The
Carroll County Republican Party reposted a conspiracy theory on social
media that the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville was part of a cover-up
of voter fraud.
The party also re-posted a
message on Facebook urging President Donald Trump to declare martial law
and have the military oversee a new election.
The
post about the Nashville bombing, which was made Sunday, was
deleted Tuesday afternoon. Carroll County Republican Chairman Jeffery
Mangun could not be reached for comment.
The deleted post started by saying, "The Democrats made a big mistake today."
It
claimed without evidence that the AT&T data center that was
extensively damaged by the blast of a recreational vehicle as part of an
apparent suicide held the data from Dominion voting machines. The post
cited its source as the social networking site Parler, which many Trump
supporters have joined since the Nov. 3 election to discuss their
beliefs about voter fraud.
Spokespeople for
AT&T and Dominion told The Associated Press that AT&T had no
contract to audit Dominion voting machines and no such machines were in
the data center.
The blast killed Anthony Quinn
Warner, 63, who set off the bomb, and wounded three other people.
Investigators are still trying to determine a motive.
Mangun
told the Ohio Capital Journal that he did not write or put up the post
about the Nashville bombing. But someone else in the Carroll County GOP
leadership had.
He declined to name the person
saying he did not want to "undermine" them. He told the publication he
didn't know whether the allegations in the post were true or not.
Tom
Postlethwait, the chairman of the Carroll County Democratic Party,
called such posts and comments part of a "coup to take over a
government."
"It's just beyond me," he said
Tuesday. "Trump lost. He lost the election by 6 million votes, 8
million votes. It’s over. He lost by the same amount of electoral votes
that he won by. Time to give up. ...
"Carroll
County has an awful lot of Republicans and I'm not really surprised
some of the comments I’ve heard over the course of the year. ... I’ve
heard stuff that we’re going to have a civil war if we don’t watch out
and Trump loses. Various comments like that I'm not surprised that
someone would put that on Facebook.”
Carroll County is a rural community south of Canton with a population of about 27,000.
Reach Repository writer Robert Wang at (330) 580-8327 or robert.wang@cantonrep.com.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
The
Carroll County Republican Party reposted a conspiracy theory on social
media that the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville was part of a cover-up
of voter fraud.
The party also re-posted a
message on Facebook urging President Donald Trump to declare martial law
and have the military oversee a new election.
The
post about the Nashville bombing, which was made Sunday, was
deleted Tuesday afternoon. Carroll County Republican Chairman Jeffery
Mangun could not be reached for comment.
The deleted post started by saying, "The Democrats made a big mistake today."
It
claimed without evidence that the AT&T data center that was
extensively damaged by the blast of a recreational vehicle as part of an
apparent suicide held the data from Dominion voting machines. The post
cited its source as the social networking site Parler, which many Trump
supporters have joined since the Nov. 3 election to discuss their
beliefs about voter fraud.
Spokespeople for
AT&T and Dominion told The Associated Press that AT&T had no
contract to audit Dominion voting machines and no such machines were in
the data center.
The blast killed Anthony Quinn
Warner, 63, who set off the bomb, and wounded three other people.
Investigators are still trying to determine a motive.
Mangun
told the Ohio Capital Journal that he did not write or put up the post
about the Nashville bombing. But someone else in the Carroll County GOP
leadership had.
He declined to name the person
saying he did not want to "undermine" them. He told the publication he
didn't know whether the allegations in the post were true or not.
Tom
Postlethwait, the chairman of the Carroll County Democratic Party,
called such posts and comments part of a "coup to take over a
government."
"It's just beyond me," he said
Tuesday. "Trump lost. He lost the election by 6 million votes, 8
million votes. It’s over. He lost by the same amount of electoral votes
that he won by. Time to give up. ...
"Carroll
County has an awful lot of Republicans and I'm not really surprised
some of the comments I’ve heard over the course of the year. ... I’ve
heard stuff that we’re going to have a civil war if we don’t watch out
and Trump loses. Various comments like that I'm not surprised that
someone would put that on Facebook.”
Carroll County is a rural community south of Canton with a population of about 27,000.
