A majority of Americans say Justice Clarence Thomas should recuse himself in any cases dealing with the 2020 election because of his wife's involvement in trying to overturn the results of that election.
It shows that over a third of voters (35%) think the 2020 presidential results should be overturned. They have bought into Trump's "big lie", that he was defeated through massive fraud.
It's both sad and very troubling that this many U.S. voters have an inability to think critically, and are willing to believe this lie with no facts to back it up.
The charts above are from the University of Chicago / NORC Poll. The survey was done in June of this year of a representative sample of 1,070 adults nationwide.
It shows that about a quarter of the population believes that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and about 8% say violence would be justified to return him to the White House.
Yesterday, The Washington Post printed a timeline of Donald Trump's attempted coup -- his effort to subvert the legitimate results of the 2020 election and stay in office.
For those of you who cannot afford a subscription (especially those on a fixed income), here is that timeline:
Nov. 13: Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a Trump ally, calls Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and asks him whether he has the power to toss out all mail ballots in certain counties, according to Raffensperger. Raffensperger later calls it an attempt to exclude legally cast ballots. “It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,” Raffensperger recalled.
Nov. 17: Trump calls the two Republican canvassers in Detroit-based Wayne County, Mich., shortly before they briefly rescind their votes to certify the election results.
Nov. 19: Trump invites top Republican legislators from Michigan to meet with him at the White House, prompting them to state that they haven’t seen anything to call into question their state’s election results.
Dec. 1: Attorney General William P. Barr says in an interview that he has “not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”
Barr later attends a previously scheduled meeting with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and is called to meet with Trump as well. Barr reiterates what he said in the interview, adding, according to a new book by The Washington Post’s Carol D. Leonnig and Philip Rucker: “We’ve looked into these things, and they’re nonsense.”
Early December: Trump calls the speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Bryan Cutler (R), twice to talk about overturning that state’s results. Cutler informs Trump that the state legislature has no power to do so, according to an aide.
Dec. 5: Trump calls Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) to pressure him to get the legislature to overturn the state’s election results.
Dec. 14: The electoral college finalizes its votes, paving the way for Biden’s election and sending them to Congress.
Separately, Trump announces Barr will soon step down as attorney general, putting Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen in line to replace him.
Dec. 15: Trump hosts Rosen in the Oval Office and reportedly tells him he wants the Justice Department to file legal briefs supporting Trump allies’ election lawsuits. Trump also urges Rosen to appoint special counsels to investigate his baseless claims, including ones involving voting-machine company Dominion. Rosen refuses and reiterates what Barr said about the lack of evidence for such steps.
In addition, Trump, who had recently become aware of Vice President Mike Pence’s generally ceremonial role in presiding over Congress formalizing the electoral college vote, decides Pence is his best chance to overturn the election. He tells allies to pressure Pence, and the topic will come up frequently in their conversations over the following three weeks.
Dec. 18: Trump and top aides meet with conspiracy-theorist supporters, including Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell, who discuss a number of extreme measures to overturn the election results, including instituting martial law and seizing voting machines.
Dec. 22: Meadows visits Cobb County, Ga., where the Georgia secretary of state’s office later says it prevented him from entering a room where signature audits were being conducted. During the visit, Meadows meets with Georgia’s lead elections investigator, Frances Watson.
Dec. 23: Trump calls Watson and urges her to search hard for election fraud. “When the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised,” Trump says in a recording of the call, adding, “You have the most important job in the country right now.” Trump says he called at Meadows’s request. Watson later says she was “shocked” the president was calling her but didn’t feel pressured.
Separately, Barr departs as attorney general, elevating Rosen to acting attorney general.
Dec. 27: Trump calls Rosen and top Justice Department officials. According to Donoghue’s notes, Rosen pushes back on Trump’s entreaties, saying the department “can’t + won’t snap its fingers + change the outcome of the election.” Trump responds that the department should “just say the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R[epublican] Congressmen,” according to Donoghue’s notes.
