 10 days of November.
These latest grim milestones come amid a relentless nationwide surge of infections that shows no signs of slowing. The new virulent wave appears bigger and more widespread than the surges that happened in the spring and summer — and threatens to be worse. Deaths are climbing again, reaching an average of more than 930 a day.
However, experts say medical and testing advances give them reason to believe the nation is better able to deal with the virus this time, Mike Stobbe reports.
Texas has become the first state to surpass 1 million infections. According to the Johns Hopkins website, the state recorded 1,010,364 cases early today with 19,337 deaths since the pandemic began in early March.
Iran Cemetery Crisis: The Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery on the outskirts of the capital, Tehran, is struggling to keep up with the pandemic ravaging the country. The site’s manager calls it the greatest crisis the vast necropolis has seen in its 50-year history — and it’s not clear when it will end. Double the usual number of bodies are arriving each day, and grave diggers have excavated thousands of new plots. With 1.6 million people buried on its grounds, which stretch across more than five square kilometers (around two square miles), Behesht-e-Zahra is one of the world’s largest cemeteries. But Mohammad Nasiri reports that it wasn’t big enough for the coronavirus, which roared into Iran early this year, seeding the region’s worst known outbreak. More than 39,000 have died from the virus in Iran.
Lebanon Searching for Medicine: Adding to the nation’s woes, desperate Lebanese search daily for their prescriptions after many medications — including fever pills used in COVID-19 treatment — have vanished from pharmacies, a new dark chapter in their country’s financial meltdown exacerbated by the pandemic. After the Central Bank governor warned subsidies on drug imports could no longer be afforded, people went on a panic buying spree, Sarah El Deeb reports.
WHO Pandemic Recordings: As the virus explodes again, the World Health Organization finds itself both under intense pressure to reform and holding out hope that Joe Biden will reverse a U.S. decision to leave the health agency. With its annual meeting underway this week, WHO has been sharply criticized for not taking a stronger and more vocal role in handling the pandemic. In private internal meetings in the early days of the virus, top scientists described some countries’ approaches as “an unfortunate laboratory to study the virus” and a “macabre” opportunity to see what worked, recordings obtained by the AP show. Yet in public, they lauded governments for their responses, Maria Cheng reports.
Brazil’s Samba and COVID-19: In a normal year, the Unidos de Padre Miguel samba school in Rio would be a hive of preparation for Carnival. But this is not a normal year. For the first time in more than a century, Carnival is canceled. In the country with the second-highest virus death toll, there was fear that one of the world’s biggest parties — with its thronging masses of flesh pressed against flesh — would become the super-spreader event to top them all. Yet again, one of the city’s downtrodden communities pulled together rather than waiting for help from authorities, David Biller reports from Rio de Janeiro.
Business Travel: It might never look the same in the wake of the virus. Consulting firm McKinsey and Co. says it took international business travel five years to recover after the 2008 recession. But this time, the ease of videoconferencing could put a permanent dent in corporate trips. That’s chilling news for hotels, airlines and others that rely on business travelers. Corporate travel represents 21% of all travel spending globally, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, Dee-Ann Durbin and David Koenig report. VATICAN SEXUAL MISCONDUCT
A Vatican investigation of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has found that bishops, cardinals and popes downplayed or dismissed multiple reports of sexual misconduct.
But the 449-page report determined that Pope Francis merely continued his predecessors’ handling of the predator until a former altar boy alleged abuse, Nicole Winfield reports from Rome.
The report put the lion’s share of blame on a dead saint: Pope John Paul II, who appointed McCarrick archbishop of Washington, D.C., in 2000, despite having commissioned an inquiry that confirmed he slept with seminarians.
The Vatican took the extraordinary step of publishing its two-year investigation into the American prelate’s rise and fall to restore credibility to the U.S. and Vatican hierarchies, which have been shattered by the McCarrick scandal.
Francis defrocked the 90-year-old McCarrick last year after a Vatican investigation confirmed decades of allegations that the successful church fundraiser had sexually molested adults as well as children.
McCarrick Anonymous Letters: The Vatican’s report reveals the previously unknown contents of anonymous letters accusing McCarrick of pedophilia that were sent to U.S. church leaders in the early 1990s and later forwarded to the Holy See. It also includes testimony from an unidentified woman who told Vatican investigators she, too, tried to raise the alarm with anonymous letters after she saw McCarrick behave inappropriately with her sons in the 1980s. No investigation was initiated as a result, .Luis Andres Henao and Elana Schor report.
VIDEO: Lawyers, alleged victim say Vatican covered up abuse.
Other Top Stories A more conservative U.S. Supreme Court appears unwilling to do what Republicans have long desired — kill off the Affordable Care Act. That includes its key protections for preexisting health conditions and subsidized insurance premiums that affect tens of millions of Americans. The justices met remotely in the midst of a pandemic that has closed their courtroom to hear the highest-profile case of the term so far. They took on the latest Republican challenge to the law known as “Obamacare,” with three appointees of Donald Trump, an avowed foe of the health care law, among them. Dozens of Russian peacekeepers destined for Nagorno-Karabakh began deploying hours after Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to halt fighting over the separatist region and amid signs the cease-fire would hold where others hadn’t. The truce came after significant advances by Azerbaijani forces that the Armenian-backed leader of Nagorno-Karabakh said made it impossible to carry on. It was celebrated in Azerbaijan, but left Armenians bitter, and many stormed government buildings overnight, demanding Parliament invalidate the agreement. Up to 200,000 refugees could pour into Sudan while fleeing the deadly conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, while the first details emerge of largely cutoff civilians under growing strain. The local U.N. humanitarian chief says long lines have appeared outside bread shops in Tigray, and supply-laden trucks are stranded at its borders. He told the AP “we want to have humanitarian access as soon as possible” and “fuel and food are needed urgently.” Up to 2 million people in Tigray rely on humanitarian aid. Ethiopia’s leader has rejected negotiations with a regional government he regards as illegal. Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers are expected to resign en masse, following a move by the city’s government to disqualify four pro-democracy legislators. The 19 lawmakers from the opposition camp said that they would move to resign in a show of defiance if any pro-democracy legislators were disqualified. The disqualification of the four legislators came after the National People’s Congress Standing Committee passed a resolution stating that those who support the city’s independence or refuse to acknowledge China’s sovereignty over the city, as well as commit acts that threaten national security, should be disqualified. GET THE APP
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CHICAGO TRIBUNE
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CHICAGO SUNTIMES
Former Evanston basketball standout Ryan Bost shot and killed in Rogers Park
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THE HILL
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ROLL CALL
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Morning Headlines
Unlike in 2018, this year’s “green wave” of Democratic money didn’t produce a “blue wave” of victories, thanks in part to the Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC, which spent more than $140 million and spurred the GOP to beat expectations and gain seats in the chamber. Read More…
Democrats will have a smaller majority in the House next year after a campaign in which they tried to expand the battlefield deeper into Republican territory only to see districts won two years ago snap back to their GOP leanings. Read More…
Social media ad ban hampers Georgia Senate runoff efforts
Postelection bans on political advertising on Google and Facebook are unintentionally sapping momentum from campaigns in two Georgia runoffs that could determine the Senate majority, political strategists on both sides of the aisle say. Read More…
Click here to subscribe to Fintech Beat for the latest market and regulatory developmentsin finance and financial technology.
Citing threats, Senate Republicans seek Capitol Police funding boost
Senate Appropriations Republicans would substantially increase spending for the Capitol Police in their $5.2 billion draft fiscal 2021 Legislative Branch appropriations bill released Tuesday, while leaving out accountability proposals the House included in its version. Read More…
California Rep. Harley Rouda concedes, signals 2022 run
Democrat Harley Rouda conceded his reelection race Tuesday afternoon but signaled he will run again for his Southern California seat in 2022. With her victory, Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel is the seventh Republican woman to unseat a House Democrat this election. Read More…
Listen: The Transition — The fallout from the election a week ago
Joe Biden and his team have been unable to get national security briefings or funds that a president-elect can expect, as Donald Trump continues to insist he won the election. CQ Roll Call chief correspondent Niels Lesniewski talks about this with host Jim Saksa in this special episode of the Political Theater podcast. Listen here…
Supreme Court appears poised to uphold most of Obamacare
The Supreme Court appeared unlikely to wipe out the 2010 health care law, as key conservative justices forcefully indicated during oral arguments Tuesday that such a result would cut against a long-standing legal approach that keeps the role of courts narrow. Read More…
CQ Roll Call is a part of FiscalNote, the leading technology innovator at the intersection of global business and government. Copyright 2020 CQ Roll Call. All rights reserved Privacy | Safely unsubscribe now.
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POLITICO PLAYBOOK
DRIVING THE DAY
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S allies know he’s lost. They know there’s no lawsuit they’ll win, or recount that will get him the tens of thousands of votes he needs in the multiple states he needs to get closer to a second term. TRUMP’S aides are looking for the exits, trying to find new jobs. Republicans are readjusting to the reality of a JOE BIDEN presidency. Yes, plenty of people are pretending otherwise, but it’s mostly performance art.
— David Siders on how Trump’s election defiance is consuming the GOP
NYT’S NICK CORASANITI, REID EPSTEIN and JIM RUTENBERG called every state, and not a single one said they had evidence of voter fraud. The story … THE NYT banner headline on A1: “ELECTION OFFICIALS NATIONWIDE FIND NO FRAUD”
AND THIS: “Postal worker recanted allegations of ballot tampering, officials say,” by WaPo’s Shawn Boburg and Jacob Bogage: “A Pennsylvania postal worker whose claims have been cited by top Republicans as potential evidence of widespread voting irregularities admitted to U.S. Postal Service investigators that he fabricated the allegations, according to three officials briefed on the investigation and a statement from a House congressional committee.”
GOOD POINT by WAPO’S @jameshohmann: “Imagine being a diplomat in another country, sending a cable to Foggy Bottom about what’s happening. Would be grim. Unpopular leader won’t accept election defeat. Parliament not challenging him. Defense minister fired, replaced by loyalists. Justice minister weaponizing law. Etc. Foreign minister insisting that there will be no transition, even in the face of other countries congratulating the opposition leader. Etc, etc, etc. Democracy is fragile. Institutions are only as strong as the people who lead them.”
TODAY IS VETERANS DAY. Thank you to all who have faithfully served. And thank you to their families, as well.
WELL, HERE WE ARE: The deadline for Congress to refresh government funding is one month from today — Dec. 11, far enough from Christmas that it seemed like a good idea a few months ago, but close enough now that it makes you antsy.
WE THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE USEFUL this morning to take a break from TRUMP’S denial that he lost the election to focus on all the real-world things that Congress wants to do in the closing four to six weeks left in the year — aka the annus horribilis.
— GOVERNMENT FUNDING: Both sides here want to avoid a shutdown (duh). But both sides also are interested in an omnibus funding bill, which would keep the entire government open through next September. This could open up some messy policy fights — remember the border wall? — and there’s not a ton of time left, but this is one area where Democrats and Republicans will agree.
— NDAA: The National Defense Authorization Act — which sets Pentagon policy — has passed every year for almost six decades, so this is as must-pass as it gets. But remember: When the Senate passed this bill over the summer, the White House was upset that it included language that forced renaming of bases named for Confederate generals. The president has been opposed to renaming bases, but in Congress, there’s bipartisan support for it.
— COVID RELIEF: If you were hopeful that Covid relief would blossom in the lame duck, please, curb your enthusiasm. Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL and Speaker NANCY PELOSI are on different planets when it comes to the size and scope of a package. PELOSI said last week she had no reason to shrink the package she’s seeking.
AND MCCONNELL said this Tuesday in the Capitol: “We need to think about, if we’re going to come up with a bipartisan package here, about what size is appropriate. It seems to me that snag that hung us up for months is still there. I don’t think the current situation demands a multitrillion-dollar package. So I think it should be highly targeted, very similar to what I put on the floor both in October and September.”
SQUARE THAT CIRCLE!
— THE WHITE HOUSE seems to have a few priorities of its own. One thing we keep hearing about is a desire that Congress codify the Women’s Global Development Program — also known as W-GDP. It’s tough to see where that lands here, and who exactly would be pushing for it that has any juice.
Good Wednesday morning.
DRIVING THE DAY … TRUMP and first lady MELANIA TRUMP will be joined by VP MIKE PENCE and second lady KAREN PENCE to observe Veterans Day in Arlington, Va., at 11 a.m.
— PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN will meet with transition advisers.
THE NEW ADMINISTRATION …
— NYT’S JEANNA SMIALEK: “Lael Brainard’s Steady Rise Could Culminate in Treasury Secretary Post”: “Ms. Brainard, a leading contender to be President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s Treasury secretary, has opposed the Fed’s regulatory changes 20 times since 2018. As the sole Democrat left at the Fed board in Washington, Ms. Brainard has used her position to draw attention to efforts to chisel away at bank rules, creating a rare public disagreement at the consensus-driven central bank. …
“Ms. Brainard has been rumored as a Treasury-secretary-in-waiting for years, and her friends and former colleagues have been out in force praising her qualifications, suggesting that she wants the job. Yet the competition is stiff.
“Others rumored to be under consideration include Sarah Bloom Raskin, a former Fed governor who served as deputy Treasury secretary during the Obama administration, and Janet L. Yellen, the former Fed chair. Also circulating on informal lists are Roger Ferguson, the president and chief executive of the retirement financial manager TIAA, who was the first Black vice chair of the Fed; Mellody Hobson, the co-head of Ariel Investments, an asset manager; and Raphael Bostic, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.”
— WSJ ED BOARD HELPS BIDEN REACH OUT TO TRUMP VOTERS: “A ‘Time to Heal’ Agenda”: “The former Vice President could start by ending government harassment of the Little Sisters of the Poor. That’s the order of nuns who have objected for a decade to being forced to cover contraception and abortifacients in their health-care plan under ObamaCare. …
“Next we’d suggest ending Mr. Biden’s opposition to the Opportunity Scholarships in the District of Columbia that provide a lifeline for thousands of low-income children trapped in bad public schools. … For a triple play, Mr. Biden could also speak up against those on the left who want to stigmatize and purge from civil society anyone who has worked in the Trump Administration.”
WHERE BIDEN WORLD IS AT — “Biden calm crashes into jittery Washington,” by Natasha Korecki and Megan Cassella: “Joe Biden’s campaign strategy just crashed into Washington’s alternate reality. In his public appearances and statements since media outlets confirmed his victory on Saturday, the president-elect has kept the temperature low and offered reassurances that the transfer of power will proceed as dictated by law, even as President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans attempt to use the federal bureaucracy to stall his ascension to the White House.
“It’s a familiar strategy Biden’s team has employed throughout the general election: follow the rules, model the behavior of a typical president and reject Trump’s attempts to draw the narrative into fantasyland. On Tuesday, Biden showed that he wouldn’t be lured into debating Trump’s version of reality, working to settle the nerves of jittery supporters who are alarmed by what they are hearing out of Republicans. …
“Still, Bob Bauer, one of the campaign’s top lawyers, acknowledged in a call with POLITICO Tuesday that most of the day’s actions — from Biden’s news conference, to a media briefing with the legal team — revolved around reassuring Americans that Trump’s efforts to impede Biden’s transition would fail. Trump, said Bauer, has turned into the ‘Boy who Cried Wolf,’ and reiterated that there was no ambiguity about the election results.”
NEW: DNC MEMO on their success over the last four years.
DEM CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD CONTINUES — “Tlaib lashes out at centrist Dems over election debacle: ‘I can’t be silent,’” by Laura Barrón-López and Holly Otterbein: “Rashida Tlaib isn’t apologizing for wanting to yank money away from bad police departments. She has no second thoughts about her embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement, or for wanting to aggressively fight climate change.
