Trump threatens democracy and avoids responsibility during deadly pandemic

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At first, Donald Trump wanted election results on Election Night. Remember? He said he didn't want the result to drag out for weeks because it would be terrible for the country. So he fought the vote-counting for days until it delivered exactly what he feared—a decisive loss. Suddenly, he no longer cared about expedience but about "fraud," and naturally, only in the states and the predominantly minority counties he lost. Republicans stood by him, saying it was his right to challenge "irregularities." Now we're more than two weeks out, and Team Trump has failed miserably to present any such evidence in court. Yesterday, at a truly surreal press conference, his attorneys just came out and admitted it—they want to overturn the will of the people in the swing states Trump lost, and for the state legislatures to simply hand Trump a win. Just like that. Will it work? Very unlikely. But that's not the point. Aside from a few tepid statements from Republican officeholders, the party machine is
going along, as are conservative media and many of the rank-and-file, because they now claim to be convinced of massive fraud. So let's call it what it is—an attempt to do deep harm to American democracy, which we'll likely spend years if not decades repairing. —Evan McMullin

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** Dripping with disdain for democracy
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Did you see it? Rudy Giuliani's 90-minute news conference yesterday, delivered not in front of a landscaping company in Northeast Philadelphia but at the Republican National Committee headquarters in the nation's capital, was a horrifying spectacle, including pointless movie references, jaw-dropping falsehoods about election "fraud," and sweating. Lots of sweating. Next up was attorney Sidney Powell, who after outlining a conspiracy theory regarding a scheme to alter votes through software, declared, "We are going to clean this mess up now. President Trump won by a landslide. We are going to prove it." The nation still awaits this elusive proof. —The Independent ([link removed])
* — Meddling in Michigan. Meanwhile, Trump is doing his part by using the power of the office to influence officials who could make his quest to overturn the election results a reality. He extended an invitation to the White House to two Michigan election officials who support the president's efforts. And a state-level Republican election official has indicated that he is now leaning toward calling for a delay in the certification of Michigan's results until an official audit has been completed. —The Hill ([link removed])
*
* — Biden wins Georgia. Again. Georgia concluded its statewide audit of the presidential race yesterday, confirming that President-elect Joe Biden defeated Trump, according to a news release from the Secretary of State's office. Biden officially beat Trump by 12,284 votes, a slight drop for Biden compared to the pre-audit results. Officials have said repeatedly that the audit confirmed there was no widespread fraud or irregularities in the election. —CNN ([link removed])
*
* — Here's the problem... While Sens. Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Joni Ernst have cautiously stepped forward to criticize the president for undermining Americans' faith in the democratic process, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger says his party will come around once Trump "comes to terms" with losing the election, by then, it may be too late. Everyday Republicans are buying into Team Trump's narrative—a YouGov poll shows that only a quarter of Republican voters believe Trump should concede, and nearly half expect the result to be overturned through recounts. —The Economist ([link removed])

MORE: Richard Primus: Why Michigan's top legislators should cancel that meeting with Trump —Politico ([link removed])


** 'Help is on the way'
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The U.S. is seeing the fastest spread yet of the coronavirus, the White House Coronavirus Task Force said yesterday, at its first public briefing in four months. However, task force members spoke out against the idea of nationwide lockdowns, a sentiment echoed separately by President-elect Joe Biden, who said he prefers local action based on infection data. ([link removed])
* — "This is more cases, more rapidly, than what we had seen before." Dr. Deborah Birx, once a senior member of the task force, stood beside a map awash in red, showing a country besieged by cases. Birx said she's been traveling the country encouraging governors and state and local leaders to enact measures to stop the spread, with mixed results at best. ([link removed])
*
* — The great hope. Coronavirus vaccines under development by Moderna and Pfizer have shown 95% efficacy in preventing infections, and Pfizer is filing for Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization today. "That is extraordinary," said National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci. "That is almost to the level of what we see with measles (vaccine), which is 98% effective." ([link removed])
*
* — No time to let down our guard. Fauci said that with vaccines on the horizon, Americans must now increase their use of masks, avoiding gatherings, and keeping their distance from others. "If you are fighting a battle and the cavalry is on the way, you don't stop shooting until the cavalry gets here," Fauci said. —CNN ([link removed])

MORE: Mnuchin to end key Fed emergency programs, limiting Biden —The New York Times ([link removed])


** The Economist: How will the world look different in 2021?
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"COVID-19 has not just pummelled the global economy. It has changed the trajectory of the three big forces that are shaping the modern world. Globalization has been truncated. The digital revolution has been radically accelerated. And the geopolitical rivalry between America and China has intensified. At the same time, the pandemic has worsened one of today's great scourges: inequality. And by showing the toll of being unprepared for a low-probability, high-impact disaster, it has focused more minds on the coming century's inevitable and even higher-impact disaster, that of climate change. All this means there is no going back to the pre-Covid world." — ([link removed]) The Economist ([link removed])