In the meeting, Trump also seems to threaten to replace Justice Department leaders. He says, per Donoghue’s notes: “People tell me [the acting head of the department’s civil division] Jeff Clarke is great, I should put him in. People want me to replace DOJ leadership.”
Dec. 28: Clark circulates a draft letter in which the Justice Department would urge Georgia’s legislature to hold a special session based on supposed “irregularities” in the vote. The letter includes what amounts to a road map for Georgia to overturn its election results, suggesting the legislature might ultimately choose a new slate of electors — i.e., for Trump.
Donoghue rejects the idea out of hand, noting in his emailed response that the supposed irregularities the department was investigating “are of such a small scale that they simply would not impact the outcome of the Presidential Election.” He adds, “There is no chance that I would sign this letter or anything remotely like this” and says sending the letter is “not even within the realm of possibility.”
Late December: Rosen, who has discovered Clark is engaging in unauthorized conversations with Trump, speaks with him about the matter, according to Rosen’s closed-door testimony as reported by the New York Times. Clark says he will stop meeting with Trump.
Dec. 29: Trump aide Molly Michael emails Rosen, Donoghue and another Justice Department official a draft of a potential Supreme Court filing that would involved the Justice Department challenging the election results in six key states. Michael says Trump asked her to send the draft.
Separately, Meadows meets with Justice Department officials and mentions a baseless theory that a company in Italy combined with the CIA to rig the election.
Dec. 30: Meadows emails Rosen twice about theories about the election, including a translated letter from an Italian man with similar accusations involving “advanced military encryption capabilities.”
Separately, Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson asks Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs in a phone call whether there is anything the White House could do to show appreciation for those conducting the state’s audit, according to Reuters.
Dec. 31: Pence asks a judge to reject a lawsuit that aimed to expand his power to help overturn the election. Trump becomes livid.
Jan. 1: Meadows emails Rosen several times with theories about the election.
He forwards Rosen a YouTube video of a former intelligence official who also promoted the idea that the election was stolen using satellites in Italy. Rosen shares the email with Donoghue, who responds, “Pure insanity.” Rosen states that he has learned the man behind the video, Brad Johnson, was working with Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani but that he had declined a requested meeting with Johnson.
Shortly after the above email, Meadows again emails Rosen about “signature matching anomalies in Fulton county, Ga.,” and suggests Rosen have Clark, specifically, look into it. Rosen tells Donoghue of the email: “Can you believe this? I am not going to respond to the message below.” Donoghue responds, apparently referring to the Italian-satellites theory, “At least it’s better than the last one, but that doesn’t say much.”
Another theory Meadows promotes involves New Mexico, which went for Biden by more than 10 points.
Jan. 2: Trump speaks with Georgia’s Raffensperger and urges him to find enough votes to call Biden’s victory there into question. “All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump says in the recorded call. Biden won Georgia by 11,779 votes. Trump adds: “So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.”
Jan. 3: Trump, who had entertained a plan to oust Rosen as acting attorney general and install Clark, abandons the idea after a meeting with Justice Department officials who warned of mass, high-profile resignations if Trump pursued the scheme.
Late that night, after The Post broke news of the Raffensperger call, the White House leaves a voice mail stating that Trump would like to speak with Clint Hickman, the then-chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in Arizona. Hickman declines to return the call, believing he would be pressured, as Raffensperger was.
Jan. 4: Byung J. “BJay” Pak, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, abruptly resigns after finding himself in Trump’s crosshairs. Trump had complained that Pak wasn’t investigating voter fraud aggressively enough, leading Donoghue to privately suggest that Pak resign. Trump bypasses Pak’s top deputy, who would normally succeed Pak, appointing instead the U.S. attorney for Georgia’s Southern District, Bobby L. Christine. (Christine would later tell staff members that “there’s just nothing to” the claims of fraud in the area.)
Jan. 5: Trump angrily vents to Pence and aides about Pence’s refusal to toe his line on rejecting electors. He also takes the effort public, tweeting, “The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.”
Jan. 6: Trump speaks with Pence multiple times in the morning and presses his case on overturning the election. Pence continues to refuse, eventually releasing a statement saying he cannot do what he’s being asked to do.
