Although Twitter hid Trump's 2:22 AM brain fart-- "Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process"-- it isn't hard for anyone to access: "I easily WIN the Presidency of the United States with LEGAL VOTES CAST. The OBSERVERS were not allowed, in any way, shape, or form, to do their job and therefore, votes accepted during this period must be determined to be ILLEGAL VOTES. U.S. Supreme Court should decide!" This morning Axios' Jonathan Swan was writing that "Senior White House and Trump campaign officials are complaining bitterly about poor internal communication, blaming colleagues, pondering what jobs they might try to get next year, and lashing out at their new enemy: Fox News. Aides told Axios they're dreading the prospect of Fox calling Pennsylvania for Joe Biden, which could make the conservative network the first to give Biden 270 electoral votes. A Trump campaign official said the internal view was that it's essential to keep the race 'optically' alive, and that if Fox were to call it, it would severely harm their efforts to support President Trump's (false) claims that he'd already won." He reported that, "The incandescent anger at Fox within Trumpworld is hard to overstate." They're still furious that Fox called Arizona for Biden and have been unsuccessfully trying to get Fox to rescind the call ever since. And there was some gallows humor:
A senior administration official said: "When Bush had this issue they tapped arguably the pre-eminent statesman of his generation, James Baker, to spearhead their legal and PR efforts, to great effect. ... We rolled out Rudy Giuliani, Corey Lewandowski and Pam Bondi. You can draw your own conclusions."
Maybe that's because Trump's inner circle has been busy revving up violence. This morning Tony Romm and Isaac Stanley-Becker reported at the Washington Post that last night a Republican campaign firm, OpnSesame, run by Gary Coby, the digital director for Trump’s 2020 campaign, sent unmarked texts urging supporters in Philly area to attack the city's voting counting center:
ALERT: Radical Liberals & Dems are trying to steal this election from Trump! We need YOU! Show your support at the corner of 12th St. & Arch St. in Philadelphia.
Gary Coby wants to take his unfortunate existence out on America Two two reporters wrote that "The text messages reflect the Trump campaign’s heightened efforts to harness digital channels, and sow distrust about the 2020 election’s results, as Biden approaches the threshold needed to win the race. The campaign has sent millions of emails and texts in recent days that similarly claim without evidence that Democrats are trying to steal the election, including a new blast of text messages late Thursday asking for donations to help Trump initiate legal challenges in key battleground states... The tactics illustrate potential vulnerabilities in the country’s communications systems, exposing the extent to which a wide array of sophisticated actors can use tools, including text messages, to spread falsehoods or stoke fear with little public oversight. Earlier this week, Americans nationwide were bombarded with unidentifiable robocalls telling them to “stay home,” a campaign some feared might deter people from casting their votes. On Election Day, officials in Michigan warned local voters about another slew of robocalls and texts that seemed to discourage voting."
The texts to Philadelphia numbers only instructed people to show up at the site where ballot tabulation was occurring. By baselessly raising the specter of electoral theft, however, they fit a pattern of messaging by the president, his children, top campaign aides and their allies in right-wing media. The rallying cry they settled on was #stopthesteal, which they pushed on Twitter, Facebook and other social media in an effort to spark nationwide street protests over counts that showed Trump trailing Biden. The efforts, via text and online channels, were aimed specifically at vote-counting centers. A Facebook group called “STOP THE STEAL”-- sponsored by the co-founder of Women for Trump, among others-- promoted a slew of events aimed at delegitimizing the count. The group gained 360,000 members before Facebook took it offline Thursday. “The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group,” said a Facebook spokesman, Andy Stone.
A few Republicans-- very few-- are beginning to speak up about Trump's tactics and baseless claims of fraud and vote theft. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) said that "If the president’s legal team has real evidence, they need to present it immediately to both the public and the courts. In the meantime, all legal votes need to be counted." Susan Collins (R-ME) went a little further: "States have the authority to determine the specific rules of elections. Every valid vote under a state’s law should be counted. Allegations of irregularities can be adjudicated by the courts. We must all respect the outcome of elections." Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) told Trump to STFU, stop whining and take his complaints to court and demanded he "STOP Spreading debunked misinformation... This is getting insane." Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) spoke for most Americans, regardless of party, when he said said that Trump's bullshit is "very hard to watch" and that his allegations "are just not substantiated." Unless Alaska flips, this is probably the final 2020 election map Mitt Romney (R-UT) said Señor Trumpanzee"is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt or stolen-- doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world, weakens the institutions that lie at the foundation of the Republic, and recklessly inflames destruction and dangerous passions."Miss McConnell doesn't want to get any of the blame if the violent Trumpists start rioting. He tweeted this out early this morning: House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), on the other hand, ever the faithful Trump lapdog, ran to Fox to claim that "Trump won this election... So everyone who is listening, do not be silent about this. We cannot allow this to happen before our very eyes." President-elect Byeden will address the nation tonight. And let's give the ghost of John McCain the last word: "I prefer people who don't lose reelections." Or Green Day:
