Joe Biden is the president-elect. Biden won or has significant leads in states that represent 306 electoral votes — far more than the 270 needed to win.
Biden leads by about 10,000 votes in Georgia and 17,000 votes in Arizona, the two most closely contested states. But even if Biden's lead were to somehow be reversed in both states, Biden would still win comfortably.
Every major media outlet, including Fox News, has called the election for Biden. Major international leaders have offered their congratulations. The coverage has largely moved on to Biden's transition. But yet, Trump has refused to concede.
Why? Part of the explanation is narcissism. Trump is having a hard time acknowledging that he lost, even though it is obvious. But another big factor is money. The proof is in the emails.
After Election Day, the Trump campaign sent more than 130 emails soliciting campaign contributions, according to a tally maintained by the Twitter account @TrumpEmail. Most of those emails appear to be soliciting funds to support the legal effort that Trump claims will reverse the results of the election.
The increasingly desperate subject lines of these emails paint a clear picture that the money is essential to contest the results.
DEFEND the integrity of the Election
The Election is under attack
🛑🛑 STOP voter fraud 🛑🛑
DEFEND THE RESULTS
Democrats will try to STEAL this ELECTION
STOP THE FRAUD
Joe Biden wants to count ILLEGAL ballots
Nothing matters more than the integrity of this Election
STOP COUNTING ILLEGAL BALLOTS
But if you read the fine print, money sent to the Election Defense Task Force will not necessarily be used to finance the Trump campaign's lawsuits. Donors are actually contributing to the Trump Make America Great Again Committee (TMAGAC), a joint fundraising committee of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. and the Republican National Committee. 60% of the money donated to TMAGAC will go to pay the Trump campaign's debt and 40% will go to the general operating account of the Republican National Committee. Money is only designated for recounts or other legal efforts if an individual donor reaches their legal limit or Trump retires his debt.
60% to DJTP for deposit in DJTP’s 2020 General Election Account for the retirement of general election debt (up to a maximum of $2,800/$5,000) or, if such debt has been retired or any portion of the contribution would exceed the limit to the 2020 General Election Account, for deposit in DJTP’s Recount Account (up to a maximum of $2,800/$5,000); 40% to the RNC’s Operating account (up to a maximum of $35,500/$15,000); and any additional funds to the RNC for deposit in the RNC’s Legal Proceedings account or Headquarters account (up to a maximum of $213,000/$90,000).
Contributions directly to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. will be split between debt retirement and the recount effort. But the Trump campaign hasn't sent a solicitation from Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. since November 3.
No one knows how much money Trump is raising from this gambit. But the campaign has tens of millions of email addresses. If even a small fraction of the list is responding to these appeals, the campaign is raising millions of dollars each day.
If Trump concedes, that money would come to a halt. You can't pretend to raise money for a legal challenge once you admit you've lost.
The sorry state of Trump's election lawsuits
Trump isn't devoting this new cash to fund his legal challenges to the election results, and it shows. Most of the lawsuits the campaign has filed have been dismissed by the courts. In one case in Michigan, lawyers representing Trump made basic errors in submitting their appeal. The filing was rejected as "defective."
The initial case was dismissed after Trump's "legal team submitted a sworn affidavit by a designated poll watcher who repeated a rumor that she heard from an unidentified person about what some 'other hired poll workers at her table' allegedly told her."
"Come on now," the Michigan judge said before throwing out the suit.
In Pennsylvania, the Trump campaign continues to claim that its observers in Philadelphia were excluded from watching ballots be counted. In court, however, a Trump lawyer admitted there were observers in place. So who would make such a claim? The main witness featured at Trump's campaign press conference is a registered sex offender from New Jersey:
The first person Rudy Giuliani, the attorney for President Donald Trump, called up as a witness to baseless allegations of vote counting shenanigans in Philadelphia during a press conference last week is a sex offender who for years has been a perennial candidate in New Jersey.
“It’s such a shame. This is a democracy,” Daryl Brooks, who said he was a GOP poll watcher, said at the press conference, held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Northeast Philadelphia. “They did not allow us to see anything. Was it corrupt or not? But give us an opportunity as poll watchers to view all the documents — all of the ballots.”
