Trump campaign shifts strategy as recount, lawsuit efforts founder

[webfact]

Trump campaign shifts strategy as recount, lawsuit efforts founder

By Andy Sullivan and Michael Martina

 

A Biden supporter holds a sign reading "voters decide" at a 'Stop the Steal' protest held by supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump outside the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, U.S., November 7, 2020. REUTERS/Bing Guan/Files

 

WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - With legal challenges to his loss in the U.S. presidential election flailing, President Donald Trump's campaign is trying to persuade Republican state legislators to intervene in battleground states won by Democratic rival Joe Biden.

 

The new strategy, confirmed by three people familiar with it, is being pursued as Georgia was expected on Thursday to affirm Biden's victory there after a painstaking recount, and as Trump's re-election campaign said it was withdrawing a lawsuit in Michigan.

 

President-elect Biden has captured 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232 in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the winner of the election, well above of the 270 needed for victory.

 

The winner in each state is awarded that state's electoral votes, the number of which are roughly proportional to the population.

 

Trump's campaign has filed lawsuits alleging electoral fraud in a number of states since the Nov. 3 election, with scant success so far. As those efforts falter, Trump's lawyers are seeking to take the power of appointing electors away from voters and give it to friendly state lawmakers from his party.

 

A person familiar with the campaign’s legal strategy said it has become a “more targeted approach towards getting the legislators engaged.”

 

In the battleground state of Georgia, the official in charge of implementing the state's voting systems, Gabriel Sterling, told Fox News the state's audit and recount were nearly complete and on track to verify Biden's advantage. He called accusations of voter irregularities "wild mischaracterizations."

 

"The good part was: the audit did its job" in finding a few small batches of uncounted votes that were being tallied that morning, he said. "The recount is going great."

 

The Trump campaign has so far filed at least nine lawsuits challenging the election and its results, scoring only two minor victories -- extended poll hours at some Clark County, Nevada, voting sites on Nov. 3 and setting aside some mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania, which Biden won by more than 82,000 votes, according to Edison Research.

 

Biden said on Thursday that Trump's challenge of the election results was "totally irresponsible" behavior that "sends a horrible message about who we are as a country."

 

Several prominent law firms have pulled out of the campaign's legal challenges, leaving Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to spearhead the continuing efforts.

 

At a news conference on Thursday, Giuliani said he planned to file more lawsuits and that Democrats had engaged in a "national conspiracy" to manipulate vote totals, though he admitted he did not have any evidence of such activity. He did not answer a question about trying to sway state lawmakers.

 

Other members of the legal team floated a theory involving Venezuela and George Soros, a bogeyman of conservatives, though they said they would probably not pursue it in court.

 

Giuliani said accounts of suspicious activity would ultimately overturn the election, which Biden won nationwide by 5.9 million votes. Some of those accounts have already been thrown out of court.

 

"We cannot allow these crooks - because that's what they are - to steal this election. They elected Donald Trump. They didn't elect Joe Biden," Giuliani said.

 

Giuliani's agitated performance, featuring rivulets of hair dye running down his face, was widely mocked by Democrats. Others expressed alarm.

 

"That press conference was the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history," tweeted Christopher Krebs, who headed up the U.S. government's efforts to combat election disinformation until he was fired by Trump earlier this week.

 

Critics say Trump's refusal to concede has serious implications for national security and the fight against the coronavirus, which has killed more than 250,000 Americans.

 

Among other concerns, the administration has held up funding and security clearances in the transition period before Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

 

DELAY

Part of the new Trump campaign effort involves trying to delay certification, the normally routine process by which election results are finalized, either through recounts or by stalling at the local level, a senior campaign official said.

 

That happened on Tuesday in Detroit, where Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers at first refused to certify the results, then reversed themselves, then signed affidavits that they wanted to rescind their certification.

 

One of the members told Reuters that Trump called her after she agreed to certify the results.

 

Trump's campaign dropped a federal lawsuit on Thursday challenging the election results in Michigan, citing the Wayne County officials' affidavits. Officials say it is too late, however.

 

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Thursday said Michigan would be conducting a planned, voluntary audit after the results were certified, which she called routine.

 

"Audits are neither designed to address nor performed in response to false or mythical allegations of 'irregularities' that have no basis in fact," Benson, who oversees the state's election process, said in a statement.

 

The campaign has already asked a judge in Pennsylvania, where Biden won by 82,000 votes, to declare Trump the winner and said its Republican-controlled legislature should choose the state's 20 Electoral College voters.

 

The latest effort reflects the reality that Trump has a dwindling number of options to overturn the results.

 

State and federal election officials agree with outside experts that there is no evidence for Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud.

