Vote Him Out

Super Spreader in Chief:  Trump continued his super spreader tour yesterday, this time rallying in Jacksonville, Florida.  He stuck to his usual lies and hate filled repertoire and questioned the legitimacy of mail-in ballots in states not run by one of his mini-me Governors.  He also repeated one of his newer bits, getting laughs from his crowd by recounting an episode in May when MSNBC correspondent Ali Velshi was struck by a rubber bullet while covering one of the George Floyd related protests, calling it a “beautiful thing”  and evidence of “LAW & ORDER,” because what sitting president doesn’t celebrate a journalist getting shot on the job, particularly one with Kenyan and Canadian roots who also happens to be Muslim. Before leaving for his trip Trump, who has failed to either repeal or replace Obamacare but who is still supporting a lawsuit that might result in its demise as well as the elimination of its pre-existing coverage provision, issued an executive order declaring that “it is the policy of the US for people with pre-existing conditions to be protected.”  Of course, that executive order isn’t worth anything as it says nothing about making such coverage affordable and, as was admitted by Health Secretary Alex Azar on a call before Trump’s announcement, the order would have no affect if the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare, the plan that already covers pre-existing conditions.  Trump also teased his intention to send all Medicare recipients a $200 prescription drug coupon over the next few weeks, no doubt with a Sharpie signed letter telling each and every one that it’s from him and him alone and they can only redeem it if they first promise to vote for him. On a serious note, details regarding the coupon/bribe, like how it’s $7 billion plus cost will be covered, remain vague but the fact that it’s even under consideration provides evidence that Trump’s frequently heralded but never delivered plan to reduce drug costs, like his comprehensive health care plan, isn’t happening any time soon, if ever.  It also shows that Trump is growing increasingly nervous about those polls, including a few from Fox, showing him behind Biden in important swing states and alarmingly close in others that he should be winning by a mile, not that we believe any polls anymore.   

Election Shenanigans: A whole crop of Republicans weighed in on Trump’s refusal to commit to accepting the result of the election.  A few of those pushbacks almost sounded sincere.  Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the third most senior Republican in the House, got out early, tweeting that “The peaceful transfer of power is enshrined in our Constitution and fundamental to the survival of our Republic.  America’s leaders swear an oath to the Constitution. We will uphold that oath” and Senator Marco Rubio tweeted that “As we have done for over two centuries we will have a legitimate & fair election, it may take longer than usual to know the outcome, but it will be a valid one and at noon on Jan 20,2021 we will peacefully swear in the President.”  However, a bunch of other Senators were less direct, with some misquoting an earlier statement made by favorite punching bag Hilary Clinton claiming that she had advised Biden not to concede when what she actually said was that he should wait until all the votes are counted before making any announcement.  And then there’s Senator Lindsey Graham, Trump’s fan boy/golfing buddy, he pretty much acknowledged that Trump plans to litigate and needs a full Supreme Court to get his way, tweeting “People wonder about the peaceful transfer of power.  I can assure you it will be peaceful. Now we may have litigation about who won the election, but the court will decide, and if Republicans lose, we'll accept that result. But we need a full court.”   Graham also spent part of the day whining about how expensive his campaign for reelection has become, complaining about all those dark forces and by dark forces think Democrats and Lincoln Project Republicans, contributing to his very capable opponent, Jaime Harrison.  A current Quinnipiac poll shows the two running neck and neck in the solidly red state that Trump won by 15 points in 2016. It turns out that going back on the promise he made not to confirm a replacement Supreme Court Justice during the run up to an election is costly, at the end of the day it might not lose him his seat but it certainly is raising the cost of his re-election campaign into the stratosphere. How sad for poor Lindsey.  As to election shenanigans, yesterday afternoon the US Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced it had opened an inquiry into nine ballots that were found “discarded,” saying all nine ballots had been cast for Trump but then amending its statement to say that only seven had been cast for Trump the other two had been “resealed.”  Everything about this story is peculiar. Somehow, the White House knew about it enough in advance of the DOJ announcement for Press Secretary McEnany to use it as a talking point during her daily lie fest.  And as one legal expert from Pennsylvania’s Loyola Law School put it “it is really improper for DOJ to be putting out a press release with partial facts and it is career-endingly improper to designate the candidate for whom the votes are cast.”  In any case, it’s only nine votes but the incident feeds Trump’s election narrative which is of course the reason that AG Barr had his guys announce it. It almost makes you wonder if dirty trickster Roger Stone has something to do with the actual ballot tossing. Okay, maybe that’s a stretch, but who knows. 

Other News:  Niece Mary Trump is now suing Trump, her Aunt Maryanne and her deceased Uncle Robert, accusing them of fraud for swindling her out of her inheritance, the millions of dollars to which she says she was entitled.  Her lawsuit asserts that “Fraud was not just the family business — it was a way of life.”  It turns out that Trump’s good friend Vladimir Putin has also been nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize because who doesn’t think that a guy who repeatedly poisons his opponents and grabs on to neighboring countries' territories deserves a prize for keeping the peace. By the way Trump still can’t find it within himself to publicly condemn Putin for poisoning opponent Alexei Navalny even though the State Department position is that he did have Navalny poisoned.  And remember Michael Caputo, the HHS spokesperson who stepped down from his job after screwing around with coronavirus messaging to deal with “lymphatic issues,” sadly he wasn’t kidding about those health issues which is very bad for him but does make you wonder if he’d still be in his job screwing up messaging if not for what apparently is a very serious health crisis. Christopher Wray is still the FBI Director but he’s certainly not making Trump happy, yesterday the principled Wray testified in front of the Senate saying that the US has not experienced large-scale voter fraud by mail or other means, and said it would be a “major challenge” for a foreign country to attempt such a thing, despite Trump’s repeated claims.  He also said that “Americans must have confidence in our voting system and our election infrastructure,” and that “We are not going to tolerate foreign interference in our elections.”  Apparently his boss AG Barr forgot to fill him in on the mysterious case of the Pennsylvania ballots.  Yesterday Trump had one of those experiences that explains why he generally refrains from attending funerals of American heroes like John Lewis and John McCain. He was greeted with cheers of “vote him out” when he showed up to pay his respects to the forever Notorious RBG.  It turns out that while announcing plans to replace her moments after her death and questioning who really wrote her death bed wish go over big with his super spreader tour audience they don’t play well with the rest of us.  Who could have anticipated that?