https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/03/politics/kevin-mccarthy-republican-push-house/index.html

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By Manu Raju, CNN Senior Congressional 

(CNN)The top House Republican has quietly blessed an effort by conservative lawmakers to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory when a joint session of Congress meets later this week, even as other top congressional Republicans are raising alarms that the push could cause lasting damage to a pillar of democracy.The conservatives said on Sunday that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has been supportive of their plans, a stark contrast from the position of many prominent Republicans — including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and the former House speaker, Paul Ryan — who have publicly and privately raised major concerns about an effort that is doomed to fail but is bound to sow distrust over the sanctity of US elections.The internecine fight, which will play out on Wednesday when a joint session of Congress meets to affirm Biden’s Electoral College win, has turned into a loyalty test of sorts to President Donald Trump who has launched an unprecedented campaign to subvert the will of voters by making unsubstantiated claims of a rigged election that have been rejected by courts across the country.McCarthy, who has yet to acknowledge Biden’s victory and has said little publicly about the challenge, has joined two GOP conference calls in recent days during which the January 6 battle has been a subject of debate, including one on Saturday night and another on New Year’s Day.Content by Blue ApronThis meal kit is like having your own personal chefMiss restaurant-quality menus? Blue Apron is like having a sous chef in your own kitchen.On the New Year’s Day call, some members pressed McCarthy to specify his position, according to a person with knowledge of the call.On Sunday, several of those conservatives said there’s little doubt where McCarthy stands.close dialog

Sign up for CNN What Matters NewsletterEvery day we summarize What Matters and deliver it straight to your inbox.Sign Me UpNo ThanksBy subscribing you agree to ourprivacy policy.“Kevin McCarthy’s part of the team,” said Rep. Mo Brooks, Republican from Alabama who is leading the charge, adding that the California Republican has “told that to the President of the United States” as well as Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan.Asked if McCarthy had discouraged the effort at all, Jordan told CNN on Sunday: “Kevin’s been great. Kevin’s been fine. Kevin’s been great on this whole process.”Asked for comment, a McCarthy spokesman referred a reporter to comments the GOP leader made Saturday night on Fox News where he welcomed an audit into the election results, something that 11 GOP senators called for on Saturday before agreeing on whether to vote to affirm Biden’s win.

Republican efforts to undermine Biden victory expose growing anti-democratic streak“If you want to unite this nation, you start with having integrity in your election,” McCarthy said. “There are questions out there. … What’s wrong with bringing the information back so people have all the information to make those decisions?”Yet with GOP court challenges failing across the country, states certifying the results and the Electoral College voting to make Biden’s win official, some of McCarthy’s deputies and many Senate Republicans say joining Trump to mount a baseless campaign against the election will only hurt faith in democracy.On the New Year’s Day call, Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, made clear her distaste for the push, multiple sources told CNN.Cheney told House Republicans that voting on the election is more consequential than any other vote — including votes to authorize war, according to two sources. She also argued that nothing in the Constitution supports the notion that Congress can substitute its views for voters in those states selecting the next President.In a 21-page memo sent to Republicans on Sunday, Cheney argued that objecting to the Electoral College count is unconstitutional and sets an “exceptionally dangerous precedent.””As you will see, there is substantial reason for concern about the precedent Congressional objections will set here. By objecting to electoral slates, members are unavoidably asserting that Congress has the authority to overturn elections and overrule state and federal courts,” she wrote. “Such objections set an exceptionally dangerous precedent, threatening to steal states’ explicit constitutional responsibility for choosing the President and bestowing it instead on Congress. This is directly at odds with the Constitution’s clear text and our core beliefs as Republicans.”Also on Sunday, a group of seven other House Republicans said in a joint statement that they also do not support their colleagues objecting to the certification of Electoral College votes this week because it is the responsibility of the states to choose electors, not Congress. They did not dismiss allegations of voter fraud, but pointed to “the narrow role” Congress has in the presidential election process.”We must respect the states’ authority here. Though doing so may frustrate our immediate political objectives, we have sworn an oath to promote the Constitution above our policy goals. We must count the electoral votes submitted by the states,” wrote the group, which included Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, Ken Buck of Colorado, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, Tom McClintock of California and Chip Roy of Texas and Rep.-elect Nancy Mace of South Carolina.While the effort is certain to fail, it’s bound to put Republicans in a difficult spot. If one senator joins with a House member to object to a state’s electoral count, each chamber must debate the merits of the objection for up to two hours before casting a vote on whether to affirm the objection. The objections are certain to fail in both chambers, even though they could win the backing of a majority of House Republicans.

