Georgia pours cold water on Trump bid to overturn Biden win

[rooster59]

Georgia pours cold water on Trump bid to overturn Biden win

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Joseph Ax

 

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden speaks to reporters following an online meeting with members of the National Governors Association (NGA) executive committee in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., November 19, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

 

(Reuters) - President Donald Trump's desperate bid to overturn the Nov. 3 election result was dealt another blow on Friday after it was announced he had lost Georgia, while the winner, President-elect Joe Biden, filled more jobs in his incoming U.S. administration.

 

Biden, a Democrat, is preparing to take office on Jan. 20, but Trump, a Republican, has refused to concede and is seeking a way to invalidate or overturn the results through lawsuits and recounts in a number of states, claiming widespread voter fraud.

 

That effort has met with little success, as the Trump campaign suffered a string of legal and political defeats.

 

It received more bad news on Friday when Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced that a manual recount and audit of all ballots cast in the southern state had determined that Biden was the winner.

 

Biden is the first Democrat to carry Georgia since 1992.

 

"The numbers reflect the verdict of the people, not a decision by the secretary of state's office or courts, or of either campaigns," Raffensperger, a Republican and Trump supporter, told reporters, just hours before his office certified the results. Official figures on the Secretary of State's website showed Biden winning the state by 12,670 votes.

 

Trump expressed dismay earlier on Friday, saying on Twitter that Georgia officials were refusing "to let us look at signatures which would expose hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots" and give him and his party "a BIG VICTORY."

 

The president provided no evidence to back up his claim.

 

With the door slammed shut in Georgia and having been stung by a series of court defeats, the Trump team is resting its hopes on getting Republican-controlled legislatures in other battleground states won by Biden to set aside the results and declare Trump the winner, according to three people familiar with the plan.

 

It is focusing on Michigan and Pennsylvania for now, but even if both those states flipped to the president he would need to overturn the vote in another state to vault ahead of Biden in the Electoral College.

 

Such an extraordinary event would be unprecedented in modern U.S. history. Trump not only would need three state legislatures to intervene against vote counts as they stand now, but then also have those actions upheld by Congress and, almost certainly, the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

Undeterred by the long odds, Trump was meeting with Michigan's state legislative leaders, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House of Representatives Speaker Lee Chatfield, both Republicans, at the White House on Friday.

 

The two lawmakers will listen to what the president, who requested the meeting, has to say, according to a source in Michigan.

 

"No matter the party, when you have an opportunity to meet with the President of the United States, of course you take it. I won't apologize for that. In fact, I'm honored to speak with POTUS and proud to meet with him. And I look forward to our conversation," Chatfield wrote on Twitter.

 

Shirkey told a Michigan news outlet earlier this week that the legislature would not appoint a second slate of electors.

 

Upon arriving at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport outside Washington, Shirkey and his colleagues were met by a swarm of protesters. Some held signs that read "SHAME" while others chanted "Certify the results" and "respect Michigan voters." One protester asked, "What has Trump promised you?"

 

U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, called the meeting "totally inappropriate" in a news conference with other lawmakers from the state and vowed that Democrats would resist any attempt to overturn Biden's victory.

 

Biden, who turned 78 on Friday, continued to lay the foundation of his administration, naming Louisa Terrell as the incoming director of the White House's office of legislative affairs, the main liaison with Congress, and announcing other appointments.

 

Terrell worked as a deputy chief of staff for Biden in the Senate and was a special assistant to President Barack Obama. She also has held roles in the private sector with Yahoo! and Facebook.

 

Biden was also due to meet U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leaders in Congress. Democrats are pushing for another multi-trillion-dollar coronavirus relief package to blunt the economic pain of an intensifying U.S. pandemic. More than 252,000 people have died in the country from COVID-19.

 

'HOPELESS LEGAL POSITION'

 

The president's lawyers argue the U.S. Constitution gives legislatures, rather than state governors and secretaries of state, the ultimate authority to appoint electors. Republicans control the Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin legislatures.