 

In the court of public opinion, however, the allegations appear to be having their intended effect. A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Wednesday found about half of Republicans believe Trump "rightfully won" the election.

 

Lawyer David Boies, who aided former Democratic Vice President Al Gore's legal efforts after the 2000 election, said Trump's efforts to "stir up" his political base wouldn't change the ultimate outcome.

 

"From a legal standpoint, this election is over," Boies told CNBC on Thursday. "There isn't anything that's going to be done to turn it around."

 

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan, Susan Heavey, David Morgan, Jason Lange, and Doina Chiacu in Washington, Michael Martina in Detroit; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Sonya Hepinstall; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-20

 

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[thaibeachlovers]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Lawyer David Boies, who aided former Democratic Vice President Al Gore's legal efforts after the 2000 election, said Trump's efforts to "stir up" his political base wouldn't change the ultimate outcome.

It may not, but Trump owes it to the more than 70 MILLION people that voted for him to do everything he can to win.

Gore certainly didn't concede before he had to.

[Sujo]

1 minute ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It may not, but Trump owes it to the more than 70 MILLION people that voted for him to do everything he can to win.

Gore certainly didn't concede before he had to.

Gore wasnt behind by 6 million votes. 

 

Trump already did everything he could to win, but the people voted and he lost. Get over it.

 

Rudy and he hair dye fail is just milking the money from the campaign.

[stevenl]

6 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It may not, but Trump owes it to the more than 70 MILLION people that voted for him to do everything he can to win.

Gore certainly didn't concede before he had to.

Don't you think the more than 75 MILLION people that voted for Biden have a right to see him being prepared?

[Chomper Higgot]

8 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It may not, but Trump owes it to the more than 70 MILLION people that voted for him to do everything he can to win.

Gore certainly didn't concede before he had to.

Since when did Trump ever feel he owed anybody anything?

[Walker88]

There is weird, and there is republican weird.

 

At today's s-show of a presser, with sweat mixing with bad hair dye streaming down both sides of his face, giuliani and a gaggle of whackadoodles who ostensibly passed the bar exam in some State, tried to argue---I'm not making this up---that:

 

A US Army commando unit recovered a server at some company in Germany, where the late Hugo Chavez of Venezuela (who, incidentally, died in 2013 of cancer he claimed was given him via super secret laser beams) had concocted a strategy so sophisticated that evidence cannot be found, and where Michigan had sent all their ballots to be counted, plus the super duper secret server erased votes for 45.

 

When a reporter asked for evidence, one "lawyer" (jenna ellis, who called this gaggle of folks "an elite strikeforce team") said "Your question is unfair".

 

Anyone who watched that could be forgiven thinking someone had slipped a hallucinogenic into their coffee.

 

That is what's left of the Party of Lincoln.

[herfiehandbag]

15 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It may not, but Trump owes it to the more than 70 MILLION people that voted for him to do everything he can to win.

Gore certainly didn't concede before he had to.

Rather more people voted for Mr Biden than voted for Mr Trump. That is the simple truth. By It is reflected in the popular vote, it is reflected in the electoral college result. Attempts to overturn this result through the courts have failed through a lack of evidence to support the allegations of fraud. That is, obviously, because there was no fraud.

 

The only people who are owed anything are those that won the election.

 

Attempts to manipulate the certification are nothing more than an attempt to stage a coup. Those leading this attempt seem, from their latest need conference, to be as mad as a box of frogs!

Edited November 20, 2020 by herfiehandbag

[robblok]

11 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It may not, but Trump owes it to the more than 70 MILLION people that voted for him to do everything he can to win.

Gore certainly didn't concede before he had to.

If lying and spreading false information and dividing the country is everything he can do then he is doing a great job.

 

 

Doing all he can do does not mean getting the position by cheating and lying. If he had proof there would be cases in court. This is just stalling.

[robblok]

Before the gulf wars (the one with fabricated evidence) I always thought highly of the US and its people. Supported most of what they said thought it was a non corrupt honest country. The fabricated evidence of the gulf war damaged it. I became a sceptic. Then Trump for 4 years made it worse, and now the dirty tricks these people are trying just to not accept defeat shows me how rotten the US is. 

 

This is just shameful a president acting like this. No proof but saying there is fraud all that lying and cheating. How can the US ever regain any credibility in the world. If they work this way in their own house who knows how much they lie to their allies. Bit scary. 

[bunnydrops]

32 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It may not, but Trump owes it to the more than 70 MILLION people that voted for him to do everything he can to win.

Gore certainly didn't concede before he had to.

