State of denial

As the counting of ballots dragged into a fourth day in six states today, and Donald Trump’s prospects of defeating Democratic challenger Joe Biden appeared to narrow, the president offered little indication that he was prepared to concede defeat, should that be the election result. Trump reportedly has not prepared a concession speech, and in conversations with allies in recent days, has said pointedly that he has no intention of conceding the election. Instead, he is declaring the entire process rigged against him and calling on fellow Republicans to defend him. For his part, Biden is expected to deliver remarks tonight from Delaware. —CNN

• — Taking too long? Blame the GOP. As Trump's lead in Pennsylvania dwindled away overnight, flipping to Biden, aggravated Trump supporters are continuing to call for the counting to stop. They have the Pennsylvania GOP to blame. Republican lawmakers refused to allow mail-in ballots to be processed ahead of time. —Courier Newsroom
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• — Actual illegal votes. As the president rails against "illegal votes," a group of Republicans in Kenosha, Wis., has been soliciting volunteers to contact Trump supporters in Pennsylvania and urge them to mail-in absentee ballots now. The state is accepting mailed ballots through today, but the ballots had to have a postmark date of Election Day, Nov. 3. So naturally, the ballots would be illegal. Oh, the irony. —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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• — Attack thwarted. Two armed men who were en route from Virginia to the Philadelphia Convention Center, where votes are being counted, were taken into custody last night after law enforcement learned of a possible threat, according to Philadelphia police. Charges are pending, but will likely include weapons violations, as the men were not licensed in the commonwealth. —NBC News

Milgram: A brazen attack on democracy

"At its core, the president's speech was an attack on our democracy and the legal voting systems long established in every one of our states and territories. The president screaming that the polls and voting were fraudulent—without any evidence of fraud—was the political equivalent of someone falsely screaming ‘Fire!’ in a crowded movie theater. The goal was to create confusion and undercut the outcome of the election." —Anne Milgram on CNN

Ed. Note: Anne Milgram is a distinguished scholar in residence at New York University's School of Law. She served as a federal prosecutor and was attorney general of New Jersey from 2007 to 2010.

MORE: We fact-checked Trump's claims of election fraud in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania —The Philadelphia Inquirer

The trouble with 'acting' secretaries

Donald Trump has spent much of his presidency breaking norms that were observed by nearly all the executives who preceded him. One area of norm-shattering came on the appointment of Cabinet officials, with the president choosing to name loyalists as "acting" officials to avoid the Senate confirmation process. Would a President Joe Biden do the same?

• — If not, Republicans' likely hold on the Senate is forcing Biden's transition team to consider limiting its prospective Cabinet nominees to those with whom Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is comfortable. That could dash the ambitions of some Democrats, including those who have clashed with Republicans.
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• — A Republican Senate would reportedly work with Biden on centrist nominees, but no "radical progressives" or ones who are controversial with conservatives. That would likely preclude former National Security Advisor Susan Rice and former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams or Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
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• — Obviously, it’s all contingent on the election. The presidential race hasn’t been decided yet, and for that matter, neither has the ultimate makeup of the Senate. Biden officials are awaiting their own candidate's results as well as final numbers on the size of the GOP's Senate majority. —Axios

MORE: 'All eyes are on Georgia': Fight for Senate majority could come down to one state —The Hill

Did Esper resign or not?

Long at odds with President Trump, Defense Sec. Mark Esper has prepared a letter of resignation, according to three current defense officials cited in an NBC News report yesterday. Or did he? The Pentagon has issued a statement, via chief spokesman Jonathan Hoffman, saying Esper "has no plans to resign, nor has he been asked to submit a letter of resignation." Hmm.

• — Talk is picking up that Trump could fire Esper imminently, regardless of the results of the still-uncalled presidential election. Firing him would give Trump a chance to flex his executive powers, as it appears increasingly likely he could lose to Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
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• — Questions are also swirling as to whether FBI Director Christopher Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel will be ousted as well, raising questions about how military, justice, and intelligence issues would be managed during what could be a fraught transition.
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• — Regarding Esper, a House Armed Services Committee aide said today that the panel has not been "advised on any imminent personnel changes within Pentagon leadership." The Senate Armed Services Committee has not commented. Stay tuned. —The Hill

Shackleford: How social media has come up short

"Earlier this fall, Twitter announced new measures to tackle disinformation, including false claims about the risks of voting by mail. Facebook has likewise vowed to crack down on disinformation and voter intimidation on its platform, including by removing posts that encourage people to monitor polling places. Google has dropped the Proud Boys domain that Iran allegedly used to send messages to some 25,000 registered Democrats that threatened them if they did not change parties and vote for Trump.

But such self-regulation, while helpful, can go only so far. The time has come for the U.S. to learn from the experiences of other nations and hold tech firms accountable for ensuring that their platforms are not misused to undermine the country's democratic foundations." —Scott Shackleford in The Conversation

Ed. Note: Scott Shackleford is an associate professor of business law and ethics and the cybersecurity program chair at Indiana University-Bloomington.

MORE: Twitter permanently suspends Steve Bannon account after talk of beheading —CNN

Is Putin quitting?

Depends on whom you ask. Great Britain's Sun tabloid and the U.S.'s The New York Post newspaper published a story last night suggesting that Russian President Vladimir Putin may have Parkinson’s disease and be poised to quit early next year. The Kremlin has denied it.

• — The Sun cited Professor Valery Solovei, a Russian political pundit, who said earlier this week on a Moscow radio station that Putin was under pressure from his entourage to step down due to fears for his health.
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• — "It's absolute nonsense." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the media report based on Solovei’s assertions was false. Asked if Putin was planning to step down in the near future, Peskov said, "No ... Everything is fine with the president." —Reuters

The Economist: Hyperpartisanship remains an issue

"Over the past year, Donald Trump has been impeached by the House of Representatives, making him only the third president in American history to suffer this rebuke. COVID-19 has killed more than 230,000 Americans and caused the economy to oscillate wildly. The country saw well-publicized killings of unarmed African-Americans by police officers, the largest civil-rights protests in American history, and episodes of violence in some cities.

California suffered awful wildfires, far-right thugs plotted to kidnap the governor of Michigan, and the president had perhaps the worst first-debate performance ever seen. ... At the end of all that, hardly any Americans had changed their mind about who they wanted to be the next president. It is possible to argue that all these things simply cancelled each other out. More likely, they were made irrelevant by the power of partisan bias to shape how voters interpret such events." —The Economist

"We want every vote counted—yes, every legal vote (of course). But, if you have legit concerns about fraud, present EVIDENCE and take it to court. STOP spreading debunked misinformation. This is getting insane.” —Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois), @RepKinzinger

I was watching a special on public television entitled "The Rise of Fascism in the 1930s,” about the tools that Adolf Hitler and the other fascists used in Europe to control, enrage, create fear, and separate their citizens from what they considered the inferiority of other ethnicities. Trump is using the same historical playbook. —Kerry S., California

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.