“We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!”
Trump, November 7, 2012, on the loss by Mitt Romney to Barack Obama
Trump has a history. He cries foul whenever he loses.
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| Washington Post |
2012 General Election
The Trump tweet in the headline was one of many about the 2012 election. He also tweeted:
Lets [sic] fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us.
And:
This is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!
As of November 7, 2012, Trump thought it possible that Romney would win the popular vote but lose the electoral college. He tweeted:
He lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in this country!
And:
The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.
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| Washington Post |
2016 Primary
The 2016 primary season started with the Iowa caucuses. Ted Cruz won. Trump said the election was rigged.
Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified.
And
Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!
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| BBC |
2016 General Election
Trump won the nomination, but in the weeks prior to the November election polls showed him losing. His speeches repeatedly complained that the upcoming election was "rigged" against him. Whether Trump would accept the verdict of the election became an issue. It was brought up in a question in the second presidential debate two weeks before the election. Trump said he would make "a major announcement." Speaking grandly to the cameras he said he promised to "totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election," and then a long pause, "if I win!"
On October 26 he told ABC news:
I think the system is rigged. I think it was -- horrible the way [the prior Republican ticket was] treated in the media. The only thing worse is the way I'm being treated. Look, I'm being treated -- hey, it's record-setting bad treatment what I'm getting. It's the greatest pile-on in American history.
Amid that controversy Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence tried to assure viewers of Meet the Press that he and Trump "will absolutely accept the result of the election."
Trump immediately responded with a tweet:
The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary — but also at many polling places — SAD.
Trump's long history of attacks on the validity of elections helps explain the GOP's readiness to accept the 2020 election Big Lie. He prepared the ground and gave a variety of reasons over the decade, all asserted strongly and all repeated by conservative media:
***The media was biased against him so he couldn't get his story out.
***The media was biased so they hid stories unfavorable to Democrats.
***Democrats benefit from votes cast illegally, especially from immigrant non-citizens.
***Democrats benefit from corrupt election officials in Democratic strongholds with large Black populations.
Those assertions were out there in the public mind. In choosing Trump as their nominee and president GOP voters also selected him as a credible interpreter of political reality. That included the premise that elections were stolen from rightful GOP winners. It was a conclusion assumed. It does not need evidence, only the possibility of evidence. One would not expect to find evidence of crime easily, so the lawsuits, recounts, and audits that fail to find problems are irrelevant or even further proof of wrongdoing. After all, conspiracies are secret, so the lack of evidence is evidence that the corruption is very deep, including Trump's own election security and Justice Department people. He appointed them but they failed him. Don't believe them. They are RINOS.
We are where we are because Trump laid the groundwork.
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4 comments:
Trump is a renowned golf cheater, known for racing ahead, kicking fellow player’s ball in the sand trap and numerous other cheats. He has won golf championships with him being the only entry. The one I like the best is when his ball is off the green and he takes it as a gimme. His rationale is that he always makes those chips.
Trump cheating is no surprise.
“Trump has a history. He cries foul whenever he loses.”
Trump didn’t lose in 2012. Romney, the white guy, did. Obama won both the popular vote and the electoral college and white supremacists went nuts. Trump, as the biggest blowhard in the ‘birther’ movement (or BM), was just the most prominent. His nomination and subsequent election are evidence of what a systemic problem racism remains in this country.
As leader of the GOP, the rot and stink of his anger, hatred and boldfaced lies has permeated its ranks. Now we’re told that pointing out the obvious is divisive; we should respectfully persuade Republicans with reason that, for instance, Biden is president – as if they give a rip about facts. It’s too bad they can’t all move someplace like Texas and set up a country where they don’t have to bother with elections.
For many years, I've advocated taking at least a doable, relatively painless step toward democracy (versus the Electoral College) and that would be to have the remaining 48 states adopt the Maine and Nebraska model for determining Electors. Maine and Nebraska assign the two "Senators" Electors based on statewide totals; and their "Representative" Electors by the vote count in the relevant Congressional District. It builds on the "logic" of the Electoral College system. In this way, no one should feel as disenfranchised as many do in states where one or another party dominates. There's a website that shows how this works. Funny to know but if the Obama/Romney vote was done the Maine/Nebraska way in all 50 states, Romney wins that election...because, you know, for example, there are more "Trump" voters in California than in Texas. I think this move should be made in a disinterested fashion, rather than based on what's good for my party, because it moves towards democracy without the impossible challenge of amending the Constitution. Anyway, I'm glad to learn Trump does not like the Electoral College!
It's interesting to know that Trump doesn't like the Electoral College, because without it he never would have been president. He sure as hell doesn't like the popular vote, after losing it twice. What he likes is getting whatever he wants whenever he wants it, probably not an ideal quality to have in an alleged leader of the free world.
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