Reach Repository writer Robert Wang at (330) 580-8327 or robert.wang@cantonrep.com.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
I am not surprised by this one little bit...this is the mainstream middle American conservatism now, that's no joke, it's not over estimating, it's just true.
so if it's true that the location that was the target was a hive for dominion data, no doubt in my mind that @Gern Blansten is right about this guy being a trumpster.
i was driving though small town southern IL yesterday for work. i saw so many trump signs. they look brand new. people have them in their yards, tacked to trees, actually on their homes, etc.
the election was 2 months ago next week.
this would be like me having a football team's sign in my yard 2 months after they lose a super bowl for the second time.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
i was driving though small town southern IL yesterday for work. i saw so many trump signs. they look brand new. people have them in their yards, tacked to trees, actually on their homes, etc.
the election was 2 months ago next week.
this would be like me having a football team's sign in my yard 2 months after they lose a super bowl for the second time.
but your team didn't lose. they are the rightful SB champ-eens. the refs screwed em. so did all the people in the stands. and the hot dog guys.
i was driving though small town southern IL yesterday for work. i saw so many trump signs. they look brand new. people have them in their yards, tacked to trees, actually on their homes, etc.
the election was 2 months ago next week.
this would be like me having a football team's sign in my yard 2 months after they lose a super bowl for the second time.
but your team didn't lose. they are the rightful SB champ-eens. the refs screwed em. so did all the people in the stands. and the hot dog guys.
and the goal lines.
my question is how can these signs keep looking so new 3 months after they put them up? they have to have a stockpile or something and just keep replacing them when they get weathered/beat up.
i bet the signs are still there a year from now.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
i was driving though small town southern IL yesterday for work. i saw so many trump signs. they look brand new. people have them in their yards, tacked to trees, actually on their homes, etc.
the election was 2 months ago next week.
this would be like me having a football team's sign in my yard 2 months after they lose a super bowl for the second time.
but your team didn't lose. they are the rightful SB champ-eens. the refs screwed em. so did all the people in the stands. and the hot dog guys.
and the goal lines.
my question is how can these signs keep looking so new 3 months after they put them up? they have to have a stockpile or something and just keep replacing them when they get weathered/beat up.
i bet the signs are still there a year from now.
or it's another part of trump's grift. they keep buying these new signs for $20 a pop that cost $.02 to make.
i was driving though small town southern IL yesterday for work. i saw so many trump signs. they look brand new. people have them in their yards, tacked to trees, actually on their homes, etc.
the election was 2 months ago next week.
this would be like me having a football team's sign in my yard 2 months after they lose a super bowl for the second time.
I still see Trump campaign signs and flags in North East Ohio
i was driving though small town southern IL yesterday for work. i saw so many trump signs. they look brand new. people have them in their yards, tacked to trees, actually on their homes, etc.
the election was 2 months ago next week.
this would be like me having a football team's sign in my yard 2 months after they lose a super bowl for the second time.
I still see Trump campaign signs and flags in North East Ohio
NE Ohio appalls me. That's where I grew up and it is not the same place as it used to be. It's getting stupider every year. Or it's stuck in place while the world/country moves forward.
"When we talk in private, I haven't heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent -- not one," Sasse wrote. "Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will 'look' to President Trump's most ardent supporters."
"When we talk in private, I haven't heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent -- not one," Sasse wrote. "Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will 'look' to President Trump's most ardent supporters."
fucking cowards.
So even if it's not "party over country" it's "self over country."
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
In November, 160 million Americans voted. On December 14, members of the Electoral College – spread across all 50 states and the District of Columbia – assembled to cast their votes to confirm the winning candidate. And on January 6, the Congress will gather together to formally count the Electoral College’s votes and bring this process to a close.
Some members of the House and the Senate are apparently going to object to counting the votes of some states that were won by Joe Biden. Just like the rest of Senate Republicans, I have been approached by many Nebraskans demanding that I join in this project.
Having been in private conversation with two dozen of my colleagues over the past few weeks, it seems useful to explain in public why I will not be participating in a project to overturn the election – and why I have been urging my colleagues also to reject this dangerous ploy.
Every public official has a responsibility to tell the truth, and here’s what I think the truth is – about our duties on January 6th, about claims of election fraud, and about what it takes to keep a republic.