Nearly a dozen Republican senators announce plans to vote against counting electoral votesCheney’s argument has been echoed by a number of top Republicans, including McConnell and his deputies, as well as the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah.Ryan sided with his 2012 runningmate Sunday. “Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden’s victory strike at the foundation of our republic,” the former speaker said in a statement. “It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans. The fact that this effort will fail does not mean it will not do significant damage to American democracy.”Others made clear they want their colleagues to drop the effort.”I like to come up with plans that have a chance of being successful,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, a member of the Senate GOP leadership team.Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Trump ally who just won reelection in Alaska, said he would “listen to” the arguments, but is “very dubious.”Yet at least a dozen Senate Republicans, including four incoming freshmen, are indicating they plan to vote against certifying the election results, arguing instead there needs to a commission to probe potential voter fraud, even as courts have turned back dozens of challenges by Trump and his allies about the election results since November 3.Sen. Roger Marshall, the new freshman Republican from Kansas, defended the effort.”I had to make a decision of the heart,” Marshall said of his decision to join the effort. “And this is a decision of the heart to follow through on some of these irregularities.”Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the incoming Alabama freshman who also is part of the effort, claimed he had “not lately” spoken to Trump about the challenge and said “no,” he hadn’t spoken with McConnell, either. He declined to address criticism he’s received from the effort, which is opposed by the senior Alabama senator, Republican Richard Shelby.

Why Josh Hawley’s move could endanger Senate Republicans“I’m on the other side of that,” Shelby said when asked if he would join Tuberville. “It’s time to move on.”Trump’s staunchest defenders are plotting to object to six states’ election results, something that could extend floor debate through the day on Wednesday and into Thursday.But even after Trump loses the votes, his closest allies say he still shouldn’t concede the race where the result has been clear for nearly two months.”Absolutely not,” Brooks said when asked if Trump should concede after the joint session affirms Biden’s victory. “There’s no question at all in my mind that, if we were to only count lawful votes cast by eligible American citizens, Donald Trump won the Electoral College. Under those circumstances you should never concede because you didn’t lose. It was stolen.”This story has been updated with additional developments.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/22/politics/pat-robertson-trump-2020-election/index.html

By Veronica Stracqualursi and Jason Hoffman, CNN

Updated 11:55 AM ET, Tue December 22, 2020

Now PlayingTelevangelist says…Televangelist says Trump may lose ‘mandate of heaven’ 02:17

Washington (CNN)Televangelist Pat Robertson, a prominent conservative backer of Donald Trump, said Monday that the President is living in an “alternate reality” and should “move on” from his 2020 election loss.”With all his talent, and the ability to raise money and draw large crowds, the President still lives in an alternate reality,” Robertson said Monday on “The 700 Club.” “He really does. People say, ‘Well he lies about this, that and the other.’ But he isn’t lying. To him, that’s the truth.”Robertson — who prayed for Trump’s win in 2020 and once suggested that whoever is “revolting” against Trump is “revolting against what God’s plan is for America” — joins a growing list of prominent conservatives who are telling Trump it’s time to accept his clear election loss. In particular, Robertson is a uniquely influential figure among evangelicals, a critical part of the President’s base.

