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US President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the November 3 election took another blow after a senior Georgia official announced that President-elect Joe Biden was the winner after a recount in the state. .
Biden, a Democrat, is preparing to take office on January 20, but Trump, a Republican, has refused to budge and is seeking a way to invalidate or overturn the results in multiple states, citing widespread voter fraud.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger added cold water to the Trump campaign effort when he confirmed that a manual recount and audit of all ballots cast in the southern state had determined that Biden was the winner.
“The numbers reflect the verdict of the people, not a decision of the secretary of state’s office or the courts, or of any of the campaigns,” Raffensperger, a Republican and Trump supporter, told reporters.
With the door seemingly slammed shut in Georgia and having been hit by a string of court losses, Trump’s team is hopeful in a bid to get Republican-controlled legislatures in other Biden-won battle states to stop. set aside the results and declare Trump the winner, according to three people familiar with the plan.
He’s focusing on Michigan and Pennsylvania for now, but even if both states changed the president, he would have to revoke the vote in another state to jump ahead of Biden in the Electoral College.
Such an extraordinary event would be unprecedented in modern American history.
Not only would Trump need three state legislatures to intervene against the vote counts as they stand now, he would also have those actions confirmed by Congress and, almost certainly, by the US Supreme Court.
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Trump’s lawyers are seeking to take the power to elect electors from governors and secretaries of state and hand it over to his party’s friendly state legislators, saying the U.S. Constitution gives legislatures ultimate authority.
“Frankly, all elections in all swing states should be canceled and legislatures should make sure voters are selected for Trump,” Sidney Powell, one of Trump’s lawyers, told Fox Business Network on Thursday.
Legal experts have sounded the alarm at the notion of a sitting president seeking to undermine the will of voters, though they have expressed skepticism that a state legislature can legally replace its own constituents.
Bob Bauer, legal adviser for the Biden campaign, told reporters that Trump was in a desperate legal position.
So far, Trump’s attempts to reverse the outcome through lawsuits and recounts have met with little success.
Despite the setbacks, his campaign has not abandoned its legal efforts and has pledged to file more lawsuits.
Trump to meet with Michigan Republicans
Trump will meet with Michigan state legislative leaders, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield, both Republicans, at the White House on Friday, according to a source in Michigan.
The two lawmakers will hear what the president, who requested the meeting, has to say, the source said.
Shirkey told a Michigan news outlet earlier this week that the legislature would not name a second voters list.
Arriving at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on the outskirts of Washington, Shirkey and his colleagues were greeted by a swarm of protesters.
Some held signs that read “SHAME,” while others chanted “Certify Results” and “Respect Michigan Voters.” One protester asked, “What has Trump promised you?”
“It’s incredibly dangerous that they’re even entertaining the conversation,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, told MSNBC. “This is an embarrassment to the state.”
Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were the pillars of Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, but Biden prevailed in all three by even greater margins than Trump’s four years ago.
Trump’s hopes of remaining president are doomed without them.
Although election officials have not reported any major wrongdoing, most prominent Republicans have either sided with Trump or quietly adhered. But some, including US Sen. Mitt Romney, have spoken out.
“Having failed to present a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy in any court of law, the president has now resorted to open pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election,” Romney said, the 2012 party nominated for the presidency, said in a statement Thursday.
“It is difficult to imagine a worse and more undemocratic action by a sitting US president.”
Other Republican senators, including Ben Sasse and Joni Ernst, asked Trump to offer evidence of voter fraud.
Meanwhile, Biden was scheduled to meet with Democratic leaders in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, after spending most of the week with advisers who they plan their administration.
Nationally, Biden won nearly 6 million more votes than Trump, a difference of 3.8 percentage points. But the outcome of the election is determined in the Electoral College, where each state’s electoral votes, based primarily on population, are generally awarded to the winner of a state’s popular vote.
Biden leads by 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232 as states work to certify their results at least six days before the Electoral College meeting on Dec. 14.
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