1. IS THERE A CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS FOR CONGRESS TO DISMISS ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES?
Yes. A member of the House and the Senate can object and, in order for the vote(s) in question to be dismissed, both chambers must vote to reject those votes.
But is it wise? Is there any real basis for it here?
Absolutely not. Since the Electoral College Act of 1887 was passed into law in the aftermath of the Civil War, not a single electoral vote has ever been thrown out by the Congress. (One goofy senator attempted this maneuver after George W. Bush won reelection in 2004, but her anti-democratic play was struck down by her Senate colleagues in a shaming vote of 74-1.)
2. IS THERE EVIDENCE OF VOTER FRAUD SO WIDESPREAD THAT IT COULD HAVE CHANGED THE OUTCOME OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION?
No.
For President-Elect Biden’s 306-232 Electoral College victory to be overturned, President Trump would need to flip multiple states. But not a single state is in legal doubt.
But given that I was not a Trump voter in either 2016 or 2020 (I wrote in Mike Pence in both elections), I understand that many Trump supporters will not want to take my word for it. So, let’s look at the investigations and tireless analysis from Andy McCarthy over at National Review. McCarthy has been a strong, consistent supporter of President Trump, and he is also a highly regarded federal prosecutor. Let’s run through the main states where President Trump has claimed widespread fraud:
* In Pennsylvania, Team Trump is right that lots went wrong. Specifically, a highly partisan state supreme court rewrote election law in ways that are contrary to what the legislature had written about the deadline for mail-in ballots – this is wrong. But Biden won Pennsylvania by 81,000 votes – and there appear to have been only 10,000 votes received and counted after election day. So even if every one of these votes were for Biden and were thrown out, they would not come close to affecting the outcome. Notably, Stephanos Bibas (a Trump appointee) of the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled against the president’s lawsuit to reverse Biden’s large victory, writing in devastating fashion: “calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”
* In Michigan, which Biden won by 154,000 votes, the Trump team initially claimed generic fraud statewide – but with almost no particular claims, so courts roundly rejected suit after suit. The Trump team then objected to a handful of discrepancies in certain counties and precincts, some more reasonable than others. But for the sake of argument, let’s again assume that every single discrepancy was resolved in the president’s favor: It would potentially amount to a few thousand votes and not come anywhere close to changing the state’s result.
* In Wisconsin, as McCarthy has written, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled against President Trump, suggesting that President-Elect Biden’s recorded margin of victory (about 20,000 votes) was probably slightly smaller in fact, but even re-calculating all of the votes in question in a generously pro-Trump way would not give the president a victory in the state. (https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/biden-won-wisconsin-but-it-was-even-closer-than-reported/)
* In Georgia, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation complete audit of more than 15,000 votes found one irregularity – a situation where a woman illegally signed both her and her husband’s ballot envelopes.
3. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CLAIMS OF THE PRESIDENT’S LAWYERS THAT THE ELECTION WAS STOLEN?
I started with the courts for a reason. From where I sit, the single-most telling fact is that there a giant gulf between what President Trump and his allies say in public – for example, on social media, or at press conferences outside Philadelphia landscaping companies and adult bookstores – and what President Trump’s lawyers actually say in courts of law. And that’s not a surprise. Because there are no penalties for misleading the public. But there are serious penalties for misleading a judge, and the president’s lawyers know that – and thus they have repeated almost none of the claims of grand voter fraud that the campaign spokespeople are screaming at their most zealous supporters. So, here’s the heart of this whole thing: this isn’t really a legal strategy – it’s a fundraising strategy.
Since Election Day, the president and his allied organizations have raised well over half a billion (billion!) dollars from supporters who have been led to believe that they’re contributing to a ferocious legal defense. But in reality, they’re mostly just giving the president and his allies a blank check that can go to their super-PACs, their next plane trip, their next campaign or project. That’s not serious governing. It’s swampy politics – and it shows very little respect for the sincere people in my state who are writing these checks.