In the early afternoon, the U.S. Capitol is overrun by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the election, shortly after speeches by Trump, Giuliani and other promoters of baseless claims that the election was stolen.
During the riot — and as Congress still hadn’t finished its business — Trump attacks Pence in a tweet. “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution,” Trump says. The tweet came shortly after Pence was evacuated amid the unrest — and apparently after Trump spoke with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) about the severity of the situation. Rioters were later revealed to have chanted, “Hang Mike Pence.”
The chart above is from the Pew Research Center. Between August 31st and November 8th of 2020, they examined 12,832 sermons in christian churches. It turns out that 67% of those sermons mentioned the 2020 election at least one time. About 20% of them just encouraged voting, but 46% discussed issues, candidates, or parties (which is a violation of the law making those churches tax-free)..
The chart above reflects the results of the Politico / Morning Consult Poll -- done between June 11th and 13th of a national sample of 1,994 registered voters, with a 2 point margin of error.
A ridiculous audit of election results is taking place in Arizona, and several other states with Republican legislatures are considering doing the same thing. Donald Trump still thinks that these audits will return him to office -- possibly as soon as August.
I can understand Trump thinking that. He's a raging narcissist, who cannot accept defeat in anything. But Trump's psychological problem seems to infected millions of other Americans (particularly Republicans). Note that a majority of Republicans (51%) think these specious audits could actually overturn the results of the 2020 election, and return Trump to office.
It's not going to happen, and it's sad that so many Republicans are divorced from reality.
It shows Republicans are still refusing to accept the truth about the 2020 election. About 56% said the election was tainted by illegal voting or election rigging. And an incredible 53% say Donald Trump is the president!
About 70% of Republicans continue to say Joe Biden did not legitimately win the presidential election, and 50% of them believe solid evidence exists to prove that.
More than two-thirds of all U.S. citizens of the voting age population participated in the 2020 presidential election, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report, and 69% of those cast ballots by mail or early in-person voting — methods that Republicans in some states are curtailing.
That’s an explosion in the use of mail and early voting compared to four years earlier, when just 40% of voters cast ballots that way. The change was in part a result of the pandemic, which prompted health officials to urge voters to stay away from crowded in-person polling places. . . .
The Census Bureau survey found turnout rose the most among Latinos, up 6.1 percentage points, and white voters, who saw a 5.6 percentage point increase from 2016. Black voters saw the smallest increase, with their turnout rate rising 3.2 percentage points over four years ago.
While 63% of African Americans voted, that rate did not match the record high of 65% that cast ballots in 2008, when the nation’s first Black president, Barack Obama, was first elected. In 2020, 71% of white citizens and 59% of Latino citizens voted, the Census Bureau found.
White people made up 71% of the people who voted, a 2% drop from four years earlier. Still, because white voters are the demographic with the highest rate of turnout, they had disproportionate power in the election — they are only 67% of U.S. citizens 18 and older, according to the Census. . . .
The 2020 election featured the largest increase in voting between two presidential elections, with 17 million more people voting on whether to reelect Trump than the number who voted whether to make him president in 2016.
And because of that belief, Republican legislatures in many states are trying to pass a whole range of laws to suppress voting in the future -- including making it harder to vote by mail.
But their belief about mail-in voting (like their belief in widespread voter fraud) has no basis in fact.
Several scholars did a study and produced a report for the Stanford University Institute for Economic Policy Research. They found that mail-in voting did not help or hurt either of the two parties in the 2020 election. Here is the summary of that report:
The 2020 U.S. election saw high turnout, a huge increase in absentee voting, and brought unified Democratic control at the federal level — yet, contrary to conventional wisdom, these facts do not imply that vote-by-mail increased turnout or had partisan effects. Using nationwide data, we find that states newly implementing no-excuse absentee voting for 2020 did not see larger increases in turnout than states that did not. Focusing on a natural experiment in Texas, we find that 65-year-olds turned out at nearly the same rate as 64-year-olds, even though 65-year-olds voted absentee at much higher rates than 64-year-olds because they could do so without having to provide an excuse. Being old enough to vote no-excuse absentee did not substantially increase Democratic turnout relative to Republican turnout, as the increase in Democratic absentee voting was offset by decreases in Democratic in person voting. Together, the results suggest that no-excuse absentee voting mobilized relatively few voters and had at most a muted partisan effect despite the historic pandemic. Voter interest appears to be far more important in driving turnout.