 

Those states were the pillars of Trump's victory in the 2016 election, but Biden prevailed in all three by even larger margins than Trump did four years ago. Trump's hopes of remaining president are doomed without them.

 

Legal experts have sounded the alarm at the notion of a sitting president seeking to undermine the will of the voters, though they have expressed skepticism that a state legislature could lawfully substitute its own electors.

 

Biden campaign legal adviser Bob Bauer said the Trump campaign was in a "hopeless legal position."

 

"No state legislature in our country's history ever has done what Donald Trump is apparently agitating for the Michigan state legislature to do, which is to ignore the results of a popular vote," Bauer told reporters. "It cannot be done."

 

Even though election officials have not reported any major irregularities, most prominent Republicans have remained on side with Trump or quietly acceded. A few, including Senator Mitt Romney, have spoken out.

 

Nationally, Biden won nearly 6 million more votes than Trump, a difference of 3.8 percentage points. But the outcome of the election is determined in the Electoral College, where each state's electoral votes, based largely on population, are typically awarded to the winner of a state's popular vote.

 

Biden leads by 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232 as states work to certify their results at least six days before the Electoral College convenes on Dec. 14.

 

(Reporting by Joseph Ax in Princeton, New Jersey; Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Detroit, Jarrett Renshaw in Wilmington, Delaware, Karen Freifeld in New York and Jan Wolfe, Doina Chiacu, Julia Harte, Steve Holland, David Morgan, Tim Ahmann and Lisa Lambert in Washington; Writing by Daniel Trotta, Paul Simao and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Howard Goller and Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-21

 

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[Odysseus123]

Ah..so Georgia (and it's voters) have turned to the dark side..therefore causing grave alarm and perturbation amongst the true believers..????

 

At this stage a rousing chorus of "Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile,smile..smile.." would be appropriate in the empty halls of the White House (empty 'cos they've all been sacked) and a trip booked to the Galapagos islands as speedily as possible... 

[Chomper Higgot]

60 days to go.

[Tie Dye Samurai]

Have you noticed that every time there is a headline for Trump's attempts to overturn the election it is always something like "Trump Rejected"...."Trump Thwarted"...."Trump Denied"...."Trump Lawsuit Thrownout"...."Trump's Baseless Claim...."

 

It has been 20 days....not one creditable piece of evidence anywhere to suggest any type of widespread fraud. When does Trump actually plan to provide the bombshell....the smoking gun.....the moment where people say "Wow....maybe this did actually happen"? The answer is never because they have nothing, Trump is stalling, putting pressure on people that certify elections (which is real pressure because when Trump targets somebody publicly, they get threatened privately Mafia style and need protection...it is disgusting) so they can try to get this to the house and single state votes....that is the real end game on the real stealing of the election. 

 

The only thing that has come out of all of this of any relevance is the term "Non Zero Number" which will go down in Trump-speak with "Alternative Facts" for its idiocy. 

 

Meanwhile the pandemic rages to new heights and who is not seen in public anymore...refusing to lead, not meeting the moment and hiding in his bunker, the tactic he accused his opponent of for months....the irony.

[Slip]

4 minutes ago, Tie Dye Samurai said:

Have you noticed that every time there is a headline for Trump's attempts to overturn the election it is always something like "Trump Rejected"...."Trump Thwarted"...."Trump Denied"...."Trump Lawsuit Thrownout"...."Trump's Baseless Claim...."

 

It has been 20 days....not one creditable piece of evidence anywhere to suggest any type of widespread fraud. When does Trump actually plan to provide the bombshell....the smoking gun.....the moment where people say "Wow....maybe this did actually happen"? The answer is never because they have nothing, Trump is stalling, putting pressure on people that certify elections (which is real pressure because when Trump targets somebody publicly, they get threatened privately Mafia style and need protection...it is disgusting) so they can try to get this to the house and single state votes....that is the real end game on the real stealing of the election. 

 

The only thing that has come out of all of this of any relevance is the term "Non Zero Number" which will go down in Trump-speak with "Alternative Facts" for its idiocy. 

