Monday, November 9, 2020
I Gave Donald Trump a Chance After He Was Elected. The President's Supporters Should Do the Same for Joe Biden Now
https://time.com/5909222/i-gave-donald-trump-a-chance/
I’m an optimist, but I’m not cock-eyed. As my friend, historian Jon Meacham says, disagreement is the oxygen of democracy. I’m just looking forward to, as Joe Biden said, lowering the temperature of our national thermostat and seeing each other as human beings, not bumper stickers or lawn signs. Perhaps then we can get back to work and start making progress on some enormous problems that won’t just go away on their own. I wanted Donald Trump to succeed and I gave him a chance. For all those who voted for him, please do the same for the incoming Administration. I’m excited to do my part. Are you?
Trump’s election challenges more about keeping base loyal than changing outcome
The Trump campaign’s strategy to file a barrage of lawsuits challenging US President-elect Joe Biden’s win is more about providing President Donald Trump with an off-ramp for a loss he can’t quite grasp and less about changing the election’s outcome, according to senior officials, campaign aides and allies who spoke to The Associated Press.
Sunday, November 8, 2020
Cruz insists Trump 'still has a path to victory,' vote count lawsuits could 'easily' reach Supreme Court
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cruz-trump-path-to-victory-supreme-court
Meanwhile, some Republicans like Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, are criticizing Trump's strategy as Biden seems set to take the reins.
"The President is within his rights to request recounts, to call for investigation of alleged voting irregularities... He is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen—doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world, weakens the institutions that lie at the foundation of the Republic, and recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions," Romney said in a statement posted on Twitter.
President Trump Can't Sue His Way to a Second Term. Why He Is Trying Anyway
https://time.com/5908881/president-trump-cant-sue-his-way-to-a-second-term-why-he-is-trying-anyway/
Shortly after the Associated Press projected that Joe Biden would win enough electoral college votes to defeat President Donald Trump, Trump released a statement saying that his campaign would go to court Monday to fight the outcome. “Networks don’t get to decide elections,” Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said later at a press event at a landscaping company in Philadelphia, “Courts do.”
That is, of course, not the case. With the notable exception of the 2000 presidential race, which was effectively decided by the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, it is voters who decide elections. And that, legal experts say, is the main flaw with Trump’s strategy: Biden has won too many votes for the Trump campaign to mount any legal challenge that would actually change the outcome.
For an election to be successfully litigated, experts say, the margins between the candidates have to be exceedingly close. The dispute between George W. Bush and Al Gore two decades ago, for example, hinged on just 537 votes in Florida. Election litigation is only consequential, says Nathaniel Persily, a professor at Stanford Law School, “if the number of contested ballots exceeds the margin of victory.”
So why pursue a legal strategy that seems so clearly destined to fail? For Trump, some observers say, the goal may not be to win the election so much as to cast a pall of uncertainty over the results, thereby encouraging the perception, however unfounded, that he is the victim of fraud and remains the rightful leader of his fervent base. “This is all looking increasingly like disinformation through litigation, rather than plausible legal claims,” says Joshua Geltzer, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law.
Netanyahu breaks silence, congratulates Biden for winning US elections
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-november-8-2020/
Some 12 hours after victory projected for Democrat over Trump, Israeli PM and president express optimism regarding future of Israeli-American partnership
Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis: Winner of Trump-Biden race will be determined by courts — we don’t know yet who won
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-election-lawsuits-biden-jenna-ellis
Despite projections by many news organizations Saturday that former Vice President Joe Biden has won the presidential election and defeated President Trump, the media don’t have the power to decide the outcome of American elections. Legal challenges by the Trump reelection campaign, where I serve as a legal adviser, are still before the courts and we await judicial rulings on our challenges.
Saturday, November 7, 2020
Trump will be a former president, whether he concedes or not.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/07/opinions/trump-concession-norms-zelizer/index.html
If Donald Trump refuses to give a concession speech, it will be one of the last norms that he breaks as President. Now that President-elect Joe Biden has won the 2020 election, Trump will need to decide what to do next.
The good thing is that it doesn't ultimately matter. A formal concession after an election is not embedded in our Constitution -- it is a norm. Historians tend to date the first public concession back to 1896, when Democrat William Jennings Bryan sent Republican William McKinley a telegram that said: "I hasten to extend my congratulations. We have submitted the issue to the American people and their will is law."
CNN and AP project Joe Biden has won the presidency
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-november-7-2020/
Both outlets call Pennsylvania for the Democrat challenger, lifting him above 270 electoral college votes; MSNBC follows suit; Trump claims illegality in vote counting
Trump again tweets: 'I won the election by a lot'
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/290699
U.S. President Donald Trump continues to tweet despite the expected loss, "I won the election by a lot."
Meanwhile, a Trump advisor told CNN that in fact the campaign has "no concrete evidence" of anything to do with election fraud.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden continues to widen the gaps with his rival, President Donald Trump. So far, the voter turnout is 253 for Biden and 213 for Trump.