'Everyone sees the train wreck coming': Trump reveals his November endgame

[JoeOtterbein]

Politico

After more than four years of nonstop voter fraud claims and insinuations that he might not accept the election results, the president isn't keeping his intent a secret.

By DAVID SIDERS and HOLLY OTTERBEIN

09/25/2020 04:30 AM EDT

Following his defeat in the 2016 Iowa caucus, Donald Trump accused Ted Cruz of cheating and said the results should be nullified.

After winning the presidency that fall, Trump insisted, without evidence, that there was “serious voter fraud” in three states he lost to Hillary Clinton. Now, running behind Joe Biden in the polls, the president complains the outcome will be “rigged.”

After more than four years of nonstop voter fraud claims, insinuations that he might not accept the presidential election results and at least one float about delaying the November election, it’s no secret. Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power this week — and his choice not to walk back his remarks Thursday in the face of widespread unease — merely broadcasts his strategic intent in terms both parties can understand.

As a result, Republicans can no longer truthfully deny that Trump may be unwilling to leave office in the event he is defeated. And Democrats must now confront the possibility they may not have the power to stop him.

snip

more at link

Another important report co-written by one of Politico's top reporters.

[mcar]

1. This is simply false

As a result, Republicans can no longer truthfully deny that Trump may be unwilling to leave office in the event he is defeated. And Democrats must now confront the possibility they may not have the power to stop him.

IMPOTUS' term ends Jan. 20, 2021, at noon. Period. If he refuses to leave, he will be escorted out of the WH.

Politico spewing nonsense once again.

[Whiskeytide]

3. It's not a situation where he will be a squatter...

... in the office. His plan is NOT to lose the election and then try to barricade himself in the White House.

He plans to challenge the election results in court. He has been seeding this idea since he began running for office. If he is successful in that challenge, then he will begin a new term on Jan 21.

[mcar]

4. Yes, I am aware of that.

But that is not what the article claims. This, again, is what it claims:

As a result, Republicans can no longer truthfully deny that Trump may be unwilling to leave office in the event he is defeated. And Democrats must now confront the possibility they may not have the power to stop him.

Which is nonsense.

[Eyeball_Kid]

5. Just vote early, folks. As early as you can. Get your ballots in ASAP. Do NOT delay. Double-check.

Trump is counting on you to be lazy. Just like him.

Take the initiative. Vote early. If you vote on election day, get in line early, before the polls open. Be prepared to fight if need be. Your vote is that important.

[davekriss]

7. As with all coups...

It depends on who the military falls behind.

[BlueWavePsych]

10. If Drumpf's neo-Nazi militia tries to start a civil war,

imagine the debriefing video of them running around in their Taliban-style trucks being blasted by HellFire drone missles. Then, as they run back to their prepper bunkers, B52s use the latest 'Bunker Busters'. No need for body bags.

Recently, two retired Army officers speculated about deploying a brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division to overpower Trump's "private army" that they believe the defeated president will use to try to cling to office. Another retired officer, a former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, imagined the military in battle with armed Trump supporters, the result being that "all bets are off as to how much blood might flow."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/coup-porn-resistance-sees-military-removing-trump-from-office

[FakeNoose]

2. Somebody please shut these pundits up!

These columnists and political writers are all making it worse.

Just STFU, please! Stop being megaphones for Chump's worst brain-farts.

[Eyeball_Kid]

6. That would be nice. There's enough drama. Pundits and journalists don't need to pile it on.

Just the facts.

And vote early.

[George II]

12. Unfortunately they get paid to express their personal opinion and people take it as fact.

[BlueWavePsych]

8. Alarming but we should not be complacent! GOTV

[skip fox]

9. Let's prepare fore a blitz!

Switching slates of electoral college members needn't work everywhere in order to work

He will try everything in every viable state to steal the election. The ploy of getting a new slate of electoral college candidates many only work in one or two states, but since he's trying many ploys, he could steal elections in other states in other ways

After the election, he could have DOJ lawyers contesting ballots, he can bus in crowds (like R. Stone, I believe, did in 2000) to disrupt vote counting of absentee ballots (with attendant news coverage to galvanize his rabid followers).

During the election, he could encourage the most militant members of his base to stand the requisite distance from polling place doors (from 30-200 feet depending on the state) and they could even be armed.

After the election he could try to have the courts stop the counting of ballots 10 hours after the polls close.

Etc., etc. (There are better imaginations on this than mine.)

Let's not ignore or discount any of these just because one of them (like switching slates of electoral college members) wouldn't work everywhere.

Let's prepare for a blitz!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

11. There's not a doubt in my mind that they will go after, tooth and claw, mail in ballots if ...

... it looks like the mail ballots will push the election to Biden. Unfortunately, mail in ballots are easily contested because there are so many ways to make a mistake.

In fact, that’s exactly what they plan to do.

I wouldn’t put it past Republicans or Russia (is there a difference?) to mail in to counties around the country thousands of obvious fraudulent absentee ballots. Then claim massive fraud to shut down post election night counting.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/

Mail-in ballots will have plenty of flaws for the Trump lawyers to seize upon. Voting by mail is more complicated than voting in person, and technical errors are common­place at each step. If voters supply a new address, or if they write a different version of their name (for example, by shortening Benjamin to Ben), or if their signature has changed over the years, or if they print their name on the signature line, or if they fail to seal the ballot inside an inner security envelope, their votes may not count. With in-person voting, a poll worker in the precinct can resolve small errors like these, for instance by directing a voter to the correct signature line, but people voting by mail may have no opportunity to address them.

During the primaries this spring, Republican lawyers did dry runs for the November vote at county election offices around the country. An internal memo prepared by an attorney named J. Matthew Wolfe for the Pennsylvania Republican Party in June reported on one such exercise. Wolfe, along with another Republican lawyer and a member of the Trump campaign, watched closely but did not intervene as election commissioners in Philadelphia canvassed mail-in and provisional votes. Wolfe cataloged imperfections, taking note of objections that his party could have raised.

There were missing signatures and partial signatures and signatures placed in the wrong spot. There were names on the inner security envelopes, which are supposed to be unmarked, and ballots without security envelopes at all. Some envelopes arrived “without a postmark or with an illegible postmark,” Wolfe wrote. (Watch for postmarks to become the hanging chads of 2020.) Some voters wrote their birthdate where a signature date belonged, and others put down “an impossible date, like a date after the primary election.”

Some of the commissioners’ decisions “were clear violations of the direction in and language of the election code,” Wolfe wrote. He recommended that “someone connected with the party review each application and each mail ballot envelope” in November. That is exactly the plan.

[LanternWaste]

13. Less a reporter and more an editorialist..

Reporters attempt to deny themselves bias and support their premise, while the author here appears to bathe in bias and uses that to reach an unsupported conclusion. One might say, her bias is SUrgInG!!!!