Asked Wednesday to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, Donald Trump instead advocated for skipping the transfer of power.
Railing against ballots—the backbone of our electoral system—as a “disaster,” Trump offered scrapping them altogether as the best option. "Get rid of the ballots,” Trump said, “and there won't be a transfer, frankly, there'll be a continuation."
The reporter, White House correspondent Brian Karem, pressed Trump on the matter several times, seeking to get a commitment from him to tamp down the division and unrest in the country in the aftermath of the election. Trump’s answer to quelling any post-election chaos? Just make his position permanent. Karem later called Trump’s response, “The most frightening answer I have ever received to any question I have ever asked.”
Trump’s answer should be taken both literally and seriously by every media outlet in the country. Trump is overtly and indisputably using every tool in his box—in every branch of government—to undermine our nation’s free and fair election and disenfranchise American voters nationwide.
Trump’s efforts are pervasive, and they are both rhetorical and structural. Judicially, he’s rushing to fill a Supreme Court seat in order to secure 6-3 conservative majority that he believes will side with him in any legal dispute over the election—and it might well do that. Legislatively, Trump’s got GOP lawmakers both working to confirm his SCOTUS nomination and deliver Kremlin-driven reports intended to smear Joe Biden. And the Executive Branch has become Trump’s muddy little playpen, with Attorney General Bill Barr digging up dirt on Biden; his Postmaster General taking a hatchet to the U.S. Postal Service’s efficiency and functionality; and U.S. intelligence agencies depriving the American people of accurate information about the threats posed by Russia in the upcoming election (not to mention white supremacist extremists).
But Trump’s mafia levels of corruption don’t stop there. They also extend to the states where he’s presently trying to install elected loyalists who will defy the election results if need be and vote for him in the Electoral College, regardless of who actually wins.
Finally, rhetorically, Trump is spewing disinformation (often Russian-derived) about ballots, mail-in voting, widespread voter fraud (which doesn’t actually exist), and the overall integrity of the election at every turn. Trump constantly tells his true believers that the only way for Joe Biden to win is if he cheats—no small amount of projection there. But as we all know, his cultists believe everything Trump says.
As conservative commentator and anti-Trumper Charlie Sykes wrote last week, “Despite the polls, Trump’s backers believe with a moral certainty that he will win — and win big. His defeat will come as a considerable shock to many of them who have fallen down the rabbit hole and they will be an eager audience for the most lurid conspiracy theories and charges of fraud.”
We are in for one hell of a battle, folks, particularly if this election is close and not called on Nov. 3, which is very likely given all the mail balloting this cycle. Trump doesn’t know the meaning of the word integrity and he gives no fucks about anyone else in this entire world but himself. So, even if he loses, we can be assured that he will go to any and all lengths to rip this country to shreds or die trying before he surrenders his powers as president.
This very real potentiality is something I addressed at length in this piece about Portland several weeks ago. If you’re looking for a way forward, perhaps there’s a nugget or two that can be helpful there. I personally am never without hope, even on the darkest days. Peace and solidarity.
Watch it (second clip).
from Daily Kos https://ift.tt/2HvmWa1
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