“House Democrats lost seats instead of expanding their majority, underperforming expectations across the board. And moderates have pounced on liberals like Tlaib, the Michigan congresswoman, accusing them of handing conservatives a set of slogans and policies to scare voters. But Tlaib and other House progressives don’t want to hear it. It all amounts to unfair blame-casting designed to shame them into staying quiet, they say, right as Democrats gain control of the White House.
“‘We’re not going to be successful if we’re silencing districts like mine,’ said Tlaib, who told her colleagues something similar during a contentious call last week. ‘Me not being able to speak on behalf of many of my neighbors right now, many of which are black neighbors, means me being silenced. I can’t be silent.’”
MEANWHILE … “Pelosi floats above Democrats’ civil war,” by Heather Caygle and Sarah Ferris
WAPO’S SCOTT WILSON in Santa Barbara, Calif.: “Calif. governor faces pressure to choose a Latino to replace Harris in the Senate”: “Two Latino politicians have emerged as top contenders for the post to be vacated by Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris, who became the first woman of color to win a U.S. Senate seat here in 2016. A selection process has just begun to balance this state’s peculiar demands of history, geography and race that will shape Newsom’s decision, which may not come until the new year.
“But the characteristics surrounding this choice, and what political analysts, advisers and others say will be important to Newsom, suggest that at this early stage California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) and Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D) are the leading candidates. Among their other attributes is one that analysts and political advisers here say is important to Newsom: past success in statewide political contests.”
THE NEXT BATTLEFIELD — “Georgia Dems clamor for Obama — not Biden — to help win Senate seats,” by Marc Caputo in Atlanta and James Arkin: “Georgia Democrats want Joe Biden’s campaign and donors to do everything they can to help win a pair of Senate races that could shape the success of his presidency. But there’s one thing they’re not clamoring for: the president-elect himself.
“Though Biden is leading in Georgia by 14,149 votes, Democrats would rather he stay in his proverbial basement by tending to his transition and portraying himself as an above-the-fray government-fixer. Instead, they say, send any Obama to help motivate the base in the two Jan. 5 Senate runoffs.
“The Democrats’ posture is a far cry from Georgia Republicans’ view of help from Washington. They’re desperate for assistance from President Donald Trump and his rallies, which even Democrats acknowledge are turnout-drivers, unlike Biden’s events. Even Biden downplayed whether he would show.
“‘We’re going to do whatever we can,’ Biden told reporters Tuesday. He has dispatched his campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, to keep an eye on the Georgia recount. Trump hasn’t confirmed an appearance but his advisers told POLITICO they expect him to come.” POLITICO
PLAYBOOK READS
JOHN HARRIS: “The election-night fiasco in the states that will haunt Democrats for a decade”
THE CORONAVIRUS IS RAGING … 10.2 MILLION Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus. … 239,638 have died.
— AP: “U.S. hits record COVID-19 hospitalizations amid virus surge,” by Mike Stobbe: “The U.S. hit a record number of coronavirus hospitalizations Tuesday and surpassed 1 million new confirmed cases in just the first 10 days of November amid a nationwide surge of infections that shows no signs of slowing.
“The new wave appears bigger and more widespread than the surges that happened in the spring and summer — and threatens to be worse. But experts say there are also reasons to think the nation is better able to deal with the virus this time around. ‘We’re definitely in a better place’ when it comes to improved medical tools and knowledge, said William Hanage, a Harvard University infectious-disease researcher.
“Newly confirmed infections in the U.S. were running at all-time highs of well over 100,000 per day, pushing the total to more than 10 million and eclipsing 1 million since Halloween. There are now 61,964 people hospitalized, according to the COVID Tracking Project.”
— “Maryland governor adds coronavirus restrictions as cases surge across the Washington region,” by WaPo’s Rebecca Tan, Erin Cox and Patricia Sullivan: “Effective at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Maryland restaurants must reduce indoor dining capacity from 75 percent to 50 percent. A new health advisory urges a 25-person cap on indoor gatherings. The governor also issued a heightened travel advisory that warns against visiting states with high rates of infections, ruling out nonessential travel to 35 states.”
REALITY CHECK — “A Covid-19 Vaccine Would Boost the Global Economy, But Not All at Once,” by WSJ’s Paul Hannon and David Harrison: “The news that Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE could secure authorization for a coronavirus vaccine in a matter of weeks has sparked hopes that the global economy could bounce back strongly next year.
“But while a successful vaccine could indeed give the economy a shot in the arm in 2021, say economists, it will take longer to heal from a historic blow to jobs, investment and businesses—a task complicated by the current surge in infections in much of the West.
“Pfizer and partner BioNTech said Monday they are on track to seek authorization for their vaccine before the end of this month. That news set off a stock-market rally as investors anticipated a reopening of economies that have been badly damaged by the pandemic.
“However, it could be many months before any vaccine is administered to enough people to ease the need for lockdown measures that have been recently reimposed across the West. Meanwhile, businesses most directly constrained by the virus—particularly in-person services such as hospitality and entertainment—must endure months of weak demand.”
FOR YOUR RADAR — “Hong Kong ousts pro-democracy lawmakers as China quashes opposition,” by WaPo’s Shibani Mahtani and Theodora Yu in Hong Kong: “Four sitting pro-democracy lawmakers were disqualified from Hong Kong’s legislature on Wednesday after a new directive from Beijing, the city’s government announced, a step set to trigger a mass walkout of others in their camp.
“The move represented a decisive blow by China that will effectively eliminate political opposition in Hong Kong’s legislature for the first time since the territory’s handover from Britain in 1997. Beijing’s directive, bypassing Hong Kong’s courts and political structures, underlined China’s tightening stranglehold on the financial center, whose autonomy it has curbed sharply this year despite a previous promise to allow the city to largely run its own affairs until 2047.” WaPo
PLAYBOOKERS
Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.
TRANSITIONS — Steve Vanech is now acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center. He’s previously held multiple positions at NCTC and the NSA. Announcement … Scott Jacobs is now a senior manager on Amazon’s Americas public policy team, focused on international issues. He previously was a VP at Albright Stonebridge Group.
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Former Ambassador Norm Eisen of Brookings and the Voter Protection Program. What he’s been reading: “‘American Colossus’ by H.W. Brands, a history of the U.S. after the Civil War. It includes the hotly contested presidential election of 1876-1877, which turned out just fine — exactly like the current one will.” Playbook Q&A
BIRTHDAYS: Matt Kaminski … Juan Carlos Monje (h/ts Ben Chang) … Alec MacGillis is 46 … Facebook’s Tucker Bounds is 42 … Sean Joyce … POLITICO’s John Hendel and Katie McDonald … Edgar Estrada … David Leiter, president of Plurus Strategies (h/t Georgette Kerr) … Taylor Holgate … Pew’s Ruth Igielnik … Joel Foster … Nate Bailey, COS at the Department of Education … Meredith Dyer … Robert Raben, founder and president of the Raben Group, is 57 (h/t Brenda Arredondo) … Andrew Barnhill … former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), founder of PAC for a Change, is 8-0 … Rebecca Sharer, senior account executive at Fenton …
… Daniel Huey, partner at Something Else Strategies … Grant Lebens … Lyft’s Jake Swanton … Michael Boisjolie … former Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) is 52 … Matt Ortega … Lauren Thorbjornsen … Melissa Stark … Greg Romano … POLITICO Europe’s Elisabeth Binard and Cristina Gonzalez … Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is 75 … Sarah Esty … Mandi Wimmer … Craig Pittman … Eric Ezzy Rappaport … Jon Hartley is 31 … Gretchen Michael … Nathan Imperiale … Jessica Jennings … Frank Wilkinson … Christian Flynn (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Linda Rozett … Ryan Tronovitch … Susanna Cagle … Emily Pollock
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AMERICAN MINUTE
Veterans Day “In time of test & trial, we instinctively turn to God for new courage”-Eisenhower – American Minute with Bill Federer
Veterans Day “In time of test and trial we instinctively turn to God for new courage and peace of mind”-Eisenhower – American Minute with Bill Federer
CAFFEINATED THOUGHTS
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CONSERVATIVE DAILY NEWS
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PJ MEDIA
The Morning Briefing: Weakened Pelosi May Not Survive as Speaker In 2021
Pelosi Is Probably Toast
Happy Hump Day, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. I checked everywhere and it seems that America is still here for the moment.
With all of the hubbub surround the presidential race precious little media attention has been given to what has been going on in the House and the Senate. That’s mostly because the news hasn’t been so good for the Democrats.
There was more good news for Republicans on Tuesday, with Thom Tillis finally being declared the winner in the North Carolina Senate race. Dan Sullivan should soon be declared the winner in Alaska, which has a very slow process for counting absentee ballots. That would give the GOP 50 Senate seats, taking off the pressure to have to win both of the Georgia runoff races.
Over in the House, Republican women were flipping even more seats, further weakening the Democrats’ control, which they firmly believed that they were going to strengthen.
The diminishing Democratic grip on the House is presenting problems for Speaker Nancy Pelosi. There is increasing speculation that Granny Boxwine won’t be able to survive the next vote for speaker.
Tyler had the details yesterday:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) may be in serious trouble come January. While prognosticators predicted that Democrats would take the majority in the U.S. Senate and pick up more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives this year, Republicans actually held on to many contested seats and they picked up seats in the House. In fact, some have suggested that Pelosi may lose control of the House even if Democrats keep their majority.
On Sunday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) insisted that Republicans are “close enough now that we can control the floor with a few Democrats joining us.”
Democrats are no doubt disgruntled with their under-performance after so much exuberant rhetoric leading up to the election. There could be many who were once reflexively loyal to Pelosi who are now willing to break ranks and shake up the leadership.
House Democrats may want a change simply because its upper echelon is getting a little long in the tooth. Pelosi is 80, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is 81, and House Majority Whip James Clyburn is 80. There might be some energetic septuagenarian whippersnappers over there ready to take their places.
It does seem more and more that the writing is on the wall for Pelosi though:
Pelosi should never be counted out, however. She’s survived several challenges to her authority before. She probably should have lost her grip on leadership after the shellacking that the Democrats took at the hands of the Tea Party in 2010. Few would have. She not only hung on as minority leader, but stayed around long enough to regain the speaker’s gavel.
The big difference, as I’ve written on many occasions, is that Speaker Pelosi 2.0 is a greatly diminished version of Speaker Pelosi 1.0. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her “Squad” began pushing Pelosi around from almost the moment they were first sworn in. It was quite stunning to see how little fight Pelosi had in her for them.
If Pelosi does get tossed from the ranks of leadership it will more than likely hasten her retirement from the House altogether.
Granny isn’t liked by Republicans, obviously, but we would do well to remember that we’re always in “be careful what you wish for” territory when it comes to changes in Democratic leadership.
There’s never a shortage of people who are even worse waiting in the wings.
‘Bout Sums It Up
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME
PJM Linktank
Me: Lincoln Project Has Moved On to Low-T Public Harassment of Trump’s Legal Team
New York Times Now Comes With Twice the Fakery
New Tax in New Jersey May Drive NASDAQ to Homestead in Texas
Ted Cruz Curb-Stomps Andrew McCabe, Uses Obama Lackey Ben Rhodes for the Coup de Grâce
#MeToo. Trump Needs to Troll Dems With 2024 Run If He Loses
Attn: Kyrsten Sinema. Dear Moderate Democrats, Joe Biden Is Going to Throw You Under the Bus
Supreme Court Obamacare Arguments Eviscerate Dems’ Chicken Little Fears About ACB
MSNBC Analyst Let Go After It Was Discovered He Wrote Speeches for Biden
HORRIFYING: More Than 50 People Beheaded by ISIS Terrorists in Mozambique
First Gay Cabinet Member Richard Grenell Destroys Fake News That Pretends He Doesn’t Exist
Progressives are always ignorant. MSNBC’s Joy Reid Just Made Her Most Embarrassing Gaffe Yet
Likely. Trump Says Pfizer Deliberately Delayed Vaccine Announcement Until After Election
Mark Esper’s Firing Surprised No One. Especially Esper
How Joe Biden Will Turn the Clock Back and Fan the Flames of Conflict in the Middle East
Biden Team Complains Trump Is ‘Obstructing’ the Transition
Raphael Warnock Was Assistant Pastor at Church That Hosted Fidel Castro in 1991
10 Reasons Pennsylvania’s Election Results May Be ‘Irredeemably Compromised’
First Gay Cabinet Member Richard Grenell Destroys Fake News That Pretends He Doesn’t Exist
VIP
#MeThree: Sorry Dems: There Won’t Be a Post-Trump GOP Any Time Soon
VIP Gold
Major Biden Backer’s Curious Citizenship Purchase
From the Mothership and Beyond
Texas Lt. Gov Dan Patrick Puts His Money Where His Mouth Is When It Comes to Voter Fraud
LISTEN: USPS IG Agent Attempting to Coerce a Whistleblower to Recant Allegations of Voter Fraud
Here’s What DC Mayor Bowser Had to Say About Violating Her Coronavirus Rules to Party with Biden
Why a Liberal Reporter Ripped Twitter for Censoring Trump’s Tweets…Again
Heh. Secretary Pompeo: ‘There Will be a Smooth Transition to a Second Trump Administration’
Why NH Gun Owners Can Breath A Little Easier Now
#PettyTyrant Update. Uh Oh: NC County Suspends CCW Applications Over COVID
Increased Gun Sales And How Firearms Are Equalizers
MI Republican Offers Legislative Fix For Concealed Carry Delays
Why does romaine try to kill us every year? Throw Out Your Romaine Lettuce Again, FDA Says
Trump Campaign Lawsuit in MI Asks to Postpone Certification Until Dominion Software Is Validated
Dead Person Voting in Nevada May Be Evidence of a More Systemic Issue
Fox News’ Ratings Reach Dumpster Fire Territory
DRAIN THE SWAMP. Left All in a Tizzy as Trump Fires Top Echelon of Department of Defense
The Media Should Not Have ‘Called’ This Election
Are YouTube Music Reaction Videos A Rejection Of Identity Politics?
NY Times’ Nate Cohn: ‘National Polls Were Even Worse Than They Were Four Years Ago’
Rep. Clyburn: ‘Defund The Police’ Killed Democrats
Refund The Police? Minneapolis Starts Begging For Outside Resources
We’re Headed for the Catacombs
Melatonin may help treat COVID-19, Cleveland Clinic study suggests
The College of Psychic Studies
Bee Me
The Kruiser Kabana
I think this two-parter is worth posting at least once a year.
Keep your mind open to possibilities but close your heart when you’re drunk.
___
Kruiser Twitter
Kruiser Facebook
PJ Media Senior Columnist and Associate Editor Stephen Kruiser is the author of “Don’t Let the Hippies Shower” and “Straight Outta Feelings: Political Zen in the Age of Outrage,” both of which address serious subjects in a humorous way. Monday through Friday he edits PJ Media’s “Morning Briefing.” His columns appear twice a week.
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THE DISPATCH
The Morning Dispatch: What’s Next for the GOP
Recapping our first-ever event, featuring conversations with Tim Scott, Ben Sasse, and Liz Cheney.
The Dispatch Staff | 2 hr | 4 |
Happy Wednesday! A big thank you to everyone who tuned in to all or some of our What’s Next event programming the past two days, and an even bigger thank you to the three behind-the-scenes Dispatch staffers who worked tirelessly to make it happen: Catherine Lowe, Valerie Smith, and Caleb Parker.
