{"id":13980,"date":"2021-08-26T18:57:55","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T01:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=13980"},"modified":"2021-08-26T19:25:14","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T02:25:14","slug":"accountability-rising-for-trumps-failed-attempt-to-steal-the-2020-election-bradcast-8262021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=13980","title":{"rendered":"Accountability Rising for Trump&#8217;s Failed Attempt to Steal the 2020 Election: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 8\/26\/2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_Trump-reachingBW_082621.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">Donald Trump tried to steal the 2020 election. We really must stop describing his efforts and those by his supporters as &#8220;questioning the results&#8221; or &#8220;claiming fraud&#8221; or &#8220;trying to overturn the election.&#8221; The fact is, Trump tried to <i>steal<\/i> it. He used every means at his disposal to try and do so. Thankfully, he is largely a failure at pretty much everything, so it didn&#8217;t work, though we now know it came <i>exceedingly<\/i> close. So, let&#8217;s start calling it for what it is: An unprecedented attempted by a President of the United States to try and steal a Presidential election. To that end, accountability is now happening. Slowly but quite assuredly, along with a number of other related accountability stories on today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a>. [<i>Audio link to full show is posted below this summary.<\/i>]\n<p>Among the stories covered on today&#8217;s program&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Some of the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/europe-france-evacuations-kabul-9e457201e5bbe75a4eb1901fedeee7a1\">breaking news<\/a> on today&#8217;s terror attack at the Kabul airport in <strong>Afghanistan<\/strong>, which killed at least 13 U.S. service members and 60 Afghans and seriously injured many more. ISIS-K, an off-shoot of the Islamic State and an enemy of the Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the attack by two suicide bombers. If anything, Thursday&#8217;s tragedy amidst the largest airlift in U.S. history &#8212; following the swift takeover of the country by the Taliban &#8212; simply serves to underscore even further why the U.S. pullout must continue, and why we certainly shouldn&#8217;t have been there for 20 years (if at all);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In much less horrific news, the <strong>U.S. Election Assistance Commission<\/strong> (EAC) released its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eac.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/document_library\/files\/2020_EAVS_Report_Final_508c.pdf\">2020 post-election survey [PDF]<\/a> of various voting and election-related data from all 50 states last year. While <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2021\/aug\/19\/fight-to-vote-election-data-2020-election-success\"><i>The Guardian&#8217;s<\/i> Sam Levine<\/a> characterizes the report as proving the election was &#8220;a remarkable success&#8221;, we explain why that may be a bit of an overstatement. That said, the data does reveal yet again that, while there were <i>far<\/i> too many rejections of absentee and mail-in ballots (as is always the case, but especially amid pandemic voting last year), there is still no evidence at all to even suggest that the Presidential election was stolen in any way, shape or form by Joe Biden, the Democrats or anyone else. Not that Donald Trump didn&#8217;t try (and fail) to do exactly that, of course;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In much brighter related news, a federal judge in <strong>Michigan<\/strong> on Wednesday brought <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/muckraker\/read-judge-refers-kraken-lawyers-for-potential-disbarment-in-scathing-opinion-over-big-lie\">some serious accountability<\/a> down on nine of the Trump attorneys, including Sidney Powell and Lin Wood, who both helped Trump try to steal the 2020 election by filing fraudulent lawsuits, in this case in Michigan, fraudulently claiming that the election was stolen, using fraudulent claims about fraud. All nine lawyers were excoriated by U.S. District Court Judge Linda V. Parker&#8217;s scathing <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/14JlIBE1LAcbgxT_PTzKok9sIu_wUhIUC\/view\">110-page order [PDF]<\/a>, which should (hopefully) end each of the attorneys&#8217; careers as officers of the court. Parker mandated the Trump lawyers pay attorneys fees accrued by the city of Detroit and state of Michigan in defending against the &#8220;frivolous&#8221; so-called &#8220;Kraken&#8221; lawsuit; take 12 hours of legal classes each (including 6 on Election Law); and, most importantly, face investigations for possible suspension and\/or disbarment by legal authorities in each of their home states;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>More accountability for Trump&#8217;s attempt to steal the 2020 election, specifically for the January 6th attack on the <strong>U.S. Capitol<\/strong> that he incited as part of that effort. Seven Capitol Police officers on Thursday <a href=\"https:\/\/int.nyt.com\/data\/documenttools\/capitol-police-trump-lawsuit\/0c2a4cc5ee6557fe\/full.pdf\">filed a lawsuit [PDF]<\/a> against Trump, several far-right extremist groups charged with aiding the deadly plot, and even against Trump associates like Roger Stone.  