** So that's why he doesn't want to leave office
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Sure, he likes all the trappings of power. But Donald Trump's desperation to stay in power is no doubt driven by what awaits him on the other side too. Mountains of debt obligations will come due, and two separate New York State fraud investigations hang over his head. The probes into his businesses, one criminal and one civil, have expanded to include tax write-offs on millions of dollars in consulting fees, some of which appear to have gone to Ivanka Trump. ([link removed])
* — The criminal investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., and the civil one by New York Attorney General Letitia James, are being conducted independently. But both offices have issued subpoenas to the Trump Organization in recent weeks for records related to the fees. ([link removed])
*
* — The subpoenas are focused on fees paid to firms apparently related to Ivanka Trump and other members of her family. She was an executive officer of the Trump companies that made the payments, meaning she appears to have been treated as a consultant while also working for the company. ([link removed])
*
* — Vance's investigation, which is reportedly focused on a number of potential financial crimes, including insurance and bank-related fraud, tax evasion, and grand larceny, has been stalled since the president filed a lawsuit to block a subpoena for his tax returns and other financial records. The legal fight is before the U.S. Supreme Court for a second time, with a ruling expected soon. —The New York Times ([link removed])

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** Gold: Whistleblowers may be democracy's last defense
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"Looking ahead to this transition, abuses we may see will likely attack democracy by destroying or manipulating information. For instance, agency heads may seek to cover up paper trails of misconduct by failing to comply with record retention laws, or by removing or illegally trying to gag employees with access to information about wrongdoing who would likely challenge such misconduct. False information in turn can be used as cover for politically motivated executive actions, such as using baseless claims of voting irregularities to investigate alleged voter fraud; characterizing citizen protests as 'dangerous' to engage in voter suppression in the Senate run-off race in Georgia; or accusing foreign adversaries of aggression to justify armed conflict for a 'wag the dog' distraction." —Dana Gold in Government Executive ([link removed])

Dana Gold is senior counsel and director of Government Accountability Project's Democracy Protection Initiative.


** Elections around the world
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Well, at least we're not the only country with a contested election. But in Cote d'Ivoire, it's for good reason. The country's incumbent president, Alassane Ouattara, was purportedly re-elected to a third term last month, but his two main opponents boycotted the vote and have refused to recognize the outcome. Why? The Constitutional Court had ruled in September that only four of the country's 44 presidential hopefuls would even be allowed to run, and international observers have questioned the legitimacy of the results. —World Politics Review ([link removed])
* — Uganda. Clashes between police and protesters furious over the arrest of a Ugandan opposition presidential hopeful, musician-turned-politician Bobi Wine, have left dozens dead and hundreds under arrest. Wine has emerged as a potent challenger in the African country's January election, gaining support particularly among younger generations fed up with President Yoweri Museveni's 36 years of authoritarian rule. — ([link removed]) CBS News ([link removed])

* — Peru. Peru swore in its third president in just over a week on Tuesday, after the nation's already unstable political system crumbled. Francisco Sagasti became the fourth Peruvian president in less than five years after Congress voted to oust popular ex-president Martin Vizcarra, and Vizcarra's replacement, Manuel Merino, resigned. Sagasti will have five months to steady the ship ahead of presidential elections in April 2021. —CNN ([link removed])
*
* — China. China has rejected criticism by the Five Eyes alliance of its Hong Kong policy, saying it "should face up to the reality" that the former British colony has been returned to China. The alliance, which includes the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, issued a statement that a new Chinese government resolution that led to the disqualification of four pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong appears to be "part of a concerted campaign to silence all critical voices." —The Guardian ([link removed])

MORE: 'Trump has been a kind of awakening': EU's top diplomat says Europe's relationship with US is forever changed —TIME ([link removed])


** Taylor: Let's celebrate resilience...and save lives
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"Let's be as bold in our thinking as this disease is in its deadliness. Let's let the numbers—the lost lives, the resulting grief, the unimaginable pain—order our steps as we move towards Thanksgiving. Mindset matters. Let's train our brains to not just seek but find gratitude, even in these dark days. Let's get audacious with our gratitude." —Kristin Clark Taylor in USA Today ([link removed])

Kristin Clark Taylor is a member of USA Today's Board of Contributors, an author, editor, and journalist.

"GOP, he used you to get elected. He corrupted the party and your 'principles' while in office. Now he's burning your party and the country down on his way out. Stop being cultists. Start being patriots." —S.E. Cupp, political commentator (@secupp)

I'm old enough to remember when Republicans would say that "good Muslims" needed to speak out against terrorists, otherwise they were complicit. In fact, they do it every time. They say all Muslims must condemn the actions of a few, or they are guilty as well. Muslims have to shout from the rooftops how wrong it was for a few of "their own" to attack our democracy, our country, and all we stand for.

A relative few in the GOP are attacking our democracy, our country, and all we stand for, yet many members of the group stay silent. Seems to me the "good Republicans" should be speaking out and shouting from the rooftops about what the stable genius and his sycophants are doing to our democracy, our country, and all we stand for. You know, just like all the "good Muslims" are supposed to do each time. —Bill T., Arizona
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** 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.
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