Trump threatens 30-day reign of destruction on the way out of officeTrump has “done a marvelous job for the economy,” Robertson said Monday, but argued that he is “very erratic.”Content by Voltaren Arthritis Pain GelChasing the Joy of MovementThis is how world champion cyclist Kristin Armstrong manages her osteoarthritis in a life of constant movement.”He’s fired people, he’s fought people and he’s insulted people, and he keeps going down the line. So it’s a mixed bag,” Robertson said of the President. “And I think it would be well to say, ‘You’ve had your day and it’s time to move on.'”He also cast doubt on Trump’s flailing efforts to overturn the election results.close dialog

Sign up for CNN What Matters NewsletterEvery day we summarize What Matters and deliver it straight to your inbox.Sign Me UpNo ThanksBy subscribing you agree to ourprivacy policy.“I had prayed and hoped that there might be some better solution, but I think it’s all over,” said Robertson, who previously said he was told by God that Trump would win the 2020 election.TRUMP WHITE HOUSE

• Some White House advisers fear Trump’s final days
• House conservatives strategize with Trump and Pence in push to challenge Biden’s win
• Four key ways Barr broke with Trump at the attorney general’s news conference
• MAP: Full presidential election results

“I think the Electoral College has spoken. I think the Biden corruption has not totally been brought to fruition, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting the Electoral College and I don’t think the Supreme Court is going to move in to do anything and I think we’re going to see a President (Joe) Biden, and I also think we’ll be seeing as President Kamala Harris not too long after the inauguration of President Biden.”Robertson also said it would be a “mistake” for Trump to run in 2024 and instead touted Trump’s former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley as a potential successor.”I think it’s a sideshow. I think it would be a mistake. My money would be on Nikki Haley. I think she’d make a tremendous candidate for the Republican Party,” he said.A growing list of Trump supporters have called on the President to accept the election results, especially in light of the Electoral College’s affirmation of Biden’s victory last week. Last month, Trump conservative radio ally Hugh Hewitt wrote in The Washington Post that “Trump in 2020 won for everyone in the party but himself” and now “must look forward.” Geraldo Rivera, a Fox News correspondent and Trump’s longtime friend, urged the President to “say goodbye with grace (and) dignity” and that “it’s over.”

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https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-55020428

Anthony Zurcher
North America reporter
@awzurcheron TwitterPublished1 hour agoRelated Topics

• US election 2020

Almost two weeks after Joe Biden was projected as the winner of the US presidential election, Donald Trump is still refusing to concede. Does he have a plan to overturn the outcome?

The president’s legal strategy to challenge the election results seems to be falling on deaf ears in courtrooms across the country. Trump’s team has yet to notch a meaningful victory, or present evidence of widespread voter fraud, after filing dozens of lawsuits.

His top lawyer, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, said on Thursday that the campaign was dropping its legal challenges in Michigan, which Biden won by more than 160,000 votes.

In Georgia, the Republican secretary of state has announced he is certifying its election tabulations, which give Biden just over a 12,000 vote lead after the state conducted a hand recount of nearly 5 million ballots.

• Five election fraud claims fact-checked

As doors to remaining in office slam shut, the president appears to be shifting strategies for flipping the election results from a longshot legal one to a longer-shot political gambit.

A step-by-step guide to Trump’s strategy

Here’s what he may hope to do:

1. Block the vote-certification process in as many states as possible, either through lawsuits or by encouraging Republican officials to object
2. Convince Republican-controlled legislatures in states Biden narrowly won to dismiss the results of the popular vote as corrupted by widespread fraud
3. Have the legislature then award their state’s Electoral College votes, which are cast by “electors” on 14 December, to Trump instead of Biden
4. Do that in enough states – Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, for instance – to pull Trump from his current total of 232 electoral votes over the winning 269-vote mark. Or, at least, pull Biden from 306 down below that mark, which would throw the election to the House of Representatives, where Trump would have an advantage

What is Trump doing to make this happen?

