Trump promises 'wild' protest in Washington DC on Jan. 6, claims it's 'impossible' he lost https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-wild-protest-washington-dc-jan-6 President Trump on Saturday promised a "wild" protest in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, as he continued to deny that he lost the election. "Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election," he tweeted. "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!" Jan. 6 is the day Congress will meet to accept the presidential election results. President-elect Joe Biden won the election, and presidential electors cast their votes last week in the Electoral College. But Trump and his campaign have disputed the results and launched numerous legal challenges, although nearly all of them have failed. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court shot down a Texas lawsuit trying to nullify millions of votes in key swing states. Roughly four dozen lawsuits by the Trump campaign and allies to upend the election results over the past six weeks have been tossed out by state and federal judges. Trump’s legal team has said it intends to continue mounting legal challenges, but experts say there is little chance of success. On Saturday, Trump linked to a report by Peter Navarro that claims without evidence that the amount of election fraud was sufficient to swing the election. Some Trump allies have planned to call for a debate in the House when the election results are received. However, those plans were dealt a blow when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell asked his Republican colleagues in the Senate not to contest the election results on Jan. 6, when a joint session of Congress formally accepts the count. McConnell’s move could effectively end any hopes of a last-minute reprieve for the president. A majority of both chambers of Congress (including the Democratic-controlled House) would be needed to upend the election results. Meanwhile, Trump has been critical of those in his party who have accepted Biden's victory. After McConnell recognized Biden as president-elect in a Tuesday speech on the floor of the Senate, Trump responded by calling on him and other Republicans to "get tougher." ".@senatemajldr and Republican Senators have to get tougher, or you won’t have a Republican Party anymore. We won the Presidential Election, by a lot. FIGHT FOR IT. Don’t let them take it away!" Trump charged on Twitter. Trump, who lost by more than 7 million votes, has also taken aim at a number of other Republicans over their stance on the election -- including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
Trump raised the idea of imposing martial law to overturn the election in a White House meeting, according to reports https://www.businessinsider.com/tru...tial-law-to-overturn-election-reports-2020-12 President Donald Trump in a White House meeting Friday touted the idea of imposing martial law to overturn the election result, reported The New York Times and Axios. The idea had first been touted by Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security advisor, who was reportedly present in the meeting. John Bolton, a former national security advisor to Trump, in a CNN interview described the suggestion as "appalling" and "unprecedented." Trump dismissed the reports as 'fake news." President Donald Trump, in a White House meeting, raised the possibility of imposing martial law in a bid to overturn the result of the presidential election, according to reports Saturday. In a raucous meeting Friday with top aides about his ongoing attempts to overturn the election, Trump was joined by General Michael Flynn, his former national security advisor, reported The New York Times. A few days earlier on the conservative Newsmax network, Flynn had called for the president to impose martial law, and "rerun an election" in swing states that he lost to President-elect Joe Biden in November. In the meeting, according to the Times, Trump asked about the idea. According to the report, it wasn't the only last-ditch plan to subvert the election discussed in the meeting, with Trump also proposing appointing conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell as a special counsel to probe election fraud claims. Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney, touted the idea of ordering the Department of Homeland Security to seize voting machines. Axios confirmed key details of the meeting, reporting that Trump had expressed interest in Flynn's plan, and that White House officials are concerned Trump is "spending too much time with people they consider crackpots or conspiracy theorists and flirting with blatant abuses of power." Shouting matches broke out in the meeting as other officials pushed back against Flynn's and Powell's proposals, reported CNN, whose source said it was unclear if Trump had endorsed the notion. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and counsel Pat Cipollone were among the officials who pushed back against the ideas, according to the report. In a tweet Saturday, Trump responded to the reports, dismissing them as "fake news." The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports. The president has broad powers to suspend normal legal constraints on his authority in response to a "national emergency," such as a natural disaster or terror attack, including deploying troops within the US to subdue unrest and assist law enforcement officers. However, Joseph Nunn, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, in October, wrote that the legal precedents for a president imposing martial law are vague, with no clear Constitutional principles or Supreme Court rulings governing its use. He wrote that under current law, "the president lacks any authority to declare martial law." In an interview on CNN Saturday night, John Bolton, Trump's former national security advisor, described Flynn's plan to impose martial law as "appalling." "Look, this is appalling," he continued. 'There's no other way to describe it. It's unbelievable, almost certainly completely without precedent." Trump has previously been accused of seeking to violate norms against deploying the military against US citizens. The president planned to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops to quell anti-racism protests over the summer. On Twitter, former White House ethics counsel Richard Painter responded to Trump discussing invoking martial law with a one-word message: "Treason." On Friday, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville, in a joint statement reported by Task and Purpose, responded to Flynn's call for martial law to be imposed, reiterating the US military's policy of having no involvement in domestic elections. They said that that there "is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election."