If you missed a session—or want to rewatch one—they are all archived here.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- President Donald Trump has fired much of the senior leadership of the Department of Defense over the last 48 hours, including the Secretary of Defense and his chief of staff, the top Pentagon policy official and the top Pentagon intelligence official. In their place, the president has installed Trump loyalists, including Kash Patel, a National Security Council official close to Rep. Devin Nunes, and Anthony Tata, onetime nominee to serve as undersecretary of defense for policy whose nomination stalled after reporting on controversial comments he’d made about Islam and Barack Obama. The changes at the Pentagon comes after the White House named Michael Ellis, another former Nunes aide, to serve as the top lawyer at the National Security Agency. The moves have alarmed top military and national security officials, who worry that there may be more to come, possibly including combatant commanders and top officials at the FBI and the CIA. The removals have prompted a wave of speculation in Washington about the motives. One former Trump administration official familiar with the shakeups tells The Dispatch there’s no great mystery. The White House is “preparing for the second Trump administration.”
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a similar comment at a State Department briefing Tuesday, responding to questions from reporters about what his team is doing to prepare for a transition. Pompeo promised “a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” with a laugh. While he might have been joking, Trump himself tweeted about the comment favorably. In an interview Tuesday evening with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, Pompeo pledged a smooth transition regardless of who is inaugurated on January 20.
- President-elect Joe Biden projected calm on Tuesday despite President Trump’s continued refusal to concede the election. “The fact that they’re not willing to acknowledge we won at this point is not of much consequence for our planning and what we’re able to do between now and January 20,” Biden said. He called Trump’s post-election behavior an “embarrassment,” adding that it “will not help the president’s legacy.”
- The Centers for Disease Control updated its guidance on masks to indicate that masks protect the individuals wearing them, not just those around them. “Experimental and epidemiological data support community masking to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2,” the CDC’s website reads. “The prevention benefit of masking is derived from the combination of source control and personal protection for the mask wearer.” The number of people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 hit an all-time high yesterday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
- The New York Times contacted election officials in all 50 states to inquire about whether they’d observed fraud as they oversaw the recent elections. “Officials in 45 states responded directly to The Times. For four of the remaining states, The Times spoke to other statewide officials or found public comments from secretaries of state; none reported any major voting issues.”
- An internal investigation conducted by the Vatican detailed a decades-long cover up of the sexual misconduct of defrocked cardinal Theodore McCarrick with seminarians, priests, and teenage boys. The report found Pope John Paul II was aware of the allegations against McCarrick as early as 1999. McCarrick remained in public ministry until 2018.
- Oral arguments in the Affordable Care Act case, brought before the Supreme Court by Republican state attorneys general, seemed to indicate the law is safe. Chief Justice John Roberts said it’s “not [the court’s] job” to overturn the ACA, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh told lawyers defending the ACA he agreed with their arguments that the individual mandate could be “severed” from the whole if the legislation were to be altered.
- The United States confirmed 133,920 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday per the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard, with 10.8 percent of the 1,237,365* tests reported coming back positive. An additional 1,416 deaths were attributed to the virus on Tuesday, bringing the pandemic’s American death toll to 239,618. According to the COVID Tracking Project, 61,964 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19. (*The JHU Dashboard testing numbers glitched again yesterday, so we got the new test number from the COVID Tracking Project.)
Recapping Our What’s Next Event
Our first-ever Dispatch event is in the books, and, although it didn’t look exactly like we envisioned it would pre-pandemic, we were thrilled with how it turned out and the enthusiastic responses we received. With that in mind, we wanted to recap some of the newsier moments from the past two days for those of you who weren’t able to tune in.
Republican Elected Officials Split on Accepting Presidential Election Results
In the days since decision desks—from the Associated Press to Fox News—called the presidential race for Joe Biden, relatively few prominent Republicans have spoken up against President Trump’s (thus far) evidence-free claims of widespread voter fraud. Even fewer have extended their congratulations to the president-elect.
We happened to speak with two of the Republicans in that latter camp yesterday. “To me it seems pretty obvious that Vice President Biden is going to end up with 306 electoral votes,” Sen. Ben Sasse said during his conversation with Jonah on Tuesday. “That’s not particularly close, and for Trump to have any claim here they would need to overturn either two big states or three states overall. And it doesn’t look like any of the elections are really in doubt.”
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan concurred, explaining that Biden’s margin of victory in the Electoral College is wide, and only growing wider. “I wasn’t a supporter of Joe Biden’s, but I am a big supporter of our democratic processes and systems,” he told Sarah. “We cast the votes, we count the votes, and we live with the results.”
Longtime George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove also acknowledged Biden’s victory in a Monday panel with Sarah, Steve, and Democratic strategist Joe Trippi. “He’s our president, he’s due our prayers, he’s due our best wishes, he’s due a honeymoon unlike the guy who preceded him,” Rove said. “This act of the drama is going to come to a close soon.”
But not every What’s Next panelist was ready to go there yet.
Asked if he’d congratulated Biden yet on his victory, Sen. Tim Scott said he hadn’t. “The process continues, honestly. And I’m going to wait until the end until I jump into that fray,” he said. “There’s no doubt that the president has not conceded the election, and that his team and his focus will be on defending that position and hoping for perhaps the Hail Mary to be caught.”
Rep. Liz Cheney focused on candidates’ rights under the Constitution. “Either candidate, frankly, has the right to make the claims if they think there has been fraud,” she said. “The key thing is the courts are the forum where we see evidence presented. And it will be the courts that make the decision about that evidence. But there’s certainly the right here for the president’s team to do that and to have that adjudicated as we go forward.”
“If you look at the vote totals across a number of states,” Cheney continued, “the race was called for Joe Biden. But our system doesn’t work, that that’s the end of the line. The way that our system works is that you have the right to have your claims adjudicated.”
Sen. Tim Scott: Police Reform, and the GOP’s Messaging Problem
David French and Sen. Tim Scott spent a hefty portion of Tuesday morning’s discussion talking about police reform and qualified immunity, the doctrine that grants state actors—namely police officers—legal immunity from civil lawsuits unless they have violated a “clearly established” law. Sen. Scott said that he is open to amending the doctrine to expand access to legal compensation for victims of civil rights violations carried out by law enforcement officials. “What has been a red line has been demonizing and going after the officer himself or herself,” Scott clarified.
Scott remained optimistic about future police reform efforts, despite his bill having been blocked by Democrats this past summer. “If we have another shot, another bite at the apple, perhaps we’ll have an opportunity to get it done,” he said. “If there is a Biden administration, I think there is an opportunity for us to continue to work on things like police reform. … I hope that under whoever is president in 2021, we’ll have a chance to move that legislation forward.”
Gov. Larry Hogan: Common Sense Conservatism
Maryland’s Gov. Larry Hogan—a lifelong Republican in an increasingly blue state—joined Steve and Sarah to share his thoughts on why the Republican Party needs to take a different approach in the post-Trump era. “I’m a lifelong Republican, a Reagan conservative. But I’ve been successful here because I campaigned as a common sense conservative,” he said. “I stood up for my principles, but I focused on advancing bipartisan, common sense solutions. … We focused on finding common ground instead of on divisive rhetoric. We focused on trying to grow the big tent as Reagan did, not just speaking to those who already agreed with us.”
President Trump successfully picked up the second-most votes of any presidential candidate in history last week, Hogan conceded, but he noted that Republicans have only won the popular vote in a presidential election twice since 1988. “If we want to keep winning elections nationwide, we’re going to have to find a way to have a message that appeals to more people instead of an ever-shrinking base,” he said. “It was a great night for the Republican Party, it was best for right-of-center Republicans in suburban areas and in blue states who outperformed the president. … You don’t get to govern unless you win elections, and it looks as if [Trump] didn’t win.”
Rep. Liz Cheney: Foreign Policy and the House
In an interview with Steve, Rep. Liz Cheney responded to a question about President Trump’s firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper. She acknowledged Trump is president until January 20 no matter what, and he has the right to pick whomever he wants for his Cabinet. “Having said that, I do think it’s very important that we are able to send a message of stability, of reassurance,” she continued. “We are going through our process, and I think that this is a moment where you certainly could have foreign adversaries who would think that they could exploit the situation.”
Moving to national security, she agreed with Rep. Mike Gallagher’s claim from the day prior: That the main foreign policy challenge facing America was “China, China, China, in that order.”
“If you look back over administrations in both parties, I really think we got China wrong,” Cheney said. “I think there was a sense of if we help them open up economically, and help them become a member of the WTO, they’ll be forced to open up politically and they’ll be responsible players on the world stage. And that didn’t happen.”
If you weren’t able to tune in, you can watch recordings of the sessions.
Worth Your Time
- If you’re wondering why so many prominent elected Republicans are standing by TrumpWorld’s increasingly untethered to reality conspiracies about widespread voter fraud and election theft, Burgess Everett offers one explanation in Politico. “The party needs President Donald Trump’s help to clinch two runoff elections in Georgia on Jan. 5 that will determine the fate of the Senate GOP’s majority,” Everett writes. “And accepting the presidential results ahead of Trump, a politician driven by loyalty, could put Republicans at odds with the president and his core supporters amid the must-win elections down South.”
- In a Q&A for The New Yorker, Isaac Chotiner sat down with Nate Cohn—who heads up the New York Times’ polling and elections analysis operations—to talk about what the polls got wrong. Cohn says the biggest surprises for him this election were Trump’s repeatedly strong showings among white Midwesterners, and the GOP’s relative strength with Hispanic voters. Cohn offered several theories as to why the polls missed badly again, including enthusiastic liberals being more likely to respond, a misunderstanding of the likely electorate due to high turnout, and the coronavirus simply throwing a wrench in things. He also spoke to the potential costs of polling being faulty: “If you cannot do a good job of interpreting the will of the electorate at any given time, our politicians won’t either.”
- “What happens when Trump gets out of our brains?” Katherine Miller asks in her latest for BuzzFeed News. For half a decade, the president has been omnipresent in all our lives—from dawn to dusk—and his successor is … unlikely to keep up the frenetic pace. “Nobody may ever command anyone’s attentions ever again like this,” she writes. “Years from now, this might be difficult to explain: the way entire days got yoked to one person’s rants, reactions, cruelties, refusals, jokes, tangents, and to just thinking so often about the president. Even weirder, and more difficult, would be explaining how an entire country became accustomed to living inside one person’s head.”
Something Incredible
Presented Without Comment
So now people are committing fraud to fabricate evidence of voter fraud
The Washington Post @washingtonpost
Postal worker admits fabricating allegations of ballot tampering, officials say https://t.co/0NdTUlvIIp
Toeing the Company Line
- In his Capitolism newsletter (🔒) Tuesday, Scott Lincicome makes the case for political gridlock, which we are likely to see a lot of over the next few years. “There is substantial evidence that political gridlock can actually be pretty good for the economy and especially good for fans of limited government and fiscal restraint,” he writes. “When the GOP was in charge from 2003 to 2007 and then 2017 to 2018, spending increased at an average annual rate of 7 percent and 4 percent, respectively; when Democrats were in control during Obama’s first two years, it climbed 16 percent. On the other hand, when government was divided during the last six years of the Obama era, spending climbed at an annual average of just 1.9 percent.”
- On the latest episode of The Remnant, Jonah is joined by Carlos Lozada, the Washington Post’s book critic, to discuss the glut of books that have been published about Trump over the past several years. Lozada has read about 150 of them, if you can believe it. What does this canon say about our politics, our culture, and our era?
Reporting by Declan Garvey (@declanpgarvey), Andrew Egger (@EggerDC), Audrey Fahlberg (@FahlOutBerg), Charlotte Lawson (@charlotteUVA), James P. Sutton (@jamespsuttonsf), and Steve Hayes (@stephenfhayes).
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LARRY J. SABATO’S CRYSTAL BALL
THE BLAZE
View this email in your browser One last thing … Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) prompted many on the left to call for “abolishing the Senate” on Monday afternoon following an interview with Fox News. What are the details? During the interview, Fox News host Bret Baier asked the West Virginia lawmaker to comment on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s remarks that the Democrats wil … Read more
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THE FEDERALIST
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NOQ REPORT
ARRA NEWS SERVICE
ARRA News Service (in this message: 15 new items) |
- The Presidential Election: A Work in Process
- Trump’s Success, Fox In A Free Fall, Defending Freedom
- An Election Day Bridge Too Far
- Will Georgia Halt the Radicals’ Revolution?
- A Stolen Presidential Election in the Nation’s Election Fraud Capital
- Astounding MSM Hatred of Trump and His Voters
- America Rises Up to Crush the Left
- Here’s How Trump Can Still Win
- Let the Party Begin . . .
