Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling spills the beans on Stop The Steal
Trump's super-spreader rally in Dalton, Georgia Monday night, was, admitted Trump, a rally about Trump and his grievances, not about the 2 Republican schmucks he was ostensibly there to support. The Bulwark's Tim Miller reported that Señor Trumpanzee's rally was a failure-- a "rambling, incoherent performance marked by what seemed to be a case of TDS-- Testosterone Deficiency Syndrome-- so bad that it caused even the maskless cult members who packed into the Dalton, Georgia event site to become bored by the show."
Loeffler began her remarks by backing the coup attempt. Miller noted that "The Republicans who are like Brian Kemp—that is, those who do not have Loeffler’s chameleon-like ability to morph into whatever the MAGA masses want-- did not fare as well during the speech. Trump used the opportunity to bully them and send a message to anyone else who might cross him. 'I’m going to be here in a year and a half and I’m going to be campaigning against your governor and your crazy secretary of state,' Trump said. Because that’s what this was all about. Despite the timing and despite the lip service to Loeffler and Perdue, it wasn’t an effort to campaign for Senate races that Trump couldn’t care less about. It was a president taking one last opportunity to get on a hickory stump and to bully all of those who have submitted to him. To ensure that they go with him the last, hopeless mile. To guarantee that their obituaries will start with their willingness to attempt to end the American democratic experiment in service to this devilish buffoon who knows that he’s been beat but wants to bring the rest of us down with him."
Meanwhile fascist pro-Trump websites have erupted with threats of violence, with many urging neo-Nazis to flood into DC with guns to today. "Many of the posts appear to be direct responses to Trump’s demands that his supporters pack the nation’s capital in support of his bogus claims that November’s national vote for Biden resulted from election fraud. Congress’s largely ceremonial role in confirming Biden’s victory has emerged as a catalyst for expected unrest that has D.C. police and the National Guard deploying on city streets to quell potential trouble."
The bad guys:
Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Josh Hawley (R-MO)
Ron Johnson (R-WI)
Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
Kelly Loeffler (R-GA)
David Perdue (R-GA)
Mike Braun (R-IN)
Steve Daines (R-MT)
John Kennedy (R-LA)
James Lankford (R-OK)
Bill Hagerty (R-TN)
Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
Roger Marshall (R-KS)
Tommy Tuberville (R-AL)
The Republican senators apparently not interested in discarding democracy today:
Mitt Romney (UT)
Pat Toomey (PA)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Tim Cotton (R-AR)
Mike Lee (UT)
John Thune (SD)
Jerry Moran (KS)
Tim Scott (SD)
Susan Collins (ME)
John Cornyn (TX)
Cotton, who wants to run for president in 2024, penned an OpEd for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Duty of Congress. "Some argue," he wrote, "that Republicans in Congress should object to electoral votes from certain states, such as Arizona and Pennsylvania. They believe that objecting will highlight election disputes in these states, and perhaps even overturn the election results so the president remains in office. But objecting to certified electoral votes won't give the president a second term. With Democrats in control of the House, Republicans have no chance of invalidating even a single electoral vote, much less enough votes to deny Joe Biden a majority in the electoral college. Instead, these objections would exceed Congress' constitutional power, while creating unwise precedents that Democrats could abuse the next time they are in power. For these reasons, I will not oppose the counting of certified electoral votes... Under the Constitution and federal law, Congress' power is limited to counting electoral votes submitted by the states. Congress doesn't have to agree with the election practices of every state, nor dismiss the possibility of voter fraud. But the states have primary responsibility for the conduct of elections, and courts have the responsibility to adjudicate election disputes."
If Congress purported to overturn the results of the electoral college, it would not only exceed its power, but also establish unwise precedents.
First, Congress would take away the power to choose the president from the people and place it in the hands of whichever party controls Congress. This action essentially would end our tradition of democratic presidential elections, empowering politicians and party bosses in Washington.
Second, Congress would imperil the electoral college, which gives small states like Arkansas a voice in presidential elections. Democrats have long complained about Republican candidates winning the electoral college and thus the presidency without a majority of the popular vote. If Congress becomes a new battleground for determining the results of the electoral college, a future Democratic majority could deny the presidency to a Republican president-elect who didn't receive a majority of the popular vote.
Third, Congress would take another big step toward federalizing election law, another longstanding Democratic priority that Republicans have consistently opposed. Once Congress gets involved in the details of state election practices, it might not be long before a Democratic majority overrides our sensible election laws in Arkansas and imposes California's risky system of same-day registration, unsolicited mail-out balloting, and ballot-harvesting. Republicans would sacrifice a valuable argument for opposing such schemes.
Other Republican senators in vaguely competitive states-- either general or primary-- are pissing their pants, especially ones who have to face the voters in 2022, like Marco Rubio (FL), Rob Portman (OH), Todd Young (IN) and Richard Shelby (AL).
Backbencher Kevin Cramer (R-ND) isn't exactly one of the giants of the Senate. He's not going to back Trump's coup and told MSNBC that making the decision "was was brutal, to be honest. But at the end of the day, there are two things. One is my conscience is captive to God, and my oath is to the Constitution of the United States. I’ve put a lot of intellectual rigor and emotion into this decision, so it doesn’t come easily," he said. "But I also have to say I’m quite comfortable with it."
North Dakota was one of the Trumpiest states in 2020, Trump having beaten Biden there 235,595 (65.1%) to 114,902 (31.8%). North Dakota also has the worst per capita rate of COVID-infect in the world-- 122,686 cases per million residents-- and a horrendous death rate: 1,744 per million residents. (The U.S. average is 1,102 per million residents.)