4. WAIT, ARE YOU CLAIMING THERE WAS NO FRAUD OF ANY KIND THIS YEAR?
No. 160 million people voted in this election, in a variety of formats, in a process marked by the extraordinary circumstance of a global pandemic. There is some voter fraud every election cycle – and the media flatly declaring from on high that “there is no fraud!” has made things worse. It has heightened public distrust, because there are, in fact, documented cases of voter fraud every election cycle. But the crucial questions are: (A) What evidence do we have of fraud? and (B) Does that evidence support the belief in fraud on a scale so significant that it could have changed the outcome? We have little evidence of fraud, and what evidence we do have does not come anywhere close to adding up to a different winner of the presidential election.
5. BUT ISN’T IT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST TO INVESTIGATE THESE CLAIMS MORE THOROUGHLY? DOESN’T IT HELP GUARANTEE THE LEGITIMACY OF OUR ELECTORAL PROCESS?
I take this argument seriously because actual voter fraud – and worries about voter fraud – are poison to self-government. So yes, we should investigate all specific claims, but we shouldn’t burn down the whole process along the way. Right now we are locked in a destructive, vicious circle:
Step 1: Allege widespread voter fraud. Step 2: Fail to offer specific evidence of widespread fraud. Step 3: Demand investigation, on grounds that there are “allegations” of voter fraud.
I can’t simply allege that the College Football Playoff Selection Committee is “on the take” because they didn’t send the Cornhuskers to the Rose Bowl, and then – after I fail to show evidence that anyone on the Selection Committee is corrupt – argue that we need to investigate because of these pervasive “allegations” of corruption.
We have good reason to think this year’s election was fair, secure, and law-abiding. That’s not to say it was flawless. But there is no evidentiary basis for distrusting our elections altogether, or for concluding that the results do not reflect the ballots that our fellow citizens actually cast.
6. DO ANY OF YOUR COLLEAGUES DISAGREE WITH YOU ABOUT THIS?
When we talk in private, I haven’t heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent – not one. Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will “look” to President Trump’s most ardent supporters.
And I get it. I hear from a lot of Nebraskans who disagree with me. Moreover, lots of them ask legitimate questions about why they should trust the mainstream media. Here’s one I got this morning: “We live in a world where thousands and thousands of stories were written about the Republican nominee’s alleged tax fraud in 2012, but then when Harry Reid admitted – after the election – that he had simply made all of this up, there were probably three media outlets that covered it for thirty seconds. Why should I believe anything they say?” As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has watched for four years as lies made up out of whole cloth are covered as legitimate “news” stories, I understand why so many of my constituents feel this in-the-belly distrust. What so much of the media doesn’t grasp is that Trump’s attacks are powerful not because he created this anti-media sentiment, but because he figured out how to tap into it.
Nonetheless, it seems to me that the best way we can serve our constituents is to tell the truth as we see it, and explain why. And in my view, President-Elect Biden didn’t simply win the election; President Trump couldn’t persuade even his own lawyers to argue anything different than that in U.S. federal courts.
…WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
The president and his allies are playing with fire. They have been asking – first the courts, then state legislatures, now the Congress – to overturn the results of a presidential election. They have unsuccessfully called on judges and are now calling on federal officeholders to invalidate millions and millions of votes. If you make big claims, you had better have the evidence. But the president doesn’t and neither do the institutional arsonist members of Congress who will object to the Electoral College vote.
Let’s be clear what is happening here: We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage. But they’re wrong – and this issue is bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government.
We have a deep cancer in American politics right now: Both Republicans and Democrats are growing more distrustful of the basic processes and procedures that we follow. Some people will respond to these arguments by saying: “The courts are just in the tank for Democrats!” And indeed the President has been tweeting that “the courts are bad” (and the Justice Department, and more). That’s an example of the legitimacy crisis so many of us have been worried about. Democrats spent four years pretending Trump didn’t win the election, and now (shocker) a good section of Republicans are going to spend the next four years pretending Biden didn’t win the election.
All the clever arguments and rhetorical gymnastics in the world won’t change the fact that this January 6th effort is designed to disenfranchise millions of Americans simply because they voted for someone in a different party. We ought to be better than that. If we normalize this, we’re going to turn American politics into a Hatfields and McCoys endless blood feud – a house hopelessly divided.
America has always been fertile soil for groupthink, conspiracy theories, and showmanship. But Americans have common sense. We know up from down, and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. We need that common sense if we’re going to rebuild trust.