- Powerful Presidents Are Incompatible with Liberty
- Dem’s Illegal Votes In Pennsylvania May Flip The State To Trump
- Democrat Anti-Semitism Turned FL & GA Jews Against Them
- What You Need to Know About Election Litigation in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, and Arizona
- Biden’s ‘Unity’ – Unites Leftists and Government Bureaucrats Against US
- This Is No Longer Just About Donald Trump
The Presidential Election: A Work in Process
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 09:57 PM PST The American people, it turns out, are completely united on that front. The day before the election, a Hill/Harris X poll found almost unanimous support — 85 percent — across the parties for an exhaustive process to confirm the outcome. Asked whether the priority should be counting the legal votes or having the results “as soon as possible,” only 15 percent were in favor of what we’re seeing play out in the news media today. Look, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said, “The media do not get to determine who the president is. The people do.” We’ll know who the winner is, he went on, “when all lawful votes have been counted, recounts finished, and allegations of fraud addressed.” In the meantime, what’s the rush? What does Joe Biden possibly have to gain by claiming victory if half the country doesn’t believe it? Back in 2000, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said on “Washington Watch,” “the Democrats felt extremely comfortable with Al Gore having 37 days.” Then, as in now, the most important thing was making sure Americans could trust the process. Right now, 71 million voters are watching this unfold and wondering, like Louie is, how did President Trump’s coattails help the state legislature, the House Republicans, and Senate, and “not elect the guy in the coat?” “I’ve talked to some of the attorneys handling the suits for the president,” he explained, “…and there are numerous grounds for having a recount — and not just because the margin of error, that’s a basis for a recount. But there are so many improprieties and anomalies and things that just can’t physically happen.” Other people, like Victor Davis Hanson, are just frustrated that this many Americans even found the stomach to vote for Joe Biden at all. “There was massive voter fraud. I believe that. But nonetheless, this shouldn’t even have been close–the margins in places like Michigan or Wisconsin, even Minnesota or Pennsylvania — given what [President Trump] had done for the country.” For now, at least, the wheels of justice are churning. U.S. Attorney General William Barr has agreed to investigate Republicans’ concerns — where appropriate. Making it clear that states are the lead dog when it comes to supervising elections, he did say that DOJ has “an obligation to ensure that federal elections are conducted in such a way that the American people can have full confidence in their electoral process and their government.” Before any states certify their results, he authorized his team to “pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities.” Maybe it won’t be of a scale to impact the outcome of the election, Barr said, but that’s not a good reason to ignore it. His state counterparts are also going on offense. Ten of them — state attorneys general in Ohio, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, South Dakota, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, and Oklahoma — are now signed on to the legal challenge in Pennsylvania. “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision overstepped its constitutional responsibility, encroached on the authority of the Pennsylvania legislature, and violated the plain language of the Election Clauses,” they write. In the state’s own legislature, members are demanding an audit of the votes. And no wonder. Right now, there are about 100,000 votes out of 150 million cast deciding states like Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Nevada. If this were Joe Biden, trailing by such a small margin, we would be dealing with the exact same scenario — except for one thing. The media, ever eager to delegitimize Trump, would never have called the election. “Let’s have no lectures,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told his colleagues on the Senate floor, “about how the president should immediately, cheerfully accept the preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election… The core principle here is not complicated. In the United States of America, all legal ballots must be counted; any illegal ballots must not be; the process should be transparent and observable by all sides, and the courts are here to work through concerns. Our institutions are built for this. We have the system in place to consider concerns. And President Trump is 100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options… And if Democrats feel confident [he has no case], they should no reason to fear extra scrutiny.” Tags: Tony Perkins, The Presidential Election: A Work in ProcessTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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Trump’s Success, Fox In A Free Fall, Defending Freedom
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 09:33 PM PST
by Gary Bauer: Trump’s Success He spent tremendous amounts of political capital, against complete opposition from the left, and significant opposition from the right including the business community, to end ineffective policies and secure our border. Former ICE Director Tom Homan said, “President Trump has had unprecedented success at the border. Illegal immigration is down between 60 and 80%. . . He did it despite the fact that Congress fought him every step of the way. No one has had this success.” If Biden prevails in the election contest, he is planning to reverse almost everything President Trump has done. He said he won’t build “another foot” of border wall. Catch and release will be back because Biden said he would shut down detention centers for illegal immigrants making asylum claims. Biden also said he will end deportations of illegal immigrants during his first 100 days in office. And he offered free healthcare to illegal aliens. There’s a reason the president of Mexico has not yet congratulated Joe Biden. He doesn’t want tens of thousands of Central Americans walking through his country on their way to the United States. Trump convinced Mexico to deploy 17,000 troops on its southern border. He told Central American nations that if they want foreign aid, they must stop the caravans. Biden won’t do that. Biden has vowed “on day one” to repeal President Trump’s travel restrictions on nations that are hotbeds of Islamic terrorism. To be clear, Biden wants to allow more immigration from nations like Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Fox In A Free Fall It seems Fox’s conservative base isn’t happy with the network’s leftward drift of late, and they aren’t just posting angry comments online. Fox, which has long dominated the cable news space, is losing viewership. Nothing is permanent, but Rupert Murdoch might want to call his office. Fox News has a big problem. Defending Freedom Mark McCloskey spoke with Maria Bartiromo this morning and warned about the danger conservative Americans are facing from the left’s intolerance. Referring to efforts to compile “enemies lists” of Trump supporters and donors, Mark McCloskey said: “What country do we live in? Is this Stalinist Russia? . . . I’m shocked that in the United States of America major politicians and political forces are actually talking about creating a list of political adversaries for retribution. . . “That’s the way the left crushes its opposition, by threatening their employment, threatening their social standing, threatening to harangue them for the rest of their lives. That’s not democracy. That’s totalitarianism.” He’s right. Which is why it is so infuriating to see people like Mitt Romney falling all over themselves to congratulate the candidates who rode that left-wing force to power. Maybe I missed it, but I don’t recall Romney saying one word against the left-wing fascism that has been unleashed in this country in recent years. Michelle’s “Deplorables” “Let’s remember that tens of millions of people voted for the status quo, even when it meant supporting lies, hate, chaos, and division. We’ve got a lot of work to do to reach out to these folks in the years ahead.” Don’t bother to “reach out,” Mrs. Obama. You have made it perfectly clear what you think about those of us who are pro-life, want lower taxes, smaller government, a strong national defense, are pro-Israel and believe our liberty comes from God. Election Update
Speaking of the last election, exactly when did Russia interfere in the Clinton/Trump contest? Well, that was 2016, so that would be during the Obama Administration. What did Barack Obama and Joe Biden do about it? Nothing. Of course, Russia tried again in 2020. But this time the Trump Administration was ready and we shut it down. We also hit Iran with cyberattacks to prevent their election meddling efforts. A Divided Nation That’s the same split we saw on Election Day, and it’s a sad commentary on the state of our elections that so many Americans have such little confidence in our own system. Goodbye, Harry He tirelessly supported the president’s reelection efforts, and I recently joined him at a campaign appearance in Ohio. This summer he released a new book, entitled, “A Manifesto: Christian America’s Contract with Minorities.” His leadership in Washington will be deeply missed, but I have no doubt that he has been welcomed home to the words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” Please join Carol and me in praying for Bishop Jackson’s family and his congregation at Hope Christian Church. Tags: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, Trump’s Success, Fox In A Free Fall, Defending FreedomTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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An Election Day Bridge Too Far
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 08:39 PM PST
Voters might not have had concerns about irregularities, if fundamental steps were taken, and problems fixed. by Dr. Victor Davis Hanson: No wonder half the public is concerned about irregularities in the 2020 voting. No wonder they would support Donald Trump’s skepticism, once a reputable legal team quickly, publicly, and transparently presents to the nation justified concerns about constitutional violations in changing state voting laws and documented accounts of computer glitches, inexplicable late arrivals of ballot troves, and systemic efforts to prevent transparency — all at a level that reasonably could question the authenticity of the final vote count or even serve a dire warning of things to come. Voting sanctity was not just questioned by Trump. It became a recent issue in 2016. Then-Green Party candidate Jill Stein was used as a surrogate by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic establishment — to the chagrin of her own supporters — to sue in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania to overturn the 2016 election. The charge was deliberate voting-machine irregularities, for which there was not even much anecdotal evidence. Within days of that failure, a Democratic narrative appeared that Donald Trump was an illegitimate president due to “Russian collusion.” Soon Hillary Clinton joined the “Resistance,” on the basis that Russians, not the American people, had chosen the president — a charge that eventually sabotaged Donald Trump’s first two years in office, as Robert Mueller’s 22-month, $40-million “Dream Team” failed to prove that a myth, born in efforts to delegitimize an election and a president, was after all a myth. Indeed, within days of Trump’s inauguration, dozens of Democrats voted for impeachment, as activists wrote about the need to either impeach him, or declare him crazy — or whispered about the need for the military to become vigilant — in a manner later to be dubbed “coup porn.” Again the pretext was a false charge of Russian collusion that had delegitimized the voting. After that, a new narrative took hold, eventually flagrantly so in the 2019 Democratic primaries, that the Electoral College was illegitimate and should be junked, and the present Supreme Court had to be packed to ensure correct decisions. So the idea that the future voting itself would be politicized started nearly as soon as, or even before, Donald Trump was elected. Millions of voters now find it rich that suddenly the Democratic Party is vouching for a pristine voting count, after for four years warning in venues like the New Yorker or PBS that new questionable electronic voting machines and dubious state officials were toying with deliberate distortion, and that foreign interests would “again” be seeking to disrupt the election. Activists spent much of 2019 and 2020 seeking to overturn constitutionally mandated laws of the state legislatures. Their efforts in key states often succeeded in ensuring that federal elections would be radically transformed into a long process of weeks on end, through both early and predominantly mail-in voting, with allowances for troves of ballots arriving well after the polls closed. The point is that after being lectured by Clintonites, by the media, and by big tech for years that voting was likely to be suspect, the Left did all it could by lawsuits and radical changes to voting statutes to ensure that the count would be, well, suspect by its own prior standards. Still, half of the American people might not be so angry had just one state — as Florida in 2000 — failed to deliver a final, transparent, and timely tally. But by 2020, we had 20 years to learn from Florida’s endless days of recounting and warped chad auditing. Although the suspicious circumstances were different — this time state executives and judges changed the state voter laws to enhance mail-in balloting in a way inconsistent with the Constitution’s directives — states were nonetheless courting the same disaster of delays, popular outrage, and inconsistent rules of counting and certification. Now two decades later, Americans, in third-world fashion, suffered five Floridas — Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania — all of which for some reason could not produce a transparent result on Election Day or in the hours shortly after. All had been warned that in some cases new computer voting systems, or in other cases radical transformations to mail-in voting, or in all cases insufficient awareness to transparency might once again provoke popular distrust. And in addition, a deadlocked Supreme Court ignored clear warnings that state judges and executives were overruling constitutionally mandated legislative laws of voting. So the public is mystified that the center of global high tech; the bastion of transparency and civil rights; the birthplace of the computer, the Internet, and automatic voting; home of the $4-trillion Silicon Valley masters of the universe; and the nation that vowed never again to suffer another 2000 has again failed. A nation whose tech wizardry can ferret out a single improper tweet and block an individual account in a nation of 330 million surely can use such omnipresence to ensure a nearly instantaneous voting result in certified machines. Or is the opposite true? Precisely because of that scary omnipotence, we need to be ever more vigilant? Mutatis mutandis, will the same Bush standard be extended to Trump, to go through the process of reexamination that the Bush team rightly demanded? It would not require much effort for the Supreme Court to determine whether particular states followed or ignored the Constitution in radically changing voting laws in 2020. Either they did so by votes of the Legislature or they did so by executive and bureaucratic mandates, which are not what the Constitution seems to direct. It would not take much effort simply to reexamine voting machines and computer software, to determine whether hundreds of personal anecdotes of illegality are signs of either systematic failure or mere disgruntled partisans. Still, the deplorables might have kept quiet had allegations of fraud occurred along bipartisan lines — that for every mysterious Wisconsin and Pennsylvania vote there was equal concern in hotly contested Texas and Florida. Both sides might have pointed to voting stoppages in the nocturnal hours, and the sudden appearance of new ballots and the record 90-percent turnout of registered voters in particular counties. All that weirdness would likely have been ignored had it occurred in bipartisan fashion regardless of the eventual vote. So again half the country now worries that purple swing states in which it was anticipated the vote would be close were targeted by Democratic activist-bureaucrats, especially in big cities — whether by pre election radical changes in voting laws and regulations, or laxity in ensuring proper date cutoffs, or inattention to computer authenticity to ensure “glitches” would not unduly sour public confidence. Still, voters are a forgiving lot. They might have sighed “move on” had the prior polls simply conditioned the country for a close race, predictions they trusted and thus could have prepared them for a long and acrimonious night. Instead, the party that drumbeats “voter suppression” ad nauseam hectored the country about the “historic” reckoning to come on Election Day. The Left went full Bob Mueller “bombshells” and “walls are closing in” to condition the nation for a 1964-like Democratic landslide, the just send off for the hated Trump. Red-state America for months was assured by pollsters and their partners in the media of the slaughter to come. On election eve, Trump was down 17 points in Wisconsin in the ABC/Washington Post poll. Trump was 12 points down in the CNN popular vote poll. Trump would suffer a 383-vote landslide loss in the Electoral College in the last YouGov poll. These authoritative predictions, often framed to the decimal point and the result of thousands of “computer simulations,” were not just off, but so far off to be easily seen as laughable. Had the presidential polls at the state levels, or polls of the Electoral College or those of Senate and House races, been close and thus approximated the actual vote that transpired on Election Day, voters would have shrugged that this time around at least the polls were in the margin of error in their wrong predictions. But again, what the country got instead was assurance of a Democratic Krakatoa, contrary to what people saw in the contrast between Trump’s huge rallies and Biden’s pathetic assemblage of honking cars. The public witnessed a “sure-loser” president greeted ecstatically at huge gatherings while “sure-winner” Biden lost his train of thought before a few hundred car-bound onlookers. Still, Americans might have shrugged even then and sighed, “polls will be polls” — had not there been the example of 2016. Then most of the state polls were wrong, but predictably wrong in their prediction of a Clinton landslide. After that collective embarrassment, voters were assured that pollsters were looking inward and that the media was venturing out to Red State America to discover “what makes these people tick.” That too was a hoax. Perhaps voters still would have said, “2000 Florida 5.0 is weird, but I guess it can happen.” They might have added, “2016 polls, I guess, never fixed their methodology for 2000.” But then there was the media. The media itself funded joint polls and reveled in their investments on television as gospel. On Fox News, Arizona was called early on election eve by its analytics experts. That spark in nanoseconds was aired through the networks with editorialization along the following lines: “If conservative Fox now says Trump’s red-state base has repudiated him in the first hours of vote counting, and he’s already lost Arizona, imagine what is now to follow!” Instead, what in reality followed were clear big Trump wins in Florida and Texas — much more likely results not called until much later. When asked to defend the Arizona decision, a few of the statisticians of Fox doubled down, ensuring that what we are now witnessing in Arizona was “impossible,” the insult to their additional injury of reassuring America that the Democrats would pick up seats in the House. The public knows that when a candidate loses a base state early in the evening, then the entire media menu for the night is set. Long predictable wins are relabeled “comebacks” or examples of “surprising strength.” Close losses are thematized as “clear pattern of voter unease with the president.” Why question later reports of insecure polling or suspicious late arriving ballots when you lose Barry Goldwater’s state in a mere two hours after polls closed? Still, the voters might have shrugged, “Well, who believes these premature media-ratings driven calls, anyway?” But then again, for days before the election, the media not only censored stories of Hunter Biden, but was aided by the clout of Silicon Valley into outright blacking them out — quite in contrast to their earlier two-year-long megaphonic assertions that Donald Trump was soon to be indicted, as Robert Mueller and Christopher Steele had all but proved their cases. In addition, for months the media assured the nation that a small group of money-grubby apostate Republicans were the voices of morality in the Republican Party. Indeed, Never Trumpers could prove a valuable fifth column to siphon off key support from the Republican ticket. Flush with nearly $70 million in left-wing cash, the “Lincoln” Project kingpins were glamorized in their efforts to destroy Republican senatorial and House candidates, to flip Republican swing voters, and to pose as the saviors of the Republican Party. Instead, Trump got more support from Republicans in 2020 than he had in 2016, reaching in so-called exit polls rates of 93 percent. In the end, Never Trump, Inc. was just another media fiction, although a lucrative one for its concocters if AOC and the Squad don’t appropriate their post-campaign cash reserves. So what angers half the country could be summed up as the likely mindset of the Trump voter: And that realization that a transparent Election Day vote is a distant memory is what enrages Barack Obama’s clingers, Joe Biden’s dregs, chumps and ugly folk, and Hillary Clinton’s deplorables and irredeemables — the final injury after a host of insults. Tags: Victor Davis Hanson, An Election Day, Bridge Too FarTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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Will Georgia Halt the Radicals’ Revolution?
