WASHINGTON: Promising that he would “fight like hell” to stay in the White House, a desperate president of the United States, Donald Triumph called his vice president Mike pence to “pass” to illegally grant him a second term, even as his supporters began descending into the capital on Tuesday to hold demonstrations that authorities fear are provocative and violent.
Claiming that “there are people who want to come to our city armed”, the authorities of Washington DC, a city run by Democrats, mobilized the National Guard when Trump supporters, many of whom were from racist and white supremacist groups, came to town for so-called “stop theft” rallies outside the House. Blanca on Tuesday and Wednesday.
But by all but those in far-right conspiratorial circles, it is Trump who is trying to steal the election. At a rally in Georgia on Monday, a strident Trump raised the tone and asked Vice President Pence, who is tasked with a joint session of Congress on Thursday with the formal recognition of Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election that has been certified by the states, to challenge the verdict of the states and declare him the winner.
“I hope Mike Pence supports us. He’s a great guy. Of course, if he doesn’t make it, I won’t like him as much,” Trump said at a rally aimed at gathering support for two Republican Senate candidates in Georgia. The loss of both seats in Tuesday’s runoff elections will pass control of the Senate (currently 50-48 in Republican hands) to Democrats.
In another feverish gathering of mostly unmasked supporters that raised fears of being a Covid super-spreader, Trump poked fun at a more moderate Biden rally in the state (“they had 14 people in three cars,” he scoffed) while warning that “America as you know it will end,” if the Democrats won control of the Senate.
“And I think he can never, never go back. He will have gone too far. His vote tomorrow could … be his last chance to save the America we love,” voters said in one state. which has long been the home of many white supremacists who have suppressed black voter turnout to win elections.
Georgia turns blue and Democratic due to the force of minority participation and blacks in cities like Atlanta is considered a turning point in American politics, a forerunner of other states like Texas following the same path due to the changes demographics and the growing assertion of minorities like polls. .
Trump’s appeal to Pence was slightly more circumspect than his intimidation revealed in leaked phone calls from two Republican Georgia officials. On the call, he first pleaded, then ordered officials to “recalculate” the presidential vote count in the state and “find 11,780 votes,” enough for him to win the state.
Georgia officials not only rejected Trump’s false claim of large-scale fraud, but followed it up with a point-by-point rebuttal at a press conference, practically calling the president a liar. Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, who is being hailed for his bravery in facing harassment from Trump, said he avoided 18 calls from the White House before speaking to the president reluctantly. He is the second Republican official to publicly snub Trump by refusing to heed his call.
Trump has called on Republicans who have refused to back his false claims the “surrender caucus” and the RINOs (Republicans in name only) setting the stage for the split between establishment Republicans and insurgents backing his extreme tactics. In a withering takedown of lawmakers who support Trump, conservative commentator George Will called them the country’s “most dangerous internal enemies.”
Trump’s blunt direction to Raffensperger to “find” the exact number of votes needed to win had prompted several quarters to call for a criminal investigation by the FBI and a prosecution for attempting to alter the election results. Neal Katyal, a former acting attorney general, said Trump should be impeached to set a precedent that “a president who tries to cheat on his way to reelection will be held accountable.”
On video: ‘We will fight like hell’ to keep the White House: Trump
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