The first hint that Trump was applying pressure to individual states to disregard their current vote totals came following reports that he had called Republican officials who had initially refused to certify the election results from Detroit, Michigan’s largest city.

That two low-level party officials, among thousands of county canvassers across the US, would speak directly to a US president was more than just a little unusual. They ultimately reversed their decision to block the proceedings – and then, after Trump’s call, expressed regret for reversing themselves.

Those hints became clear evidence of intent when the Republican leaders in the Michigan legislature accepted a presidential invitation to visit the White House on Friday.

• Attention-loving Trump now hunkers down

The news has been accompanied by reports that the president is intent on finding other ways he can pressure key state legislatures to review, and perhaps reverse, their election results.

What is typically a mere formality during normal elections – the bipartisan certification of state vote totals – has become the latest battleground in the president’s attempts to maintain power for the next four years.

Could Trump actually be successful?

It’s not impossible, but the chances are very, very slim. First of all, the president would have to overturn the results in multiple states, where Biden’s leads range from tens of thousands of votes to more than a hundred thousand. This isn’t 2000, when everything came down just to Florida.

What’s more, many of the states Trump’s legal team is targeting – Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Nevada – have Democratic governors who are not going to sit idly by while all of this takes place.

In Michigan, for instance, Governor Gretchen Whitmer could fire the current state election board and replace it with one willing to certify Biden’s victory.https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.36.3/iframe.htmlmedia captionWhat do Trump supporters think of a Biden presidency?

Democratic governors could respond by naming their own slate of pro-Biden electors to compete with ones a Republican legislature choose, leaving it to Congress to decide which group to acknowledge.

That doesn’t mean Biden’s supporters aren’t worried, however. While the odds of this happening are along the lines of the earth being hit by a giant meteor or someone getting struck by lightning while winning the lottery, having victory snatched away at this point would be such a cataclysmic political event that the remote prospect of such a possibility is enough to give Democrats cold sweats.

Is this strategy even legal?

Trump has spent much of his time in the White House shattering presidential norms and traditions. It appears that the last days of his term will be no different.

Just because the pressure Trump is putting on election officials and state legislatures is unprecedented or controversial, however, doesn’t necessarily mean it is illegal.https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.36.3/iframe.htmlmedia captionHow other incumbents left the White House after losing

In the early days of the nation, state legislatures had broad powers of how they allocated their electoral votes, and there is still no constitutional requirement that they heed the results of a popular vote. They have since circumscribed those powers by assigning their votes based on the results of popular elections, but the underpinnings of the original system still remain intact.

If the president succeeds in convincing a legislature, such as Michigan’s, to act, Democrats are sure to mount legal objections. The law, both national and in each state, is fuzzy, given that this sort of thing has seldom been subject litigation.

Could states retroactively change the laws governing how they run their elections? Perhaps. But it would be up to judges to render the final verdict.

Has anyone tried this before?

The last time a closely contested election involved a battle over electors was in 2000 between Al Gore and George W Bush. That was a fight in one state, Florida, where the difference between the candidates was just a few hundred votes. Eventually, the US Supreme Court stepped in and halted any further review – and Bush became president.

• How 2020 compares with Bush-Gore recount in 2000

For a disputed election involving multiple states you have to go back to the 1876 race between Republican Rutherford B Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tildon.

In that episode, contested results in Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida meant no candidate was able to win a majority in the Electoral College. The deadlock threw the election to the US House of Representatives, which ultimately sided with Hayes, who like Bush in 2000 and Trump in 2016, won fewer votes nationally than his defeated opponent.

What happens if Donald Trump refuses to leave office?

If the president’s longshot attempts at reversing the election results fail, at 12:01 pm on 20 January Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th US president whether Trump formally concedes or not.

At that point, the Secret Service and the US military are free to treat the former president the way they do any unauthorised individual on government property.

“It’s outrageous what he’s doing,” Biden said in a press conference on Thursday. “Incredibly damaging messages are being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions.”