 

Meanwhile the pandemic rages to new heights and who is not seen in public anymore...refusing to lead, not meeting the moment and hiding in his bunker, the tactic he accused his opponent of for months....the irony.

The Trump cultists supporters bang on and on about 1984 and communism, but 'non zero number' and 'alternative facts' are as close as you can get to double-speak and yet it seems to float by them.

 

I agree that the way the Republican party driven by Trump is trying to strong arm their way to power is despicable.  Let's hope they suffer the consequences until they buck up their ideas and  a fair few see serious jail time.

[Emdog]

Trump backers see themselves as patriots, love their country. Fine. Then you would want best for your country, it's values and institutions

Trump & his supporters are doing all they can to undermine the office of president, sabotage new administration... if they were Russian agents they could do no more harm. There may have been a handful of frauds, on both sides: with around 150 million votes that is to be expected. Not enough to make any difference in expressing will of the people.

The US is in a major crisis. Refusing to accept reality, promoting baseless BS is not being patriotic. Put on big boy pants and behave like you truly do love the USA.

[canuckamuck]

It was obviously a good idea to do the recount, 12,000 is a close race. Hopefully they will continue the transparency with other close races. It is the right thing to do.

 

Edit: That this post immediately received sad face emojis speaks volumes.

[Odysseus123]

13 minutes ago, Slip said:

The Trump cultists supporters bang on and on about 1984 and communism, but 'non zero number' and 'alternative facts' are as close as you can get to double-speak and yet it seems to float by them.

 

I agree that the way the Republican party driven by Trump is trying to strong arm their way to power is despicable.  Let's hope they suffer the consequences until they buck up their ideas and  a fair few see serious jail time.

As George Orwell well knew.."doublespeak" was not merely a  a phenomenon of the Marxist powers..as he should have known  as he worked for the British "Ministry of Truth" for a while...

Actually by coining the term..he sorta created it-or,at least,gave it new literary credence and it has been with us ever since.

 

Iraq 2003 springs to mind...but Afghanistan and the later Iraqi period has been "doublespeak" hell..on behalf of Western corporations.

 

John Brunner wrote a very fine novel about this.."Stand On Zanzibar"

..and General Smedley Butler (USMC) knew very well what this is about as his book..'War is a Racket'...would indicate.

[Jeffr2]

6 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

It was obviously a good idea to do the recount, 12,000 is a close race. Hopefully they will continue the transparency with other close races. It is the right thing to do.

Actually, it's a waste of time and money. Recounts almost never turn up more than hundreds of bad votes. 12,000 isn't even close.

 

The GOP is doing more harm to the US than any foreign power. Sad some fall for this BS.

[Rimmer]

An inflammatory post has been removed

[polpott]

3 hours ago, rooster59 said:

With the door slammed shut in Georgia and having been stung by a series of court defeats, the Trump team is resting its hopes on getting Republican-controlled legislatures in other battleground states won by Biden to set aside the results and declare Trump the winner, according to three people familiar with the plan.

 

It is focusing on Michigan and Pennsylvania for now, but even if both those states flipped to the president he would need to overturn the vote in another state to vault ahead of Biden in the Electoral College.

Michigan representatives were called to the Whie House today so that Trump could bully them ito interfering with the electoral college votes for Michigan. On leaving they announced that they would not be interfering with the EC.

 

Nice try Donald but no cigar.

 

He now intends to do the same with PA reps. Good luck with that.

 

Donald Trump, the loser that keeps on losing.

[Lacessit]

9 minutes ago, polpott said:

Michigan representatives were called to the Whie House today so that Trump could bully them ito interfering with the electoral college votes for Michigan. On leaving they announced that they would not be interfering with the EC.

 

Nice try Donald but no cigar.

 

He now intends to do the same with PA reps. Good luck with that.

 

Donald Trump, the loser that keeps on losing.

But after the meeting, Mr Shirkey and Mr Chatfield released a joint statement saying they had "not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan".

