Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Fact-Checking the Rightwing Loonisphere's Elections Claims


Nearly two weeks after the election and well after most major news networks have called it for Joe Biden, Trump-world still denies their cult-leader has lost the election. Daily, Trump tweets "I WON," his supporters, who comprised 47% of those voting on November 4th, protest in the streets declaring themselves "the majority," and judges continue to throw out Trump lawsuits on the basis of a complete and total lack of evidence for the allegations contained therein.

In Philadelphia, for instance, a Trump suit alleging that Republican ballot-counting observers had been "barred" from the counting room led to this exchange:

JUDGE:  "Are your observers in the counting room?"

TRUMP LAWYER: "There's a non-zero number of people in the room."

JUDGE: "I am asking you as a member of the bar of this court:  are people representing the plaintiffs in the room?"

TRUMP LAWYER:  "Yes."

In another lawsuit, similar direct questioning of Trump lawyers by judges elicited similar responses--

JUDGE:  "...you don’t claim that any electors or the Board of the County were guilty of fraud, correct? That’s correct?"

TRUMP LAWYER:  "Your Honor, accusing people of fraud is a pretty big step. And it is rare that I call somebody a liar, and I am not calling the Board of the [Democratic National Committee] or anybody else involved in this a liar. Everybody is coming to this with good faith. The DNC is coming with good faith. We’re all just trying to get an election done. We think these were a mistake, but we think they are a fatal mistake, and these ballots ought not be counted."

JUDGE:  "I understand. I am asking you a specific question, and I am looking for a specific answer. Are you claiming that there is any fraud in connection with these 592 disputed ballots?"

TRUMP LAWYER:  "To my knowledge at present, no."

JUDGE:  "Are you claiming that there is any undue or improper influence upon the elector with respect to these 592 ballots?"

TRUMP LAWYER:  "To my knowledge at present, no."

This scene has played out over and over and over again in courtrooms as Trump struggles to find some avenue by which to overturn the apparent will of the people.  And this should come as no surprise, at all.  After all, Trump himself had repeatedly signaled his intent to retain power for as long as he likes:

"[President Xi Jinping is] now president for life... and look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot someday." --March 2018, Mar-a-Lago speech to donors

"Should we go back to 16 years? Should we do that? Congressman, can we do that?" April 2018 meeting with congressional Republicans

"[I will] ultimately leave office in six years, or maybe 10 or 14..."--July 2019 tweet

"maybe if we really like it a lot and if things keep going like they're going, we'll go and we'll do what we have to do. We'll do a three and a four and a five [terms in office]"--May 2020 campaign rally

"at the end of 6 years, after America has been made GREAT again and I leave the beautiful White House (do you think the people would demand that I stay longer? KEEP AMERICA GREAT)..."--June 2020 tweet (reiterating the intent to add 2 years to his "last term")

"Well, we have to go through the six years or whatever it may be when — when you know, would I like to get a ride out of some of your compatriots, say, go through the six, 10, 14, maybe 18 years, whatever it may be."--June 2020 interview with The Hill

His intent has been so clear, in fact, that publications were speculating about his eventual refusal to leave office long before this month's refusal to concede an election he has obviously and convincingly lost.

These are deeply anti-American sentiments and poisonous to the proper functioning of a representative democracy, but they have also become standard fare for the radical right which has overtaken and consumed the center of the Republican Party.

Trump's supporters continue to pretend that Trump is fighting to preserve American democracy.  Trump lawyer Leigh Dundas has explicitly stated as much, neatly sidestepping the facts of Republican attempts at pre-election vote suppression, Trump's crippling of the US postal service to hamper mail-in voting during this global pandemic, his admonition to his supporters to literally "vote twice," his constant denigration of the electoral system as rife with fraud that his own administration investigated and found lacking, the efforts of his proxies to threaten voters for exercising the franchise, or the attempts by his congressional allies such as Lindsey Graham to talk Georgia Republican Secretary of State into "throwing out" thousands of legitimate ballots which were cast for Biden.  Nothing says "love of democracy" like serial attempts to subvert it in the name of perpetual power.

Say what you like-- for 79 million Americans the choice was clear that leaving the government in the hands of a racist con-man who snuggles up to dictators while daily assaulting the free press, who golfs while hundreds of thousands of Americans die as a result of his feckless incompetence in handling a once-in-a-lifetime health crisis, whose main concern seems to be personal enrichment at taxpayer expense was simply untenable.  And for the 72 million for whom those qualities were not a disqualification of the man, the majority of their view of reality seems to be coming directly from QAnon and a concerted propaganda effort coming from the radical right.

But in the interests of truthfulness and from a commitment to the recognition of reality, one has to question the veracity of Republican claims of fraud in all their myriad forms.  To that end, it is useful to gather them in one location and provide the refutation.

Postscript

I'll continue to append interesting takes on the Coup Clutz Clan's legal strategies and general hijinks as I run across them.
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