Whaddya mean “too bad”. Think of all the harm he could do with a good legal team.
And, imagine if you tried to use a rumor against Trump? As we know, his hypocrisy is sublime. If you were to bring up an unfavorable rumor*, he’d immediately cut you off: “That’s nasty. That’s a nasty question. You are not a journalist.”
And yet, he doesn’t just want you to listen to (by his own words) a “rumor”. He wants you to act on it. And subvert an entire election.
And a herd of gop congresspeople and millions of Republican citizens thinks, yeah, that makes sense. It’s cloud cuckoo for cocoa puffs land.
*And, of course, rumors aren’t even necessary, because there are so many outright facts to confront him with. (Which are equally portrayed as “nasty”.)
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In the 1960 presidential election between Kennedy and Nixon, Hawaii ended up submitting two competing slates of electoral votes, both certified by the Governor, because of a court-ordered recount of the popular vote: the slate for Nixon was certified before the recount was completed, that for Kennedy afterwards.
The Joint Session of Congress tasked with counting electoral votes, and deciding between the competing slates, was presided over by … Vice President Richard Nixon.
He counted the votes for Kennedy and discarded those for himself.
Richard. Nixon.
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1.) I still don’t miss him.
2.) He was young enough at the time to wait for the next election (or, as it turned out, the one after that) and use the time to improve his position.
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Does anyone?
True. Also Hawaii’s three votes weren’t going to change the result anyway.
But nonetheless, it does indicate that America’s previous go-to standard for presidential sleazeballery still had far more political awareness and self-restraint, if not actual morals, than DJT.
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Nixon was scum in a hundred different ways. But he still believed in carrying out his duties as President and in protecting the United States and its system of government. He would have had Trump shot.
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Roger Stone?
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Yes indeed, thank you for catching that.
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I find myself very worried about how small the number of people standing between us and the end of democracy* It’s scary. Trump’s rabid following and way they are being coddled is like something that you read about in history books and think “That could never happen these days.”
One thing that Trump has trouble wrapping his head around is that not everybody is as corrupt as he is. He keeps trying to find the lever that will push people into the fealty he wants from them. He has been a sleazy lying salesman for so long that he doesn’t really believe in reality per se anymore. He only believes his own hype. It’s the “power of positive thinking” writ large.|
*Let’s not have that particular argument again. Pedantry about democracy vs republic don’t really affect the point, here.
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That flying cow scene will never get old. Might have been even punnier if it was a pig.
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I just heard a good quote on the official GOP position:
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Mmm, tasty chiasmus.
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I think the goal here is that if he can show Georgia was “rigged”, that makes the others an easier sell. “See? Georgia found fraud! Every other Biden vote is suspect! We need to stop the process until we have a do-over election.” Or something… the legal challenges haven’t been very coherent.
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Believing it is or isn’t a crime isn’t the issue. It’s more about knowledge and motive. Don’t take this as gospel, but just an illustration of what such a defense entails.
He’s asking for thousands of votes to be found. Is it because he believes there are actually missing votes to be found, or does he know they don’t exist and is asking for them to be found? The law treats those as very different. A guilty hand and a guilty mind may both be required.
You and I believe he knows they don’t exist. Proving it beyond a reasonable doubt would be very hard without other evidence (not impossible). It’s possible that he’s stupid/misinformed/delusional (of which plenty of evidence exists).
It’s not a universal defense. It has to make some sort of possible sense. For example, shoving someone would be assault. Shoving someone so they don’t get hit by a car zooming past would be a good deed. Shoving someone so they don’t get hit by a car that slams on its brakes (and never would have it) is not assault if you believed you were trying to save them (or assault if you were just shoving). Shoving someone so they don’t get hit by a car when there is no car might be assault or not depending on what is going on in the shover’s head.
Now try all those scenarios with a gunshot instead of a shove. Everything changes.
The way a statute is written will also matter. If it’s written “don’t encourage false vote counts”, the believe defense can be trotted out. If it’s written “don’t contact election officials”, it won’t work.
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“I just want to find 11,780 votes”:
I dunno, man. I find votes for you, I gotta find votes for the two senators running, and then there are a bunch of other state elections. You can see how this would be a huge hassle.
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I truly believe your car belongs to me so driving away with it isn’t a crime! Naw, I’m just kidding.
The thing is Trump didn’t ask for an investigation into any of the items that he laid out as questionable.
Trump asked, repeatedly, for Raffensperger to “find” 11k votes, just enough to put him on top. Also, Trump threatened Raffensperger with criminal action if he doesn’t agree to cooperate. Even if Trump wholeheartedly believed whatever, that threat is a crime.
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I’ve seen a few posts here about not feeling like writing or calling Congress critters is worth it, but wanted to come say: if you have the time, please do it.
We have a phone script up on the wall with phone numbers for all currently sitting members. (Similar to the script included here, but sub out whatever issue for the Bill they mention, and whatever action you advocate for the vote they mention).
It takes mere moments to do and gets your voice on the record. Yes, they should be upholding the law regardless, but they can’t read our minds and this is an easy way to tell them this is a priority.
Sometimes we get on stretches where we call every day.
As an aside, in the past 4 years, none of our calls to Collins have been answered. But no matter, the aides have to listen and tally these things.
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The second Biden is inaugurated, Mass-Murdering Traitor Trump needs to be hauled off to the nearest jail. Let the various jurisdictions of his crimes fight about who gets to put him on trial first.
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I have a memory of my parents taking me to see Rich Little when I was like 4 or 5. I fidgeted and became that distraction that even Mr Little got annoyed with. I had to pee a lot and was likely bored.
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What Trump the Unfit did was harass and bully Raffensperger, in an attempt to break the law and wrongly overturn the will of the people of Georgia.
Trump the Unfit should be prosecuted and imprisoned for crimes against the American people. If Republicans refuse to prosecute him, they will have fully embraced neo-fascism and their degraded worldview over the nation and over democracy.
