Donald Trump continues to be bonkers and a threat to America. It is what is, and it’s a criminal conspiracy. Because it’s never been just about Trump, it’s about the Republican Party going full-tilt looney tunes and backing up Trump’s every fascist, authoritarian, white nationalist whim. Trump is gonna Trump – we know that, and it’s bad enough. But this whole thing with Republican elected officials around the country coming together to blatantly say that “Black votes don’t count” is another level of f–kery.
Despite dozens of judges and courts rejecting challenges to the election, Republican attorneys general in 17 states on Wednesday backed President Trump in his increasingly desperate and audacious legal campaign to reverse the results.
The show of support, in a brief filed with the Supreme Court, represented the latest attempt by Trump loyalists to use the power of public office to come to his aid as he continues to deny the reality of his loss with baseless claims of voter fraud.
The move is an effort to bolster a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by the pro-Trump attorney general in Texas that seeks to delay the certification of the presidential electors in four battleground states the president lost. Mr. Trump has been holding out hope that the Supreme Court will hear the case and ultimately award him a second term. Legal experts are skeptical, however, and have largely dismissed it as a publicity stunt.
Late Tuesday, the president asked Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican, if he would be willing to argue the case, according to a person familiar with their conversation. Mr. Cruz agreed, this person said. And the president has filed a motion with the court to intervene, which would make him a party to the case.
The willingness of so many Republican politicians to publicly involve themselves in a legal campaign to invalidate the ballots of millions of Americans shows how singular a figure Mr. Trump remains in the G.O.P. That these political allies are also elected officials whose jobs involve enforcing laws, including voting rights, underscores the extraordinary nature of the brief to the court. Even in defeat — a reality that a significant number of Republicans refuse to accept, polls show — allegiance to Mr. Trump is viewed as the ticket to higher office.
So the AG of Texas is like “the Democratic voters of Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania don’t count!” AND 16 OTHER STATE ATTORNEYS GENERAL SIGNED UP FOR THAT. So much for “states’ rights” huh? I guess Texas can tell Georgia voters that their votes don’t count… unless they’re voting for Republicans. This entire post-election sh-t has been some of the craziest magical-thinking I’ve ever seen. Speaking of, one of the arguments (being made by MAGA loyalists) is that because Trump was ahead in the vote count ONE HOUR INTO COUNTING on Election Night, he should somehow be the winner? Allow Kayleigh NaziBarbie to explain:
Chances of Biden winning Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin independently after @realDonaldTrump’s early lead is less than one in a quadrillion:
➡️ 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000
Chances of him winning collectively is “one in a quadrillion to the 4th power”
Texas v. PA ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/tOlgPdai3r
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) December 9, 2020
No, really, these people don’t understand how ballots are counted, or how any of this works. They don’t understand how Democratic voters preferred the safety of voting absentee this year. These morons can’t wrap their heads around “Trump had a lead in a state when only 11% of the vote was in, how come he didn’t win the state HUH.”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
I wrote to my (Texas) state bar association about Paxton because of this frivolous lawsuit. I mean, he started this whole thing because he’s looking for a pardon, right? Crooks protecting crooks.
Apparently none of the nine SC justices need pardoning since they gave them big thumbs down and a nice chocolate pie to eat (The Help kind). On the bright side, we now have a light on the crooks in government. Those who stand by Trump should be voted out. We need to press do a hard reboot on our political system and get new blood in office. And Mitch is the first that should go, but the Devil keeps him going.
Texan here. I hereby promise that if I ever see Ken Paxton (Texas A.G.), I will promptly trip and spill an entire hot coffee on him.
I saw Will Hurd at my sons school after the impeachment vote and I almost tripped him.
My husband got in a first fight with Alabama’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions at Florabama bar once.
Never have I been so aroused.
When I heard 16 states signed on I wondered if every Republican AG is under investigation. Why else risk being disbarred?
Compromised in some way? Russian hacks? Appealing to the MAGA low life’s in their southern state? Who knows.
Yeah, my thought was that the headline should read “Russia gave Tr*mp dirt on 17 state attorneys general”.
This is one of the most massive gaslight operation seen since freaking Stalin.
This!!!! 🙌🙌🙌🙌
And after four years, the NYT still doesn’t find more fitting adjectives to describe the situation than “audacious” or “singular”.
I think the Trump not only allowed the MAGAts to be open about their racism but GOP too – what we are seeing if the real GOP. Just like in the UK, the Tories are not even bothering to hide their awful agenda under BoJo (not that they ever did anyway).
