Photo by Richard Hine, August 2016
An American President telling the world the American election can’t be trusted.
If a Russian screenwriter had pitched the idea to Putin he would have been told to come back with something more plausible.
But that’s what happened tonight as Trump gave a rambling, low-energy, fact-free press conference in which he claimed he was being cheated out of victory in Tuesday’s election because the votes were being counted. Except in Arizona, where he would be cheated out of victory unless the votes were counted.
On NBC News, Lester Holt cut the Trump Show off to tell viewers: “We have to interrupt here because the president made a number of false statements including the notion that there has been fraudulent voting.”
On CNN, Jake Tapper said: “Frankly, watching him flail like that, it’s just pathetic.”
The press conference came at the end of the day in which Facebook shut down a fast-growing ‘Stop the Steal’ group which had accumulated 300,000 members and was circulating calls for violence, while Twitter was compelled to repeatedly label Trump’s tweets for being misleading.
Trump’s tweets are also dangerous. As actor John Cusack wrote:
Trump is already signaling he wants to fight this all the way to the Supreme Court, where, according to one of his legal advisers a quid pro quo is fully expected.
It seem like a weird strategy to openly admit that the case Trump wants to take to the United States Supreme Court is basically, “You guys owe me. Don’t let me down.”
Two days after the polls closed, Trump keeps repeating the claim that he won the election because he was ahead at the half-way point and that’s all that matters.
It’s ridiculous.
It’s pathetic.
And even top Republicans are saying so. Larry Hogan, the GOP Governor of Maryland said “there is no defense” for what Trump said. GOP rep Adam Klinzinger called it “insane.”
Of course, the psychopathic Trump is frantic. He has been humiliated by his second crushing defeat in the popular vote. And even as he may fear the legal jeopardy losing the presidency will put him in, he is still trying to sell his poorly educated marks on the idea that he’s being cheated. If he does relinquish power, he wants his supporters to cling to their grievance as tightly as they do to their racism and their religion. Because as long as he and his grifter family stay out of prison, they will be looking to monetize that grievance.
But even Fox News isn’t buying Trump’s foot stamping. Despite Tucker’s and Hannity’s best efforts, the network is no longer willing to blindly push Trump’s reckless conspiracy theories. Most of their coverage since election night has been guiding viewers toward acceptance of a Trump loss.
I can’t tell you for sure the final outcome of this election. But right now, it’s clear that Emperor Donald has no clothes.
Biden is being Presidential.
Trump’s acting like a loser.
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