And very few Republican officials have admitted publicly that Biden won the election legitimately.
But whether they admit it or not, they know the truth. Tony Fabrizio, Trump's own election pollster, has issued a post-mortem report on why Trump lost the election.
Here's a part of that story from Politico.com:
Former President Donald Trump has blamed the election results on unfounded claims of fraud and malfeasance. But at the top levels of his campaign, a detailed autopsy report that circulated among his political aides paints a far different — and more critical — portrait of what led to his defeat.
The post-mortem, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO, says the former president suffered from voter perception that he wasn’t honest or trustworthy and that he was crushed by disapproval of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. And while Trump spread baseless accusations of ballot-stuffing in heavily Black cities, the report notes that he was done in by hemorrhaging support from white voters.
The 27-page report, which was written by Trump chief pollster Tony Fabrizio, shows how Trump advisers were privately reckoning with his loss even as the former president and many of his supporters engaged in a conspiracy theory-fueled effort to overturn the election. The autopsy was completed in December 2020 and distributed to Trump’s top political advisers just before President Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration. . . .
The findings are based on an analysis of exit polling in 10 states. Five of them — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — are states that Trump lost after winning them in 2016. The other five — Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas — are states that Trump won in both elections.
The report zeroes in on an array of demographics where Trump suffered decisive reversals in 2020, including among white seniors, the same group that helped to propel him to the White House. The autopsy says that Trump saw the “greatest erosion with white voters, particularly white men,” and that he “lost ground with almost every age group.” In the five states that flipped to Biden, Trump’s biggest drop-off was among voters aged 18-29 and 65 and older.
Suburbanites — who bolted from Trump after 2016 — also played a major role. The report says that the former president suffered a “double-digit erosion” with “White College educated voters across the board.” . . .
Trump’s personal behavior, the autopsy makes clear, contributed to his defeat. “Biden had a clear edge over POTUS on being seen as honest & trustworthy,” Fabrizio writes.
Trump’s response to the pandemic was also critical. The autopsy says that coronavirus registered as the top issue among voters, and that Biden won those voters by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. A majority registered disapproval of Trump’s handling of the virus.
He won only one case -- and it didn't change a single vote. It only allowed GOP election watchers to stand closer to those counting the votes.
Only one of those cases made it to the Supreme Court -- Rep. Gohmert's case demanding the election results in four other states be overturned. The Supreme Court dismissed that case without even hearing any arguments. They refused to hear the appeals from other cases.
But Trump is nothing if not obstinate. He has filed a new batch of cases, which have been rejected in lower courts. Now he is trying to appeal these to the Supreme Court, and he has asked the Court to "fast-track" those appeals.
On Monday, the Supreme Court (without comment or dissent) refused to fast-track any of those appeals.
That means they will not hear any of the cases before Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20th. After that date it is likely the cases will be moot, as the Court is unlikely to hear them at all. This Court has made it clear they are not going to interfere in the presidential election.
About the only thing he has not done is to use the military to stay in power (although Michael Flynn urged him to do that). Will he take that final step?
I don't think our military would violate the Constitution by helping Trump stay in power, but it's still a scary thought.
Evidently it's also worrying to the ten living former Secretaries of Defense. The former Secretaries (Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Mark Esper, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, James Mattis, Leon Panetta, William Perry, and Donald Rumsfeld) have penned an open letter urging the military to stay out of the election.
Here is what those ten wrote in The Washington Post:
As former secretaries of defense, we hold a common view of the solemn obligations of the U.S. armed forces and the Defense Department. Each of us swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We did not swear it to an individual or a party.
