Eventually even Marcus Brutus had enough, and he, too, stabbed Julius Caesar.
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| William Barr, that most loyal and compliant of Attorneys General, is stabbing Trump, saying there was no evidence the election was rigged against Trump. |
Attorney General William Barr: "To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election. There's been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven't seen anything to substantiate that."
President Trump: "This is total fraud, and how the FBI and Department of Justice, I don't know, maybe they've involved but how people are allowed to get away with this stuff is unbelievable. This election was rigged. This election was a total fraud."
RINOS. Traitors. Corrupt. Disloyal
Barr conspicuously and proudly took the position that a "unitary Presidency" meant Trump solely and personally controlled the executive branch, and therefore Trump was not subject to prosecution. Barr said the Department of Justice was properly the agent of the president's personal interest because the public interest was whatever the president decided. Good loyal Barr.
Yesterday he joined the group of Republicans who said aloud that the election was conducted fairly, and therefore Trump's claims of rampant fraud and a rigged election were wrong.
Trump responded, calling this a massive failure of Barr, the Justice Department, and the FBI. He said Barr and the Justice Department are "missing in action."
More Republican officials are beginning to stand up and say the election was secure and free. They then face a barrage of criticism from Trump and his allies. They are accused of being bribed, of being secret Democrats, of being a RINO (Republican in Name Only), of being in cahoots with foreign governments, of being willfully blind, of being part of the massive conspiracy.
The first group of Republicans to face criticism were the Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, and Governor, Brian Kemp. Trump called them "an enemy of the people" and said they may have made some sort of corrupt deal with Stacey Abrams to steal the election. Raffensperger said there have been multiple recounts both by machine and by hand, the numbers added up, and the election "was wildly successful and smooth." He said Trump's criticism is retaliation for a disappointing result, not a corrupt election."They thought Georgia was a layup shot Republican win. It is not the job of the secretary of state’s office to deliver a win."
Republican and Trump donor Christopher Krebs, Trump's head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, a job with the task of overseeing election security, said this election was free of fraud. His agency maintained a "Rumor Control" blog to evaluate and dispute inaccurate comments about the election, including the ones Trump was asserting. He was fired. He has gone on 60 Minutes reaffirming that the election was well run. One of Trump's lawyers said he should be taken out at dawn at shot. That got criticism. The lawyer said he was joking.
Doug Ducey, the Republican Arizona governor, certified the election in Arizona, saying that there was no evidence of error or fraud that would change the result, and that Arizona runs careful, secure elections, reviewing EVERY signature, with bipartisan poll observers, and no ballots allowed after election day. Trump says the election was corrupt anyway. He received a phone call from the White House while he was signing the certification document,and did not take the call. Trump was furious.
Yesterday saw a new addition to the mix. This was not a battle of senior people butting heads with the White House. Gabriel Sterling, a second-tier employee in the Georgia elections office and a Republican supporter of Trump, argued for decent treatment for election employees. We did our job well, he said, and we shouldn't be vilified for that. This reverses the polarity of Trump's populist message. Now Trump's targets were regular-joe workers, not representatives of dark power: Software companies, George Soros, Hillary Clinton, Democrats, China, or Venezuela. Sterling puts a human face and situation on Trump's attacks.This is off-brand. Trump is supposed to be the guy that has the back of the forgotten worker. Sterling said:
“The straw that broke the camel’s back today is this 20-year-old contractor for a voting system company just trying to do his job… I talked to Dominion today, and they said he’s one of the better ones they got. His family is getting harassed now. There’s a noose out there with his name on it. It’s just not right. I’ve got police protection outside my house. Fine. I took a higher profile job. The secretary ran for office, his wife knew that too. [But] this kid? He took a job. He just took a job, and it’s just wrong."
This was an opportunity for Trump to adjust. He did not. If you were a pro-Trump election worker who participated in an election that Trump lost, then you, too, are part of the corruption. Sterling asked Trump and others to lower the "fraud" rhetoric. He said comments by Trump and the Georgia Senators were inciting violence and civil discord. Stop this, please, or people will get hurt.
