Donald Trump (photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr – CC License) With the Electoral College affirming the results of the 2020 presidential election this week, followed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recognizing President-elect Joe Biden as the winner, one might think Donald Trump would begin to accept the reality that his time in the White House is coming to an end. But…no. From CNN:
Yet even amid the intractable movement of the transition and the hurried lame-duck activity — some of which he is participating in himself — Trump is steadfastly refusing to acknowledge that he lost.
In his moments of deepest denial, Trump has told some advisers that he will refuse to leave the White House on Inauguration Day, only to be walked down from that ledge. The possibility has alarmed some aides, but few believe Trump will actually follow through.
“He’s throwing a f***ing temper tantrum,” an adviser said. “He’s going to leave. He’s just lashing out.”
The White House declined to comment for this report.
“Temper tantrums, lashing out, talking about not leaving the White House. Trump is not 4, right? He's 74,” @ErinBurnett says.
Donald Trump on 60 Minutes (screen capture) With basically no options to exploit further in regard to his failed reelection campaign, Donald Trump is now raging at his former media ally, Fox News Channel. “Can’t believe how badly @FoxNews is doing in the ratings,” wrote the Trumpster on Twitter. “They played right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats, & now are floating in limboland. Hiring fired @donnabraziIe, and far worse, allowing endless negative and unedited commercials. @FoxNews is dead. Really Sad!”
Can’t believe how badly @FoxNews is doing in the ratings. They played right into the hands of the Radical Left Democrats, & now are floating in limboland. Hiring fired @donnabraziIe, and far worse, allowing endless negative and unedited commercials. @FoxNews is dead. Really Sad!
Perhaps the biggest difference between 2016 and 2020 is @FoxNews, despite the fact that I went from 63,000,000 Votes to 75,000,000 Votes, a record 12,000,000 Vote increase. Obama went down 3,000,000 Votes, and won. Rigged Election!!!
(MAGA hat in shadows – photo: R Nial Bradshaw/LLC license) Parler, the conservative/uncensored alternative to Twitter, is having some issues after breaking out of the gate to much fanfare. The new social media platform was the shizzle for a second as it was the most downloaded app in the US in the beginning of November. A month later, the app had fallen to #587 according to App Annie. (screen capture via App Annie) From Vice:
A month later, the app’s popularity has plummeted as downloads and daily active user numbers have fallen off dramatically — and now even some of the most influential figures in the QAnon community are criticizing it.
The company announced on Nov. 12 that its membership had almost doubled since the election a week earlier, from 4.5 million to 8 million.
But once people got there, they found that it wasn’t really much fun.
The platform bills itself as “a non-biased, free speech social media focused on protecting user’s rights,” but in reality, it has become an echo chamber of right-wing ideologies and extremist views. Many conservatives have grown tired of Parler because there’s no one with an opposing point of view to argue with.
Additionally, there’s a reported influx of pornography because the app’s lax moderation policies make it easy for adult entertainment folks to bombard the users there.
Donald Trump was apparently so upset the Supreme Court didn’t hand him the election (as he’d planned) that he refused to come down to his own White House holiday party superspreader event. But he did make time for a Twitter rant…because of course. It’s worth pointing out that Team Trump lost dozens and dozens of baseless lawsuits in trying to steal the election. He lost in federal courts, appellate courts, and now the Supreme Court wouldn’t even let his peeps in the door. He lost to conservative, Republican-appointed judges, he even lost to judges he appointed. It’s time, Donnie. It’s time to find some dignity. #TrumpMeltDown quickly began trending on Twitter.
At the White House Christmas Party, guests were informed about 10 minutes ago that the president won't be joining them to make remarks.
I WON THE ELECTION IN A LANDSLIDE, but remember, I only think in terms of legal votes, not all of the fake voters and fraud that miraculously floated in from everywhere! What a disgrace!
Who is a worse governor, @BrianKempGA of Georgia or @dougducey of Arizona??? These are two RINO Republicans who fought against me and the Republican Party harder than any Democrat. They allowed states that I won easily to be stolen. Never forget, vote them out of office!