As end approaches, Trump gets doses of flattery, finality https://apnews.com/article/election...rus-pandemic-4c96278160dc3338dd82d68f108b1729 President Donald Trump’s administration is ending how it began, with over-the-top declarations of praise for the chief executive. But now the flattery is mixed with a sense of finality as key people in the president’s orbit are beginning to turn the page and acknowledge his defeat. Trump himself keeps to the Oval Office, still fighting the Election Day results and offering scant acknowledgement of the death and suffering Americans are bearing in the darkest hours of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a week when the Electoral College made official President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Trump remained out of sight, staying late in the Oval Office and working the phones and television remote in his private dining area just steps from the Resolute Desk. While he made not one public appearance, some of those who have been his most influential allies and loyal defenders gave up the fight, letting the president down as gently as possible. Attorney General William Barr offered his resignation last Monday after weeks of tension with Trump brought about an early exit from his post. Long seen as one of Trump’s most supportive Cabinet members, Barr in recent weeks and months had drawn Trump’s wrath for not supporting the president’s baseless claims of election fraud or for not publicly pursuing an investigation into Biden’s son Hunter. But when Barr stepped aside, he did so with flowery language reminiscent of the compliments that were tossed as verbal bouquets at Trump during early Cabinet meetings. “Your record is all the more historic because you accomplished it in the face of relentless, implacable resistance,” Barr wrote in his resignation letter. Trump promptly tweeted it out, adding his own words of praise for the attorney general. In the six weeks since his defeat by Biden, Trump has been increasingly disengaged from his job. The virus has killed more than 300,000 Americans and is now claiming more than 3,000 lives a day, but the president has offered barely a word about the deaths or the development of the vaccine that could bring an end to the pandemic. At the same time, he has relentlessly tweeted conspiracy theories and false claims about the election, incorrectly insisting it was stolen from him while taking steps to undermine the Biden administration before it begins. Most Republicans went along, refusing to push Trump to stop or work with the president-elect. Many in the GOP took their cues from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who refused to stand up to Trump, instead making the calculation that an outraged Republican base — and an angry president — could help produce victories in a pair of January runoff races in Georgia that will dictate control of the Senate. But this past week, even McConnell, R-Ky., bent to reality, declaring that the Electoral College “had spoken” and that Biden was the victor. McConnell’s acknowledgement that Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris had won came only after a long public recap of Trump’s accomplishments on the Senate floor. McConnell spoke about Trump for nine minutes, declaring that “many of us hoped that the presidential election would yield a different result.” He discussed Biden for one minute. Some more of Trump’s fiercest allies also appeared to give credence, albeit briefly, to the electoral result. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a cable television appearance that Trump was in strong position for a possible 2024 campaign — a roundabout acknowledgement that he won’t be president come next year. Others close to Trump also marked the looming end. His daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump began tweeted photos of moments throughout the term. His son Eric Trump and his family posed for photos just outside the Oval Office. West Wing staffers put up photos on Instagram of White House Christmas parties, and most of those pictured weren’t wearing masks. Vice President Mike Pence continued his role as Trump’s biggest hype man, even as the cheerleading came with a whiff of nostalgia. Pence in a ceremony Friday marked the first anniversary of the U.S. Space Force, which he framed as a major part of Trump’s legacy. But with Trump largely in hiding, it fell to Pence to make a public show of meeting with those distributing the vaccine. And on Friday, he was the one who rolled up his sleeves and took a public shot in the arm as part of a campaign to convince Americans the vaccine is safe. Trump has been happy to bask in praise throughout his presidency. His Cabinet meetings at times resembled “Dear Leader” sessions in authoritarian nations where officials gush compliments for the man in charge. The tone was set at the president’s first Cabinet meeting, in June 2017, when the only subject for debate appeared to whether Trump was a great president or the greatest. With the media invited to watch, Trump extolled the achievements of his young administration, asserting that he had accomplished more than any president in his first six months — with “few exceptions,” like President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Pence that day declared his job was “the greatest privilege of my life.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he was “thrilled,” Energy Secretary Rick Perry gave his “hats off” to Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross offered thanks “for the opportunity” to work for the president. Perhaps the strongest words came from chief of staff Reince Priebus: “On behalf of the entire senior staff around you, Mr. President, we thank you for the opportunity and the blessing that you’ve given us to serve your agenda.” On Wednesday, Trump convened his 25th and perhaps final Cabinet meeting. Much had changed. Several top officials were not there, including Barr, whose resignation was pending; acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who had tested positive for COVID-19; and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was quarantining because he had been exposed to someone with the virus. Whether there was effusive praise of Trump remains unknown. The president did not let the media in.
In TV show terms, Trump has "jumped the shark". Sure, the hardcore fans will keep tuning in, but most are moving on to other programs, though we may drop back in for an occasional re-run
Trump's increased absences have associates worried about his declining mental state: report https://www.rawstory.com/trump-mental/
Homeland Security told Trump they lacked authority to intervene in election: bombshell report https://www.rawstory.com/trump-aske...ion-after-biden-won-electoral-college-report/
Heated Oval Office meeting included talk of special counsel, martial law as Trump advisers clash https://www.businessinsider.com/tru...tial-law-to-overturn-election-reports-2020-12
If Biden wins and policies of fraud overwrite the constitution. Local politics will develop into a miniature version of nationalism.
This is what Trump has always been OP. Don't get it twisted. This is no surprise to those of us warning for 4 years
Sure, but he's escalating. His last remaining particles of sanity have (long) evaporated. Were it not for whatever safeguards may be in place, this asshole would have devolved the US into a banana republic long ago. And while we always knew this, and that he would go scorched earth if pushed into a corner, the fact is he's going full throttle now. On top of everything else, he's escalating the radicalization of Americans. Given even more rope he can do even more serious, perhaps irreparable, harm between now and his ouster. And his enablers are standing by...