Trump responded with a tweet saying "Election Rigged" and "Expose the massive voter fraud in Georgia."
Theoretically, this is a mistake for Trump. He and his allies are being accused of inciting violence, and violence appears to be bubbling just under the surface. Giuliani's comments claiming fraud at "hearings" draw loud, spirited spontaneous applause. He called the election an outrage. Lou Dobbs says something drastic must be done. The rhetoric is not calming down. This does not appear to be unwelcome to Trump. If lawsuits don't cause legislators to take charge of their slate of electors, maybe street riots will.
The Bill Barr and Gabriel Sterling announcements are a powerful one-two punch. After all, loyal Republicans are saying Trump is factually wrong, morally wrong, and his attacks pick on a defenseless working people, guys just doing their job.
This blackout keeps the election-rigged meme alive where it is needed, in the minds of Republican voters and donors who are told they should be angry and not accept this outrage. Trump has raised $170 million from emails like four I have received in the past 24 hours, saying the republic was at stake. The election fraud rigging story maintains Trump's brand: The indomitable winner, cheated out of victory, surrounded by turncoats.
It also maintains Fox's brand. Trump's open criticism of Fox and suggestions that people switch to Newsmax and One America Network are potential threats to Fox's business model. Bill Barr's comments are not what Trump wants to hear, nor does Fox's audience.
Bill Barr and Gabriel Sterling are off-brand.
7 comments:
A neighbor friend is dying of pancreatic cancer. He called his neighbor with whom he had been good friends. Their only rule with their friendship was no political talk as they are opposite each other. What happened in this last conversation, the neighbor ranted for 5 minutes on how the election was stolen from Trump.
C'mon man...Republicans are just doing the CYA "Dancing With The Stars" audition.
I happened to catch Rep. Matt Gaetz on CSPAN. "I'm friends with AOC." Koch "regrets the Tea Party support".
OMG LOL!
The Republican party is now a schizoid zombie. Most observers see this election as a rejection of Trump, with inertia down ballot. Red states held, and it's clear that your observation back when was spot on. Partisanship is the driving energy dominating our politics.
The Real Problem, however, has mostly to do with the First Amendment. Free speech and truth are vital to a functioning democracy and the Trump era, hopefully over, showed us that a party willing to abuse free speech, and stay silent when lies are being spread can gain power if the majority are not vigilant.
Peter, what do you think motivated Barr to make such a shift? His career in the CIA and both public and private legal sectors tells me he's a multi-layer chess player who probably does everything quite intentionally. It seems he's a fan of expansive presidential power in general, but maybe not the complete Trump sycophant. Might it be that he's actually more principled than we thought and gave the appearance of a suckup with optics (including a few high profile but low-impact firings to keep up the image), but may have actually kept Trump more contained that it appeared?
It's all speculation of course, but we don't let that stop us, do we?
Going forward into the Bidden/Harris administration, justice needs to occur. Too many crimes both high and low are assumed to have been committed by the Trump administration. For the sake of our democracy they must be investigated. IF crimes were committed, even if they're covered by pardons, they must be reveled. Unseal the court records of those already pardoned. Expose the fracture lines in our form of government. The Capitol Dome was physically cracked and repaired. We need to begin the repairs wrought by this current administration to the philosophical articles and mechanisms of governance or lose it all to totalitarianism.
“If you have faith, no evidence is necessary. If you did not have faith, no evidence is possible.“ It is, after all, both a religious and cultural war. If Georgia was a fraud, no need for Republicans to turn out for the Senate runoff elections. How many bridges can this guy burn out from under loyal Republican office holders?
Capitol Dome, teapot Dome, whatever…
St. Thomas Aquinas - love it Anonymous!
Rick Millward; I missed Gaetz claiming friendship with AOC, but how I would like to hear her response to such a claim. I tend to think that Gaetz (DUI, FL.) would be 86 from any event hosted by the quicksilver tongued AOC.
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