It won’t be easy, but it’s hardly beyond our reach. And it’s what self-government requires. It’s part of how, to recall Benjamin Franklin, we struggle to do right by the next generation and “keep a republic.”
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
"When we talk in private, I haven't heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent -- not one," Sasse wrote. "Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will 'look' to President Trump's most ardent supporters."
fucking cowards.
So even if it's not "party over country" it's "self over country."
let's be honest....it's never been party. it's always about political self-preservation. they can't preserve their careers without their party.
"When we talk in private, I haven't heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent -- not one," Sasse wrote. "Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will 'look' to President Trump's most ardent supporters."
fucking cowards.
So even if it's not "party over country" it's "self over country."
let's be honest....it's never been party. it's always about political self-preservation. they can't preserve their careers without their party.
I think for some it's about party. Mitch started all this shit before he knew Trump would be president. But it's sort of morphed into this monster where too many conservatives are crazily dedicated to Trump and now it has to be "Trump First" in order for that self-preservation to occur. Either way, it's not "America First."
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
"When we talk in private, I haven't heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent -- not one," Sasse wrote. "Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will 'look' to President Trump's most ardent supporters."
fucking cowards.
So even if it's not "party over country" it's "self over country."
let's be honest....it's never been party. it's always about political self-preservation. they can't preserve their careers without their party.
Yes exactly. These are their jobs and the calculation isn't insane, unfortunately.
"When we talk in private, I haven't heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent -- not one," Sasse wrote. "Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will 'look' to President Trump's most ardent supporters."
fucking cowards.
So even if it's not "party over country" it's "self over country."
let's be honest....it's never been party. it's always about political self-preservation. they can't preserve their careers without their party.
I think for some it's about party. Mitch started all this shit before he knew Trump would be president. But it's sort of morphed into this monster where too many conservatives are crazily dedicated to Trump and now it has to be "Trump First" in order for that self-preservation to occur. Either way, it's not "America First."
they are crazy dedicated to trump because they fear for their own jobs, not for their party. none of these guys, or at least very few, would lay down their livelihoods for their party.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
• Vice President Mike Pence has asked a federal judge to reject a lawsuit filed by a group of Republicans who want to give him the authority to overturn Presid...
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
• Vice President Mike Pence has asked a federal judge to reject a lawsuit filed by a group of Republicans who want to give him the authority to overturn Presid...
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
• Vice President Mike Pence has asked a federal judge to reject a lawsuit filed by a group of Republicans who want to give him the authority to overturn Presid...
Just because Donnie can't count and doesn't want to lose doesn't mean that the voting infrastructure of the country can't produce a repeatable result based on actual physical ballots.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Comments
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/531823-gop-lawmakers-sue-pence-in-bid-to-overturn-biden-win
www.headstonesband.com
lovely.
www.headstonesband.com
https://twitter.com/thedemcoalition/status/1343877150865321984?s=21
Carroll County GOP posts theory Nashville bombing was Dem coverup
The Carroll County Republican Party reposted a conspiracy theory on social media that the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville was part of a cover-up of voter fraud.
The party also re-posted a message on Facebook urging President Donald Trump to declare martial law and have the military oversee a new election.
The posts are among several that seek to cast doubt on the results of the presidential election.
The post about the Nashville bombing, which was made Sunday, was deleted Tuesday afternoon. Carroll County Republican Chairman Jeffery Mangun could not be reached for comment.
The deleted post started by saying, "The Democrats made a big mistake today."
It claimed without evidence that the AT&T data center that was extensively damaged by the blast of a recreational vehicle as part of an apparent suicide held the data from Dominion voting machines. The post cited its source as the social networking site Parler, which many Trump supporters have joined since the Nov. 3 election to discuss their beliefs about voter fraud.
Spokespeople for AT&T and Dominion told The Associated Press that AT&T had no contract to audit Dominion voting machines and no such machines were in the data center.
The blast killed Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, who set off the bomb, and wounded three other people. Investigators are still trying to determine a motive.
Mangun told the Ohio Capital Journal that he did not write or put up the post about the Nashville bombing. But someone else in the Carroll County GOP leadership had.