American elections and the peaceful transfers of power that result are hallmarks of our democracy. With one singular and tragic exception that cost the lives of more Americans than all of our other wars combined, the United States has had an unbroken record of such transitions since 1789, including in times of partisan strife, war, epidemics and economic depression. This year should be no exception.
Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.
As senior Defense Department leaders have noted, “there’s no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of a U.S. election.” Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory. Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.
Transitions, which all of us have experienced, are a crucial part of the successful transfer of power. They often occur at times of international uncertainty about U.S. national security policy and posture. They can be a moment when the nation is vulnerable to actions by adversaries seeking to take advantage of the situation.
Given these factors, particularly at a time when U.S. forces are engaged in active operations around the world, it is all the more imperative that the transition at the Defense Department be carried out fully, cooperatively and transparently. Acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller and his subordinates — political appointees, officers and civil servants — are each bound by oath, law and precedent to facilitate the entry into office of the incoming administration, and to do so wholeheartedly. They must also refrain from any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team.
We call upon them, in the strongest terms, to do as so many generations of Americans have done before them. This final action is in keeping with the highest traditions and professionalism of the U.S. armed forces, and the history of democratic transition in our great country.
And they made a killing off of this election. Those who bet on Biden to win made money, but that didn't hurt the bookies at all. That's because most of the bets came from Trump supporters, who were sure he would win.
Even crazier, a lot of those bets were made after it was known that Biden had won (but certification of the votes had yet to be done). Trump supporters believed he had actually won, and that the courts would overturn the election results.
Some bookies said it was like taking candy from a baby, and their profits were enormous.
You can read more about this here.
His constant lies and refusal to concede is believed by many of his far right-wing supporters, and some of them are resorting to violence and threats. Trump has done nothing to stop that. It seems that he wants the violence to happen to soothe his hurt feelings over losing.
The Republican in charge of voting in Georgia has received death threats. The governor of Michigan was the victim in a plot to kidnap and kill her. And now an ex-cop in Houston has stopped a truck at gun point and threatened the driver -- who he believed was transporting hundreds of thousands of fake ballots. It was not true.
Here is how ABC-13 News in Houston covered this crazy story:
A former Houston Police Department Captain was arrested and charged for running a man off the road and pointing a gun at his head in an attempt to prove claims of a massive voter fraud scheme in Harris County, according to a news release from the Harris County's DA's office.
Mark Anthony Aguirre, 63, was arrested by Houston police Tuesday and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
"He crossed the line from dirty politics to commission of a violent crime, and we are lucky no one was killed," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. "His alleged investigation was backward from the start - first alleging a crime had occurred and then trying to prove it happened."
According to court documents, Aguirre told police that he was part of a group of private citizens called the "Liberty Center," who were conducting a civilian investigation into the alleged ballot scheme.
According to Aguirre, he had been conducting surveillance for four days on a man who was allegedly the mastermind of a giant voter fraud scheme. Aguirre told authorities the man was hiding 750,000 fraudulent ballots in a truck he was driving.
Instead, the victim turned out to be an innocent air conditioner repairman, court documents said.
Aguirre ran his SUV into the back of the truck to get the technician to stop and get out, according to court documents.
When the technician got out of the truck, Aguirre pointed a handgun at the technician, forced him to the ground and put his knee on the man's back until police came, the court document said.
Aguirre allegedly directed police to a parking lot nearby where another suspect, who has not been identified, took the truck.
According to court documents, there were no ballots in the truck. The truck was filled with air conditioning parts and tools. . . .
Aguirre allegedly never told police that he had been paid a total of $266,400 by the Houston-based Liberty Center for God and Country, with $211,400 of that amount being deposited into his account the day after the incident. . . .
The case was investigated by HPD, and is being prosecuted by the Public Corruption Division of the Harris County District Attorney's Office.
Aguirre's claims of election fraud were found to be baseless after thorough investigation by HPD and by the Harris County Precinct 1, as part of the Harris County Election Security Task Force.
He is currently in jail on a $30,000 bond.