Even if the president isn’t successful, his seeming scorched-earth strategy of contesting the election results is setting a precedent for elections to come and, according to polls, undermining the faith many Americans have in the US democratic systems and institutions.

BYMarjorie Cohn, TruthoutPUBLISHEDNovember 11, 2020SHAREShare via

As masses of people poured into the streets to celebrate the end of Donald Trump’s fascist rule, the lame duck president’s lawyers were filing frivolous lawsuits in an attempt to nullify Joe Biden’s victory. But none of these suits, even if successful, would change the results of the election.

Shortly after CNN called the election for Biden, Trump said in a statement, “Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated.”

First of all, only prosecutors prosecute cases — in criminal court. Private litigants in civil cases are called plaintiffs. And second, anyone who has the money to hire a lawyer can bring a lawsuit about anything. Thousands of legal actions are filed every day, but very few are taken seriously by judges. It’s unclear whether Trump is even paying his hired guns; Rudy Giuliani once said he works for Trump without pay.

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For months, Trump has mounted a concerted strategy to preemptively discredit the election results, spewing unsupported allegations of voter fraud with mail-in ballots. Republicans and the Trump campaign have filed myriad lawsuits, even before the election, all seeking to erect obstacles to voting.

Mindful that many more people than usual would vote by mail to protect themselves from the coronavirus, Trump sowed the seeds of doubt about the validity of mail-in ballots. With no evidence whatsoever, he fabricated claims of massive voter fraud. With no regard for the health risks, Trump encouraged his minions to vote in person, insisting the election results must be known on Election Day. Trump’s supporters obliged and most voted at the polls. It was therefore no surprise that the overwhelming number of mail-in ballots were cast by Democrats.

Early Wednesday morning, as his putative lead began to evaporate, Trump tweeted, “We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop.” Trump had said in no uncertain terms that he wanted Amy Coney Barrett installed on the Supreme Court to decide the election in his favor. But although counting of mail-in ballots continued, no votes were cast after Tuesday.

“If you count the legal votes, I easily win. if you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us,” Trump falsely claimed Thursday night. But as retiring Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Michigan) tweeted, “a legally cast vote does not become ‘illegal’ simply because a candidate does not like the vote.”Judges have dismissed Trump’s lawsuits in Georgia and Michigan for lack of any evidence to support fraud allegations.

The same night, in a White House briefing, Trump said, again falsely, “We were winning in all the key locations by a lot, actually. And then our number started miraculously getting whittled away in secret.” The tabulations were not conducted in secret; they were witnessed by both Republican and Democratic poll watchers.

Moreover, on election night, the count appeared to favor Trump since most Democrats cast mail ballots, which take longer to count. Some states, including Pennsylvania, forbid the counting of any ballots until Election Day. A Democratic-sponsored bill in Pennsylvania would have allowed mail-in ballots to be opened and counted before Election Day in light of the anticipated surge due to the pandemic. But Republicans in the Pennsylvania legislature defeated the bill. Since Trump’s strategy was to declare victory on election night, the GOP forces likely sought to prevent mail-in ballots from diluting Trump’s apparent early lead. Furthermore, election workers didn’t even open mail ballots until November 4, since several counties required all workers to conduct the election on November 3. This explains why it took longer to report the vote counts in Pennsylvania.

On Saturday morning, Trump erroneously asserted, “I won this election, by a lot.” At the time, Biden was leading in the electoral vote — 253 to 214 — and he had received 4,250,184 more popular votes than Trump.

The Pennsylvania Case

It was Pennsylvania that put Biden over the top in electoral votes. CNN and other news outlets called Biden the winner on Saturday morning. Trump falsely tweeted about “…Pennsylvania, which everyone thought was easily won on Election Night, only to see a massive lead disappear, without anyone being allowed to OBSERVE, for long intervals of time.”