He declined to name the person saying he did not want to "undermine" them. He told the publication he didn't know whether the allegations in the post were true or not.
Tom Postlethwait, the chairman of the Carroll County Democratic Party, called such posts and comments part of a "coup to take over a government."
"It's just beyond me," he said Tuesday. "Trump lost. He lost the election by 6 million votes, 8 million votes. It’s over. He lost by the same amount of electoral votes that he won by. Time to give up. ...
"Carroll County has an awful lot of Republicans and I'm not really surprised some of the comments I’ve heard over the course of the year. ... I’ve heard stuff that we’re going to have a civil war if we don’t watch out and Trump loses. Various comments like that I'm not surprised that someone would put that on Facebook.”
Carroll County is a rural community south of Canton with a population of about 27,000.
Reach Repository writer Robert Wang at (330) 580-8327 or robert.wang@cantonrep.com.
On Twitter: @rwangREP.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
www.headstonesband.com
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
I live in Carrol County!
www.headstonesband.com
the election was 2 months ago next week.
this would be like me having a football team's sign in my yard 2 months after they lose a super bowl for the second time.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
and the goal lines.
www.headstonesband.com
i bet the signs are still there a year from now.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
www.headstonesband.com
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/30/hawley-challenge-biden-electors-forcing-vote-452319
long suspected, and confirmed here:
"When we talk in private, I haven't heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent -- not one," Sasse wrote. "Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will 'look' to President Trump's most ardent supporters."
fucking cowards.
www.headstonesband.com
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
In November, 160 million Americans voted. On December 14, members of the Electoral College – spread across all 50 states and the District of Columbia – assembled to cast their votes to confirm the winning candidate. And on January 6, the Congress will gather together to formally count the Electoral College’s votes and bring this process to a close.
Some members of the House and the Senate are apparently going to object to counting the votes of some states that were won by Joe Biden. Just like the rest of Senate Republicans, I have been approached by many Nebraskans demanding that I join in this project.
Having been in private conversation with two dozen of my colleagues over the past few weeks, it seems useful to explain in public why I will not be participating in a project to overturn the election – and why I have been urging my colleagues also to reject this dangerous ploy.
Every public official has a responsibility to tell the truth, and here’s what I think the truth is – about our duties on January 6th, about claims of election fraud, and about what it takes to keep a republic.
1. IS THERE A CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS FOR CONGRESS TO DISMISS ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES?
Yes. A member of the House and the Senate can object and, in order for the vote(s) in question to be dismissed, both chambers must vote to reject those votes.
But is it wise? Is there any real basis for it here?
Absolutely not. Since the Electoral College Act of 1887 was passed into law in the aftermath of the Civil War, not a single electoral vote has ever been thrown out by the Congress. (One goofy senator attempted this maneuver after George W. Bush won reelection in 2004, but her anti-democratic play was struck down by her Senate colleagues in a shaming vote of 74-1.)
2. IS THERE EVIDENCE OF VOTER FRAUD SO WIDESPREAD THAT IT COULD HAVE CHANGED THE OUTCOME OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION?
No.
For President-Elect Biden’s 306-232 Electoral College victory to be overturned, President Trump would need to flip multiple states. But not a single state is in legal doubt.
But given that I was not a Trump voter in either 2016 or 2020 (I wrote in Mike Pence in both elections), I understand that many Trump supporters will not want to take my word for it. So, let’s look at the investigations and tireless analysis from Andy McCarthy over at National Review. McCarthy has been a strong, consistent supporter of President Trump, and he is also a highly regarded federal prosecutor. Let’s run through the main states where President Trump has claimed widespread fraud:
* In Pennsylvania, Team Trump is right that lots went wrong. Specifically, a highly partisan state supreme court rewrote election law in ways that are contrary to what the legislature had written about the deadline for mail-in ballots – this is wrong. But Biden won Pennsylvania by 81,000 votes – and there appear to have been only 10,000 votes received and counted after election day. So even if every one of these votes were for Biden and were thrown out, they would not come close to affecting the outcome. Notably, Stephanos Bibas (a Trump appointee) of the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled against the president’s lawsuit to reverse Biden’s large victory, writing in devastating fashion: “calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”
* In Michigan, which Biden won by 154,000 votes, the Trump team initially claimed generic fraud statewide – but with almost no particular claims, so courts roundly rejected suit after suit. The Trump team then objected to a handful of discrepancies in certain counties and precincts, some more reasonable than others. But for the sake of argument, let’s again assume that every single discrepancy was resolved in the president’s favor: It would potentially amount to a few thousand votes and not come anywhere close to changing the state’s result.
