As the Trump administration continues standing in the way of the Biden transition team, aides to the president-elect will be meeting with congressional committee staffers in an effort to get up to speed on important issues, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
That’s right, kids, it’s true, our country is falling apart, a thousand dying every day, millions out of work, the economy on life support, schools are closed, and our reputation Around the world is trashed.
But you would have been so proud of me in that one glorious moment when I stood up to Hillary and voted my conscience!
What a rush! and I still think it was all worth it.
So glad that Biden is using his knowledge from participating in two Transitions already to figure out what to do here, and that he’s doing it. It’s one thing making me feel slightly better.
(only slightly. but it all helps.)
To a lot of folks Uncle Joe was a compromise
Given what we are dealing with today
I am more convinced he THE person for our times.
Bonus
I am sure VP elect is in a take no prisoners mood.
One does what one can.
It is very good that we have a very experience politician and team behind him running this…a newcomer might have a lot more difficulty figuring out how to deal with a situation that has never happened before. Trump’s sabotage of the Biden administration is going to go down as one of the worst actions of a president in our history, and just cement him as our worst president.
We just better hope that Biden is able to get through all of the interference and make it to the presidency, otherwise Trump may just be our last president before the Republican Christian theocracy is installed.
The shine appears to be wearing thin on the Would-be Godhead … for this cycle. Not to worry, a week from now the various “search committees” will be convening to go through their Rolodexes for the next Messiah.
If Trump is trying to hurt Biden, he’s not doing a good job. However, all this intransigence and mischief hurts the American people.
The level of hysteria in response to trumPP’s threats which are not going to be fulfilled is disconcerting. He’s threatening, he’s hollering, he’s making phone calls, and I’m glad to see any news about what the president elect has in his power to do to pushback back against this bullshit. There are scenarios in which trumPP prevail but only if you’ve read too much Richard Condon fiction (The Manchurian Candidate, et al)
The results of the election will not be overturned. End of story. It’s Fatso doing everything he can to avoid prosecution as a civilian for tax fraud and more.
trump’s just fine with that outcome.
How long before we discover that a phone call was intercepted, with trump bragging to putin about how badly he screwed our country?
Two transitions, eight years as veep, and decades in Congress. Calm, stable, and experienced, with a contact list to match. The right guy for the moment.
With a V.P.-Elect who sits on several key committees and knows how to ask the right questions to get answers.
None of this is to minimize the gravity of what’s happening, the GOP’s criminal irresponsibility, dereliction of duty in time of crisis, furious attacks on the underpinnings of our democratic system of government.
But my God, things could be so much worse now without Joe and Kamala.
Unless you have actually read Michigan statutes, I don’t think you should be so dismissive of the ability of Republicans to steal the state’s electoral vote from Biden. And neither should we be so dismissive of their ability to start a cascade. If you carefully listen to Michigan Democratic politicians, you can hear their fear.
Like FDR said long ago which I’ve adopted as my personal mantra, all we have to fear is fear itself. Not going to scare myself because trumPP makes loud noises along with Giuliani. But don’t take it from me. Here’s Joe’s team’s legal advisor.
Bob Bauer, the lawyer overseeing President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s legal fight over the election, lashed out on Friday at President Trump’s attempts to undermine the election, calling his efforts to strong-arm Michigan officials into helping him overturn the state’s results “an abuse of office” and “absolutely appalling.”
But Mr. Bauer added that none of the president’s legal or political efforts to derail Mr. Biden’s victory will succeed. He noted that the Mr. Trump’s legal teams have lost more than two dozen lawsuits since Election Day.
“This kind of pressure, this raw political pressure, is obviously outrageous,” Mr. Bauer said. “But as I said it’s also pathetic because it cannot be successful.”
As to contesting Georgia,
ATLANTA — Georgia’s secretary of state certified President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the state on Friday, dealing a blow to President Trump’s bid to overturn the vote in a half-dozen battleground states and with it the national election that Mr. Biden won decisively.
The Georgia certification, which ensures that Mr. Biden will receive the state’s 16 electoral votes, was an early milestone in the state-by-state process of finalizing Mr. Biden’s victory, a process that is set to unfold in the coming days as Mr. Trump continues to deny his defeat and cry fraud and his campaign and its surrogates inundate the courts with largely baseless lawsuits that have so far been unsuccessful.
trumPP is indeed testing the boundaries of our Constitution and for future elections we need to consider the damage he’s inflicting. But for now Biden’s margins of victories are too wide to be contested and/or overturned.
?
I listened to Bauer carefully. He is a great lawyer, and a tough one. There is no one I’d rather see as the commander of the team. Here is what I took away from his briefing.
The most critical question is one he didn’t address until the very end, and then only because a reporter from the Detroit Free Press asked him: what happens if the state canvassing board deadlocks on Monday? Do I think that Bauer just forgot to address that critical issue? Of course not. I believe he deliberately didn’t address it until he was specifically asked. His answer was this: “there are a variety of pathways if that happens. I can assure that the votes will be certified.” Why wasn’t he more specific, and why didn’t the reporter follow-up and ask him for specifics? Either Bauer has a secret plan that he doesn’t want to divulge or he doesn’t know what those specifics might be.
My guess is that one option is to go to court, which is where they have been most successful, and seek a mandamus order requiring the Board to certify, arguing that the Board’s failure to do so was arbitrary and capricious and would overturn the public will etc. But the statutory language doesn’t say what Bauer says it says. He is trying to convince the courts to modify the language to mean what ge says it means. That is good strategy and might work.
Another would be for the Secretary of State or the Governor to certify; I don’t believe there is any specific authority in Michigan law to do so, so I believe it would be challenged. But if it was done quickly and the certification was sent to the National Archives it would be a done deal, and it would put the burden on the Republican legislature to send its own competing slate of electors to Congress.
The third would be for the Governor to argue that the two Republican members had functionally resigned by not performing their responsibilities, and appointing two new Republican members. Former governor Rick Snyder would be one logical choice, if he would do it. This would be based on the legal principle of “constructive abandonment”. If you don’t do your job, you have quit. I think this would be the best approach, but Witmer would have to have two high powered Republicans to name to the board. One would be Snyder. I assume Witmer could come up with another.
Cheers
Sometimes its irrational to be afraid. Not now. But fear must be translated into action. Blissful ignorance is a death warrant.
I can but endorse your endorsement.
I get my news from MSM including WaPo, NYT, SF chronicle and other media so if you’re in a roundabout way calling me blissfully ignorant, I resent that.
Nope. Would never call you blissfully ignorant.
Once on the transitioning-in side, Dubya to Obama, and once on the desperately trying to help the incoming side, Obama to Ignorant Pustule. That’s two. You may have just been the victim of a classic fencepost error.