The Supreme Court had ZERO interest in the merits of the greatest voter fraud ever perpetrated on the United States of America. All they were interested in is “standing”, which makes it very difficult for the President to present a case on the merits. 75,000,000 votes!
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined a bid from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to nullify the ballots of millions of voters in four battleground states that went in favor of President-Elect Joe Biden. From the Washington Post:
The court’s unsigned order was short: “Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.”
Trump, who has appointed three of the court’s nine members, has long viewed the Supreme Court as something of an ace-in-the-hole, and called for the justices to display “courage” and rescue him in post-election litigation.
Just about every legal expert with two brain cells to spark together predicted this would be the outcome for Paxtons’ woeful attempt to curry favor with Trump. Many of the 100+ Republican members of Congress who publicly supported the woeful attempt have said off the record that they knew the lawsuit wouldn’t go anywhere but they felt it was a “loyalty test” to the Trumpster and wanted to avoid any future fire from the Donald. Paxton is currently under federal investigation himself, and many say he was trying to finagle a presidential pardon with his leg humping.
If the Supreme Court shows great Wisdom and Courage, the American People will win perhaps the most important case in history, and our Electoral Process will be respected again!
Defeat. Dismissed. Denied. That’s the resounding and unequivocal answer Donald Trump and his craven cronies get from the Supreme Court. But the effort was, and remains, dangerous, dire, and fundamentally undemocratic.
It’s done. Even the three justices Trump put on the Supreme Court believed the case he called “perhaps the most important case in history” was worthless, not even worthy of a hearing
Amy Coney Barrett being sworn in as Supreme Court Justice with Donald Trump & Justice Clarence Thomas (public domain) Some news items you might have missed: • The Gaily Grind: Guests at the Brussels “daddy orgy” where an anti-LGBT Hungarian politician was caught breaking lockdown rules thought the police who arrived to break up the party were part of the sex party, the organizer claims. • Fox19Now: Wyoming police are investigating after someone allegedly stole an LGBTQ Pride flag from a front porch and burned it. The Fitzpatric family says the vandal came right up to their front porch and even tripped on their Christmas decorations in order to snatch it up. • New York Times: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused a long-shot request from Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state, delivering an unmistakable rebuke to President Trump in the forum on which he had pinned his hopes. The Supreme Court’s order was all of one sentence, and there were no noted dissents.
The Supreme Court has rejected a Pennsylvania Republican congressman’s request to prevent Pennsylvania from certifying its presidential election results in favor of Joe Biden. This case is different from the lawsuit filed by the state of Texas this morning. https://t.co/ReS0eU0JsYpic.twitter.com/ybt6Dvlom4
• Pink News: Donald Trump spends dying days of presidency legalizing discrimination dressed up as ‘religious freedom.’ • Edge Media: An 18-year-old suspect accused of murdering a 15-year-old boy lured him into the woods in Cheshire, England, with a promise of sex before clubbing him to death a year ago, the prosecution in the case charged in court. • AZ Central: The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Arizona, upholding a lower court’s finding that there was no misconduct, fraud or illegal voting in the general election.
#BREAKING: Arizona Supreme Court rejects GOP effort to overturn election results, affirms Biden win in statehttps://t.co/g6lLovd2Gl
• Change.org: Trevor Wilkinson, a student at Clyde High School in Texas, was suspended after he wore nail polish to school. Now, over 125K people have signed a petition in support of his freedom of expression. • Instinct Magazine: Despite lowering before 2019, HIV infections are on the rise again. • Christmas Music: From Annie Lennox’s holiday release, A Christmas Cornucopia. As Slant Magazine wrote in 2010: “’God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ marries the traditional with the modern in a daring and ultimately very successful way. Lennox’s commitment to the material is palpable.”
Donald Trump, Gov. Brian Kemp Even after making the Governor of Georgia his punching bag, Donald Trump reportedly called on Gov. Brian Kemp this morning asking him to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in his state. From the Washington Post:
President Trump called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on Saturday morning to urge him to persuade the state legislature to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state and asked the governor to order an audit of absentee ballot signatures, the latest brazen effort by the president to interfere in the 2020 election.
Hours before he was scheduled to hold a rally in Georgia on behalf of the state’s two GOP senators, Trump pressed Kemp to call a special session of the state legislature to get lawmakers to override the results and appoint electors that would back him, according to a person familiar with the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private call.
