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    The long grift: How Donald Trump's 'voter fraud' claims may not be about the 2020 election

    Terry H. Schwadron, DCReport @ RawStory
    November 17, 2020

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump kisses a baby at a campaign rally in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S., July 29, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Terry H. Schwadron, DCReport @ RawStory

    It’s becoming apparent that if you don’t like Donald Trump’s vocal debasement of our election results, you probably aren’t going to enjoy his next four years.


    In fact, when you think about it, maybe this is all part of a long-term Trump grift.

    Consider that:

    --A new snap poll – yes, they’re polling again – shows that seven of 10 Republicans believes that the election was “stolen” by Joe Biden.

    --A finance group is working quietly to approach Newsmax to buy the conservative, conspiracy-theory-filled network as a voice for Trump and Trumpism.

    --Despite the consistent failure of Trump campaign lawsuits charging a variety of “fraud” in the elections, Rudy Giuliani, as Trump’s lawyer, is launching more that already have been undercut by Trump’s own Homeland Security folks, even as the campaign walks away from losing arguments about lacking observers to counting, since there were observers.

    Indeed, in stories in The New York Times, Politico, The Washington Post and in more conservative websites all underscore similar themes – that what we’re seeing play out in these challenges were long in the planning, kicked in as election counts turned against Trump in Pennsylvania and other states.

    Moreover, they note that the current spate of challenges is meant to cement a political base for continuing attacks on U.S. institutions – as well as the Biden presidency.

    Here is Politico: “Trump is not making a narrow, surgical, legally feasible case to enhance his chances to still be living in the White House come January 21. (That’s … improbable.) He’s not doing this, either, to win the argument. (It’s almost mathematically impossible.) He’s doing it, say political strategists, longtime Trump watchers and experts on authoritarian tactics, to sow doubt, save face and strengthen even in defeat his lifeblood of a bond with his political base.”

    Futile Challenges

    Let’s deal first with the continuing legal challenges. Giuliani has ordered that lawsuits just abandon the argument that Republican observers were denied access to the counting, but has amplified attacks on the companies involved in manufacturing counting machines as biased for Democrats.

    Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post’s excellent fact-checker,  basically has destroyed this argument with reporting that goes point-by-point through the Giuliani arguments. Plus, in a statement, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, an arm of Homeland Security, said “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

    As we have seen, court after court has denied challenges by the Trump campaign as lacking evidence or just being flat wrong.

    So, we have to conclude that other than trying to humor Trump’s ego, there must be some kind of logic for the campaign and the Republican National Committee to continue banging its head against the legal wall.

    The answer seems to be that the craziness of denying election results is working to some extent: Republicans are buying into conspiracy in wide numbers.

    At this point, few people in any world I know believe that any combination of these challenges will change the election results – to say nothing of the fact that the same election processes have returned Republican senators and congress members to their seats.

    “The shocking lack of specifics, which Trump’s critics mock as laughably unserious for something so consequential, is not a deficiency. It is the feature of his strategy,” argues Politico. “It’s … working. Seven in 10 Republicans, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll earlier this week, believe the election was stolen from their candidate.

    It is overall for Trump both a culmination and a continuation: a grand finale of sorts of the past five-plus years, in which he’s relied so much on so much unreality—and also a runway, a kind of topspin toward what’s to come once he leaves Washington . . .

    He’s doing what he believes he needs to do to put at least himself in the best possible position for the future after yet another failure.

    “This isn’t about winning the presidency,” former Trump publicist Alan Marcus told Politico this week. “It’s his exit strategy.”

    How Does It Help?

    Trump is out to use other people’s money – for his business debts, for his political survival and for any attempt to establish a media alternative to Fox News.

    After all, we’ve already learned that  bulk of money from the fund-raising for Trump election challenges is headed for an ill-defined Trump political slush fund.

    Here’s the argument: Trump will make money for selling the Trump image as iconoclast. He will be paid handsomely for making speeches, for holding rallies, by fund-raising efforts that seek to take advantage of 70 million votes in a losing effort.

    By doing so, he will maintain leadership of the Republican opposition and be able to threaten Republican lawmakers into blocking Biden agenda items.

    Politico quoted a Republican strategist who said it’s imperative for Trump to keep active the potential for another run in 2024. Even efforts to prosecute Trump “just on the sheer financial side of it, the martyring of Trump—martyring himself—is good for business,” he said.

    I had hoped that a substantial election result would allow us to move on. Apparently, it ain’t so.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

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    Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
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    Survey: Should Donald Trump be prosecuted after he leaves office?