Again falsely, Trump also tweeted, “Tens of thousands of votes were illegally received after 8 P.M. on Tuesday, Election Day, totally and easily changing the results in Pennsylvania and certain other razor thin states.”Trump is mounting a full-court press to steal the election from Joe Biden.

There was nothing illegal about counting ballots that were postmarked by, but received after, Election Day. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had ruled that ballots could be counted if received by Friday, November 6.

Trump’s challenge to mail-in ballots received in Pennsylvania between November 3 and 6 is the only case that the U.S. Supreme Court might review, and even that is unlikely, since those ballots would not alter the election results.

Twice before the election, Republican state legislators and the Republican Party of Philadelphia asked the high court to halt Pennsylvania’s three-day extension for receipt of mail-in ballots. Twice they were rebuffed. The first time, the Court deadlocked 4-to-4, leaving the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision in place. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three remaining liberals — Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — to uphold the state court’s decision. Right-wingers Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh voted to block the ballots.

Although the Supreme Court refused to review the case for lack of time, Alito, Gorsuch and Thomas wrote a statement on October 28, suggesting the Court could still hear the case after the election. They described the plaintiffs’ request as a “last ditch attempt to prevent the election in Pennsylvania from being conducted under a cloud.” Barrett has not yet participated in this case.

On Saturday, Alito ordered Pennsylvania’s secretary of state to segregate, and separately count, mail-in ballots that arrived after Election Day. The Pennsylvania attorney general affirmed that the state had already segregated them. But the number of ballots in contention is so small it would not affect the outcome of the election. The Court is thus not likely to review this case.

Trump’s spate of frivolous lawsuits will not reverse the results of the election. In spite of Trump’s pattern of lies about massive fraud from mail-in ballots, his cases don’t allege widespread fraud. Judges have dismissed Trump’s lawsuits in Georgia and Michigan for lack of any evidence to support fraud allegations. The cases Trump has won involve primarily technicalities involving small numbers of ballots. Trump’s cases include closer access of election observers, signature verification on mail ballots, nonresident voting and the mixing of a small number of ballots. Trump’s forces are seeking a recount in Wisconsin, which is unlikely to change the results in that state.

Trump probably thinks the Supreme Court, with his three appointees, will respond to his court challenges by handing him the presidency. That won’t happen. But his flurry of lawsuits is also designed to cast doubt on the integrity of the election. As Robert Reich noted, “Trump backers are trying to push Republican-controlled state legislatures to appoint their own slates of Trump electors. That’s why the campaign has launched empty legal challenges to perfectly normal vote counts – trying to sow enough doubt to give the state legislatures political cover to appoint their own electors.”

In his desperation to maintain power, we can expect Trump to pull out all the stops in the next two-and-a-half months before Inauguration Day.

He plans large rallies to rile his gun-toting base. He has enlisted most Republican leaders, including Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham, to collaborate with his attempted theft of the election.

Since the election, Attorney General William Barr told department officials that he didn’t see massive voter fraud or a systemic problem. But on Monday, under pressure from Trump, Barr authorized federal prosecutors to investigate “substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities.” He limited the investigations to what he described as “clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual State.” Weeks before the election, the department had removed its prohibition on voter fraud investigations prior to an election.

In response to Barr’s directive, Richard Pilger, the Justice Department official directing voter fraud investigations, immediately stepped down from his job in protest.

Barr’s authorization will give McConnell and other GOP leaders ammunition to oppose Biden’s victory.

Trump is mounting a full-court press to steal the election from Joe Biden. The refusal to accept the election results by Trump and his congressional and Justice Department accomplices, coupled with his obstruction of the transition process, do not bode well for a peaceful transfer of power.

BYJon Queally, Common DreamsPUBLISHEDNovember 8, 2020SHAREShare via FacebookShare via TwitterShare via Email

Mixing with the jubilation shared by tens of millions across the U.S. and the world generated by President-elect Joe Biden’s declared victory this weekend, increasing levels of anger and frustration were voiced Sunday as President Donald Trump continued his refusal to accept the election results that show he was soundly defeated.

