The Donald Trump Score Card

Seems you're about to get the sack as Hephatrump's mouthpiece !!! - Bye



Biden transition gets federal government go-ahead as Trump runs out of options

PA
Nov 24th 2020 3:04AM
The US federal government has recognised Joe Biden as the "apparent winner" of the November 3 presidential election, formally starting the transition of power after Donald Trump spent weeks testing the boundaries of American democracy.

He relented after suffering yet more legal and procedural defeats in his seemingly futile effort to overturn the election with baseless claims of fraud.

Mr Trump still refused to concede and vowed to continue to fight in court after General Services Administrator Emily Murphy gave the green light on Monday for Mr Biden to co-ordinate with federal agencies ahead of his inauguration on January 20. But he did tweet that he was directing his team to co-operate on the transition.

...fight, and I believe we will prevail! Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 23, 2020

The fast-moving series of events seemed to let much of the air out of Mr Trump's frantic efforts to undermine the will of the people in what has amounted to a weeks-long stress test for American democracy. But his attempts to foment a crisis of confidence in the political system and the fairness of US elections have not ended and are likely to persist well beyond his lame-duck presidency.

Ms Murphy, explaining her decision, cited "recent developments involving legal challenges and certifications of election results".

She acted after Michigan on Monday certified Mr Biden's victory in the battleground state, and a federal judge in Pennsylvania tossed out a Trump campaign lawsuit on Saturday seeking to prevent certification in that state.

It also came as an increasing number of Republicans were publicly acknowledging Mr Biden's victory, after weeks of tolerating Mr Trump's baseless claims of fraud. The president had grown increasingly frustrated with the flailing tactics of his legal team.

Michigan election officials have followed the law and upheld the will of the voters. The American people have spoken — an orderly transfer of power must begin so that @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris can effectively work for the American people. https://t.co/50jkmNg8py

— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) November 23, 2020

In recent days, senior Trump aides, including chief of staff Mark Meadows and White House counsel Pat Cipollone, had also encouraged him to allow the transition to begin, telling the president he did not need to concede but could no longer justify withholding support to the Biden transition.

Yohannes Abraham, executive director of the Biden transition, said the decision "is a needed step to begin tackling the challenges facing our nation, including getting the pandemic under control and our economy back on track".

Ms Murphy, a Trump appointee, had faced bipartisan criticism for failing to begin the transition process sooner, preventing Mr Biden's team from working with career agency officials on plans for his administration. The delay denied Mr Biden access to highly classified national security briefings and hindered his team's ability to begin drawing up its own plans to respond to the raging coronavirus pandemic.

Ms Murphy insisted she acted on her own.

"Please know that I came to my decision independently, based on the law and available facts. I was never directly or indirectly pressured by any Executive Branch official – including those who work at the White House or GSA – with regard to the substance or timing of my decision," she wrote in a letter to Mr Biden.


General Services Administrator Emily Murphy (Susan Walsh/AP)
Mr Trump tweeted moments after Ms Murphy's decision: "We will keep up the good fight and I believe we will prevail! Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same."

Max Stier, president and chief executive of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, criticised the delay but said Mr Biden's team would be able to overcome it.

"Unfortunately, every day lost to the delayed ascertainment was a missed opportunity for the outgoing administration to help president-elect Joe Biden prepare to meet our country's greatest challenges," he said. "The good news is that the president-elect and his team are the most prepared and best equipped of any incoming administration in recent memory."

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the GSA action "is probably the closest thing to a concession that President Trump could issue″.

Noting that the nation "faces multiple crises that demand an orderly transition″, he urged Democrats and Republicans to "unite together for a smooth and peaceful transition that will benefit America″,

This is probably the closest thing to a concession President Trump could issue.

We must now unite together. America faces multiple crises that demand an orderly transition, and I look forward to working with President-elect Biden and VP-elect Harris to help the American people. https://t.co/iXzv3jfPCa

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) November 24, 2020

Ms Murphy's action came just 90 minutes after Michigan election officials certified Mr Biden's 154,000-vote victory in the state. The Board of State Canvassers, which has two Republicans and two Democrats, confirmed the results on a 3-0 vote with one GOP abstention.

Mr Trump and his allies had hoped to block the vote to allow time for an audit of ballots in Wayne County, where Mr Trump has claimed without evidence that he was the victim of fraud. Mr Biden crushed the president by more than 330,000 votes there.

"The people of Michigan have spoken. President-elect Biden won the State of Michigan by more than 154,000 votes, and he will be our next president on January 20th," Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, said, adding it is "time to put this election behind us".

