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US President Donald Trump tried to harness the power of the Oval Office today in an extraordinary attempt to block the victory of President-elect Joe Biden, but his pleas to Michigan lawmakers to revoke the will of his constituents they seemed to have left them indifferent.
Donald Trump in his first public speech since his electoral defeat. Source: Associated Press
Trump summoned a delegation from the state’s Republican leadership to the battlefield, including the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House, in an apparent extension of his efforts to persuade judges and election officials to sideline. Biden’s 154,000-vote margin of victory and awarding Trump to state voters. It came amid mounting criticism that Trump’s futile efforts to subvert the 2020 election results could cause lasting damage to democratic traditions.
Trump’s efforts spread to other states that Biden also led, amounting to an unprecedented attempt by a sitting president to maintain his hold of power, or, in failure, to delegitimize his opponent’s victory to the eyes of his army of supporters.
Rick Hasen, an electoral law expert and professor who has been meticulously narrating the 2020 race, wrote that there would be “riots” in the streets if an effort was made to override the vote in Michigan, calling it the equivalent of an attempted coup.
“We should be concerned because this is deeply undemocratic and is delegitimizing Joe Biden’s victory in a free and fair election,” Hasen wrote on his blog. “It is deeply depressing that we still have to discuss this. But it is highly unlikely that it will lead to a different outcome for the president. “
In a joint statement after the White House meeting, Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield said the fraud allegations should be investigated, but indicated They have not been moved so far by Trump’s statements. “We have not yet learned of any information that will change the outcome of the elections in Michigan, and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan voters, as we have said throughout this choice”. they said.
“The candidates who get the most votes win Michigan’s election and electoral votes,” they added, saying they used the meeting with Trump to pressure him for more pandemic aid money for their state.
The president again falsely claimed victory today, stating as an aside during a White House announcement on the price of drugs: “I won, by the way, but you know, we’ll find out.”
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But that hasn’t deterred Donald Trump from tweeting more allegations of voter fraud today. Source: BBC
Trump’s roughly hour-long meeting with Michigan lawmakers came days after he personally called two officials from the local canvassing board who had refused to certify the results in Wayne County, the most populous county in Michigan and one that overwhelmingly favored Biden. The two Republican officials eventually agreed to certify the results. But after Trump’s call, they said they had thought better of it.
The State Board of Electors will meet Tuesday to certify the result at the state level, and it was unclear whether Republican members of that panel would similarly resist.
Some Trump allies have expressed hope that state lawmakers will be able to intervene in the selection of Republican voters, as the president and his lawyers have promoted unsubstantiated allegations of fraud that have been repeatedly rejected in courts across the country. With that in mind, Trump invited Michigan lawmakers. It was also said that he was considering extending a similar invitation to Pennsylvania lawmakers.
“The president could be calling Republican lawmakers and others to the White House to try and squeeze them out,” Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton tweeted. “Republicans at all levels (state, county, boards of elections, legislatures) must resist this political pressure.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters that the meeting with Michigan officials “was not an advocacy meeting” and insisted that Trump “regularly meets with lawmakers from across the country.” But such gatherings are, in fact, rare, particularly since Trump has kept a low profile since the election.
As he was leaving Detroit for Washington this morning, Shirkey was invaded by activists holding signs reading “Respect the Vote” and “Protect Democracy.”
Chatfield tweeted before meeting Trump: “No matter the party, when you have the opportunity to meet with the president of the United States, of course you take advantage of it. I won’t apologize for that. “
Trump’s effort to sideline the Michigan vote will surely fail. Experts on Michigan’s election law said the authority of the State Board of Tellers was limited in scope.
“Your duties are to receive the scrutiny and certify the scrutiny, that’s all,” said John Pirich, a former assistant attorney general who teaches at Michigan State University School of Law. “They have absolutely no power to investigate accusations, theories or any kind of half-hearted arguments that are being thrown.”
The Michigan Legislature would be asked to select voters if Trump succeeds in persuading the board not to certify the results.
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer could file for a court order forcing board members to certify the election and could remove those who refused, said Steve Liedel, another election attorney.
Trump’s game for Michigan was one of the last-minute tactics in the battlefield states his team is using to challenge defeat. They also suggested in a legal challenge that Pennsylvania overruled the popular vote there and pressured county officials in Arizona to delay the certification of vote counts. There have been multiple lawsuits in battlefield states that have so far failed to reverse any votes.
In two Democratic-leaning Wisconsin counties that are counting votes, the Trump campaign sought to discard tens of thousands of absentee ballots that it alleged should not have been counted.
The objections were rejected twice by three members of the Dane County Board of Electors with bipartisan votes. Trump was expected to raise the same objections in Milwaukee County before a court challenge after the count is complete.
Former Bush administration official Christine Todd Whitman called Trump’s efforts “the actions of a third world dictator. It is not who we are as Americans, and we do not want the public to stray from this thinking that this is it. the norm. There is no basis. ” for trying to reverse this. “
The increasingly desperate and erratic moves by Trump and his allies stand no reasonable chance of changing the outcome of the 2020 election, in which Biden has now received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history and has garnered 270 votes. Electoral College required to win. .
Some Republicans have embraced Trump’s flawed narrative and are helping him spread it. In Georgia, where a manual audit found that Biden had still won, Governor Brian Kemp said a court order required him to certify the results. But he suggested that Trump demand a recount and wanted answers to the alleged “wrongdoing.”
In Minnesota, a state that Biden won easily, some Republican officials are now expressing concern about “data anomalies.”
Biden’s legal advisor Bob Bauer said Trump’s efforts were detrimental to democracy.
“It is an abuse of power,” he said. “It is an open attempt to intimidate election officials, it is absolutely shocking. … It’s pathetic too. “