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 07:48 PM PST by Patrick Buchanan: President Donald Trump, given all he has endured for five years from those piously pleading now for a “time of healing,” cannot be faulted for his defiant resolve to unearth any and all high crimes or misdemeanors committed in the counting of ballots in the election of Tuesday last. Trump owes his people this, and he owes the establishment nothing. “In victory, magnanimity… in defeat, defiance.” That counsel about human conflict comes from Winston Churchill. And President Donald Trump, given all he has endured for five years from those piously pleading now for a “time of healing,” cannot be faulted for his defiant resolve to unearth any and all high crimes or misdemeanors committed in the counting of ballots in the election of Tuesday last. Trump owes his people this, and he owes the establishment nothing. Yet, in making this his priority, Trump should be mindful of several realities. From what we have seen so far, the prospect that the decision in the battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona or Georgia will be overturned does not appear high. Indeed, it seems a certainty that not enough electoral votes could be flipped from Biden to Trump to overturn Joe Biden’s electoral vote victory. And Trump should realize that in alleging fraud, he is creating an imperative upon himself and his team to provide the evidence to prove it. In politics as in poker, there comes a time when you have to show your cards or fold your hand. Are the cards there? Trump should also be aware that his reputation, the causes he has served, and the future of both, will be influenced by how he conducts himself in what appears to be an inevitable defeat. Richard Nixon, in the 1960 election against JFK, declined to challenge the returns from Illinois, which he lost by 9,000 votes, though journalists then and historians have contended that the state was almost surely stolen in Cook County. Nixon chose not to challenge the Illinois count. Among the reasons was that, even had he done so successfully, after a brutal battle like the Bush-Gore contest in Florida, and even had Illinois been shifted into his column, he would have been short of the 270 electoral votes needed to win. Nixon would have had to contest and flip Texas as well. Also, while Trump and his campaign are devoting time and resources to the ballot count in battleground states, a last crucial battle is shaping up in Georgia, where the stakes are second only to the presidency. Minutes after Biden declared victory last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, exulted, “Now we take Georgia, and then we change the world.” Schumer was referring to the two Senate races that will be decided Jan. 5, both runoffs where none of the four candidates got the Georgia-required 50.0% of the vote on Nov. 3. Republican Sen. David Perdue won 49.7%, just short of the 50.0% that would have ensured GOP control of the Senate through 2022. Perdue faces a runoff against 33-year-old Jon Ossoff. The other race is between Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who is seeking to fill out the full term of Johnny Isakson who stepped down from the Senate in 2019 for health reasons. She is opposed by African American pastor Raphael Warnock. What is involved in these runoff elections? If Rossoff and Warnock both win, Democrats take control of the Senate. Schumer will be the new majority leader, displacing Mitch McConnell. And all tie votes will be decided by the new Senate President and Vice President Kamala Harris, who, as of 2020, was, by her voting record, the most radical member of the entire body. What would this mean? On Jan. 20, 10 weeks from today, Democrats would control the House with Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the chair, the Senate with Schumer as majority leader, and the White House with newly inaugurated Joe Biden in the Oval Office. The sole residual power Republicans would retain is the filibuster, the right of extended debate, the capacity to block the radical proposals of the new Democratic majority dominant in D.C. by talking them to death. Before the “Green New Deal,” “Medicare for All” and the Biden-Bernie tax hikes could be passed, before a trillion-dollar bailout of blue states like Illinois could be enacted, before the Supreme Court could be packed, the Senate filibuster would have to be eliminated. But, if it were, we would be transported back to the days of 1965, when LBJ, with veto-proof majorities in both houses, rammed through his Great Society, the failure of which is manifest today in Detroit, St. Louis, Philadelphia, New York — and in our staggering national debt. Are Democrats ready for so radical a step? Indeed, they are. Even Barack Obama is calling for killing the filibuster as a “Jim Crow relic.” Republicans who think that Democrats would not abolish the filibuster to advance their agenda are deluding themselves. Yet, all that is needed to block this rising radical revolution is for the GOP to win one of the two Georgia Senate seats at issue Jan. 5. If the Democrats lose either Georgia race, the Bernie-BLM-antifa-AOC revolution may just end up devouring its children. Tags: Patrick Buchanan, conservative, commentary, Will Georgia Halt. the Radicals’ Revolution? To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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A Stolen Presidential Election in the Nation’s Election Fraud Capital
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 07:32 PM PST The corruption of Philly Democrats is worse than you can imagine.
by Daniel Greenfield: In October, someone got away with a laptop and USB drives full of encrypted data at the warehouse where Philadelphia’s voting machines are stored.Philadelphia city officials swiftly assured voters that there was nothing to worry about because all the data was encrypted. Meanwhile a local reporter was able to enter the warehouse and stroll around the voting machines without anyone in the warehouse stopping him. Others had noted that accessing the USB slot for the voting machines was surprisingly easy.But there were bigger problems at the warehouse than that. The serial numbers on the voting machines didn’t match election records. In a familiar story, officials blamed clerical errors. And there were a whole lot of errors. The new voting machines had been incorrectly recording votes. In a previous election, Northampton County voters who voted Republican suffered a “weird technical glitch” in which votes cast for Republicans instead went to the “instructional text box”. The manufacturer blamed the problem on “human error” and claimed that it only affected some 30% of machines. Northampton County, one of the bellwether counties, was said to have flipped for Biden. The margins in some key precincts were between “a handful to hundreds of votes.” There were problems with 366 of the same model of voting machines in Philly. According to the manufacturer, voting machines only accept “certified and approved USB flash drives containing encrypted data”, which had apparently been stolen before Election Day. The same month that the laptop and USB drives were stolen, elsewhere in the state, an elections judge in Allentown was charged with, “insertion and alteration of entries in documents, and prying into ballots”. The judge, the Reverend Everett E. Bickford, or Erika, who now wears flowers in his hair and heavy makeup, along with a clerical collar, was hauled into court, but went on working as an election judge. Officials promised to watch him closely on Nov 3. The current numbers claim that Biden beat Trump in the Reverend’s 3rd Ward by 522 to 173. The media amplified stories about election fraud in Pennsylvania largely when it affected Democrat primaries. That same media is vocally denying that there could be any fraud now. Why would anyone think there could be any fraud in the nation’s election fraud capital? In ’86, Councilman Lee Beloff, the son of a judge, was charged alongside his legislative aide, and mob boss “Little Nicky” Scarfo, with extorting $1 million and an apartment for his mistress. Less glamorously, Beloff was also indicted, along with his wife and two Democratic committee members for ” conspiracy, voting more than once and giving false information on voter registrations to elderly people living in a nursing home.” Beloff had previously received a gubernatorial pardon for interfering with a poll watcher so he could run for public office. After serving 6 years of his 10 year sentence, Beloff got out and became a Democrat ward chairman. “We stay loyal to our people,” a local Democratic ward leader said. A photo last year from the Philly Public Record shows a meeting of the “combined 39th Ward Democratic organizations”. One of the photos is titled, “A South Philly Classic” and features Lee Beloff and Ozzie Myers. Ozzie Meyers, a former Democrat Congressman who had been convicted of bribery and conspiracy, and spent three years in prison in the Abscam scandal, was indicted again this year for “conspiring to violate voting rights by fraudulently stuffing the ballot boxes for specific candidates in the 2014, 2015, and 2016 primary elections, bribery of an election official, falsification of records, voting more than once in federal elections.” Domenick J. Demuro, an election judge in the 39th Ward, pled guilty to having “accepted bribes in the form of money and other things of value in exchange for adding ballots to increase the vote totals for certain candidates on the voting machines in his jurisdiction and for certifying tallies of all the ballots, including the fraudulent ballots.” Why wouldn’t you trust these guys? As Judge Scirica noted in his ruling, voter fraud, “including the practice of voting dead or non-resident citizens, is no stranger to Pennsylvania, especially to the City of Philadelphia.” “Hispanics would sign anything,” Democrat campaign workers joked in the case that would lead to the state’s biggest absentee ballot fraud case. So of course it came out of Philly in the 90s. William Stinson, an assistant Deputy Mayor to Mayor Ed Rendell, was running for a State Senate seat with Democrat control of the Senate at stake. A poll showed him 4% behind his Republican opponent and he allegedly ordered campaign workers to get black and Latino voters to sign absentee ballots. Campaign workers were given a buck for every ballot, which they “helped” voters fill in. Not satisfied to settle for actual voters, evidence was heard in court that workers had filled in the names of dead people and prison inmates. When the votes were counted, Stinson had won a staggering 80% of the absentee ballots. The Republicans smelled a rat and The Philadelphia Inquirer interviewed voters and found 220 irregularities and 24 instances where documents were forged. Mostly minority voters were told to check boxes, vote on behalf of family members, and misled into voting for the wrong man. In one investigation of the 37th Ward, only 15% of the absentee ballots had been legally cast. “There were probably mistakes made by workers not understanding the rules of absentee ballots,” Rick Bloomingdale, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and future AFL-CIO boss, argued. “It was all intended to increase voter participation.” A federal judge removed Stinson and replaced him with his Republican opponent, who had been winning before the absentee ballots arrived, accusing the Democrat candidate and the Philadelphia County Board of Elections of a “massive scheme” A state investigation led to charges against Stinson and two Democrat campaign workers. Stinson admitted to unlocking voting machines and opening absentee ballots, but claimed he never actually looked at them. A judge took mere minutes to acquit him. How could anyone possibly believe that there’s anything rotten in Philly? Multiple trials, indictments, and judicial rulings, decade after decade, don’t prove a damn thing. Except that there’s no such thing as an honest election in Philly. Some Democrat municipalities at least take pains not to look crooked. That’s not the sort of thing they go for in Philly. That’s why you can see that photo of Beloff and Myers in the Public Record, whose motto is, “The Good Things We Do Must Be Made a Part of the Public Record.” There’s a third man in the photo next to Beloff, who had been convicted of voter fraud, and Ozzie Myers, who would go on to be indicted for election fraud, and that man is Bob Brady. Bob Brady is the Chairman of the Philadelphia Democratic Party. Brady is famous for two things, winning every election with over 80% of the vote, and stealing the Pope’s cup. “Like I’m not gonna take that cup?” he replied. After spending 20 years as a House Democrat, including as a ranking member of the Committee on House Administration and on the Subcommittee on Elections, he stepped down after an FBI investigation into a $90,000 payment made by his campaign to get his opponent to drop out by disguising it as a payment for a poll. Two of Brady’s aides were sent to jail in the case, but neither of the politicians were. After getting out of prison, Ken Smukler, one of those aides, was back working together with Brady and other Democrat leaders on the fight to help Biden win Pennsylvania. The Biden campaign denied knowing him. Tags: Daniel Greenfield, Front Page Mag, A Stolen Presidential Election, Nation’s Election Fraud CapitalTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. 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Astounding MSM Hatred of Trump and His Voters
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 06:21 PM PST Once again, the Leftmedia shows its total lack of journalistic integrity.
by Thomas Gallatin: Even as they were declaring that Joe Biden had won the 2020 presidential election, several Leftmedia outlets couldn’t hide their distain for nearly half the country that cast a vote for President Donald Trump. Color us unsurprised.The editors of The Atlantic, for example, ridiculously concluded that half of Americans must be crazy for voting to “leave a dangerous sociopath in the Oval Office” and suggested they were motivated by a “sullen commitment to authoritarianism.” The editors might want to reeducate themselves on the definition of “authoritarianism,” as the only candidate running on a truly authoritarian platform was the Democrat. National mask mandate, anyone?Similar sentiments were expressed by The New York Times’s Gail Collins, who wondered, “How the hell could American voters have picked Trump to be President to begin with? And how, after four years of his Fib-a-Minute administration, could they have come even remotely close to re-electing him?” Her answer boils down to an all-too-predictable reason: because of supposed bigotry and racism. The reason Leftmedia talking heads have never been able to understand why so many of their fellow Americans found Trump appealing and voted for him is because they refuse to listen and accept what those voters keep telling them. Instead, they’re content to label all those who refuse to buy into the Left’s “woke” social justice dogma as backward and “irredeemable” buffoons. And the truth is, the Leftmedia doesn’t care to even begin to understand why so much of the country sees the world differently. This is what happens when journalists stop becoming motivated to serve the general public by sharing information and instead become activists motivated primarily to bring about their preferred societal change. It used to be that a journalist would actually listen to people and report on his findings, unconcerned with swaying opinions. Today’s activist “journalist” preaches at people with the focus of attempting to sway opinion. CNN’s “journalists” couldn’t help but show their full unadulterated leftist contempt. Anderson Cooper excoriated Trump for asserting that he won the election if it were only “legal votes” that were counted. Cooper called Trump an “obese turtle flailing in the hot sun,” adding, “I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this from a president of the United States and I think, as Jake [Tapper] said, ‘It’s sad and it is truly pathetic.’” So, a president expressing legitimate concern over an election process that is plainly full of massive irregularities (to put it mildly) is “pathetic” and “dangerous”? The lack of MSM self-reflection would be astounding if it weren’t so commonplace and expected. Many of the mainstream media’s leading pollsters demonstrated this reality when their loudly touted prognostications were exposed for being little other than reflections of the MSM’s desired election outcome, not a genuine reflection of the political opinions of the American populace. And when individuals are so caught up in this “change the world” bubble, bias enters their reporting, simply because they believe themselves so correct as to be unquestionable. Arnon Mishkin of the Fox News Decision Desk perfectly demonstrated this reality when he called Arizona for Biden early on election night. He defended his decision, stating, “What I think we’ve heard from the White House is that … they need just to get 61% of the outstanding vote, and there are 870,000 outstanding votes, and they’ll be getting that. That’s not true. The reality is that they’re likely to only get about 44% of the outstanding votes that are there. We’re right now sitting on a race that is about Biden at 53%, Trump at 46%. I’m sorry, the president is not going to be able to take over and win enough votes to eliminate that seven-point lead that the former vice president has.” The Arizona race now sits at Biden leading Trump with just over 17,000 votes — and the counting hasn’t stopped. No matter the official outcome, the Leftmedia has earned every bit of the distrust sweeping the nation. Tags: Thomas Gallatin, The Patriot Post, Astounding, MSM Hatred, of Trump, and His VotersTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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America Rises Up to Crush the Left
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 05:41 PM PST by Ralph Benko: We of the media, thanks to the yearning of our readers and viewers, are slaves to melodrama. Thus we fixate on the defeat of President Trump. That’s the story. Not the takeaway. Trump was beloved by millions (and detested by more millions). His fate is full of pathos. He fully deserves a few days basking in, per Shakespeare: Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. …One doubts that Trump will be heard no more. Whether he declares himself the leader of the Government-in-Exile or founds a media company (or both) we have not heard the last of him. More on that soon. The takeaway? America — the electorate, not Trump, not the GOP, not the Donks, and despite the Establishment media’s shilling — crushed the left. Bravo, America! The electorate — the shareholders of the USA, as it were — retains control. Notwithstanding the pretensions of us Washington Insiders™ the voters can’t be durably manipulated by us hired help. The political class will either fail to notice or studiedly ignore this. That said, Judge Groo was right: you cannot fool all the people all the time. Take note. Above and beyond this inconvenient truth, the crushing of the left is epic. Is this just me reveling in my confirmation bias? Probably not. The Democratic Party primary voters crushed the hardest-left media darlings: Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, along with leftish curios like Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke, and Andrew Yang, among others. It buried their leftist billionaires Mike Bloomberg (who governed New York City pragmatically but listed so far left in the presidential race he politically capsized) and Tom Steyer. The Democratic Party voters handily chose Joe Biden, the Establishment social democrat (very different from a “Democratic Socialist,” and carrying the endorsement of Frederick Hayek, one of liberty’s greatest saints). Biden chose a strikingly pragmatic running mate, Kamala Harris, suavely domesticating his party’s left wing during the race. Biden, suave but nobody’s patsy, will domesticate his party’s left by throwing a sop or two to Cerberus. Big Reveal: The left was and is an imaginary hobgoblin. The left’s annihilation only begins there. Looks like the GOP will keep the Senate. Even if not, the Donks’ failure to dominate means that the Senate crazies — I’m talkin’ to you, Tammy Baldwin, Tom Carper, Mark Warner and Elizabeth Warren, the cabal boldly setting out to “fundamentally reform” capitalism — had their wings clipped good and hard. But wait! There’s more! House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was always tough on her left-wing “Squad” — hi AOC, I still love you! — is getting hippie-punched by Democratic centrists for not being hard enough. Lesson learned! The Establishment-Media-Political-Industrial Complex took notice. The center-left-leaning The Week points out that The Left Just Got Crushed. That merry libertarian mazik Dan Mitchell collects the white flags flown by the center-left Washington Post and New York Times. The giddily leftist New York Magazine headlines The 2020 Election Brought Progressives to the Brink of Catastrophe. I have tediously repeated that while the Progressives have grabbed the microphone the pro-capitalism labor and the ethnic left (which I noted at Newsmax last March made Biden Trump’s most formidable foe) voted for Trump in, relatively speaking, droves. Progressives do not legitimately speak for workers! The left-wing DailyKos eloquently bemoans the Donks’ failure to pocket any state legislatures. This thwarts their sinister plan to counter-gerrymander the House. “Election night delivered nothing short of an unmitigated catastrophe for Democrats — and democracy — heading into the coming redistricting cycle. … Tuesday saw the GOP’s edge expand to potentially four or five times as many districts as Democrats. …” There’s far more carnage on the left but I don’t wish to get penalized for unnecessary roughness. That said, the left has the resilience possessed by all fanatics, maniacs, lunatics and saints. 2020 might be a temporary setback. Conservatives have a rare opportunity to raze the Progressive political edifice to the foundations and salt their earth. Democratic Party regulars will banish the Democratic Socialists to the Sierra Maestra. If only we conservatives could stop our internecine feuding long enough to politically eradicate the left we could make their political exile permanent. One can dream. Alas we conservatives prefer circular firing squads to winning. America is good. America elected a calm and pragmatic social democrat, Joe Biden, not a Democratic Socialist delightful kook. Biden is in the tradition of FDR, Harry Truman and JFK. And he will preside over a center right Congress and center right states. The calliope crashed to the ground. Furthermore, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed. Tags: Ralph Benko, America Rises Up, to Crush, the LeftTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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Here’s How Trump Can Still Win