I couldn’t agree more. I said 20 years ago that, for some reason, there had been a very pronounced shift to the right, throughout the developed world. It’s been the same here in Australia. We’d had a conservative government for a few years, and once other countries followed suit, it was acceptable to be publicly racist, sexist and any other -ist you want to be. I had some hope when President Obama was elected, but previous few countries followed that lead. Dump’s presidency has made a mockery of the position, and I just can’t understand why Republican “leaders”, already in secure positions, would waste their time trying to help this loser.
Rupert Murdoch and Putin have been actively driving a right wing shift. What this lawsuit shows is that the desire to be an autocracy is not on the fringes, it is the Republican party.
Mac you nailed it by bringing up Murdoch. Here in the U.S. the rise of FOX News over the past 25 years or so (with an assist from that clown Limbaugh) has been so damaging and is a major part of how we arrived to where we are now as a country.
Mac, I agree that the Republican agenda is to create an autocracy. The elected Republicans in this country don’t want to alienate the far right wingnuts, because they need them for future elections. IMO one of their biggest fears is that these wingnuts will split from the Republican Party and form their own party. If that happened, it would also split the vote and more Democrats would be elected.
What I don’t understand is why the Democrats aren’t being more vocal about wanting to preserve democracy in this country. I’m an independent and have been very frustrated for years with the way the Republican Party steamrolls over the Democrats, because the Dems always take the high road. Well, they need to change this strategy because it’s simply not working. When you have the Arizona Republican Party asking the wingnuts if they are willing to fight and to give their lives for the cause, you know this entire situation is completely out of control. If something isn’t done and soon, I’m afraid in the next few years we’ll have an autocracy or civil war. I honestly don’t see another possibility.
I do hope the remaining attorneys general file motions to intervene today to protect our votes for Biden/Harris and an end of this march to fascism and civil war.
I hope so too. The SC ordered the defendant states to respond by 3PM today, and they need the support of the states that aren’t completely bonkers. I mean, yeah this garbage is kind of funny. But I’m actually a little scared too. The GOP has gotten away with basically everything for the last 4 years. I know the odds are really low that these shenanigans will work, but the point was to get the SC involved in deciding the outcome of the election and here we are, the stacked SC is being dragged into this nonsense.
@juls, the way I understand it is that asking for the other states to respond by 3pm is just procedural. The odds of the SCOTUS even hearing the case are very, very low. What’s idiotic is that some of the plaintiff states have the same laws that they are complaining about in the four states under review. Like, Kansas is complaining about Michigan even though it has the same laws towards absentee ballots. Idiocy.
Like @noodle said, the odds of the Supreme Court even hearing the case are low, much less ever ruling in his favor on this. The SCOTUS is extremely concerned about precedent, and overriding a legitimate election for no cause is not a precedent they want to set. They take a much longer view since they’re appointed for life. Even the Republican judges don’t want to set that kind of precedent. If the results had been a little closer…I’m not going to lie, maybe. But the results were decisive, and across many states.
FFS. When does this trash fire end?
I feel so bad for America.
That’s it.
It feels like a long running soap that the fans keep bringing back – long past the sell by date
To me it feels more like an abusive relationship; one where the guy keeps telling people we’re in love even though we broke up. He can’t accept that I found someone new, someone I trust. It’s over dude. Hit the road.
Their arguments are increasingly nonsensical — Trump actually tweeted that he should have won because the “bookies” had him at 97% — and I know we should assume this effort will ultimately be futile given their record so far, even with SCOTUS in the PA case. But I still am stressed af about what this means for our country in the years ahead.
I don’t mean to trivialize what’s happening now; it’s definitely bad for democracy. But looking at it with regards just to his supporters, I wonder if their fanaticism will actually survive Trump. I have my doubts. Once he dies (oh happy day…), I think a lot of his worshipers will just get on with their lives. Trump has a certain (extremely toxic) charisma, which unfortunately facilitated his ascent. There are plenty of Republicans who share his views, but haven’t been anywhere near as successful, because they’re a very uninspiring, beige sort of evil, as opposed to his neon orange variety. Most Republican voters will probably just go back to voting for those same old beige candidates. (And Junior can threaten to run in 2024 all he wants, but I thinnk that even Trumpettes are as indifferent towards him as his father is.)
It’s not beige though. My sister was diagnosed with Covid yesterday. In Louisiana, the teachers and kids were forced to go back face to face five days a week. No online. Louisiana is a Covid dumpster fire. They barely believe in science. A kid came to school with Covid. And now my sister, her special needs child and the entire family is at risk.
@marigold, I’m sorry to hear about your sister and her family. It’s infuriating that children, teachers, and their families are being exposed like this. I hope your sister and family are able to weather the illness and have no lasting effects. It must be scary for you to watch this happen to them.