It is, as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/26\/us\/politics\/capitol-police-jan-6-riot-lawsuit-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqohkQFUZBSbIRp8_qRmHmfnE2_s3j2f_MC-RDC5Fy-UeDs2C8kGIO-95ZtwvmjCSW8RcMaNpROB3yqUXGX1RfDSSg8nOnoUZcWJyoJivX2gy0tWQB\"><i>New York Times<\/i> describes it<\/a>, &#8220;the most expansive civil effort to date seeking to hold Mr. Trump and his allies legally accountable.&#8221;  Trump is already facing two other similar lawsuits filed by the NAACP and by Rep. Eric Swalwell. But, no doubt, the disgraced former President and his supporters will see this new complaint differently, because it is filed by police officers and, as you know, Republicans always &#8220;back the blue&#8221;, right?;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>That lawsuit follows just one day after the bi-partisan U.S. House Select Committee  on the <strong>January 6th attack<\/strong> issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/08\/25\/jan-6-committee-demands-huge-trove-of-trump-white-house-records.html\">massive series of records requests<\/a> to at least 8 different federal agencies for documents related to Trump&#8217;s movements, actions and meetings on January 6th, and in the weeks and months both before and after. The requests were sent to, among others, the FBI, Dept. of Homeland Security and National Archives, where Presidential White House records are stored. Trump is apparently livid about the effort, <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/national-security\/569486-trump-accuses-jan-6-panel-of-trying-to-distract\">describing it as<\/a> a &#8220;partisan exercise&#8221; being carried out by a &#8220;Leftist&#8221; House Committee. (That may come as a surprise to &#8220;Leftist&#8221; Committee members Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In still more accountability news today, tangentially related to Trump&#8217;s attempt to steal last year&#8217;s election in <strong>Michigan<\/strong>: The sentence for the first domestic terrorist, among some 13 charged in the plot to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last year, was handed down on Wednesday. A 25-year old man who, according to Justice Department prosecutors, cooperated with the investigation after initially pleading not guilty, changed his plea and was <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/airplane-mechanic-pleaded-guilty-michigan-governor-kidnapping-plot\/story?id=79636441&#038;cid=clicksource_4380645_1_heads_hero_live_headlines_hed\">sentenced to more than 6 years in prison<\/a> on charges of providing material support for terrorist acts and felony firearms charges. The failed conspiracy, according to the FBI and Whitmer, sprang from Trump&#8217;s attempt to vilify the Governor for her science-based handling of the COVID pandemic, in a year in which Trump was willing to say and do anything to win the important battleground state. (He lost it by 150,000 votes instead);<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In accountability news only spiritually related to Trump, a federal appeals court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/dylann-roof-death-sentence-appeals-court-upholds-sentence-for-charleston-church-shooter\/\">declined to overturn<\/a> the sentence of the man who killed nine Black parishioners at the Emanuel Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, <strong>South Carolina<\/strong> in 2015. The now-27-year old avowed white supremacist is the first person charged with a death sentence for committing a federal hate crime.  While accountability is great, a life sentence would have been sufficient. Killing people is bad, as some of us learned even before Kindergarten. Apparently, the U.S. Government has yet to do so;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Only <i>politically<\/i> related to Trump, the Republican state Attorney General in <strong>South Dakota<\/strong>, Jason Ravnsborg, who fatally struck a pedestrian last year and left him to die, decided to <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/south-dakota-0c5d8c1ce22cab575cfb9ba6e46e73a6\">take a plea deal<\/a> rather than begin his trial today. Nonetheless, as of airtime, despite the hit and run fatality, Ravnsborg was still in office as the state&#8217;s top law enforcement official;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>And, in related corrupt Republican state Attorney General news, <i>definitely<\/i> politically related to Trump, <strong>Texas<\/strong> Attorney General Ken Paxton is also still in office. That, despite being charged with multiple felonies for securities fraud some time ago (and, so far, evading trial on those <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2019\/06\/19\/ken-paxton-criminal-case-timeline-texas-attorney-general-fraud\/\">years-old, but still-pending indictments<\/a>); facing <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/donald-trump-joe-biden-us-supreme-court-texas-election-2020-071cd81a1447f17bfd115edffc4ff456\">potential disbarment by the State Bar of Texas<\/a> for his attempt to help Trump steal the election with a bogus, fraudulent, rejected lawsuit filed with the U.S. Supreme Court to try and overturn results in four non-Texas