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 04:53 PM PST
by Dick Morris: 1. Only the electoral college or the various state legislatures can declare a candidate the winner. To base this decision on network vote totals and projections and to call Biden the “president-elect” is irresponsible. 2. The recounts in Arizona, Georgia, and the other states are likely to go heavily for Trump. Most of the likely errors or invalid votes took place on mailed-in ballots. (Machine votes are harder to tamper with). Since Biden won upwards of two-thirds of mail-in votes and absentee ballots, it is likely that most of the discarded mail ballots will be subtracted from Biden’s total. 3. The networks currently give Trump 214 electorate votes (270 is the victory level). 4. Alaska, where Trump has led by 2:1 all week and is now more than half counted will likely throw its 3 votes to Trump giving him 217. 5. Trump has likewise led in North Carolina (15 votes) all week and his margin of 75,000 has not diminished. He will undoubtedly carry North Carolina. Like Alaska, the media will not call it for Trump to promote the illusion of a Biden victory. North Carolina would bring Trump’s vote to 232. 6. The vote count in Arizona shows Trump’s deficit shrinking from 30,000 on Friday to 18,500 on Saturday with about 100K left to count. After Arizona (11 votes) is fully counted, it will go through a recount subject to the pro-Trump bias identified in point 2. Were he to win Arizona, he would have 243 votes. 7. In Georgia (16 votes), Biden leads by only 8,400 votes, a margin that has been dropping. Like Arizona, Trump may still win the count and, if not, would have a very good chance of prevailing in the recount. With Georgia, Trump would have 259 votes. 8. Wisconsin (10 votes) is tallied as having been won by Biden by 21,000 votes but a recanvass is in the offing. Given the facts enumerated in point 2, there is a very good chance Trump will carry Wisconsin. The recount process in Wisconsin is uniquely fair and transparent — a model for the nation — so Trump may well flip the state. If he does, he will have 269 votes — one shy of victory. 9. Then, it comes down Pennsylvania and its 20 votes. The Supreme Court provisionally allowed ballots to be counted if they arrived before Friday, Nov. 6, and were postmarked before Election Day, Nov. 3, and ordered late votes to be segregated. When Justice Samuel Alito was informed that the state had not segregated the late votes, as Pennsylvania’s secretary of the commonwealth had advised, Alito made it an order on Friday. Biden currently leads by 37,000 votes in Pennsylvania. The number of late-arriving ballots likely far exceeds this total (the state has not published this information). Justice Alito and a Court majority may throw out the late ballots, likely delivering the state to Trump. In addition, for the reasons stated above, a recanvass is likely to give Trump a decisive advantage. If he wins Pennsylvania, he would have 289 votes and a victory. Will there be a recount in Pennsylvania? The current law requires one if the margin is under 0.5 percent and in Pennsylvania, it likely will be slightly greater. There are two ways to trigger a recount: First, the Supreme Court could order one after the vote counters so flagrantly violated Alito’s order to segregate the votes that he had to re-issue it. And remember, four justices wanted to reconsider whether to allow late ballots entirely but the court deadlocked 4-4 in October. Now with Justice Amy Coney Barrett in the mix, it may take a different view, particularly if the presidency hangs in the balance. Second, Article II Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution reads: “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress.” The Pennsylvania Legislature, solidly in Republican hands (both houses) may choose to demand a recount before appointing electors. To build the case for doing so, it may hold hearings into the allegations of fraud so as to help the voters of the state understand how flagrantly their votes were mishandled. Already, the leader of the State Senate in Pennsylvania and the speaker of the State Assembly have held a news conference announcing their intention to “audit” the vote-counting process. As the saying goes: “It’s not over until the fat lady sings.” And she hasn’t. Tags: Dick Morris, Here’s How, Trump Can Still WinTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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Let the Party Begin . . .
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 03:48 PM PST . . . China, Antifa, BLM, Russia, and Iran are all celebrating Biden the projected winner of the 2020 Presidential election. Tags: Editorial Cartoon, Let the Party Begin, China, Antifa, BLM, Russia, Iran,all celebrating BidenTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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Powerful Presidents Are Incompatible with Liberty
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 03:34 PM PST
by Ron Paul: The mainstream media has declared former Vice President Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election. However, this does not mean the 2020 Presidential campaign has come to an end. President Donald Trump is continuing his legal challenges to the vote counts in some key states. The emotional investment of many Americans into the race between Trump and Biden would have shocked the drafters of the Constitution. The Constitution’s authors intended the presidency to be an office of strictly limited powers that would not impact most Americans. The Constitution authorizes the president to administer laws passed by Congress, not create laws via executive orders. The president serves as Commander-in-Chief of the military following a Congressional declaration of war, with no authority to unilaterally send troops into foreign conflict. The Founders did not intend for the president to set the “national agenda, “ and they would be horrified to see modern presidents assume the authority to order American citizens indefinitely detained and even killed without due process. The idea that the president should exercise almost unlimited powers is a legacy of the progressive movement. Progressives, who are responsible for the rise of the American welfare-warfare state, have an affinity for a strong Presidency that is not surprising. A government that aspires to run our lives, run the economy, and run the world requires a strong executive branch unfettered by the Constitution’s chains. The Cold War also provided a boost to presidential power, as it justified presidents assuming more unchecked authority in the name of “national security.” The concentration of power in the executive branch does not mean presidents are all-powerful. For example, even though presidents are judged by the state of the economy, the unelected, unaccountable Federal Reserve Board typically has greater influence over the economy then the president. Presidents often must tailor their economic policies to deal with the consequences of the Fed’s actions. This is why presidents spend so much time and energy trying to influence the “non-political” Fed. Fed Chairs usually, but not always, reciprocate by attempting to tailor polices to be “useful” to the incumbent president. It has become cliché to say that “politics stops at the water’s edge.” This means no one—not even Members of Congress, should ever oppose or second-guess a president’s foreign policy decisions. However, this rule does not apply to those comprising what has become popularly known as the “deep state”: the military-industrial complex, the national security bureaucracy—including the CIA— congressional staffers, and members of the media. This deep state serves a permanent government and has an agenda it pursues regardless of the wishes of the president or the American people. The deep state has derailed President Trump’s (modest) efforts to fulfill his campaign promise to pursue a less interventionist foreign policy and end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Members of the deep state were instrumental in the Russiagate hoax and the impeachment of President Trump. Many supported impeachment because President Trump’s actions contradicted the DC “consensus” on US -Ukraine relations and the need for a new Cold War with Russia. President Trump is not the first president to be undermined by the deep state and he will certainly not be the last. The 2020 election has awoken many Americans to the corruption of the modern welfare-warfare state. These Americans are ripe for the message of liberty. They can help with the vital task of demystifying the US Presidency, destroying the deep state, restoring our constitutional republic, and regaining our lost liberties. Tags: Dr. Ron Paul, Powerful Presidents, Incompatible with LibertyTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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Dem’s Illegal Votes In Pennsylvania May Flip The State To Trump
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 03:22 PM PST by Robert Romano: Ballots in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania continue to be counted, and former Vice President Joe Biden is leading President Donald Trump by about 45,000 votes: 3,364,965 to 3,319,652. To date, it is still unknown how many ballots were received after Pennsylvania’s statutory deadline of 8 p.m. on Nov. 3. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court arbitrarily extended that deadline to Nov. 6 at 5 p.m., in violation of state law, and then the U.S. Supreme Court kicked the can down the road, waiting until after the election to see if it would matter towards the outcome. Under Pennsylvania law, it states, “No absentee ballot under this subsection shall be counted which is received in the office of the county board of elections later than eight o’clock P.M. on the day of the primary or election.” Article I, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution states, “The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof…” On Nov. 6, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito ordered in Pennsylvania that “all ballots received by mail after 8:00 p.m. on November 3 be segregated and kept ‘in a secure, safe and sealed container separate from other voted ballots,’ and … that all such ballots, if counted, be counted separately.” Presumably that is so they can potentially be discounted later. Mind you, how courts rule on this issue will not only potentially impact the outcome of the presidential race but also down ballot Congressional races. The House, particularly, could be closely divided, and a decision here could potentially tip the balance of power to Republicans. So far, Pennsylvania Secretary of State of Pennsylvania Kathy Boockvar has assured the Supreme Court that “63 [out of 67] counties have already confirmed to the Secretary their compliance with the prior guidance, including the Commonwealth’s two largest counties (Allegheny and Philadelphia). And no county has expressed an intention to violate the guidance.” Hopefully, the counties have kept the envelopes, and can also show when they were received. Interestingly, Luzerne County submitted a response, providing a tally of late ballots, noting a “total of 149,103 votes, [and] only 255 mail-in and absentee ballots were received between 8:00 P.M. on Election Day and 5:00 P.M.” As expected, the county is claiming just a tiny fraction, about 0.17 percent, were received after 8 p.m. on Election Day. The percentage of illegal late votes could be different in different counties depending on how big of an operation there was for harvesting ballots. Now, maybe that is the number and I sure hope they kept the envelopes to prove it. Let’s just say that that is representative of the entire state, where 6,771,775 people voted and counting as of this writing. That represents 11,512 late ballots statewide, but keep in mind that Luzerne is a +15 percent Trump county that went 57-42 for the President, and so since there were fewer Democrats, there’d be fewer ballots as a percentage of total cast, given Democrats’ preference for voting by mail. Biden got 49 percent statewide, so you have to adjust and it comes out to about 0.199 percent. Assuming Luzerne County is telling the truth, that works out to about 13,500 or so ineligible votes in a race decided by 45,000 votes, it’s about 30 percent of the victory margin, and if discounted, more than enough to initiate an automatic recount at the 34,000 threshold, assuming they were ever a part of the initial count. And that’s just the illegal late ballots. That is not even considering other potential ineligible ballots that are in play, including absentee ballots that did not have a matching signature, had the wrong address, or were allegedly cured by poll workers without the voter present. Adding to the problems in Pennsylvania, in Erie County, U.S. Postal Service employee Richard Hopkins alleges that ballots were illegally backdated by postal employees, anticipating legal challenges: “Postmaster Rob Weisenbach directed my co-workers and I to pick up ballots after Election Day and provide them to him. As discussed more fully below, I heard Weisenbach tell a supervisor at my office that Weisenbach was back-dating the postmarks on the ballots to make it appear as though the ballots had been collected on November 3, 2020 despite them in fact being collected on November 4 and possibly later.” If true — if local post offices were backdating illegal ballots — that could throw the entire counting process into doubt, as there may not be an easy way to find the late ballots. Further complicating matters, in Philadelphia (and other cities) it is alleged by the Trump campaign that it did not get to examine or challenge a single absentee ballot, potentially making it impossible to pull back any absentees once they are tallied. Moreover, now that the ballots have been separated from the envelopes, there may be no way to tell which ones were late or otherwise illegally submitted. Assuming it is impossible to now distinguish between illegal ballots and legitimate ones, the remedies should in the very least include an election audit that provides campaigns to examine and challenge the eligibility and arrival times, and take a look at U.S. Postal Service tracking on every single one of the 1.17 million absentee ballots their envelopes. Those envelopes better not have been destroyed. Tags: Robert Romano, Americans for Limited Government, Dem’s Illegal Vote, Pennsylvania, May Flip The State, To TrumpTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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Democrat Anti-Semitism Turned FL & GA Jews Against Them
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 02:49 PM PST
Daniel Greenfield: Before the election, Brandeis University’s Steinhardt Social Research Institute marked Georgia, along with Florida, as one of the states where the Jewish vote could help decide the election. Georgia has 103,000 Jewish voters and Democrats had been counting on them to flip the state. With a Senate election and special election, two Senate seats were up for grabs, and Democrats threw money at former Al Jazeera collaborator Ossoff and activist Warnock. Jon Ossoff raised $32 million in the Senate election, outspending incumbent Senator Perdue by almost 50%, with much of the money coming from California. Over $50 million was spent on pro-Ossoff ads alone. In the Senate special election, Democrats raised over $21 million for radical activist Raphael Warnock. Warnock had signed on to a statement falsely accusing Israel of being an apartheid state, falsely describing Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, as an “occupied” territory oppressed by Israel, and falsely claiming that “Jewish” people engage in “segregation”. The letter signed by Warnock also ranted that, “Israeli fear… begets hatred” and demanded an end to weapons sales to Israel. Warnock had defended Jeremiah Wright’s bigotry, but now said he disavowed antisemitism. Despite Warnock’s hostility toward the Jewish State, he was backed by the Jewish Democratic Council of America over Matt Lieberman, Senator Joseph Lieberman’s son. Soros’ Bend the Arc PAC aggressively supported Warnock as their man in Georgia. “Raphael Warnock knows our Georgia Jewish community,” an ad by the anti-Israel group, founded by a former sex club dancer who had participated in anti-Israel protests, claimed. The Jewish community of Georgia knew Warnock all right. And it spilled over to Biden. The Associated Press exit poll showed that 48% of Georgia Jews voted for President Trump and 49% for Joe Biden: a near split. While Trump’s strong record on Israel and fighting antisemitism abroad and at home no doubt helped, it’s hard to dismiss the Warnock factor. Georgia Democrats had backed a candidate who had ties to a notorious antisemitic figure and who had signed a letter accusing Israel of apartheid and segregation, and Trump took home half the Jewish vote. The situation isn’t likely to get any better as Warnock heads to a runoff. In the other Senate race, Jon Ossoff tried to accuse his Republican opponent of antisemitism, claiming that an ad had given him a nose job, but Ossoff had collaborated with Al Jazeera, Qatar’s violently antisemitic propaganda network, which backs Hamas, had featured calls for another Holocaust, and which had been sued by former employees for antisemitism. His mentor, Rep. Hank Johnson, had even compared Jews in Israel to termites. Ossoff is unsurprisingly anti-Israel and was backed by big spending from J Street: the anti-Israel lobby group. He’s also a supporter of the Iran nuclear sellout which funneled billions to the Islamic terror state and signed off on its nuclear program with no inspections on the ground. Democrats had hoped to use Ossoff, who has Jewish ancestry, to mobilize Jewish voters, but the AP exit poll suggests that Ossoff was as helpful as Warnock. In New York, Governor Cuomo and local Democrats had decided to use the final months before Election Day to scapegoat Orthodox Jews for their failure to manage the pandemic. These false accusations were bolstered by deeply dishonest media smears and discriminatory enforcement. What was the response to this systemic antisemitism by the Democrat establishment? In a number of majority Chassidic Jewish areas in Brooklyn, President Trump won between 80% to 90% of the vote. That’s not a new development. Republican presidential candidates usually walk away with the vast majority