"We will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors," the statement said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-21/georgia-loss-certified-donald-trump-tries-michigan/12907124

[Odysseus123]

18 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

Actually, it's a waste of time and money. Recounts almost never turn up more than hundreds of bad votes. 12,000 isn't even close.

 

Very true..but we all know that,don't we?

[luckyluke]

There must be Republicans who respect the result of the election, and blaming the actual attitude of Mr. Trump.

 

[Odysseus123]

It's like that splendid movie..one of the best made in the 21st century so far..'Downfall'

[Jingthing]

44 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

It was obviously a good idea to do the recount, 12,000 is a close race. Hopefully they will continue the transparency with other close races. It is the right thing to do.

 

Edit: That this post immediately received sad face emojis speaks volumes.

In the state of Georgia recounts are automatic in races with .5 percent or less margin. That was the case this time. Of course a recount in any such very close race is justified. The recount was done. The result was the same. President Elect Joe Biden's victory in Georgia is now certified by their Governor. 

[newatthis]

42 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

It was obviously a good idea to do the recount, 12,000 is a close race. Hopefully they will continue the transparency with other close races. It is the right thing to do.

And will you accept this recount or will you want another machine recount? When will you accept the final results?

[polpott]

7 minutes ago, newatthis said:

And will you accept this recount or will you want another machine recount? When will you accept the final results?

Already being mooted by team Trump.

 

"Once, twice, three times a loser......"

[Jeffr2]

30 minutes ago, Odysseus123 said:

Very true..but we all know that,don't we?

Apparently not! Many are still falling for Trump’s and the GOPs lies.

[Jeffr2]

31 minutes ago, luckyluke said:

There must be Republicans who respect the result of the election, and blaming the actual attitude of Mr. Trump.

 

Many, yes. But seems they are the silent minority. Sadly.

[canuckamuck]

23 minutes ago, newatthis said:

And will you accept this recount or will you want another machine recount? When will you accept the final results?

Of course I would accept a recount that observers from both sides confirm was fair and accurate.

[Odysseus123]

1 minute ago, canuckamuck said:

Of course I would accept a recount that observers from both sides confirm was fair and accurate.

Well..they have done so..

 

What a pity that a poster that created such great fiction (the Thai talking dog)ends up this way..denying reality.

 

'Downfall'-it's the same message.

[Jeffr2]

9 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

Of course I would accept a recount that observers from both sides confirm was fair and accurate.

Sad some don't trust the hard working and honest poll workers who literally risked their lives for this election.  Horrible.

[Eric Loh]

11 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

Of course I would accept a recount that observers from both sides confirm was fair and accurate.

You accept the recount even when Trump called the recount insufficient, fake and a scam??? I doubt much. 

[welovesundaysatspace]

30 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

Of course I would accept a recount that observers from both sides confirm was fair and accurate.

Eventually you will have to accept it, even if the big baby and his crazy lawyer keep throwing tantrums that it wasn’t fair and accurate. That’s life. 

[canuckamuck]

19 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

You accept the recount even when Trump called the recount insufficient, fake and a scam??? I doubt much. 

I think the recount in Georgia was fair.

[Caldera]

The outcome in Georgia says it all - the top official in charge is a Republican and a Trump supporter, and still he certified Biden's win because there simply is NO EVIDENCE of fraud whatsoever.

 

A waste of everyone's time and money.

 

[Jonnapat]

3 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

60 days to go.

Sèems like an eternity. 

[canuckamuck]

15 minutes ago, Caldera said:

The outcome in Georgia says it all - the top official in charge is a Republican and a Trump supporter, and still he certified Biden's win because there simply is NO EVIDENCE of fraud whatsoever.

 

A waste of everyone's time and money.

 

No, it is right to do recounts, and certainly if the count was the other way you would agree. Why wouldn't you want to prove your side won, instead just saying accept it. That just causes more division. 

[welovesundaysatspace]

1 minute ago, canuckamuck said:

Why wouldn't you want to prove your side won, instead just saying accept it. That just causes more division. 

Trump and his mob are causing division. No recount will stop that.