 No he owes it to himself to keep this cash cow walking

 

https://globalnews.ca/news/7457149/election-defence-fund-money-trump/

 

Trump’s solicitation website carries a banner headline that says “OFFICIAL ELECTION DEFENSE FUND” and “CONTRIBUTE NOW.”

Scrolling down the page would take a donor to the fine print, which shows that donations are split between “Save America,” which gets 60 per cent of the money, and the RNC, which gets the other 40%. None of the money flows to Trump’s official “recount” committee fund until Trump’s Save America share reaches the legal contribution limit of $5,000, according to the disclosures.

Read more: Trump campaign sues to block certification of Biden win in Pennsylvania

That means that, before a dollar goes into the recount fund, Save America would receive $5,000 and the RNC around $3,300. Donations to the recount committee are legally limited to $2,800.

If a Trump donor gave $500, for instance, $300 would go to Trump’s Save America PAC, $200 would to the RNC – and nothing would go to his election defence fund.

One Republican political strategist said Trump is misleading supporters who might give small donations to whatever cause he approves.

 

[Jeffr2]

Georgia just certified.  Biden won. Game over. Again.

[thaibeachlovers]

12 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

Georgia just certified.  Biden won. Game over. Again.

Look forward to 4 years of the same sort of attacks on Biden as Trump suffered. The Dems and CNN opened the door to it, IMO, and the GOP will relish payback for every misstep that Biden makes, IMO.

Edited November 20, 2020 by thaibeachlovers

[Dumbastheycome]

11 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Look forward to 4 years of the same sort of attacks on Biden as Trump suffered. The Dems and CNN opened the door to it, IMO, and the GOP will relish payback for every misstep that Biden makes, IMO.

Straight off  comes a vindictive response to  an outcome that arose  from a backlash to Trump and his Administration's gross failures.

The  can of worms that has had the  lid  kept on will be opened and then will be seen who will continue to put their hands up in defense !

[Sujo]

13 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Look forward to 4 years of the same sort of attacks on Biden as Trump suffered. The Dems and CNN opened the door to it, IMO, and the GOP will relish payback for every misstep that Biden makes, IMO.

Lucky you arent a trump supporter.

 

btw, it wasnt the dems or cnn, trump opened the door by being as dumb as a rock.

 

that press conference by rudy was the weirdest thing i have ever seen. Smooth transition of power has no chance.

[placeholder]

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It may not, but Trump owes it to the more than 70 MILLION people that voted for him to do everything he can to win.

Gore certainly didn't concede before he had to.

But Gore didn't file multiple junk lawsuits, did he? Just one that was decided 5-4 in favor of Bush. Serious legal issues were at stake. 

[ThreeEyedRaven]

When you tell yourself something is the case, despite there being zero evidence, you are quite simply deluded. End of story. Biden won. Face reality and get over it.

[J Town]

There is a long LONG LONG shot that, by convincing the electoral college representatives from each state to ignore the peoples' wishes and cast their respective votes for 45 (called "faithless electors"), he could possibly squeak a win.  That's his only shot left. It won't work. Biden won. Full stop.

[riclag]

34 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Look forward to 4 years of the same sort of attacks on Biden as Trump suffered. The Dems and CNN opened the door to it, IMO, and the GOP will relish payback for every misstep that Biden makes, IMO.

Let it play out ! If things work out as whats been reported at the press conference , the truth will prevail!  Mr. Trump and his elite task force of lawyers ,sound dangerously confident!

 

3 hours ago, webfact said:

"That press conference was the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history," tweeted Christopher Krebs, who headed up the U.S. government's efforts to combat election disinformation until he was fired by Trump earlier this week.

 

[Berkshire]

1 hour ago, Walker88 said:

There is weird, and there is republican weird.

 

At today's s-show of a presser, with sweat mixing with bad hair dye streaming down both sides of his face, giuliani and a gaggle of whackadoodles who ostensibly passed the bar exam in some State, tried to argue---I'm not making this up---that:

 

A US Army commando unit recovered a server at some company in Germany, where the late Hugo Chavez of Venezuela (who, incidentally, died in 2013 of cancer he claimed was given him via super secret laser beams) had concocted a strategy so sophisticated that evidence cannot be found, and where Michigan had sent all their ballots to be counted, plus the super duper secret server erased votes for 45.

 

When a reporter asked for evidence, one "lawyer" (jenna ellis, who called this gaggle of folks "an elite strikeforce team") said "Your question is unfair".

 

Anyone who watched that could be forgiven thinking someone had slipped a hallucinogenic into their coffee.

 

That is what's left of the Party of Lincoln.

 

Even Fox News had to concede that Rudy was lying his as* off....