* In Arizona, a federal judge jettisoned a lawsuit explaining that “allegations that find favor in the public sphere of gossip and innuendo cannot be a substitute for earnest pleadings and procedure in federal court,” she wrote. “They most certainly cannot be the basis for upending Arizona’s 2020 General Election.” Nothing presented in court was serious, let alone providing a basis for overturning an election. (https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/09/federal-judge-throws-out-last-election-challenge-pending-arizona/6506927002)
* In Nevada, there do appear to have been some irregularities – but the numbers appear to have been very small relative to Biden’s margin of victory. It would be useful for there to be an investigation into these irregularities, but a judge rejected the president’s suit because the president’s lawyers “did not prove under any standard of proof” that enough illegal votes were cast, or legal votes not counted, “to raise reasonable doubt as to the outcome of the election.” (https://www.8newsnow.com/i-team/judge-no-evidence-to-support-voter-fraud-across-nevada-i-team-digs-into-allegations-evidence-trump-republicans-lawsuit-las-vegas-clark-county/)
* In Wisconsin, as McCarthy has written, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled against President Trump, suggesting that President-Elect Biden’s recorded margin of victory (about 20,000 votes) was probably slightly smaller in fact, but even re-calculating all of the votes in question in a generously pro-Trump way would not give the president a victory in the state. (https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/12/biden-won-wisconsin-but-it-was-even-closer-than-reported/)
* In Georgia, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation complete audit of more than 15,000 votes found one irregularity – a situation where a woman illegally signed both her and her husband’s ballot envelopes.
At the end of the day, one of the President Trump’s strongest supporters, his own Attorney General, Bill Barr, was blunt: “We have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.” (https://apnews.com/article/barr-no-widespread-election-fraud-b1f1488796c9a98c4b1a9061a6c7f49d)
3. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CLAIMS OF THE PRESIDENT’S LAWYERS THAT THE ELECTION WAS STOLEN?
I started with the courts for a reason. From where I sit, the single-most telling fact is that there a giant gulf between what President Trump and his allies say in public – for example, on social media, or at press conferences outside Philadelphia landscaping companies and adult bookstores – and what President Trump’s lawyers actually say in courts of law. And that’s not a surprise. Because there are no penalties for misleading the public. But there are serious penalties for misleading a judge, and the president’s lawyers know that – and thus they have repeated almost none of the claims of grand voter fraud that the campaign spokespeople are screaming at their most zealous supporters. So, here’s the heart of this whole thing: this isn’t really a legal strategy – it’s a fundraising strategy.
Since Election Day, the president and his allied organizations have raised well over half a billion (billion!) dollars from supporters who have been led to believe that they’re contributing to a ferocious legal defense. But in reality, they’re mostly just giving the president and his allies a blank check that can go to their super-PACs, their next plane trip, their next campaign or project. That’s not serious governing. It’s swampy politics – and it shows very little respect for the sincere people in my state who are writing these checks.
4. WAIT, ARE YOU CLAIMING THERE WAS NO FRAUD OF ANY KIND THIS YEAR?
No. 160 million people voted in this election, in a variety of formats, in a process marked by the extraordinary circumstance of a global pandemic. There is some voter fraud every election cycle – and the media flatly declaring from on high that “there is no fraud!” has made things worse. It has heightened public distrust, because there are, in fact, documented cases of voter fraud every election cycle. But the crucial questions are: (A) What evidence do we have of fraud? and (B) Does that evidence support the belief in fraud on a scale so significant that it could have changed the outcome? We have little evidence of fraud, and what evidence we do have does not come anywhere close to adding up to a different winner of the presidential election.
5. BUT ISN’T IT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST TO INVESTIGATE THESE CLAIMS MORE THOROUGHLY? DOESN’T IT HELP GUARANTEE THE LEGITIMACY OF OUR ELECTORAL PROCESS?
