Donald Trump’s flubbed Supreme Court bet: ‘His’ justices did not do his bidding to overturn Biden win

The alarming byproduct of this election is the speed with which President Trump convinced millions of people the election was rigged and Joe Biden won because of cheating.

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President Donald Trump wants the Supreme Court to deny President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

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WASHINGTON — One of the most ridiculous statements President Donald Trump has made to question Joe Biden’s victory was also in his motion to intervene in the failed lawsuit filed by GOP Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Paxton asked the Supreme Court to throw out swing state votes in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin. The court, in a terse Friday order, dumped the case, concluding Texas had no standing to stick its nose in the business of how other states run elections.

Before the Supreme Court rejected the Texas case, Trump filed a motion to intervene. His pleading said he got more votes than any other incumbent president in history, so he lost only because the election was rigged. That claim distorts reality; President-elect Joe Biden got more votes than Trump because of the gigantic turnout.

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That vote count data point — even though it’s meaningless — is a centerpiece of a campaign-style ad the Trump campaign released Friday. Trump’s drive to delegitimize Biden’s victory continues.

Takeaways:

Timetable

Electoral votes will be cast in each state for president and vice president on Monday. Congress, in a joint session, counts electoral votes on Jan. 6. 

In Illinois, the 20 electors vote in Springfield, meeting — socially distanced, COVID-19 tested and masked — at 10 a.m. in the Illinois House of Representatives chamber.

Trump’s flubbed Supreme Court bet

Trump pushed to get his “case” in front of the Supreme Court, its conservative majority bolstered by three Trump-appointed justices, the latest being Amy Coney Barrett. In speeding Barrett’s confirmation, Trump said she needed to be on the bench in time for the election.

Trump was suggesting “his” judges would be for him. They were not.

Illinois GOP Reps. Bost, LaHood join effort to overturn election

Republican Illinois Reps. Darin LaHood and Mike Bost joined other Trump enablers, signing on to an amicus brief supporting the Texas case. What if Illinois was a swing state?

Trump’s Jabberwocky

Trump’s power stems from his persuasive ability to plant seeds of doubt with people. It started with his Barack Obama birther lies.

The alarming byproduct of this election is the speed with which Trump convinced millions of people Biden won because of cheating.

The briefs filed by Texas and other Trump allies offered farfetched legal theories about the election and the ability of state legislatures to directly appoint presidential electors.

Trump’s pleading to intervene tossed in crazy assertions about how the election was “stolen” from him.

Example: “The fact that nearly half the country believes the election was stolen should come as no surprise,” his brief states. “President Trump prevailed on nearly every historical indicia of success in presidential elections. For example, he won both Florida and Ohio; no candidate in history — Republican or Democrat — has ever lost the election after winning both States.”

That’s an easy fact check. John F. Kennedy beat Richard Nixon in 1960, even though Nixon won Ohio and Florida.

Then this one: “He won 18 of the country’s so called ‘bellwether counties’ whose vote, historically, goes for the candidate who wins the election.”

That’s an interesting data point, not evidence of fraud or improper election procedures when it comes to mail-in ballots.

Then there is this mother of distortion, manipulating information to leave a false impression:

The “fact that the nearly 75 million votes (Trump) received — a record for any incumbent president — was nearly 12 million more than he received in the 2016 election. … These things just don’t normally happen, and a large percentage of the American people know that something is deeply amiss,” his pleading said.

In the presidential election, there were 81,282,896 votes for Biden and 74,222,484 for Trump, according to CNN.

More is more.

The Supreme Court ruling does not negate Trump’s ongoing ability to infect public opinion based on half-truths and lies. Trump will take that with him when he leaves the White House.

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