On today’s BradCast: He wants you to be frightened. He wants to terrorize you. Don’t let him. Vote instead. [Audio link to today’s show.]
The fact that time is running out for the Trump Crime Family and their decades of fraud in New York — as Eric also clearly knows — is probably not helping, but Donald Trump is getting desperate. Hence, his refusal to commit, when when asked about it during a press briefing Wednesday at the White House, to a peaceful transfer of power after this year’s Presidential election.
His excuse? “The ballots are a disaster…Get rid of the ballots….The ballots are out of control.” While many have been discussing the disturbing options that some Republican controlled states may consider using to override the ballots by having their legislature select Electors to the Electoral College this year in defiance of voters, that’s probably not what Trump was talking about yesterday when pretending “the ballots are out of control!”
He has been complaining for months about states that are automatically sending absentee ballots to all active registered voters this year. He is pretending this is “out of control” and a “scam” by Democrats to somehow steal the election. In fact, as we break down on today’s show, Trump’s complaints are, themselves, a scam.
In short, 5 states (Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Utah and Hawaii) have long sent all voters absentee ballots, whether they request one or not. Of those, only Utah is a so-called “red” state, and none of them are seen as anywhere close to likely to flip their Presidential vote from the way they voted in 2016. So, Trump is almost certainly not complaining about those five states.
But this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that Trump failed so disastrously to control, 5 other states (California, Vermont, New Jersey, Montana and Nevada) will also be sending mail-in ballots to all voters. Of those, the first three are very reliably Democratic states in Presidential elections. Trump won Montana by some 20 points in 2016. So, of those five, only Nevada (whose Republican Secretary of State is in charge of the election) could be considered, in any sense, a swing-state — though it hasn’t elected a Republican nominee for President since 2004, and a new Fox “News” poll out this afternoon shows Trump trailing Joe Biden there by 11 points.
If somehow, magically — due to some imagined massive Democratic fraud — both Montana and Utah suddenly flipped to Biden this year, but Trump managed to hold all the same other states he won in 2016 (none of which have instituted universal Vote-by-Mail this year), Trump would still win the Electoral College.
So what is he pretending to be so bothered by? Actually, nothing. He is simply desperate to win and, as his chances of doing so are dwindling, he’s desperately grasping to pretend there is a massive Democratic scheme to cheat him out of that win with universal Vote-by-Mail. There isn’t.
But make no mistake, he will do nearly anything to come up with a way to get a “win” — as long as it’s other people who will risk their lives for it. That, of course, is also why he is hoping to further pack an already stolen, 5 to 3 rightwing U.S. Supreme Court, and why he is signaling that there may not be a peaceful transfer of power in the event that he loses.
Despite his threats, Trump is a coward. Bullies want you to be afraid of them, when, in fact, they are terrified of you. As well he now should be.
This nation is about to be tested in a way that we haven’t seen since at least the Civil War. But, as we discuss today — and in agreement with both Nancy Pelosi’s and Bernie Sanders’ responses today to Trump’s Briefing Room thuggery — the solution is the vote. An overwhelming landslide of a vote, which is now completely possible if we all step up and do our duty to save this democracy. To paraphrase Barack Obama: Yes, we can!…But will we?
We will find out over the next six weeks…and beyond. We offer both advice and encouragement to that end on today’s show.
Also today, just a few more reasons for Trump’s increasing panic, in addition to the New York State Attorney General and the Manhattan District Attorney both quickly closing in on Trump Organization crimes in two separate probes: A federal court this week tossed out the Trump/RNC lawsuit in Nevada seeking to block their Vote-by-Mail election, despite legislation adopted by the state legislature and signed by its Governor; And the news that even Texas could now be in play, with a record 1.6 million newly registered voters, Democrats spending millions on TV ads in a state long previously considered to be a Republican state, the Biden Campaign hiring on-the-ground staffers, and CBS’ latest Battleground Tracker poll finding Trump leading Biden by just two points in a state that hasn’t elected a Democratic nominee for President since 1976. Oh, and Republicans appear so frightened about what could happen if voters are allowed to cast their votes in Texas this year, that a bunch of them are suing their own Republican Governor to roll back his tepid expansion of Early Voting in response to the coronavirus.
Finally, Desi Doyen has quite a bit of “big” and, yes, very good news for us today (for a change) in our latest Green News Report…
So the OLC “rule” a sitting (p)resident can never be indicted, which has never been challenged, will not prevail?
Dael @ 1:
If you’re refering to my references above (and on the show), to time running out for the Trump Family, the two different cases discussed on today’s show are being pursued by NY AG Leticia James and Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr.
They are both state cases (one civil, one criminal) and, thus, have nothing to do with the OLC opinion that Presidents cannot be indicted. That is only under federal law. Nothing keeps them from being indicted on state charges at this time.