While Georgia formally certified Biden as the winner on Friday after its Republican secretary of state resisted pressure from Trump and his acolytes to invalidate a large number of ballots, Republican lawmakers in Michigan said after a meeting with the president of the lame duck that they had no information “that would change the outcome of the elections” while they committed to following the law and the normal process of adjudicating the state’s electors to the candidate who won the popular vote. ”
Biden leads Trump by 150,000 votes in Michigan (15 times the 10,000 margin by which Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016), and poll analysts don’t see a small number of bad or invalidated votes nullifying the result. A recount in Georgia illustrated this after state officials rejected the Trump campaign’s implicit effort to remove majority black votes from Atlanta, a tactic they are also testing in Detroit, Michigan.
“I think the figures we have presented today are correct. The figures reflect the will of the people,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said of the result, adding: “Working as an engineer my entire life, I live by the motto that the numbers do not lie “.
Hours later, Trump tweeted: “Great information on Georgia voter fraud is being released. Stay tuned!”
Lots of information on election fraud about Georgia. Stay tuned!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 1605967119000
And from the Michigan legislators who were summoned to the White House came this: “The Michigan certification process must be a deliberate process free from threats and intimidation. Reports of fraudulent behavior should be taken seriously, thoroughly investigated and, if proven, prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And the candidates who get the most votes win elections and Michigan electoral votes. These are simple truths that should provide confidence in our choices. ”
The twin setbacks for a beleaguered Trump came even as his lawyers continued to foster conspiracy theories, invoking interference from foreign countries and domestic operatives, for which they have neither presented evidence nor been able to prove in court. Earlier this week, Trump fired an official in his own administration who had debunked electoral misinformation, most of which came from Trump and the White House.
The election outcome now seems so early that Twitter said on Friday it would transfer the @Potus account to Joe Biden at noon on January 20, even if Trump does not grant the election. “Twitter is actively preparing to support the transition of the White House institutional Twitter accounts on January 20, 2021,” a company spokesperson told Politico. “As we did for the presidential transition in 2017, this process is being carried out in close consultation with the National Archives and Records Administration.”
However, Trump will retain his personal account @realDonaldTrump, which has been singled out multiple times for posting false information about the election.
Yet historians are grappling with the one scenario that the country’s founding fathers hadn’t envisioned: What happens if Trump just doesn’t resign the presidency? While the Biden Campaign has said that “the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting intruders out of the White House,” and former President Barack Obama joked on a late-night show about the Navy Seals that they were going to evict Trump from the White House, United States. The national security establishment and the military have so far steered clear of any hint of interference should the president decide to strike.
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