He also asked the governor to demand an audit of signatures on mail ballots, something Kemp has previously noted he has no power to do.
Trump went on to question whether Kemp was a real Republican in a tweet wherein he publicly called on the governor to permit the ‘simple signature verification.’ But Georgia state law prohibits the governor from interfering in elections. After Kemp responded to Trump’s tweet saying he’s publicly called for the signature audit in the past, Trump came back at Kemp again. In related news, the Trump campaign lost legal challenges in six states on Friday.
As I told the President this morning, I’ve publicly called for a signature audit three times (11/20, 11/24, 12/3) to restore confidence in our election process and to ensure that only legal votes are counted in Georgia. #gapolhttps://t.co/xdXrhf1vI2
The list of possible “preemptive” pardons from Donald Trump is apparently even longer than originally thought. From Politico:
President Donald Trump is considering preemptively pardoning as many as 20 aides and associates before leaving office, frustrating Republicans who believe offering legal reprieves to his friends and family members could backfire.
Trump’s strategy, like much of his presidency, is nontraditional. He is eschewing the typical protocol of processing cases through the Justice Department. And he may argue that such preemptive pardons for his friends and family members are necessary to spare them from paying millions in legal fees to fight what he describes as witch hunts.
Those up for clemency include everyone from Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to several members of his family — all people who haven’t been charged with a crime.
The Donald is reportedly concerned that pardoning these folks ‘would look like an admission of guilt.’ Which, by the way, is what it would be.
Pardons are for people who committed federal crimes. "Preemptive pardon" sounds a lot like another name for "confession"! https://t.co/J8GVZyIKv6
Donald Trump speaking to Axios (screen capture) First, the Wisconsin Supreme Court threw out Donald Trump’s election lawsuit today. The response comes just two days after the Donald asked the high court to toss the certification of a contest he lost by nearly 21,000 votes. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “In the 4-3 decision, the justices said they would not accept the case he filed directly with them. The president can try to pursue the matter in a lower court, but Thursday’s ruling is a setback that shows he is near the end of the road with his legal challenges in Wisconsin.”
🚨🚨BREAKING: Wisconsin Supreme Court DENIES Trump petition to bring original action to challenge the results of the recount in state Supreme Court.
And then, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied Congressman Mike Kelly’s request to declare universal mail-in voting unconstitutional in the state. Kelly and other GOP plaintiffs were asking the high court to either invalidate 2.5 million mail-in votes or to completely erase the 2020 results in the Keystone State and order the GOP-controlled legislature to pick the presidential electors who will vote in the Electoral College. Kelly and company got a one sentence response.
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania DENIES Rep. Mike Kelly’s request to stay their order refusing to invalidate the election that he won.
Rudy Giuliani at Trump press conference (screen capture) If anyone was wondering why Rudy Giuliani has argued so voraciously on Donald Trump’s behalf regarding the results of the 2020 presidential election, perhaps this is why. The New York Times reports Giuliani has broached the idea of a “pre-emptive pardon” with Trump before the Donald leaves office. From the Times:
It was not clear who raised the topic. The men had also talked previously about a pardon for Mr. Giuliani, according to the people. Mr. Trump has not indicated what he will do, one of the people said.
Mr. Giuliani’s potential criminal exposure is unclear. He was under investigation as recently as this summer by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for his business dealings in Ukraine and his role in ousting the American ambassador there, a plot that was at the heart of the impeachment of Mr. Trump.
Giuliani clapped back at the idea that he’s asked for a pardon on Twitter after the Times posted its report.
#FakeNews NYT lies again. Never had the discussion they falsely attribute to an anonymous source. Hard to keep up with all their lies.
Two sources, my dude, since you didn’t read/comprehend the article. “according to two people *told* of the discussion.” So either you or Trump told 2 people about the conversation. If it didn’t happen then one or both of you were most likely lying.
Trump associates are making appeals to Trump in hopes of obtaining pardons before he leaves office, we’ve confirmed. Those associates include Giuliani, we’re told. Source familiar with the matter said the pardons being sought are “blanket” as associates fear incoming Biden admin.