 

[But as Fisher accurately reported Giuliani made “really bold and baseless” claims about voter fraud and “called it a nationwide conspiracy, and yet he failed to provide any hard evidence.”]

]Fisher went on to say that Giuliani is telling one story to the American people and another when he’s in a courtroom.]

[“Giuliani continued to claim widespread voter fraud in Philadelphia, even though he has already said in court, and I quote, ‘This is not a fraud case.’ So what he’s saying in public, not under oath, is different from what he said in court,” Fisher said.]

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/fox-airs-giuliani-presser-in-full-then-reports-it-was-all-a-lie/ar-BB1bbdbV

[spidermike007]

The sore loser is attempting to completely subvert the election system and democracy, in one fell swoop. He really does consider himself an imperialist king. Such a sad and pathetic thing to witness. Everything he does, shames the nation. He cannot shame himself. That is impossible. We are well past that stage. And since most of his lawyers have quit in disgrace, or due to some honor, he is left with the pathetic remains of Rambling Rudy. What a team. 

[ChouDoufu]

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Since when did Trump ever feel he owed anybody anything?

 

well....certainly not his contractors.

[Berkshire]

16 minutes ago, J Town said:

There is a long LONG LONG shot that, by convincing the electoral college representatives from each state to ignore the peoples' wishes and cast their respective votes for 45 (called "faithless electors"), he could possibly squeak a win.  That's his only shot left. It won't work. Biden won. Full stop.

I think Trump is trying to get Republican legislators to intervene even when it's not their role by law.  The electors from each state were decided before the election and will come from the party that won the popular vote.  So electors in Michigan will be Democrats.  But the Michigan legislature is Republican.  Regardless, their Gov is a Democrat and she must certify the winner.   

[thaibeachlovers]

19 minutes ago, J Town said:

There is a long LONG LONG shot that, by convincing the electoral college representatives from each state to ignore the peoples' wishes and cast their respective votes for 45 (called "faithless electors"), he could possibly squeak a win.  That's his only shot left. It won't work. Biden won. Full stop.

Another way

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contingent_election

In the United States, a contingent election is the procedure used to elect the president or vice president in the event that no candidate for one or both of these offices wins an absolute majority of votes in the Electoral College. A presidential contingent election is decided by a special vote of the United States House of Representatives, while a vice-presidential contingent election is decided by a vote of the United States Senate. During a contingent election in the House, each state's delegation casts one en bloc vote to determine the president, rather than a vote from each representative. Senators, on the other hand, cast votes individually for vice president.

[J Town]

5 minutes ago, riclag said:

Let it play out ! If things work out as whats been reported at the press conference , the truth will prevail!  Mr. Trump and his elite task force of lawyers ,sound dangerously confident!

You mean the guy with shoe polish dripping down his face?

[TopDeadSenter]

2 minutes ago, J Town said:

You mean the guy with shoe polish dripping down his face?

Nope, that was Ralph Northam. Rudy had some hair dye that wasn't properly fixed.

[placeholder]

12 minutes ago, riclag said:

Let it play out ! If things work out as whats been reported at the press conference , the truth will prevail!  Mr. Trump and his elite task force of lawyers ,sound dangerously confident!

Judges toss Republican lawsuits in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/19/politics/arizona-pennsylvania-georgia-lawsuits-trump-biden/index.html

[Susco]

15 minutes ago, riclag said:

Mr. Trump and his elite task force of lawyers ,sound dangerously confident!

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

"That press conference was the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history," tweeted Christopher Krebs, who headed up the U.S. government's efforts to combat election disinformation until he was fired by Trump earlier this week.

 

So confident that they have to fire anyone who exposes their fake claims?

[Eric Loh]

10 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

I think Trump is trying to get Republican legislators to intervene even when it's not their role by law.  The electors from each state were decided before the election and will come from the party that won the popular vote.  So electors in Michigan will be Democrats.  But the Michigan legislature is Republican.  Regardless, their Gov is a Democrat and she must certify the winner.   

Republican legislators Shirkey and Chatfield may be risking criminal investigation besides fatally damaging the system of democratic presidential elections. Let's hope the meeting is about more covid aids to the state rather than involved in a dangerous legislative coup to get the state hand Trump the electoral votes. 

[riclag]

3 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Judges toss Republican lawsuits in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/19/politics/arizona-pennsylvania-georgia-lawsuits-trump-biden/index.html

I don't know what appeals that the greatest task force of lawyers has in store for the world! Just a guess imop they expected that!

[stevenl]

11 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Judges toss Republican lawsuits in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/19/politics/arizona-pennsylvania-georgia-lawsuits-trump-biden/index.html

Sounds like the judges are getting fed up with this.