You would cry too

"It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to
Cry if I want to
Cry if I want to
You would cry too, if it happened to you.

Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone
But Judy left the same time
Why was he holding her hand
When he's supposed to be mine?"

       Sung by Leslie Gore, produced by Quincy Jones, 1963

      

Trump thought he was going to win. 

Besides, he had an ace in the hole. Plan B. He didn't need to WIN to win. He had the POWER to win, whatever happened--if his friends came through.

It must have been strange and upsetting for Trump to see friends giving off subtle signals of independence.

Fox News had been solid, and Trump made that happen. There was a little trouble at the beginning back in 2015. Fox News host, Megyn Kelly, was in his face, but Trump gave it right back in that first debate. This established that Trump wouldn't back down. Besides, Fox needed him. He was their ratings magnet. Soon, Kelly was out and things at Fox settled into Trump's liking. Fox was Trump-TV. Trump was Fox's main man.

Shepard Smith was an outlier but he was mid-day news and no one watched, and people complained--about Smith. Then he left. Then Chris Wallace started doing it, and Trump slapped him down, saying he lacked the talent of his father. Fox viewers complained--about Wallace.

But the magic was fading. By October mid-day Fox was no fun at all. The big breakup happened when Fox's analysts called Arizona for Biden. Fox put the idea into voters' heads that maybe Trump had lost. It was a betrayal.

He was sure he won by a landslide. How could he lose? The crowds. And to Sleepy Joe? No way. There must have been fraud. There is always some screw-up, something to point to. Trump's fallback was "reasonable doubt." He would win the way OJ had won, with a fig leaf of doubt and a great jury. Plan B was simple. It isn't the voters' decision. They only think so. It is a decision ratified by elected Republicans and judges, and they don't have to ratify an election whose outcome they don't like. 

But false friends started stacking up. His own chief of Cybersecurity, Christopher Krebs, a lifelong Republican, Senate confirmed, someone he should have been able to trust, stabbed him in the back. All Krebs needed to do was mumble "you never know for sure about elections," something for people to latch onto, like OJ's gloves being tight. Krebs said he had confidence in the election. He said the election was "the most secure in American history." Trump fired him, but the damage was done.

Then the turncoats in Georgia--the Secretary of State, Attorney General, Governor-- all three blew it and let people in Fulton and Cobb counties stuff the ballot box and refused to say it maybe could have happened, who knows for absolute sure. They didn't do it. 

Senate turncoats like Mitt Romney were no surprise; he's a RINO. But Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania could have leaned on the GOP legislature and told them to stand with Trump. Make America great.  He didn't. And Governor Ducey in Arizona, could have said their election seemed fishy, found some problems to point to, and leaned on his legislature. He didn't, either. Both guys defended the elections in their states. They were worthless. 

The two election certifiers in Michigan could have stood with him, made it a two-two tie in the election "certification," and throw things to the Republican legislature. One of the two Republicans vouched for the election and said we should respect the vote of the people. They could have started a snowball rolling but didn't. Cowards. 

Turncoat.

His judges were worthless. Some of the judges who abandoned him were people he had nominated, people the GOP Senate, his GOP Senate, had confirmed. They had the power to interpret the evidence on the election any way they wanted. Judges have power to call a blue sky red if they want, say it looks sort of reddish to them in their judgement, and no one can stop them. They didn't do it.

Then Fox midday news anchors began calling Biden the "president elect," giving up, conceding the election. Then the Wall Street Journal said he should give it up. This, after all Trump had done for Fox and the stock market. Betrayal, sharper than a serpent's tooth. 

Attorney General Bill Barr has the power to describe the election any way he wants. He could appoint special counsels. He could announce an investigation. He could arrest Obama, or at least Hunter Biden, for something. There is always some error or question about something in a national election that would give an honest AG reasonable doubt. But no. Barr kept the Hunter Biden investigation secret--from Trump and everyone else. Barr said publicly he didn't see any fraud that would change the election result! He repeated it in his final press conference! He could have come up with something to give Republicans cover they need to ignore the vote. He didn't do it.

Weak Mitch

Mitch McConnell could have called in his caucus and said we GOP senators are going to stand shoulder to shoulder and reject the electoral college results. No exceptions, no holdouts, or else you lose all committee assignments. We all just say the election isn't 100% credible in our judgment as senators, and that, therefore under the Constitution we can reject the electoral votes and say that Trump wins a majority. Period. 

Trump knows that would work if McConnell would just do it. The House will vote for Biden, of course, but a tie would send the hot mess to the 6-3 Supreme Court. It would be easy for them; they would be breaking a tie. Ties can go either way. 

Meanwhile, Pence! Trump knows Pence is silently stabbing him in the back, talking about "every legal vote, no illegal vote." Pence knows full well that ship sailed. It isn't about the votes anymore. It is about who has the power to ignore the vote and just do what they have the power to do. Pence knows he is supposed to be saying the vote was irreparably corrupted and the Senate should give the election to Trump. Pence is playing dumb. Ingrate. 

Ingrate

Trump knows his staff people are against him but they pretend they aren't. They leak like a sieve to the media. He knows they are all saying on background that he is a delusional sore loser and they are all going to write books and get rich off him.  Back-stabbers.

Trump knows the voters didn't abandon him. Those vote totals Biden showed are all make-believe. Those were Trump votes that were switched, or fake votes dumped in by cheating Democrats. Trump knows he won big, that he has lots of supporters, millions of them. But he was betrayed by people who got close to him and stabbed him in the back.

You would cry too if it happened to you.