of the vote in Orthodox Jewish areas in New York. In Rockland County, Trump won the majority of the vote even though registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans 2 to 1. But no Republican can get to the White House through New York even if he’s a famous New Yorker. It’s a very different story in Florida where so many former New Yorkers ended up. Florida has the largest Jewish population of any swing state and it has one of the largest Jewish communities of any state. And while there are plenty of Jewish conservatives in Florida, the Jewish vote out of Florida tends to favor the usual Democrat hacks. But not this time. The Associated Press exit poll showed that 43% of Jewish voters had backed President Trump. A J Street poll had claimed that Jews would go for Biden by 73% over Trump. Like everything the anti-Israel and pro-terrorist group founded by Soros money claims, it wasn’t true. As Jonathan Tobin at JNS notes, “Trump got about at least somewhere in the vicinity of 150,000 Jewish votes. In a competitive state where he wound up winning by only 377,000 votes.” Before running for office, President Trump had almost as sizable a presence in New York as he did in Florida, and local Jews have stories of him opening up Mar-a-Lago to Jews and making its kitchens Kosher at a time when most private clubs on the island continued to bar Jews. “No one called Mar-a-Lago a Jewish club, but especially in the early years, that’s what it was,” an otherwise negative Vanity Fair article noted. And again there’s no question that President Trump’s pro-Israel policies were a game changer. But the antisemitic incident that dominated local Jewish news in Florida this year didn’t happen at a private club in Palm Beach, but in a high school. William Latson, a high school principal, had responded to an email from a parent asking about Holocaust education by arguing, “Not everyone believes the Holocaust happened.” In its own October surprise, the Palm Beach County School Board voted to rehire the Holocaust denying principal and pay him six figures in back pay. Racial tensions were stirred by the vote because Latson is black and of the four board members that initially voted to rehire him, two, Marcia Andrews and Debra Robinson, were black, and, more significantly, all four, had close connections to Democrat and leftist organizations. Robinson had been endorsed by SEIU, NOW, the AFL-CIO, and the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council Voters Alliance. Marcia Andrews had been backed by SEIU, Barbara McQuinn and Chuck Shaw were backed by the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council Voters Alliance. Shaw, a former Democrat official, had blamed the scandal on reporters who “took over this entire conversation before the superintendent had an opportunity to even begin to address this.” After the public outcry, the board voted again, and rescinded the move, perhaps realizing that the last thing Democrats needed right before an election was an antisemitism scandal. But by then it was too late. There’s no way to know what impact the scandal had on the Florida Jewish vote, but the spectacle of Democrats signing off on Holocaust denial could hardly have helped. While the media trumpets national polls that claim that the vast majority of Jews voted for Biden, the AP’s own exit polls in Florida and Georgia raise serious questions about those claims. And the state of the Jewish electorate in swing states is far more significant than national polls. What happened in Georgia, Florida, and parts of New York shows significant fractures between the Democrat organizations trying to control the Jewish vote and Jewish voters in key areas. President Trump’s ability to win over around 1 in 2 Jewish voters in Georgia and Florida is a warning that Democrat antisemitism carries a price, and that throwing money at astroturf groups like J Street and Bend the Arc that don’t represent Jews and never will, is not the answer. If anything it only makes things worse. Covering up antisemitism with Democrat candidates that have Jewish last names and a hatred for the Jewish state, with radical politicians who attack Jews and then expect astroturf lefty groups to bring in the Jewish vote, isn’t working anymore. Neither is peppering ads with, “Oy”, “Schlepp”, and “Gevalt” in a condescending minstrel show effort to relate to Jews. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida had famously replied, “abortion”, when asked why Jewish voters should cast their votes for Obama. That’s not going to cut it anymore. Neither are videos by Sarah Silverman and Seth Rogen. Democrats expected Jewish voters to help them flip Georgia and Florida. Instead, Jewish voters flipped them off and voted for President Trump. If Democrats can’t rein in their antisemitism, next time they may not split the Jewish vote in Florida. They could lose it outright. Tags: Daniel Greenfield, Democrat Anti-Semitism, Turned, FL & GA Jews, Against ThemTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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What You Need to Know About Election Litigation in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, and Arizona
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 01:27 PM PST
by Rachel del Guidice: Even though former Vice President Joe Biden has claimed victory in the presidential election, the Trump campaign has filed lawsuits contesting the results with current litigation in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona. In Pennsylvania alone, there are at least 21,000 dead people on the voter rolls. Is there a possibility that some of these ballots that went to dead people were used fraudulently? We’ve also heard a lot of people talk about how we largely know the results of all the House and Senate races but still don’t have all the ballots counted for the presidential race. Why is this the case? Hans von Spakovsky, manager of The Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative and senior legal fellow at the think tank’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, joins Rachel del Guidice to discuss this situation. Rachel del Guidice: I’m joined today on “The Daily Signal Podcast” by Hans von Spakovsky. He’s the manager of The Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative and senior fellow at the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. Hans, it’s always great to have you with us on “The Daily Signal Podcast.” Hans von Spakovsky: Sure. Thanks for having me on. Del Guidice: Well, before we go into the litigation that’s happening right now postelection, I just want to ask you, top line, overall, do you think it’s reasonable to believe that voting irregularities or voter fraud occurred in this election? Von Spakovsky: Well, look, we know it already happened in elections going on this summer. Yes, it’s certainly common sense to believe that happened. What we don’t know is how big it was, how extensive it was. Was it widespread? Was it just in isolated instances? We just don’t know the answer to that. Del Guidice: While former Vice President Joe Biden has claimed victory in this presidential election, the Trump campaign is filing lawsuits. There are currently lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona. I want to walk through all the litigation going on in each of the states, starting with Pennsylvania. Can you tell us what’s going on there? Von Spakovsky: Yes, Pennsylvania, they’re contesting the fact that the state Supreme Court extended the deadline for absentee ballots past the deadline set by the state Legislature. The state Legislature, under their deadline, you’ve got to get your absentee ballot turned in by the end of Election Day, but the state Supreme Court put another three days on that. What the Trump campaign is contesting is that the state Supreme Court doesn’t have the constitutional power to do that. The state Legislature does. They’re the ones that are tasked with and given the authority to set deadlines and the rules governing federal elections in their state. If the state Legislature wanted to extend the deadline, I mean, they could do that, but here, the court stepped in and did it. What they’re contesting is the counting and inclusion of any absentee ballots that were received after Election Day. Del Guidice: Before we move on to the other states, in Pennsylvania, I believe there were about at least 21,000 dead people on the voter rolls there. Do you think that there is a potential possibility that some of those ballots that obviously may have gone to dead people … could have been used fraudulently? Do you think that’s something that may have happened? Von Spakovsky: Yes, that’s a distinct possibility because, in fact, we know that records for past elections indicate that individuals who are dead but remain on the voter rolls mistakenly are credited with having voted in elections. In fact, we’ve got cases in our Election Fraud Database at Heritage of individuals who were convicted of casting a ballot for someone who was deceased. How many times and how many votes that may have happened with in this election—I mean, we just don’t have those records yet, so we don’t know. Del Guidice: One more Pennsylvania question before we move on to Nevada, Rudy Giuliani, who’s the former mayor of New York City and the personal attorney to President [Donald] Trump, has spoken very positively of litigation in Pennsylvania. I’m curious what you think. Do you think there’s a solid case that can be made for the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania? Von Spakovsky: Well, I think they’re on solid constitutional ground where they dispute the changes made by the state Supreme Court. In fact, the state Legislature agrees with that. The state Legislature also appealed the decision of the state Supreme Court. So I think they’re on solid, constitutional ground there. The question is, will the Supreme Court take the issue up and make a decision on that? Del Guidice: You talked a lot about Pennsylvania, Hans. Can you now walk us through with legal challenges going on in Nevada right now? Von Spakovsky: Well, in Nevada, there’s a lawsuit claiming, again, problems with the voter registration list and that individuals who are not residents of the state, but in fact, not only residents of neighboring states like California, but actually voted, for example, in California and in Nevada. Again, there’s a dispute over the fact that there may have been illegal and invalid votes cast in that election. People need to understand, it’s not necessarily illegal to be registered in more than one state. That often happens through no fault of a voter when they simply move from one state to another. But if you take advantage of that and you cast a vote in two different states in the same election, that, in fact, is a criminal violation of the law and in most places, it actually is a felony. Del Guidice: Now, let’s look at Michigan. There’s litigation happening there too. What’s going on in Michigan? Von Spakovsky: Well, in Michigan, it’s everything from disputing and challenging the fact that, for example, in Detroit, Trump and GOP campaign observers were not allowed. They were barred from being in the downtown center in Detroit, where they were counting ballots. That is a violation of state law. State law allowed them to be there. That brings up issues of, why would local officials violate state law, keep out observers? What were they doing there? There’s also been issues, apparently, about a glitch in the software used there that apparently switched votes between Canada. In fact, there was one particular race there in which the Democratic challenger was declared the winner, and then the Republican incumbent was told not too long later that, in fact, he had won the election. There’s concerns that that particular glitch in that software, which is widely used, may have caused other problems. Del Guidice: Let’s move on to Georgia and Arizona, what’s going on there? Can you just walk us through the different scenarios that we’re seeing unfold in Georgia and Arizona? Von Spakovsky: Part of the problem in Georgia is the Trump campaign produced witnesses saying that, for example, in one of the counties, their election officials were accepting, processing, and counting absentee ballots that were received past the state deadline. The deadline of Georgia is the closing of polls on Election Day. Their witnesses say that, in fact, they continued to accept absentee ballots after that time. There are also claims being made that, again, individuals who aren’t actually living in the state anymore are registered to vote and may have cast ballots. The margin there of difference between the two candidates is only about 11,000 votes, which is a tiny amount out of all of the ballots that were cast. By the way, it is within the percentage that allows for a recount to be requested by a candidate. I actually have no doubt the Trump campaign would probably ask for a recount. Del Guidice: You’ve gone over what’s happening in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona. Hans, how likely do you think it is that this election could be decided by the Supreme Court? Von Spakovsky: Well, let me tell you the problem that the Trump campaign faces. Look, no matter what the merit of the claims there being made, they’re under two problems, or they’re faced with two problems. One, a time crunch. It is enormously difficult to gather enough evidence to show that an election outcome was compromised in the short amount of time you have after a national election like this. Keep in mind that the states have to certify the outcomes in time for the electors, or the Electoral College, to meet in the beginning of December. It’s just very difficult to do that. Second, they face the problem that courts and judges, even when they are presented with substantial evidence of misconduct, or mistakes, or other issues that compromise the outcome of the election, courts are very reluctant to overturn elections. That makes all of this, frankly, an uphill battle for the Trump campaign to produce enough evidence in time to show that the results of the elections in a number of states were compromised. Del Guidice: We’ve heard a lot of people talk. I’ve had conversations, seen this on social media, as well as in person. The question I keep hearing, Hans, is that people are talking about how we have most of the results, if not all the results, for so many of these House and Senate races, but we still don’t have all the ballots counted for the presidential race. Why is this the case? Von Spakovsky: I frankly don’t understand that myself. I was shocked at the way certain jurisdictions, including Fulton County, Georgia—Fulton County is the Atlanta metropolitan area, it’s the largest county of the state—how they simply stopped counting in the evening of Election Day. I really don’t understand that. The reason I don’t is because I, actually, 20 years ago, was on the board of elections in Fulton County, Georgia, when I still lived down there. We never stopped counting the ballots. We kept going. We had reserved teams in place to take over when people got tired so that we could get the results of the election in as soon as possible. Part of the delays, apparently, are … what I think are unexplained and unwise decisions by election jurisdictions to not continually keep the count going. Del Guidice: Let’s talk a little bit about voting irregularities. On Friday, I had spoken with an election lawyer who had volunteered as representative of President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, who was working on an Election Day hotline. He had told me on the podcast about multiple instances of voting irregularities that he witnessed, including eyewitness testimonies and the county worker who said that there was tampering with the machine in Allegheny County before the day of the election, and also, multiple issues with poll watchers not being able to observe the ballot-counting process. Hans, I’m curious, what have you heard when it comes to voting irregularities in this election? Von Spakovsky: Oh, I’ve had people contact me with those kind of incidents and many more. All of those are very concerning. With electronic voting machines and the computer scanners that are used, the poll watchers are supposed to be there so that they can observe and see that the counters are set to zero when the polls open. If, in fact, poll observers saw those machines being manipulated, so they already had votes on them before the polls even opened, that’s clearly fraud that needs to be investigated. Putting folks so far back, putting the observers so far back [that] they can’t see what’s going on is also dangerous. … Remember there was a very large number of absentee ballots sent in, much larger than normal. What election officials are supposed to do is when they open up the outer envelope that has an inner envelope in it with an absentee ballot, is they’re supposed to check all the information the voter has provided. Make sure that the ballot is signed, make sure that the registration information supplied by the voter is correct. You have to do all of those things before you can consider whether the absentee ballot is a valid ballot that should be counted. I’m concerned that in places where they barred observers or put them so far back that they couldn’t see, … I wonder, did election officials just basically decide to waive all those state law requirements and simply count every absentee ballot coming in without checking to make sure it was a valid ballot? That’s the kind of thing that could compromise the outcome of the election. Del Guidice: Hans, let’s talk about ballot harvesting for a minute. Do you think that played a role in this election? Von Spakovsky: Yes, I have no doubt it did because of the extensions of time, for example, for ballots to be received in Pennsylvania after Election Day. Vote harvesting, for people who don’t understand it, some states, unfortunately, have legalized vote harvesting, which means that they allow any stranger to show up at your door and offer to return your ballot. That’s legal. The problem with that is it means that candidates and political consultants, party activists, campaign staffers, you’re putting something valuable, a ballot, into their hands. You’re hoping that maybe they’ll deliver it without altering it or changing it, or if they know that you consistently vote for the opposite party, that they’ll actually deliver it and not just throw it out. I’m very concerned that the ability of folks to engage in vote harvesting and trying to collect the ballots after Election Day from voters so that they can make sure those ballots get voted to change or whatever the preliminary results showed is just, again, a very unwise and dangerous policy. Del Guidice: Well, across the board right now, Hans, there are many voters who are concerned about fraud and how ballots are still being counted. Do you have concerns about this election’s results being illegitimate? Von Spakovsky: Well, I have concerns … Look, I can’t say that the election results are illegitimate, but what I can say is that there have been enough serious questions and serious concerns raised about the behavior of election officials in particular parts of the country, particularly Michigan, and Philadelphia, and even in Georgia, that I think that has to be investigated to see whether or not there was misbehavior, or fraud, or mistakes made by election officials that throw the outcome of the election in those particular areas in doubt. Del Guidice: Well, Hans, thank you so much for making time to walk us through these different instances of litigation. It’s great to have you with us on “The Daily Signal Podcast.” Von Spakovsky: Rachel, thanks for having me on. Tags: What You Need to Know, About Election Litigation, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Rachel del Guidice, Hans von Spakovsky , To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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Biden’s ‘Unity’ – Unites Leftists and Government Bureaucrats Against US
