2020 Election: Predictions, Results and Reactions

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm starting this thread rather than continuing to talk about these type of issues in the 2020 election thread. If I get the time and motivation, I'll try to move relevant posts from that thread to this one.

GOP Sen. Roy Blunt announces he will not run for reelection

Blunt is the fifth GOP senator up for reelection in 2022 to announce he is not running. While it is unlikely that his retirement will make this a competitive seat, I don't think it is impossible, depending on who ends up running for each party. If the Democrats run a strong moderate candidate and the Republicans run a firebrand Trumpite similar to the junior senator from the state, Josh Hawley, I don't think it is outside the bounds of what is possible, depending on just how fed up people in the middle in Missouri are with the shenanigans that led to January 6. It will be interesting test. And at the very least, it will mean that the GOP will lose an important member of its leadership team who has a lot of seniority and replace him with a freshman senator.

[N.E. Brigand]

The Wall Street Journal has reviewed a previously unreported recording of a late December phone call (the fact that the call happened was previously noted by the Washington Post) that President Trump made to the chief election investigator in Georgia's bureau of criminal investigations, urging her to find supposed fraud in Fulton County.

Chris Hayes of MSNBC: "If a Chicago alderman made these calls to the Cook County Clerk about his own election and they were recorded and released, that alderman would have been indicted by the US Attorney in a matter of days."

[N.E. Brigand]

After Donald Trump and other Republicans cried foul about mail-in voting for months, Donald Trump has requested a mail-in ballot for an upcoming local election in Palm Beach.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I saw that too. I would shake my head if it surprised me, but of course it doesn't. And of course it won't stop him from railing about mail-in voting.

[N.E. Brigand]

The Wall Street Journal has reviewed a previously unreported recording of a late December phone call (the fact that the call happened was previously noted by the Washington Post) that President Trump made to the chief election investigator in Georgia's bureau of criminal investigations, urging her to find supposed fraud in Fulton County.

Chris Hayes of MSNBC: "If a Chicago alderman made these calls to the Cook County Clerk about his own election and they were recorded and released, that alderman would have been indicted by the US Attorney in a matter of days."

During this call, President Trump inquires as to whether the investigators in Georgia will work over the holidays, because, he says, "we have that date of the 6th ... that’s a very important date."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Apparently the file with the recording of the phone call was discovered in the trash folder on the computer of Frances Watson, the investigations supervisor to the Georgia Secretary of State.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... d=msedgntp

[RoseMorninStar]

It's all rather mind-blowing, isn't it?

[N.E. Brigand]

Apparently the file with the recording of the phone call was discovered in the trash folder on the computer of Frances Watson, the investigations supervisor to the Georgia Secretary of State.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... d=msedgntp

On January 9, the Washington Post reported on this six-minute call based not on the recording, which they didn't have, but based on a source who heard the call but unfortunately provided the Post with a somewhat inaccurate description. The Post reported then that Donald Trump asked Frances Watson to "find the fraud"; what he actually said was that if she investigated Fulton County, she would find "dishonesty" in the voting. The Post also reported that Trump told Watson she would be a "national hero" if she found evidence overturning Trump's loss; what he actually said was that she had "the most important job in the country right now". So today the Post issued a correction, as they should.

And again this was first reported by the Post on January 9, four days after the Georgia run-off election for two Senate seats that gave Democrats control.

What's more, there has been no change to the reporting on the much longer call that Trump had with Brad Raffensberger, Georgia's secretary of state. That call was reported by the Post on January 3, two days before Georgia's run-off election, and the report included the full audio of the call.

But that's not stopping Republican members of Congress from claiming today that the Post tipped the Georgia elections to the Democrats by publishing falsehoods.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

(not directed at you, as you probably already guessed)

[N.E. Brigand]

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence today issued a report on attempts by other nations to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election that finds, among other things, that Russia began spreading rumors about Joe Biden as early as 2014 (apparently anticipating that he would be the 2016 Democratic nominee) and that in 2020, Russian intelligence agencies used third parties to feed information about Biden to "prominent U.S. individuals, some of whom were close to former President Trump and his administration."

*cough* *cRoUuDgYh* *cough*

https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/document ... 6MAR21.pdf

[Voronwë the Faithful]

*cough* *cRoUuDgYh* *cough*

The gift who keeps on giving.

[N.E. Brigand]

Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, was arrested on January 4, two days before the insurrection. According to a conspiracy indictment released this week, other Proud Boys leaders immediately feared that their encrypted communications would be accessed by authorities. One messaged the rest as follows: "Everything is compromised and we can be looking at Gang charges." They switched to alternate means of communication to continue their January 6 planning. (Both before and after Tarrio's arrest, the plan included wearing ordinary clothes rather than their usual uniforms and splitting into groups to attempt to breach the Capitol at multiple points.)

[N.E. Brigand]

A former Republican state senator in Florida was charged this week in an election fraud scheme, and Florida's Democrats are rightly demanding that the state call for a special election as a result.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5 ... r-tampered

Democrats want Republican state Sen. Ileana Garcia to resign. Last fall she defeated the Democratic incumbent, José Javier Rodriguez, as well as someone who now appears to have been a shadow candidate put into the race by a Republican.

That candidate, auto parts dealer Alex Rodriguez, was apparently paid $40,000 by a Republican former state senator, Frank Artiles (who resigned in 2017 after using racist language), to run as an indpendent in that district. He seems to have been picked for his last name, which was the same as the incumbent's, in order to confuse voters. Sen. Rodriguez lost to Garcia by 32 votes. And I now I see from the New York Times that Alex Rodriguez was also charged:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/19/us/f ... fraud.html

The Times article says it's not clear where Artiles got the money and that it's possible that the same scheme was tried in two other Florida races (but those contests weren't close).

Stop the steal.

[N.E. Brigand]

Several weeks ago, the voting machine company, Dominion, sued Sidney Powell, sometime lawyer for Donald Trump, for defamation.

Powell now has moved to dismiss the suit on the grounds that no reasonable person would believe she was making statements of fact when she alleged that Dominion cheated in the election.

[Túrin Turambar]

Sidney Powell asks the court to dismiss Dominion's suit against her on the basis that no reasonable person could believe she was making statements of fact:

Given the highly charged and political context of the statements, it is clear that Powell was describing the facts on which she based the lawsuits she filed in support of President Trump. Indeed, Plaintiffs themselves characterize the statements at issue as “wild accusations” and “outlandish claims.”Id. at ¶¶ 2, 60, 97, 111. They are repeatedly labelled “inherently improbable” and even “impossible.”Id. at ¶¶ 110, 111, 114, 116 and 185. Such characterizations of the allegedly defamatory statements further support Defendants’ position that reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact but view them only as claims that await testing by the courts through the adversary process.

[Frelga]

Can't wait to see how that works for her.

[Dave_LF]

Well; she does have a point.

[RoseMorninStar]

I wonder what the millions who believed her and those who promoted her statements think about that.

[River]

Can't wait to see how that works for her.

Did it work for Alex Jones?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Of course, if you really read the motion, you will see that that is not the primary basis that they are seeking to dismiss the case. The primary basis tha the motion is being made is that the court lacks personal jurisdiction over the defendants. From a quick glance, I would say that the defendants have a decent but probably losing argument on that point, as well as the other primary argument that the case should be moved to Texas because venue is not proper (which I think is the real reason for the motion). The argument that the Complaint fails to state a cause of action is just a throw-in; they don't expect to win on that argument. But it makes a nice story. I guess.