I take this argument seriously because actual voter fraud – and worries about voter fraud – are poison to self-government. So yes, we should investigate all specific claims, but we shouldn’t burn down the whole process along the way. Right now we are locked in a destructive, vicious circle:
Step 1: Allege widespread voter fraud.
Step 2: Fail to offer specific evidence of widespread fraud.
Step 3: Demand investigation, on grounds that there are “allegations” of voter fraud.
I can’t simply allege that the College Football Playoff Selection Committee is “on the take” because they didn’t send the Cornhuskers to the Rose Bowl, and then – after I fail to show evidence that anyone on the Selection Committee is corrupt – argue that we need to investigate because of these pervasive “allegations” of corruption.
We have good reason to think this year’s election was fair, secure, and law-abiding. That’s not to say it was flawless. But there is no evidentiary basis for distrusting our elections altogether, or for concluding that the results do not reflect the ballots that our fellow citizens actually cast.
6. DO ANY OF YOUR COLLEAGUES DISAGREE WITH YOU ABOUT THIS?
When we talk in private, I haven’t heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent – not one. Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will “look” to President Trump’s most ardent supporters.
And I get it. I hear from a lot of Nebraskans who disagree with me. Moreover, lots of them ask legitimate questions about why they should trust the mainstream media. Here’s one I got this morning: “We live in a world where thousands and thousands of stories were written about the Republican nominee’s alleged tax fraud in 2012, but then when Harry Reid admitted – after the election – that he had simply made all of this up, there were probably three media outlets that covered it for thirty seconds. Why should I believe anything they say?” As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has watched for four years as lies made up out of whole cloth are covered as legitimate “news” stories, I understand why so many of my constituents feel this in-the-belly distrust. What so much of the media doesn’t grasp is that Trump’s attacks are powerful not because he created this anti-media sentiment, but because he figured out how to tap into it.
Nonetheless, it seems to me that the best way we can serve our constituents is to tell the truth as we see it, and explain why. And in my view, President-Elect Biden didn’t simply win the election; President Trump couldn’t persuade even his own lawyers to argue anything different than that in U.S. federal courts.
…WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
The president and his allies are playing with fire. They have been asking – first the courts, then state legislatures, now the Congress – to overturn the results of a presidential election. They have unsuccessfully called on judges and are now calling on federal officeholders to invalidate millions and millions of votes. If you make big claims, you had better have the evidence. But the president doesn’t and neither do the institutional arsonist members of Congress who will object to the Electoral College vote.
Let’s be clear what is happening here: We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage. But they’re wrong – and this issue is bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government.
We have a deep cancer in American politics right now: Both Republicans and Democrats are growing more distrustful of the basic processes and procedures that we follow. Some people will respond to these arguments by saying: “The courts are just in the tank for Democrats!” And indeed the President has been tweeting that “the courts are bad” (and the Justice Department, and more). That’s an example of the legitimacy crisis so many of us have been worried about. Democrats spent four years pretending Trump didn’t win the election, and now (shocker) a good section of Republicans are going to spend the next four years pretending Biden didn’t win the election.
All the clever arguments and rhetorical gymnastics in the world won’t change the fact that this January 6th effort is designed to disenfranchise millions of Americans simply because they voted for someone in a different party. We ought to be better than that. If we normalize this, we’re going to turn American politics into a Hatfields and McCoys endless blood feud – a house hopelessly divided.
America has always been fertile soil for groupthink, conspiracy theories, and showmanship. But Americans have common sense. We know up from down, and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. We need that common sense if we’re going to rebuild trust.
It won’t be easy, but it’s hardly beyond our reach. And it’s what self-government requires. It’s part of how, to recall Benjamin Franklin, we struggle to do right by the next generation and “keep a republic.”
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
• Vice President Mike Pence has asked a federal judge to reject a lawsuit filed by a group of Republicans who want to give him the authority to overturn Presid...
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
lawsuit tossed for lack of standing
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
People starving in his district. pathetic.
Truth hits everybody. That scoreboard is HUGE.
Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson sparred with Chuck Todd.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
www.headstonesband.com