Even as Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris delivered acceptance speeches Saturday night, Trump bucked the tradition of congratulating the winners and instead spent the evening tweeting out false claims that he “won the election” and making evidence-free allegations of fraud.

As CNN reports:

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Trump so far has refused to accept the election results, waging a legal strategy to contest them in courts and issuing false allegations of fraud. There are currently no plans to invite Biden to the Oval Office for the traditional meeting between the incoming and outgoing presidents, a historic sign of the peaceful transfer of power. Aides instead are working to craft ways for the President to feel validated even in loss, including through more rallies.

But after claiming publicly and falsely that he won the election, sources say Trump is not denying the outcome privately. And two people said Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law and senior adviser who oversaw his campaign from the White House, has approached Trump about conceding the election.

On Sunday, as the lies and deceit by the president continued, many Trump critics began to lose their patience.

“It is obscene for a president of the United States to talk of a stolen election when he has not put up any meaningful evidence of anyone stealing the election,” said Steven Greenhouse, former labor reporter for the New York Times in a Sunday morning tweet. “The President needs to stop putting his narcissistic selfishness over what is good for our nation and our democracy.”

Stephen King, the famed novelist and an avowed Democrat, was even more blunt in his proclamation. “You lost, you miserable self-entitled infantile fucker,” King declared. “Concede and get the hell out.”https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?creatorScreenName=truthout&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1325452188303433728&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Ftruthout.org%2Farticles%2Ftrump-faces-growing-fury-over-his-stubborn-refusal-to-concede-defeat-to-biden%2F&siteScreenName=truthout&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=500px

In a letter to editor at the Guardian on Sunday, reader Pete Dorey in the U.K. said he fears that Trump’s “disputing of the validity of the election result is much more insidious than him simply being a bad loser.” Dorey wrote:

By repeatedly denouncing the accuracy of the outcome, even before it has been confirmed, [Trump] is giving his supporters a green light to spend the next four years blatantly defying a Biden government, and generally causing public mayhem, on the grounds that the Democrats “stole” the election from Trump, and that the new government thus has no democratic authority of mandate.

As such, I fear that mass protests, the occupation of public buildings, and intimidation (especially of black communities) by gun-toting Trump supporters, will become a routine occurrence, justified on the grounds that ignoring the “undemocratic” Biden government is the duty of true “American patriots.”

If tough punitive action is taken against them, they will claim that democracy and liberty are being suppressed by “radical leftists” in Washington. But if their mayhem is ignored, they will claim that law and order is being undermined due a weak government in thrall to “political correctness” and “snowflake liberals.”

Or am I just paranoid?

Ahead of Biden being declared the projected winner by nearly every major news outlet in the country on Saturday, his campaign spokeperson Andrew Bates on Friday said their team was not ultimately worried if Trump — when defeated — refused to leave the White House voluntarily.

“The United States government,” said Bates, “is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”

…after Jared tells his father-in-law it’s time to quit

• President’s two oldest sons tweet flurry of claims of voter fraud and Eric demands a manual recount of ‘every vote’  
•  It is not known if Eric and Don Jr. have spoken directly to their father who learned he was defeated while golfing and tweeted angrily: ‘I WON.’
• Just after Joe Biden addressed the nation however, Jared Kushner was revealed to be pushing his father-in-law to concede
• Differing moves suggest a family split over what to tell the president
• Meanwhile some Republicans say he needs ‘time to absorb’ what happened while on CNN Rick Santorum said he had ‘conditions’ for conceding

By KATELYN CARALLE, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM  and ASSOCIATED PRESS and EMILY GOODIN, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8926405/Signs-Trump-family-split-Don-Jr-Eric-tweet-fraud-claims-Jared-says-time-quit.html

PUBLISHED: 09:08 EST, 8 November 2020 | UPDATED: 12:47 EST, 8 November 2020

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Donald Trump called the election ‘stolen’ Sunday morning as he tweeted claims from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich that Democrats ‘stole what they had to steal.’