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 12:49 PM PST by Seton Motley: Big Media has disingenuously declared barely cognizant, utterly corrupt Democrat Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election. All of Joe Biden’s Homes, In Photos Never mind the pesky little Constitution and its process for actually electing a President. Which never, ever mentions the media. Never mind the amazing array of voting irregularities that have transpired. It’s really unusual how the only states, counties, cities and localities that have a problem counting votes each election – are always run by Democrats. It’s more than a little strange how every counting error – and nigh every post-Election Day vote – all always redound to the Democrats’ benefit. And there are nigh always just enough overtime votes – to snatch crooked Democrat victories from the jaws of actual defeat. Actual tech conceivably could. Our Leftist, lying, censorious Big Tech? Not so much. A Mess in Michigan: Glitch Turns Red County Blue, Plus 138,000 Sudden Votes for Biden Let’s stick with the pencils and paper ballots, shall we? But as a thought exercise, let us join in Big Media’s disingenuousness and pretend Biden has actually won the election. So as to analyze what the next four years will be like. Hint: Things will be exceedingly terrible. Predicting this does not require one to possess Nostradamus-level skills. Biden Victory Promises End to Tumultuous Four Years for Government Under Trump: “The former vice president has said he will lean on and empower the federal workforce.” One of President Trump’s very many signature successes? Dis-empowering the federal workforce. Deregulation Nation: President Trump Cuts Regulations At Record Rate Trump Cuts 22 Regs for Every New One A policy which contributed greatly to the nation’s HUGE betterment. Regulatory Reform Spurs Economic Growth During Trump’s First Term Five Economic Records Trump Set in 2019: “Lowest ever overall unemployment; lowest ever Black unemployment; lowest ever Hispanic unemployment; highest ever stocks; highest ever credit scores.” President Biden re-empowering the federal workforce – means many, MANY more regulations. Which means a great many exceedingly terrible things to come. Nine Radical Ideas in the Biden-Sanders ‘Unity’ Platform How’d they pare it down to just nine? All of them and more will INSANELY empower existing government bureaucrats – and many, MANY more to be hired. Biden’s “unity” platform partner? That would be Vermont Communist Senator Bernie Sanders. Not Socialist – Communist. He’s the guy who honeymooned in the Soviet Union. Mark Levin Describes How Biden-Sanders ‘Unity Platform’ Mimics 1936 Soviet Constitution: “Joseph Stalin’s constitution reads remarkably similar to key Biden document….” This is the only “unity” about which Democrats actually care. Joe Biden Promotes Unity, Turns to Business of Transition It has nothing to do with, you know, getting along with anyone in the country to the right of Karl Marx. Leftists make Enemies Lists of those people. The government-mandated atrocities Biden, Inc. has planned for us are nigh endless. Speaking as we did of tech and Big Tech…. Biden-Sanders Task Force Backs Net Neutrality, Municipal Broadband: “The Democratic ‘unity’ task force…wants to empower the Federal Communications Commission to police how broadband providers treat internet traffic.” There’s that word “empower” again. The task force’s proposals are awful for tech. But they are great – and great big gobs of government cronyism – for Big Tech: “Network Neutrality…would outlaw Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from charging Big Tech for the MASSIVE bandwidth they use. “Which means we would pay MUCH more for our Internet service – to subsidize the trillion-aire Big Tech companies. Net Neutrality is also a terrible and massive expansion of power for the bureaucrats Biden is looking to empower. As always, as government expands – the private sector contracts. More regulations mean less investment in the sector being regulated. Because duh. If I was making five dollars on my hundred dollar investment – and new regs reduce my five dollars to two dollars – I will find many better places to invest my money. And the sector in which I was investing will shrink. Oh: And Net Neutrality is a long-standing Communist wish-list item. So says an avowed Communist: “Net Neutrality’s intent: ‘(T)he ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control.’… “Net Neutrality (is) a part of (a) Communist (re)construction project: ‘There is no real answer but to remove brick by brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles.’” And “municipal” broadband – is government broadband. It is Biden and his Communist manifesto looking to “get rid of the media capitalists” – and “rebuild…brick by brick” with lots and LOTS of bureaucrats. By having bureaucrats pretend to be competent, capable Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Except bureaucrats are awful at pretending to be ISPs. Shocker, I know. “For decades, local governments have made promises of faster and cheaper broadband networks. Unfortunately, these municipal networks often don’t deliver or fail, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill. Explore the map to learn about the massive debt, waste and broken promises left behind by these failed government networks.” In short: Biden, Inc. will regulate into non-existence the fabulously successful private sector Internet. And replace it with government-only, DMV-Post Office Internet. In short: If Big Government, Big Media, Big Tech, Big Hollywood, Big University and government schools K-12 manage to steal this election for Biden? We are in a for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG and very terrible four years. And we will never again have an even remotely honest election. Tags: Seton Motley, Less Government, Biden’s ‘Unity’, Unites Leftists, Government Bureaucrats, Against USTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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This Is No Longer Just About Donald Trump
Posted: 10 Nov 2020 12:00 PM PST by Mario Murillo Ministries: You do not support Trump? At this point, that does not matter. Voter Fraud is so lethal to freedom that every Christian should be vehemently demanding that immediate action be taken to expose it and root it out. Voter fraud is terminal cancer to freedom. If we do not stop and confront this evil and the Democrats take control, no Republican will ever be elected President again. And that is only the beginning. This criminal enterprise that was decades in the making, is elaborate, widespread, and cold blooded. They created it to gain total control. They are after our system of government. They seek to overthrow your right to choose and your right to express your opinion and your faith. Christians do many things that do not matter and at the same time, ignore the one thing that does matter. It matters so much that I can hardly find the words. Christians should not be celebrating Biden because they feel they need to do “the Christian thing.” Quit saying we need to get over Trump’s loss and just move on. There is no moving on, if we fail to root out this heinous act. We need to learn from history. In 1864 a vast mail in ballot scheme threatened the reelection of Abraham Lincoln. “The honest electors of the state of New York have escaped an extensive and fearful fraud, a fraud that might have subverted the honest will of the people and left the state and the nation at the mercy of those who would make peace with rebellion and fellowship with traitors.” Hypocritically, the New York Times today cheers on the kind of fraud they once condemned back in 1864. People tamper with ballots for only one reason: to overthrow the government. That is why this is treason. Treason matters much more than petty theological disputes. Treason matters more than looking spiritual to the public. You should adamantly support the complete investigation of every instance of voter fraud. You should be in favor of taking all the time we need in order to decide who won this election. We need recounts. We need arrests. We need to eradicate this ‘enemy number one’ of freedom. As the Bible reminds us, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3) Tags: Mario Murillo, Ministries, No Longer Just About, Donald TrumpTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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REDSTATE
President Trump Must Never Concede This Election to Joe Biden
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AMERICAN SPECTATOR
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BIZPAC REVIEW
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NBC MORNING RUNDOWN
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Good morning, NBC News readers.
A shake-up at the Pentagon has further rattled an already uncertain presidential transition.
Here’s what we’re watching this Wednesday morning.
Trump loyalists given top Pentagon roles after officials resign, rattling Democrats Several loyalists to President Donald Trump were promoted to top roles in the Defense Department on Tuesday after officials resigned following the unceremonious ouster of Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
The reshuffling at the Pentagon has raised national security concerns among Democrats as President-elect Joe Biden begins his transition.
The officials being promoted to top policy and intelligence positions Tuesday are Trump loyalists who frequently appear on Fox News and have courted controversy in the past.
Retired Army Gen. Anthony Tata, who will become the Pentagon’s top policy adviser, falsely called former President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader” on Twitter in 2018.
Kash Patel will become the new defense secretary’s chief of staff. Patel, formerly a National Security Council official and top aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., is linked in media reports to efforts to discredit the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“It is hard to overstate just how dangerous high-level turnover at the Department of Defense is during a period of presidential transition, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., who leads the House Armed Services Committee, told Reuters.
Biden calls Trump’s refusal to concede ‘an embarrassment’ President-elect Biden on Tuesday called President Trump’s failure to concede the election “an embarrassment,” but said neither that nor the Trump administration’s stonewalling would stop him from getting to work.
“We are already beginning the transition,” Biden said.
But there are growing concerns that Biden is not getting all the intelligence reports he needs — including the President’s Daily Brief — to prepare for the White House.
Four Republican senators came out on Tuesday to say that the Biden team should have access to resources needed for an orderly transition. But the majority of Republicans in Congress have stayed mum about the Democrats’ victory.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo even said “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” from the State Department podium on Tuesday.
Pompeo also said it was “ridiculous” to suggest Trump’s refusal to concede defeat in last week’s election could undermine U.S. efforts to promote free elections and peaceful transfers of power overseas.
Trump has refused to concede defeat and made unproven allegations of voter fraud, even though state election officials from both parties have rejected the allegations.
But whether the GOP recognizes it or not, congratulatory tweets and phone calls from world leaders have been streaming in for Biden.
From Covid-19 to climate change and trade issues, check out the host of global issues waiting for the next president.
‘Two-way street’: Masks protect wearers and everyone else Wearing a mask not only protects others from the spread of Covid-19, but it protects the wearer as well, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday in its strongest messaging yet on face coverings.
The CDC also said that “adopting universal masking policies can help avert future lockdowns,” particularly when combined with a doubling down of mitigation strategies available to virtually every American: physical distancing, hand washing and ventilation.
The new guidance comes as U.S. hospitals are seeing a record number of Covid-19 patients as cases continue to climb.
Pandemic fatigue and rising anger over having to wear masks and practice social distancing, coupled with colder weather driving people indoors where the virus is more easily spread, have created a “perfect storm” for new infections, epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said Tuesday.
Osterholm, who is also on President-elect Joe Biden’s Covid-19 task force, warned on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Tuesday that we could hit 200,000 or more cases a day.
“We have to get prepared in our hospitals for that very issue,” he said.
Want to receive the Morning Rundown in your inbox? Sign up here.
Plus
THINK about it Legally Trump doesn’t have to concede — symbolically it’s vital he does anyway, chief operating officer of the Lawfare Institute and a former CIA officer David Priess writes in an opinion piece.
Live BETTER “Make small changes”: Couple reveals what it took to lose a combined 200 pounds.
Shopping
A day of remembrance Today is Veteran’s Day, a day to honor all those who have served in war and peace, both dead and alive.
One 99-year-old paratrooper is still doing his part to serve the country.
Jim “Pee Wee” Martin was among the first to land during the D-Day invasion and helped liberate France during World War II.
More recently, he recorded a public service announcement encouraging his fellow citizens to wear masks in the fight against coronavirus.
Asked what he thinks about his military service, he humbly replied: “I’m proud of what I did. And our people are proud of it. But we don’t go around and talk about it. It’s not necessary.”
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NBC FIRST READ
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From NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Carrie Dann and Melissa Holzberg
FIRST READ: As Trump rages over election results, coronavirus rages across the country
As President Trump refuses to recognize an election he clearly lost, and as he shakes up his national security team once again, guess which issue he’s NOT paying attention to with 10 weeks remaining in his presidency.
The coronavirus.
REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
For an eighth-straight day, U.S. coronavirus cases Tuesday soared above 100,000. Hospitalizations hit a record high yesterday. And another 1,000-plus Americans died from the virus just yesterday alone.
Since Election Day, in fact, the United States has seen 878,000 new coronavirus cases, 20,000 hospitalizations and nearly 8,000 deaths.
But the president hasn’t made public remarks since Thursday, when he claimed – without any evidence – that Democrats were trying to steal the election from him. (Today, the lone event on his schedule is departing the White House to observe Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery.)
In addition, with millions of Americans still out of work, the president and Congress have made no progress in providing additional relief to businesses and workers.
“Covid, Covid, Covid. By the way, on November 4th, you won’t hear about it anymore,” Trump said on the campaign trail in the final days of the election.
That prediction didn’t turn out to be correct.
And there’s no urgency coming from the White House.
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The verdict’s in: There was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election
“Election officials in dozens of states representing both political parties said that there was no evidence that fraud or other irregularities played a role in the outcome of the presidential race, amounting to a forceful rebuke of President Trump’s portrait of a fraudulent election,” the New York Times reports.
And the Washington Post adds that a Pennsylvania postal service worker Republicans had cited claiming fraud has told investigators that he fabricated the allegations.
White House officials admit – privately, of course – that the handwriting is on the wall.
“This is unsustainable,” a senior White House official tells NBC’s Peter Alexander, explaining that there’s no path to victory for Trump.
“It’s not wrong for Biden’s team to call it ‘theater.’”
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The uncalled states at publication time
Arizona: Biden is ahead by 12,813 votes, 49.4 percent to 49.0 percent (98% in)
Georgia: Biden is ahead by 14,149 votes, 49.5 percent to 49.2 percent (99% in)
North Carolina: Trump is ahead by 74,870 votes, 50.0 percent to 48.7 percent (98% in)
Alaska: Trump is ahead by 47,767 votes, 58.0 percent to 38.1 percent (75% in)
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Data Download: The numbers you need to know today
4,924,464: Joe Biden’s lead in the popular vote at the time of publication
10,334,475: The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, per the most recent data from NBC News and health officials. (That’s 137,765 more than yesterday morning.)
241,627: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far. (That’s 1,465 more than yesterday morning.)
159.48 million: The number of coronavirus tests that have been administered in the United States so far, according to researchers at The COVID Tracking Project.
61,964: The number of people currently hospitalized with coronavirus
55: The number of days until the January 5 Senate runoffs.
70: The number of days until Inauguration Day.
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Georgia Runoff Watch by Ben Kamisar
Republicans have both eyes on the Georgia runoffs, with the GOP’s control of the Senate the last bulwark against a Democratic House and White House. And it appears that the focus on Georgia is influencing a lot of the party’s behavior right now.
Yesterday’s Runoff Watch focused on the calls from the two GOP candidates there, Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue (Perdue is expected to face a runoff although NBC has not yet called his race), who are bashing the secretary of state and calling for him to resign.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported Tuesday that the two senators made that statement amid pressure from the president and top allies “lest he tweet a negative word about them and risk divorcing them from his base ahead of the consequential runoff.”
NBC’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reported Tuesday that Vice President Mike Pence will campaign in Georgia later this month. But as most Republican senators refuse to acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the GOP Senate Majority Whip, connected the party’s fate in the runoff with keeping Trump engaged enough to help.
“We need his voters. And he has a tremendous following out there,” he told Politico, before adding that Trump is “trying to get through the final stages of his election and determine the outcome there. But when that’s all said and done, however it comes out, we want him helping in Georgia.”
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“Political theatrics”
The Trump administration dug into their claims on Tuesday that Joe Biden isn’t the president-elect yet – with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo going as far to say that there will be a “smooth transition to our second Trump administration”.
But President-elect Biden said that the Trump administration’s refusal to accept the election results won’t interfere in his team’s planning.
“The ability for the administration in any way by failure to recognize us — our win — does not change the dynamic at all of what we are able to do,” Biden said. He added, “I am confident that the fact that they are not willing to acknowledge we won at this point is not of much consequence in our planning and what we are able to do between now and January 20.”
Biden’s senior legal counsel Bob Bauer called the ongoing lawsuits by the Trump campaign “noise, not really law, theatrics, not really lawsuits.” The Trump campaign is currently pursuing lawsuits in key battleground states to overturn certain vote counts or stop the inclusion of mail in ballots. Here’s Bauer on the possible effects of any recount: “Since 2000, in 31 statewide recounts, the average change in votes was 430, and the median change was 267. End of story. These margins cannot be overcome in recounts. So the recounts are yet another piece of the political theatrics.”
Bottom line: Team Biden is downplaying Trump’s refusal to recognize the election results.
For now.
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TWEET OF THE DAY: Expert advice
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ICYMI: What ELSE is happening in the world?
It looks like the Supreme Court is poised to uphold Obamacare.
Biden isn’t yet getting top-level intelligence reports because the White House hasn’t acknowledged his victory.
The president-elect is calling Trump’s failure to concede “an embarrassment.”
Behind the scenes, White House advisors aren’t optimistic about their legal challenges.
An alleged USPS postal worker in Pennsylvania whose claims were elevated by top Republicans is now recanting his claims of fraud.
Stacey Abrams is looking ahead to the January runoffs.
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