    WATCH: Newt pushes conspiracy theory Biden White House wants to 'exterminate' Republicans

    Bob Brigham
    January 21, 2021

    Only weeks after Republican lies about election fraud incited a fatal insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, former Speaker Newt Gingrich pushed a new conspiracy theory.

    One the first full day of the Biden, Gingrich blasted the new administration because of public discussions over the 14th Amendment banning people who commit sedition after taking an oath to defend the Constitution. Many legal experts have said that applies to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO).

    "Well look, I think you are seeing the hysteria of the Biden system. Because it's not really about Biden himself. It's this entire team around him who are radicals who believe if they could exterminate the Republicans that would be one way to get to unity. As a New York Times columnist wrote this morning, you know, if Biden really wanted unity, he would start by lynching Vice President Pence. That just gives you a sense of the ferocity and the anger and the hatred that underlies the modern left. And I think that Cruz showed enormous courage," Gingrich argued. "He always has."

    Watch:

    ‘Pathetic’ NYT reporter blasted for ‘ragingly incompetent’ questioning of Biden press secretary

    Matthew Chapman
    January 21, 2021

    On Thursday, during the daily White House press briefing, New York Times reporter Michael Shear asked Press Secretary Jen Psaki why, as supposedly evidenced by his start-of-term executive orders reversing policies of former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden was not trying to unify the country.

    "Is unemployment insurance an issue that only Democrats in the country want?" said Psaki, visibly taken aback at the framing of the question. "Or do only Democrats want their kids to go back to schools?"

    Shear's question drew harsh criticism on social media, with reporters excoriating how he chose to pose the question and suggesting that it was a leading premise.

    He basically asked @PressSec why Biden hasn’t unified the country yet, suggesting that he should have left Trump’s policies in place and put Republicans in his cabinet.

    This framing is such nonsense. https://t.co/5A2h1tGGoY

    — Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) January 22, 2021

    Seriously, watch this insane exchange
    pic.twitter.com/b0V0KCSNHs

    — Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) January 22, 2021

    I give lectures around the world on how to ask questions. This guy needs to attend.

    No one should make it to the White House press room who is as ragingly incompetent as this guy at framing a question.

    Who is he? Who pays his salary? https://t.co/mbdNj1YNsw

    — David Cay Johnston (@DavidCayJ) January 22, 2021

    No, damn, it’s not someone from the New York Times or any other first right news organization. And if I’m wrong we can both send a letter asking why he hasn’t been fired.

    — David Cay Johnston (@DavidCayJ) January 22, 2021

    'The name's toxic': Trump Org in crisis and bleeding money as ex-president takes the reins again

    Matthew Chapman
    January 21, 2021

    On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that the Trump Organization is in financial freefall as former president Donald Trump prepares to take the helm of the company again.

    "Financial disclosure forms, filed by the former president as he left office, revealed that his hotels, resorts and other properties had lost more than $120 million in revenue last year, as the pandemic forced long-term closures and kept customers home," reported David Farenthold and Jonathan O'Connell. "Those losses were worst in the places where Trump could least afford it: His Washington hotel, which has a $170 million loan outstanding, saw revenue drop more than 60 percent. His Doral resort in Miami — also carrying a huge debt load — saw a 44 percent drop."

    Moreover, the Trump Organization is also losing a number of business partners.

    "On Thursday, the company's troubles grew: One of its banks and one of its law firms said they would cut their ties with the Trump Organization," said the report. "They are the latest in a string of vendors and customers who severed their relationships with the company after Jan. 6, when a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol directly after he addressed them at a rally."

    Meanwhile, his properties are losing contracts to host events, including the PGA tour and a triathlon in North Carolina — with the latter's organizer, Chuck McAllister, saying, "The name's toxic. It's toxic to some people. That's never going to change." The City of New York "said it will end the Trump Organization's contracts to run a carousel, two ice rinks and a golf course in city parks — contracts that brought the Trump Organization $18 million in 2019." And the Girl Scouts and a tuberculosis charity are trying to break their leases on offices in Trump's building on Wall Street.

    According to the report, President Joe Biden might ultimately hold the entire fate of the Trump Organization in his hands. "That's because Biden's success in speeding up vaccinations for the coronavirus will play a major role in determining how fast the hotel and travel industries recover. In addition, because Trump's D.C. hotel is located in a federally owned building, the Biden administration is his landlord. If Trump seeks to renegotiate his lease, or to get federal approval for a sale of the building, he will be dealing with Biden's General Services Administration."

    You can read more here.


    Remember the press conference at Trump Tower in 2017, where Trump's lawyer spoke in front of piles of paper in mani… https://t.co/6v9Q83xfB3
    — David Fahrenthold (@David Fahrenthold)1611276440.0
     
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