Art: Peter Saul; “Cute Little Shark,” 2019. Courtesy the artist and Venus Over Manhattan, New York. In his address to the Democratic National Convention in August, Barack Obama warned that the Trump administration “has shown it will tear our democracy down if that’s what it takes to win.” Kamala Harris began her first speech as vice-president-elect by saying “America’s democracy is not guaranteed.
Giuliani has decried the sequence of ballot tabulation in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, where Trump initially registered a lead only to have mail ballots, counted over the following hours and days, reveal that Biden had won. Giuliani called this outcome “almost statistically impossible,” claiming that an unknown expert had proved its implausibility. In fact, this very outcome had been widely and publicly forecast for weeks.
As they lost case after case, Trump and his lawyers retreated to an even more fantastical charge. Their theory is that Biden’s lead materialized overnight in several states because the voting machines, manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems, all used a software program that had been created by Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan strongman who died in 2013 without having acquired a reputation as a technological mastermind.
The attorneys argued that Biden’s apparent victory could only be the product of secret machinations directed by the candidate himself. “This was a common plan, a common scheme. It comes directly from the Democrat Party, and it comes from the candidate,” explained Giuliani. “That’s the reason why [Biden] probably didn’t go out and campaign.” It wasn’t health precautions, as Biden had claimed.
Under this plan, Republicans would use their control of legislatures in key states, heavily gerrymandered to a level that renders them almost impervious to voter backlash, to refuse to certify election results and then appoint Trump delegates to the Electoral College. The scheme would amount to nothing short of a coup. Indeed, Trump’s supporters barely disguised their aims.
As a straightforward putsch, it’s too little, too late. Trump failed to come up with a theory for disqualifying crucial states in time, settled on one so silly many Republicans can’t convince themselves of its validity, and failed to lay the groundwork to overrule the election. And while his maneuvers won’t prevent Biden from taking office on January 20, they will serve several other purposes.
jonathanchait Excellent piece.
jonathanchait I started reading your most recent story and after three lines I stopped. Where is your story about the real coup that happened four years ago. You're just another in a pile of withering journalists.
jonathanchait Good piece
jonathanchait Interesting. You find nothing wrong with voter fraud if it helps your side. That exposes you as fundamentally amoral characters.
jonathanchait
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