Mr Trump was increasingly frustrated by his legal team, led by former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose erratic public performances drew bipartisan mockery in recent weeks. Nevertheless, the legal challenges were expected to continue, as Mr Trump seeks to keep his supporters on his side and keep his options open for opportunities post-presidency.

In Pennsylvania on Saturday, a conservative Republican judge shot down the Trump campaign's biggest legal effort in the state with a scathing ruling that questioned why he was supposed to disenfranchise 7 million voters with no evidence to back their claims and an inept legal argument at best.

But the lawyers still hope to block the state's certification, quickly appealing to the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which ordered lawyers to file a brief on Monday but did not agree to hear oral arguments.

The campaign, in its filings, asked for urgent consideration so it could challenge the state election results before they are certified next month. If not, they will seek to decertify them, the filings said.

Mr Biden won Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes.

Pennsylvania county election boards voted on Monday, the state deadline, on whether to certify election results to the Department of State.

The boards in two populous counties split along party lines, with majority Democrats in both places voting to certify. After all counties have sent certified results to Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, she must then tabulate, compute and canvass votes for all races. The law requires her to perform that task quickly but does not set a specific deadline.

In Wisconsin, a recount in the state's two largest liberal counties moved into its fourth day, with election officials in Milwaukee County complaining that Trump observers were slowing down the process with frequent challenges.

Mr Trump's hope of reversing Mr Biden's victory there depends on disqualifying thousands of absentee ballots – including the in-person absentee ballot cast by one of Mr Trump's own campaign lawyers in Dane County.

 

I think VG has been holding out hope that Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (crazy Rudy) and Sidney “Release the Kraken,” Powell, could pull a rabbit out of their ass.


But now that the General Services Administration (GSA) has signed off on Biden, VG finally realizes it’s all over,


........... and if you’ve seen Emily Murphy, indeed the fat lady has sung....lol...

 

Oh yeah thats what I was waiting for the GSA *rollseyes

John Kerry(76) as Bidens (78) climate guy, what a laugh

He's got his finger on the pulse of the youth of america, he is hip and he is groovy, and he is down with all that

Youve got 56 days of fantasy and hope, then we get the US version of Dads Army

 

I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the GSA.

Now Biden can begin to receive top secret NSA briefings on the state of the world, and his transition team can begin submitting names to the FBI for
background checks and government clearance. All essential in a smooth transition of power.

As for the geriatric administration, Kamala Harris is as old as the number of days trump has remaining in office – interesting.

 

'Beyond an embarrassment,' legal experts say of Trump and Giuliani's floundering efforts in court
"It's as dysfunctional a litigation strategy as I've ever seen," one attorney told NBC News.
By Dareh Gregorian
Nov. 24, 2020, 6:28 AM EST

'Beyond an embarrassment,' legal experts say of Trump and Giuliani's floundering efforts in court

excerpt:

"The appeal complained the judge in the case, Matthew Brann, "misconstrued the remedy sought. The Campaign is not seeking to disenfranchise 6.8 million Pennsylvanians," as the judge wrote in his scathing decision — and Giuliani acknowledged in a court hearing last week.

The appeal says the campaign just wanted to set aside some ballots that they believe may be defective — and then notes that one of the remedies they're seeking is "an order that the results of the 2020 Presidential general election are defective, which would allow the Pennsylvania General Assembly to choose Pennsylvania's electors" — in other words, which would disenfranchise 6.8 million Pennsylvanians by dismissing their votes.

The filing at one point refers to ballots as "ballets," and another of the campaign's filings earlier in the day referred to "Presidential Donald J. Trump" instead of president.

That earlier filing — which said the campaign was only appealing part of Brann's order but then added it might appeal other parts of the order — led to confusion from other defendants in the case, who said it was improper and they couldn't understand what exactly the campaign was seeking."

 

'Beyond an embarrassment,' legal experts say of Trump and Giuliani's floundering efforts in court

excerpt:

"Some of those claims have apparently even gotten to be too much for the president — he jettisoned lawyer Sidney Powell from his team over the weekend after she suggested Republicans had taken payoffs to fix the election in Georgia. That's where two seats that will determine control of the U.S. Senate are up for grabs in a runoff election in January."

 

Trump's 'elite, strike force' legal team starts to shrink

excerpt:

"Jenna Ellis, as recently as 2016, repeatedly described Donald Trump as an "idiot," adding that she considered him an "unethical, corrupt, lying, criminal, dirtbag." Ellis also said Trump's supporters didn't care about "facts or logic." Yesterday, Ellis thought it'd be a good idea to tweet about a longtime Republican pollster's genitals."