But he avoided using his own voice in a series of tweets, instead highlighting Gingrich – who had appeared on Fox and Friends – and Turley, a registered Democrat who had spoken against Trump’s impeachment as a Republican witness to the House Judiciary Committee.

Almost immediately, the tweets were flagged by Twitter as possible misinformation.Top Articlesby Daily MailAOC says she DIDN’T cost House Dems seats with hersocialist rhetoricREAD MOREREAD MOREREAD MOREREAD MOREREAD MORESkip in 3shttps://1892d81a847acc978138387736437688.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html

At the same time, Trump left the White House to play golf again, just like he did on Saturday.

The tweets suggest that Trump is not backing down or planning to concede despite signs he is already fracturing his family with his sons and Jared Kushner at odds over whether he should concede.

But Sunday morning also saw his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani aggressively claim he will contest the election, telling Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that he had ‘four or five’ lawsuits which would be ready by the end of the week.

He claimed Republican observers were not allowed close enough to see mail-in ballots being processed in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, and that dead people in Philadelphia had voted in the past.

He also claimed that he would sue in Nevada, which has been called for Biden, without specifying how. Asked ‘where is Bill Barr on this?’ – a reference to the attorney general, who in theory at least could investigate allegations of mass-scale vote rigging – he said: ‘I don’t know and I can’t worry about that.’

Giuliani claimed he has ’50 witnesses’ to voter fraud, and might make ‘one or two’ public. So far there have been a handful of anecdotal witnesses in videos posted on social media but none who have made claims to authorities.

Another key member of Trump’s kitchen cabinet, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, used the same show to tell the president not to concede.

‘If we don’t challenge and change the U.S. election system, there will never be another Republican president elected again,’ he claimed. 

Gingrich’s claims the election was corrupt came from a Fox & Friends interview in which he called Democrats ‘corrupt’ and claimed the outcome was a ‘left-wing power grab.’+42

Swinging for the fences: President Donald Trump hit the golf course on Sunday morning in Sterling, Virginia, to blow off some steam after the media declared his rival Joe Biden winner of the election the day before+42

Low profile: Trump donned a white cap bearing his campaign slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ as he hit the golf course+42

Fore: Trump is seen heading to the golf course on Sunday – perhaps hoping for a better 18 holes than Saturday when he was told he was defeated not long after teeing off +42

Not backing down… yet: Donald Trump’s family appears badly split over what to do now with his sons tweeting a fusillade of claims of fraud but Jared Kushner telling him to give up the fight +42

Get the message? Donald Trump was followed by protesters as he arrived at his club in Sterling, Virginia, to golf+42

+42

Trump quoted Newt Gingrich on Fox & Friends in his tweet. The best pollster in Britain was in fact an American right-win think tank commentator, Patrick Barsham, who works for the Cato Institute in Washington D.C. but was writing in the Sunday Express in the UK +42

+42

+42

+42

Another voice: Jonathan Turley is a law professor and registered Democrat who has backed Trump repeatedly

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-seen-golfing-as-major-networks-declare-victory-for-biden-2020-11

Connor Perrett 3 hours ago

• President Donald Trump on Saturday was seen golfing at his golf club in Virginia, as major news outlets including CNN, MSNBC, and the Associated Press called the election for his opponent, the former Vice President Joe Biden.
• News outlets declared Biden victorious after his lead in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania surpassed 30,000 votes. 
• Insider and its election partner, Decision Desk HQ, projected the race in the former Vice President’s favor on Friday. 
• Not long before major networks announced that Biden was projected to win the race, Trump again falsely claimed victory in the election, tweeting he “WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT.” 
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

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SEE ALSO: IT’S OVER: Biden defeats Trump as US voters take the rare step to remove an incumbent president

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