Miranda, I agree that Trump was unique in his appeal and it will be difficult to replicate that. I definitely think many Trumpers, especially the ones who were never politically engaged before Trump, will move back into apathy. But as Marigold says, the nutjobs will remain among us. I guess time will tell if one will ascend to our highest office again anytime soon.
Marigold, I am so sorry. It is frustrating that half the country is too dumb and too selfish to do the right thing about Covid.
He has that evil power that Jim Jones did. Jim Jones’ little cult didn’t survive after he killed the followers or they stupidly drank the laced kool aid. His kids are nowhere near that charismatic.
Grateful now that I live in a parliamentary democracy, where one party loses, the next day the other moves right in. why give 2.5 months to do unethical pardons and shred the papers.
That is one of the many changes I would like to see made to save our democracy, along with term limits for every elected position and judges. Nobody needs to be in Congress for 50 years and no one in America should have a lifetime appointment to anything. We probably couldn’t make it “next-day new administration” because of mail in ballots, but it definitely doesn’t need to be almost 3 months.
Exactly. I love how it works in the UK. Once the election results are called, the losing party leader packs his/her bags and leaves Downing Street. That’s it.
Agree with everything. The American process/system is so messed up and yeah we did right by it for a while but dump and his ilk are exposing it for how terrible it is.
This is absolutely ridiculous. And if his argument is “well the polls had me winning”, didn’t the polls have Hillary winning in 2016? Should people dispute that election using his lawyers own argument?
Exactly. Unfortunately the GOP has shown again and again that cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy are hallmarks of the party.
Not to mention that this is not how any of this works.
The polls also showed a lot more Democrat Senate candidates winning, yet that didn’t happen. But those votes are OK with the GOP I guess?
Those attorneys general do understand that this is bullshit and they don’t care. That’s even worse.
Yes. The PA one said the only reason he’s signed on is because otherwise his house would be bombed. They’re not even attempting to stand up to the monster they created.
That was state senator Kay Ward who said that not the pa attorney general. The attorney generals of pa, Michigan and Wisconsin are all democrats. Georgia has a republican attorney general. Trump is reportedly ticked at him for saying the lawsuit is constitutionally morally and factually wrong
Oh yes, my bad. Thanks for the correction. Hard to keep track of these clowns but I do know that the PA executive branch is blue. Thankfully.
Kay Ward (Republican state senator in PA) didn’t sign anything. She said that — about her house being bombed — to let people know the kind of pressure that Republican politicians are under.
Yeah, I was going to say – they understand how all this works. Its not about not understanding – its about wanting to stay in Trump’s good graces for some reason and wanting power.
Of course I live in one of those pathetic AGs states and I’m not surprised they signed it. They are only doing it to appease all the magas that live here because they are the majority. I can’t wait to move to the blue state next door and happily pay more taxes, eff this.
Oh my God, just fucking secede again, you delusional idiots. We’ll airlift all the PoC, other minorities, and liberals out of there, and then Trump can have his own little fascist fiefdom. Make it a reality show so he can get his precious ratings, and we all get a laugh out of watching it rapidly devolve into one of those “shithole” countries he so disdains (and come on, it’s the south. They ain’t got far to go.*).
* That joke was approved by my Alabama-native fiancé, and was, after all, just a joke. Don’t @ me!
For real- let’s see how long they last without all the federal welfare provided by the blue states! Signed sincerely, fellow Alabama Native.
I live in Alabama and agree. We are here another 2.5 years for job reasons, AND CANNOT WAIT TO LEAVE. My Alabama-native husband has been a fan of secession his entire adult life. Allow the rest of us to get on with it and have a progressive, functional country while the New Confederate States light themselves on fire.
I wish we had done this 4 years ago:(
Kaiser, first I would like to say you have done a great job covering this looney tunes mess of an election with a crazy unhinged and unbalanced President who was a candidate. I cannot imagine it has been easy keeping all the stupidity straight when reporting it.
Yes, ironically Texas, the state which is all about states rights is infringing on other states and their voting methodologies.
But how long will they keep this up? After the electoral college meets in a few days? After the inauguration? In 2024 is Trump going to be arguing that he needs to be on the ticket as the incumbent?
Yes, yes, and yes. The republicans are going along with this, in my opinion, mainly because they think it will help them in 2024 – IF trump doesn’t run again, they want him supporting them.
Ted Cruz really has no self-respect, does he?
I will never, ever move out of NYS.
That’s how I feel about CA. I can only live in a blue state.
Wild horses couldn’t drag me out of Massachusetts, except to possibly NYS or Vermont.
