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**DECEMBER 10, 2020**

Meyerson on TAP

Will It Really Be All Over on December 14?

That's the day the Electoral College meets, casts its votes, and
declares a winner.

Of course, it was really all over on November 7, when the ongoing vote
count put Pennsylvania in Joe Biden's column. But Trump's campaign
to overturn the vote, and the Republicans' indulgence of his infantile
and near-psychotic resistance to losing-that will surely come to an
end next Monday-right?

I wouldn't bet on it. Since Trump equates being a loser with something
worse than death, I expect he'll not only continue to tweet that he
really won, but also continue to pressure Republican elected officials
to somehow overturn the election.

Only after December 14, those officials won't be the governors and
state legislators whom Trump's been harassing over the past few weeks.
They'll be the U.S. senators and representatives who'll convene in
the new Congress in the week of January 4. Because on January 6, both
the House and the Senate are charged with meeting in joint session to
tally the Electoral College votes presented to them, accept the EC's
count, and proclaim a winner.

This invariably has been the most pro forma part of our entire election
process, but this time may be different. The Constitution permits a few
disconsolate members to move (in writing, the Constitution says) to
reject the College's findings, but that's never gotten very far. If
at least one House member and one senator sign on to such a petition,
the two houses convene separately to consider it. Should a majority in
each house reject the Electoral College's choice, then the House
elects the president (with each state delegation getting one vote) and
the Senate elects the vice president.

To date, exactly one House member (Alabama's Mo Brooks) and exactly
zero senators have announced they'll submit such a petition. As the
Democrats will have the majority in the newly convened House, any such
measure is sure to fail. But it's not yet clear how many Republicans,
if egged on by Trump and his besotted base, will vote for the petition
anyway, in full knowledge that, because it won't pass, their vote
won't actually overturn the election.

Okay, class: Who here thinks that Trump will accept the EC's vote of
December 14 and not pester Republican senators and House members to
reject the EC's tally? No hands? All right, knowing what you do about
Republican senators and House members, who here thinks that hardly any
of them will vote to overturn the Electoral College (not to mention, a
clear majority of American voters)? Not many hands now, either. Who here
thinks Trump will also pressure these senators and House members to
announce they're staying away from Biden's inauguration because he
didn't really win? (They'll have to announce their non-attendance
because the event will largely be virtual in any case.) And that most
Republican senators and House members will indeed stay away? Lots of
hands on this one.

And that being the case, with Republicans effectively declaring Biden an
illegitimate president-the nearest precedent for which is the
South's reaction to Lincoln's 1860 election victory-Democrats and
patriots and just plain people of goodwill should press Democratic
senators like West Virginia's Joe Manchin to agree to scrap the
filibuster, which these selfsame Republicans will use to block every
proposal from a president they falsely term illegitimate. Making the
Biden presidency dependent on the whims of a party devoted to
overturning the basics of American democracy and majority rule isn't
bipartisanship. It's more like abetting treason.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter

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Race War

Will Trump's use of bigotry to rally anxious white voters end with his
term of office? BY STANLEY B. GREENBERG

Kelly Loeffler's Familiar Dog Whistle

Her attacks on her opponent Rev. Raphael Warnock echo a 150-year history
of fearmongering. BY ELI DAY

Jerry Brown's Contributions to Joe Biden

Some of the former California governor's stellar appointees are up for
posts in the coming Biden administration. BY HAROLD MEYERSON

A Democratic Party With Tom Vilsack at Ag Is Not Serious About Winning
Elections

Joe Biden's Cabinet pick scorns powerful rural voters. BY ALEXANDER
SAMMON

Unsanitized: Pay People to Get the Vaccine

That should be part of a relief bill entirely focused on getting the
vaccine to people as fast as possible. This is The COVID-19 Daily Report
for December 10, 2020. BY DAVID DAYEN

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