PBP: Joe Biden vs Donald Trump :: The Election That Just Won’t End Thread :: [R]

We really have to be thankful to Trump on this one. Strong argument can be made coming into 2020 that he had re-election in the bag: he messed that up royally from March forward!
The Dems regaining majority in the senate is mostly down to him as well (his hissy fit post election really didn't do Perdue and Loeffler any favors).
Don't have much to be thankful to him for, but will surely thank him for tanking 2 huge elections consecutively!

 

In fairness, I'm sure it's quite a struggle for him to read out loud.

 

Why does this asinine statement keep getting repeated axiomatically? In February of 2020, he was widely considered among the bottom three presidents in history. I don't think his approval ratings were ever better than the worst ever.

I think you *could* make the argument that if Trump had simply offered sympathy to millions of suffering Americans, he might have had a sliver of a chance of getting elected. Because he's a sociopath, that's just not in his DNA (perhaps literally). But ~47.5% of the populace was never, ever going to vote for him no matter what.

 

I don't believe it's much of a stretch in the least to claim that despite him being a very shitty human being, his chances at re-election were very good coming into 2020. Him being a despicable human being didn't stop him from getting elected in 2016: nothing new for most people there.
Covid, and everything that resulted from that (including the economy, which was a strong point of his) was the nail in his coffin. More than anything he's done before, that is what got many to get off their butts and turn up in record numbers this past election to vote him out.
Very likely it wouldn't have happened if 2020 was business as usual. Polls and approval ratings mean jack for the most part. I think we've learned that lesson pretty unequivocally in the 2016 election..

 

The GOP can try to pin this on Trump as much as they want....but the real blame falls at the feet of the Republican senators. Had they voted to remove, Pence would have been re-elected, they would have held the senate, and very well might have taken the house. They had a chance to get out of this. And they shot themselves in the feet with both barrels.

 

That is an interesting question to ponder and I'm not entirely sure where I land on this. Just as it's worth considering how Trump's base would have reacted had the Repubs voted him out when he was impeached.
Since we know that a section of Republican voters were (and still are) all about Trump and therefore might have chosen to sit the election out in protest. The biggest mistake from the GOP imo is to have let Trump in to begin with 5yrs ago (that is when they should and could have nipped it in the bud). Even in defeat, he's firmly got his grip in the party and they'll have to work very hard to wrestle it away from him.
I mean, we've clearly seen how many are reacting to Pence for not going along with Trump this past Wednesday (or when there were just rumors of him of him invoking the 25th Amendment). The reaction to McConnell when he acknowledged Biden won the election was pretty visceral among many in the base as well.

 

While I agree, I think it's important to point out that COVID didn't doom his re-election. It just exposed an administration that had been, to that point, disinterested in governance and lacking in even the most basic levels of competence one expects from the Executive branch.

A competent president - Republican or Democrat - would have tried to lead the country through the pandemic. A compassionate, competent response could have made his reelection a lead pipe certainty.

Of course, Donald Trump was never capable of a compassionate or competent response, so anyone who blames his loss on COVID is rather missing the point.

 

We are saying pretty much the exact same thing: As stated previously, Covid and ALL the repercussions from it, including exposing him for the failed leader he's proven to be, are what torpedoed his bid for re-election...

 

Here's something I've been thinking about.

The events of Wednesday would have happened if it had been Warren or Booker or Harris or Bernie. If they happened with Uncle Joe, they would have happened no matter whom the Dems nominated.

I wonder if the media reaction would have been different if it had been Sanders, for example? Would the insurrectionists have gotten more favorable coverage, because after all Sanders is a socialist? If it were Warren, would the coverage have been more sympathetic?

Yep, that's the exact vibe.

 

.@JohnBerman: "Will you say that ... Donald J. Trump lied to the American people?"

Former White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah: “He did, on the election ... We knew that it was a stunt to carry this on for days longer.” https://t.co/zo37Jr2jze pic.twitter.com/6nzqiDPuTI

— CNN (@CNN) January 8, 2021

 

“The complaint filed Friday by Dominion Voting Systems Inc. seeks $1.3 billion from Powell...” https://t.co/uXI4S9qTRP

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 8, 2021

Ha-ha! Maybe she can represent herself in the lawsuit. Or maybe Rudy has some time on his hands now, and can pitch in.

 

Not sure if this was already posted/covered (if so, apologies). This is a vm from Giuliani trying to get the group of rogue senators to carry on with their objections during Wednesday's election certification meeting.
Apparently, he called the wrong people on a few instances...

 

Rudy's afraid he's going to land on some bullets after falling out a window.
He is no longer of any use to the Russian mob.

 

I've seen this episode.

 

How on EARTH is Trump not part of the lawsuit?! Sue his ASS! He pushed the same things, and amplified them much more than Powell ever could.

 

Particularly as SCOTUS has already given the green light to civil action against a sitting President

 

They probably checked his net assets and found out there weren't any recoverable.

 

Did not Trump just con the nutcases out of 100s of millions? He must be sued by Dominion.

 

There was actually talk among some high-ranking Republicans about this back then. The problem is their primary had no mechanism for doing this. The Democrats actually do.

 

That all for retiring campaign debt, other creditors and lawsuits already filed not to mention the US Treasury and New York State.

 

This seems timely.. my first graders class listened to this in class yesterday. Perhaps Trump could learn something from it..

 

Back on brand today...

To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2021

Has this ever occurred before and if so how often? Better not to see him there anyhow: sometimes, you just have to forget tradition (won't change what's going to happen anyhow).
Just found out that it happened only 3 times previously, the last was 1869 when Johnson refused to attend Grant's inauguration.

Oh yeah, he's pissed off about having to concede yesterday. No doubt it...

The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2021

 

I would have been OK with this, IF Pence would have taken the pandemic seriously and we could have saved 100,000s of lives and not wrecked the hospitality industry so completely.

If Pence would have been complete dumb******** about the pandemic anyway, then I'm happy the GOP hung itself.

 

Powell is the easiest case to prove. She actually documented her false accusations for them. She's also an easier target since she doesn't have a massive war chest to defend herself. They are just going after the low hanging fruit right now. Depending on the results of the Powell case, I'd imagine they'll go after Lin Wood and the Trump campaign.