I moved from Mass to TX 8 years ago. Hate the politics. But TX will be blue in less than 10 years.
@MissJupitero, especially with my congressional representative Katherine Clark set to become Assistant Speaker next month, I’m not moving anywhere.
@ Msmlnp, my niece just moved to TX. She’ll be helping to make it blue.
And yes,, overlooked in all the other stuff going on, in addition to having a woman VP and a woman running the Treasury and an all women White House communications team for the first time, down in the House of Representatives, for the first time in history, we will have a woman Speaker of the House WITH a woman Assistant Speaker.
I’d….I’d quit if asked to work on something like this. I’d leave the law and become…pretty much anything else. Well, except a Republican. Apparently I have too much self respect and human decency for that. 🤷♀️
The reason Trump asked Cruz is that the entire department of Texas that would argue this in front of the Supreme Court quit en masse.
All of these sycophants are risking their careers for a guy who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about them.
Yes, loyalty is only a one way street for Trump. It’s really horrifying to behold all this.
Trump is scared… that is all. Those GOP attorney generals are pandering to the voters in their state which is pathetic. GA gov and SOS are Republicans but they had no choice but to count those votes by law. Someone like Trump always has been and feels he is above the law. Most rich white people do. But this clown car show they have going on right now because they didn’t get their way and black and brown people stood up and voted his ass out really irks them and him. All the tactics of voter suppression and lies for years are beginning to crack the ceilings and they cannot take it. Faxts
This terrifies me. For four years, Trump has gotten away with EVERYTHING because this is who republicans are. It’s not just Trump. It’s all of them. Every time a new low would happen, I would say. Now. Someone will finally stop him. Never happened. He has packed the court and I am so scared that they will back him. If they have honor and integrity, they will not. But do they?
And I’m not sure we can try ever recover from this. I am so tired of being this stressed about how corrupt, ignorant and just plain stupid so many people are. There is no bottom.
I am in awe of this and Republican Senators who absolutely are refusing to admit that Joe Biden is the President Elect. It is absolutely embarrassing, I’m embarrassed for them as you know they must be educated adults and here they are, out there making statements that are forever attached to them, standing behind such utter bull4hit.
If you want to be absolutely infuriated, yet amused by the stupidity of so-called educated adults, watch Don Lemon on CNN….he lays it right out there….these people have lost their minds. It’s pitiful, pathetic and f#$king scary how brainwashed they must be.
This case arguably doesn’t even have Original Jurisdiction to be heard in the High Court. It will most likely be finished in 30 minutes like the PA case. What is disturbing is that this seems to be the new playbook. File 100 cases and try to steal any elections they don’t win and/or use them as an excuse to disenfranchise black voters. We have to be ready to fight and fight for months for every damn election.
Yeah. There’s no way that we can just pretend this didn’t happen. This MUST be addressed and punished. This is SEDITION for fcks sake.
Absolutely it is. If I were Biden, I’d take note of every one and throw the book at them.
What Texas started is disturbing and I have been watching the news closely and have been very alarmed to see so many other states getting involved.
However, once I calmed down, I have decided that it is a good thing for the US Supreme Court to get involved. Get this over with. If there are no valid grounds for this case it will go nowhere, despite the number of conservative judges. They are not Trump’s judges, although he may think he owns some of them.
Get this over with – it can’t go any farther than the US Supreme Court. Let the Trump supporters see what the mostly conservative US Supreme Court thinks of a Trump over Biden win.
Didn’t the Supreme Court just bat this down a day ago? How many end runs around Democratic voters do they need?
They batted down the PA case. This is a different one, filed by the TX AG. Trump claims this one is the big one.
The recent Texas case involves States (Texas et al) vs other States (MI, WI, PA & GA). From what I have been reading, apparently the US Supreme Court gets involved when States sue other States.
@Josiebean yes its one of the few times when the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction – disputes between states. But typically this is things like disputes over a border, or water rights, etc. II don’t know if its ever been used in this type of situation – where one state is basically saying “this state did it wrong.”
Josie Bean, I agree with you. I think the Supreme Court is giving them their “day in court”. It’s being briefed by everyone in the world (lots of amicus briefs–friends of the court briefs), and I can’t see how they’ll win this. BUT, this year who knows? If anyone wants to do something about the Attorney General of the state you live in who joined this case, write to your state bar association and complain that your AG filed a baseless and frivolous lawsuit and should have (at the very least) sanctions imposed. The Supreme Court Case Number is 22O155 (that’s a capital o and NOT a 0). There should be consequences when lawyers file lawsuits like this. I was a paralegal for years, and I can’t believe they’ve done this. I live in a blue (very blue) state, so I don’t have to worry about our AG doing something this ill advised and stupid. Just a thought.
Every attorney in my office is filing an ethics complaint against those Attorneys General in their respective states.
LightPurple, I’m really happy to hear that. I hope there are more attorneys out there who are doing the same thing. And, I hope whatever happens is publicized so that we know what the Bar Associations do.
I’m not worried. Texas’s AG is looking for a pardon since he’s in hot water legally. That’s his real motivation there.
Beyond that, states don’t have the right to dictate to other states how to run elections. If the SCOTUS want to abuse their authority and overturn 80 million plus people’s vote, they are more than welcome to deal with the fallout. Doxxing an address is extremely easy where public figures are concerned. I’ll gladly show up to Kavanaugh or Barrett’s McMansion and wreck their holiday. Conservatives aren’t the only ones who can stand outside wearing a rifle looking intimidating and screaming a lot, and they shouldn’t forget that.
And that’s before the more powerful blue states start looking at their options to leverage their financial power. I’ll back places like CA and New York yanking federal taxes if they wish; bleed red America dry for all I care if they want to try overthrowing democracy. Let Florida and Texas fund that shit themselves.
Veronica, I’ll be with you and I know lots of people who will be joining us!
This is bonkers
As a black Michigan citizen I’m ready to file a class action lawsuit against the Trump campaign, the RNC and these other states for racism, harassment and mental distress. I’m sure there are some lawyers out there plotting this all ready. Enough is f—king enough. And the Trump lawsuit is a joke and they know it, the votes are all certified so that ship has sailed.
I want them to pay damages for my PTSD.
Something that will cost you no more than a postage stamp and envelope at most, or that you might be able to do on-line, is file an ethics complaint with the Board of Bar Overseers for each of these Attorneys General, along with Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, the Kraken woman in the states where the are licensed.
So glad I left StL Missouri.
Home of Attorney General Eric Schmidt who is suing to invalidate Biden’s win.
Home of Emily Murphy, Villa Duchesne grad, and the acting GSA.
Home of the McCloskeys, unhinged duo who pulled out guns on peaceful protesters.
Live in St. Louis also. Missouri is also home of the governor who was diagnosed with covid and 10 days later held a fall festival at his house and will not do a mask mandate.
Where are you living now?
It’s 20 now…21 with Texas. And the MAGAts are all so happy!
When the SCOTUS refuses to even hear this case, they will accuse them of being bought off.
The stupid burns with these folks.
Are any of these a$$holes ever going to face consequences for their lies and gaslighting? They seem to be skating along on their white privilege just fine so far.
Because they haven’t done enough to much up the world, the Trumps are loudly celebrating their latest “peace agreement” in “the Middle East.” An agreement between Israel and Morocco, two countries that weren’t at war. And what does Morocco get out of this? Only something that every President in US history has refused to do before, most notably and specifically every President from Nixon through Obama – recognized the Western Sahara as belonging to Morocco and thereby, siding against the Sahrawi people’s efforts for self-determination.
Some weird shit, indeed. Including trump’s tweet that he would personally “intervene.” I’m guessing that intervention might well include the military, missiles and nuclear weapons. And the white supremacist militias just for fun. Good, scary times ahead!
This is a joke. Just look at how fast these people in politics comply with the person of power no matter how ridiculously disqualified the person is. And still nobody questioning the system
As a (former) Republican, I still can’t wrap my head around this. I understand Trump is an evil, narcissistic grifter who cares only about himself, his image (and Ivanka!) but many of these Republicans who have backed and enabled him went into public service to serve our country. What happened to them? Trump could never have done as much damage, or grifted millions from the American people, without these enablers. There is no more Republican party. It is the party of Trump. To hear intelligent people babble on about how the courts should decide the election, mail in votes shouldn’t count (really? most states have had them for years and what about the military?) just blows my mind. I truly believe if Trump won another term, we would become a fascist state. One thing I’ve learned is Democracy can slip away very quickly, and that is a frightening thought. And no, I am not a crazy, left-wing, Socialist, Liberal nut job, which apparently is what you are if you don’t support Trump 100%. I just can’t wait until some of these horrible politicians who have been Trump’s acolytes start saying they never really supported him, and yes, Trump did terrible things. I really will throw up. And how this whiny, overly made up/dyed hair baby can be seen as a “tough guy” is beyond me. Being a horrible bully is not the same as tough. Great example he sets for our kids…
I’m starting to think that Putin’s desire to have Trump in the WH was not so Trump would do his bidding, but to create this awful divide in the US.