states; and <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ken-paxton-dallas-texas-crime-03a00205c24343ef2642d3cceb00f2c2\">under investigation by the FBI<\/a> after 7 top staffers in his office quit and filed a legal complaint detailing how AG Paxton was involved in a serious bribery and abuse of power scheme involving protection for one of his top donors and a scheme that involved having the man give a job to <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/us-news-ken-paxton-extramarital-affairs-austin-texas-dc0c309fc829e62e5132aab56bcc686f\">his mistress<\/a>. Well, on that federal investigation, AG Paxton had some good news this week! In an unsigned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/admin\/2021\/Press\/Internal%20Report.pdf\">374-page report [PDF]<\/a> published by AG Paxton&#8217;s office on AG Paxton&#8217;s letterhead, AG Paxton&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2021\/08\/24\/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-bribery-report\/\">own internal investigation found<\/a> that &#8220;AG Paxton&#8217;s actions were lawful&#8221; and that &#8220;AG Paxton committed no crime&#8221;. Phew! That was close! I&#8217;m sure the FBI is calling off their probe, even as we speak.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Finally, as a late brewing <a href=\"https:\/\/weather.com\/safety\/hurricane\/news\/2021-08-26-tropical-storm-hurricane-ida-forecast\">potential major hurricane<\/a> (<strong>Ida<\/strong>) spins toward the Gulf Coast for possible landfall over the weekend, Desi Doyen joins us today for <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=13979\">our latest <i>Green News Report<\/i><\/a>, with a suspiciously inordinate amount of encouraging news. But don&#8217;t worry, there are a few items of the usual catastrophic nature <i>GNR<\/i> is known for as well. We&#8217;d hate to leave anyone disappointed&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\".\/Images\/Speaker_Icon_24.png\" style=\"width: 24px; float: none; vertical-align: middle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px;\"> <b><i><a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman-TrumpStolenElection-AccountabilityRising_082621.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><center><b>* * *<\/b><\/center><i>While we post <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><\/i>The BradCast<i><\/a> here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they&#8217;re available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/id803467610\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pandora.com\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/PC:1000025838\">Pandora<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9icmFkYmxvZy5jb20vcG9kY2FzdGdlbi9icmFkY2FzdC9mZWVkLnhtbA\">Google<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-BradCast-w-Brad-Friedman\/dp\/B08JJRN86R\/ref=sr_1_1\">Amazon<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/podcastgen\/bradcast\/feed.xml\">our native RSS feed<\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-START--><\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f0e0; border:2px solid #6b5a2e; border-radius:6px; padding:10px 14px; text-align:center; font-family:Georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"display:block; margin:0 0 8px 0; color:#3a2e0e; font-size:0.95em; line-height:1.5;\"><strong>The BRAD BLOG<\/strong>, <em>The BradCast<\/em> and <em>Green News Report<\/em> are all 100% independent and 100% listener and reader supported!<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/Donate\" style=\"display:inline-block; background:#6b5a2e; color:#ffffff; padding:6px 18px; border-radius:4px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; font-family:Georgia,serif; font-size:0.9em;\">Please CLICK HERE to help support our work today!<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-END--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Trump tried to steal the 2020 election. We really must stop describing his efforts and those by his supporters as &#8220;questioning the results&#8221; or &#8220;claiming fraud&#8221; or &#8220;trying to overturn the election.&#8221; The fact is, Trump tried to steal it. He used every means at his disposal to try and do so. Thankfully, he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,135,89,675,543,272,479,159,969,106,753,548,1275,1112,1590,779,477,1570,305,107,1572,944,286,1567,248,47,198,348],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-13980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountability","category-afghanistan","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-climate-change","category-dept-of-defense","category-donald-trump","category-eac","category-election-2020","category-election-fraud","category-electric-vehicles","category-extreme-weather","category-gretchen-whitmer","category-infrastructure","category-insurrection","category-ken-paxton","category-kpfk","category-lin-wood","category-michigan","category-national-security","category-proud-boys","category-roger-stone","category-rudolph-guilliani","category-sidney-powell","category-south-carolina","category-texas","category-us-house","category-vote-by-mail","bb-type-bradcast"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13980"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=13980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}