...Brooks was incarcerated in the 1990s on charges of sexual assault, lewdness and endangering the welfare of a minor for exposing himself to two girls ages 7 and 11, according to news accounts.
On Monday, "the Trump campaign unveiled a new lawsuit repackaging debunked claims that poll workers gave Trump supporters markers—knowing that those markers would bleed through ballots and that the ballots would not be counted, and all to help Joe Biden win Arizona."
The lawsuit is essentially the same as a lawsuit filed days ago by a group of conservative lawyers, based on a conspiracy theory known as "Sharpiegate." The premise of the lawsuit, that using a Sharpie will invalidate a ballot, is false.
That lawsuit was quietly withdrawn. The primary difference between the Trump campaign's new lawsuit and the previous one is that, while the initial lawsuit focused on "Sharpies," the revised lawsuit refers to "markers."
In the evening, the Trump campaign filed a sweeping lawsuit in Pennsylvania that does not allege any fraud but argues the state should be prevented from certifying its election because it allowed people to vote by mail.
Georgia's Republican Senators call for the resignation of Georgia's Republican Secretary of State
Georgia Senators Kelly Loeffler (R) and David Perdue (R) released a joint statement calling on Brad Raffensberger, Georgia's Republican Secretary of State to resign. The statement claimed that Raffensberger "failed to deliver honest and transparent elections."
They provided no evidence to support their claims. Moments later, Trump tweeted that he would win Georgia.
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A grifter has to grift as evidenced by the fundraiser email and displayed the despairing state of affairs in the GOP. SMM emails are reminding of the sophomoric letter of the overspending college student to Daddy. Trump has done this all of his life. If the Deutsche Bank rumors are true and he is 400 million in debt he has big trouble with lenders on the horizon.
As for the lawsuits, next to grifting, lawsuits have been his strength of his fake businessman persona. Donny hears footsteps of Federal SDNY prosecution, ya think?
I just saw on Reddit a clip of Fox News pulling away from the cutest press secretary howling election fraud. Fox commentator actually saying unless she has proof they won't entertain it.
Damn those rats leaving the sinking ship.
Cato in ancient Rome concluded every speech he made with Carthage delano est. Carthage must be destroyed. My new conclusion to remarks everywhere:
Make those donations to the GA Senate races as our Republic depends on it.
Thanks Judd, you rock.
While I am certainly happy that Joe Biden won the election last week, I am increasingly pessimistic that many Republican voters will ever accept the result. This has incredibly dire consequences for the future of the country, especially as a democracy. The thing is, no one should be surprised in the least by this. No one. Trump told us four years ago, when he was running against Hillary Clinton, that he would only respect the outcome of the election if he won, and for months now, he's been saying the same thing about this campaign. And, now he's completely politicized the Justice Department, so we have the weight of the government behind the "overturn the election" movement.
So, now we go to the courts, which conveniently are stocked with far right judges appointed by Trump and handpicked by Mitch McConnell. Not all of the cases will be dismissed and eventually, one or more of them will reach the Supreme Court which has three Justices who Trump has already said he expects to pay him back for putting them on the High Court. Add to them Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas, both of whom have never met a right-wing cause that they didn't want to champion (I'll give John Roberts the benefit of the doubt, since I believe that he still respects the high court as an institution), and boom, we have an overturning of the election result. That's a big reason why my happiness on Saturday was quite muted.
Ultimately, I'm convinced that Trump, his cheering section in the right wing media echo chamber (I'm looking at YOU, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, etc., etc.) are going to get people killed, be they misguided supporters or innocent victims. I also seriously question whether the Democrats are ready for what is coming their way. This is more than just a deeply divided nation. Rather, this is a battle for whether we stay a democracy or not. Trump supporters have already indicated on what side of that battle they are. Ditto Fox News, OANN, and the utterly feckless Republican leadership, etc. Will the Democrats fight to prevent us from becoming, as Fareed Zakaria described it, an "illiberal democracy"? Are they even aware that this is what is at stake? The public pronouncements they have made suggest strongly that they are not, I fear. They are fighting the battles of 20 years ago, not the current high-tech battle for the soul of the nation.