 

Trump's 'elite, strike force' legal team starts to shrink

excerpt:

"Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing were first hired to represent Trump in 2018 because the president enjoyed their work as Fox News personalities. Soon after, Trump met the couple in person, and they parted ways. Now, evidently, they're back."

 

Trump's 'elite, strike force' legal team starts to shrink

excerpt:

"Rudy Giuliani, fresh off his pre-election partnership with an active Russian agent, has struggled in court with basics every first-year law student knows, and continues to peddle discredited claims on a daily basis. What's more, CNN reported a few days ago, "In recent weeks, FBI agents in New York contacted witnesses and asked new questions about Giuliani's efforts in Ukraine and possible connections to Russian intelligence.""

 

Sanctions against Russian agent complicate matters for some in GOP
The Treasury Department's sanctions against Andriy Derkach just made things a little awkward for some of Donald Trump's Republican allies.
By Steven Benen
Sep. 10, 2020 2:37 PM EDT

Sanctions against Russian agent complicate matters for some in GOP

excerpt:

"As part of the sanctions, U.S. officials argued that Derkach "has been an active Russian agent for over a decade, maintaining close connections with the Russian Intelligence Services." The Treasury Department added, "Derkach has directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign interference in an attempt to undermine the upcoming 2020 U.S. presidential election."

What makes this so significant, however, is Derkach's possible interactions with Republicans in the United States.

It was late last year, for example, when Donald Trump's personal lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), launched an effort to dig up dirt against Joe Biden in eastern Europe. Among the most notable figures Giuliani relied on for information was ... Andriy Derkach."

 

A humor sketch is needed where Emily Murphy is singing her whiny public statement opera-style to a tragic tune of Trump's election loss.

 

Trump will probably nominate him for a judgeship

 

Biden certified winner in PA.

Biden certified as winner of Pennsylvania presidential vote

 

Trump continues to cling to GIuliani.

Giuliani may have made a fool of Trump, but he humiliated him while trying to defend him and be loyal to him.



‘Humiliated’ Trump ‘angry and frustrated’ with Giuliani’s efforts — but he’ll never cut him loose: White House reporter

excerpt:

"The thing that Trump cherishes and prizes most of all among his aides is the willingness to go on TV to defend him,” Lemire said. “That’s what many people close to him have said that, and Giuliani does do that. He did so in 2016, he did so most notably during the Russia probe, during the Mueller case. People close to the president say that, yes, that Trump has awareness that Giuliani led him astray during Ukraine, but that’s overshadowed by the sense from the president that Giuliani did some some good in the Russia probe, with his fog machine to confuse the issues and deliver attacks on Mueller that seemed to undermine the special council’s credibility. The president was willing to keep him in the orbit and we saw the role that Giuliani played in peddling baseless theories about Joe Biden and his son Hunter. He is not willing to cut him free, but certainly frustrated with recent days.”"

 

Giuliani has been behaving jackass in court like Trump has at his rallies.

Trump and Giuliani are still having difficulty realizing that bluster isn't evidence.

 

Hahahaaaa.....
It’s coming back on ‘em! Post-Trump presidency will prove to be just as exciting as the last 4 years!!!

 

Reality finally caught up with Trump. He managed to keep the bluster going for almost four years.

Trump's response to the virus was part of his downfall. It showed that he doesn't know how to handle a real crisis, only the endless junior high school fake ones he makes to pit Americans against one another while he watches in amusement and pretends to be the fix-it man.

 

Giuliani’s time is coming...to join the other people who ended up being pieces of used toilet paper to wipe Trump’s big ol’ pig ass!!

 

Trump made the following threats in September.

He also said he didn't want to let Americans know about the deadliness of the coronavirus because he didn't want to scare people.



Congressman mocks Trumps for celebrating stock market record after Trump said it would collapse if Biden was elected

excerpt:

“Joe Biden and the radical, socialist Democrats would immediately collapse the economy,” Trump said in a Labor Day address Sept. 7. “If they got in, they would collapse it. You’ll have a crash the likes of which you’ve never seen before. Your stocks, your 401(k)s — remember, it’s the people that own these massive, listed companies. A lot of people: rich people and not so rich people and middle-income people. And those stocks will crash like you’ve never seen before.”

 

Trump did a one-minute briefing trying to take credit for the stock market hitting 30,000 and cowardly walked away without taking questions.