He's Definitely Going to Try and Steal the Election
Politics
If there was any doubt that Donald Trump would not go quietly into the night, that doubt has now been pulverized into fine dust and that dust thrown to the four corners of the earth, never to be reunited hence. At a press conference on Thursday when asked whether Trump would peacefully step down if he lost the election, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany answered, “He will accept the results of a free and fair election,” after first deflecting and minimizing the importance of the question.
The question asked at the conference was a follow-up to comments Trump had made during a Wednesday news conference, during which Brian Karem, a senior White House reporter with Playboy, asked if he would accept a peaceful transfer of power, “win, lose, or draw.” Trump responded, “We’re going to have to see what happens. You know that I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster […] Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation.” On Thursday outside the White House, he doubled down, telling reporters, “We want to make sure that the election is honest and I’m not sure that it can be.”
McEnany, who took a jab at Karem by referring to him dismissively as “the Playboy reporter,” would not give a clear answer to a clear question that was posed three times. Her response to whether the President will agree to a peaceful transfer of power: He would accept the results of a “free and fair election.”
The person currently casting the most doubt on whether the 2020 election will be free or fair is Donald Trump himself, who has repeatedly questioned if mail-in voting results will be accurate, and is now amplifying his unwillingness to accept any outcome in which he does not win—whether that means sacrificing the will of the people or not. The foundation to sue over election results is being laid and McEnany, a loyal foot soldier, is making sure that when that happens there’s no paper trail of Trump agreeing to leave the White House if he loses. Wake me up when November ends. [Politico]
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s body is lying in repose before she makes her final stop beside her husband at Arlington National Cemetery. On Thursday morning, she bestowed upon her adoring public one final gift: a chance to boo Trump.
Trump and his adoring wife reported for presidential duty to “pay their respects” to the late, great Ginsburg—a.k.a. show up for the photo opp—and when their facades became visible to gathered mourners, a moment of true beauty occurred. It began as a boo, a natural response to seeing someone so vile pretend to be a human being for more than ten seconds. But when it grew into a chant of “vote him out”—and as Donald Trump fidgeted, feeling the true weight of this nation’s hatred for him—a tear rolled down my cheek.
This one fleeting moment of pure love for Ginsburg, and for America, serves as the perfect closing piece for Ginsburg’s legacy. In her honor, it won’t be enough to just get mad and stay mad, the response must be to vote and fight for change. Also, the response is to continuously embarrass this buffoon until he implodes from shame and frustration. [NBC]
Mary Trump, niece to Donald and author of the Trump family tell-all Too Much Is Never Enough, is suing her uncle and two other family members for allegedly “committ[ing] fraud in order to deprive [Mary] of her interests in the Trump family business and enrich themselves.” Donald Trump shitting on someone else in order to enrich himself? I can’t imagine such behavior is possible.
Lawyers for Mary Trump filed a suit stating that Donald, his sister Maryanne, and their late brother Robert “conspired to siphon funds from Mary Trump’s interests,” by trying to squeeze her out of the family business when she was a teenager. Mary believes she was defrauded out of tens of millions of dollars and is now hellbent on rescuing her inheritance from the orange clutches of death. The timing couldn’t be better. [The Hill]
- Does anyone really believe that any self-respecting anarchist would be responsible for this graffiti? [CBS]
- Missouri Governor Mike Parson, a big fan of not wearing masks, has tested positive for covid along with his wife. [NPR]
- Guard your loins, Florida is seeing a surge in Republican voter registrations. [Politico]
- College reopenings caused a surge in coronavirus cases. Who could have possibly predicted that outcome? [LA Times]
- Vladimir Putin has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Also on the list of 2020 nominees, a very well decorated rock. [NY Post]
- Tucker Carlson compares civilians protesting the grand jury findings in the case of Breonna Taylor’s murder to Hezbollah. No one ever told Carlson not to use words he didn’t know how to define. [HuffPost]
- DC and Puerto Rico are inching closer to potential statehood. Fucking hell. [The Hill]