Trump's drumbeat of lies about the 2020 election keeps getting louder. Here are the facts

NightGaunts@kbin.social to politics @lemmy.world – 272 points –
Trump's drumbeat of lies about the 2020 election keeps getting louder. Here are the facts
apnews.com

With Donald Trump facing felony charges over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, the former president is flooding the airwaves and his social media platform with distortions, misinformation and unfounded conspiracy theories about his defeat.

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The guy got up on stage ON ELECTION NIGHT before the votes had even been counted and started screaming about fraud. I remember Mike Huckabee on CNN condemning it, as well as the Faux News team covering it, because it was just unthinkable. Then they got their story straight and remembered who's ass their tongue is buried in, and fell in line. Bunch of traitors, the lot of them.

Reminder that Steve Bannon frankly confessed Trump's Start the Steal conspiracy plans to a group of Trump insiders before the election.

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/22/1112138665/jan-6-committee-hearing-transcript

…audio from Trump advisor, Steve Bannon, surfaced from October 31st, 2020, just a few days before the Presidential election.

Let’s listen. [Begin Videotape]

STEVE BANNON: And what Trump’s going to do is declare victory, right? He’s going to declare victory, but that doesn’t mean he’s a winner. He’s just gonna say he’s a winner. The Democrats — more of our people vote early that count. Theirs vote in mail. And so they’re going to have a natural disadvantage and Trump’s going to take advantage — that’s our strategy.

He’s gonna declare himself a winner. So when you wake up Wednesday morning, it’s going to be a firestorm. Also — also if Trump is — if Trump is losing by 10 or 11:00 at night, it’s going to be even crazier. Because he’s gonna sit right there and say they stole it. If Biden’s wining, Trump is going to do some crazy shit.

Trump telegraphied his move for months, even years. The whole thing about mail-in bailot, and how he wouldn't accept the result.

Well, turns out Trump has been calling virtually everything since he was born rigged. Seriously, there are 8 decades of history of Trump cheating and calling whatever it oa rigged. It blows my mind that this guy with a very transparent history gets to call the election rigged like it was his teenager beauty pageant and it could means the end of America.

Where the fuck do we go from here.

I think the most important step to move forward is to somehow rein in Faux News. Every problem in this country can directly be traced back to the fact that 40-50% of voters are getting blasted with coordinated disinformation assaults pumped into their brains 24/7. I don't see a way to move forward without solving that issue.

He was screaming about fraud in the 2016 election HE WON. O_O

And that's not the end of it, his surrogates claimed fraud in various districts in 2020 that he ALSO won.

It's all about making people doubt elections.

Which confuses me to this day, because doesn't it make Republicans less likely to vote since they think their vote doesn't matter?

Take Sarah Palin as an example. The half term Governor makes more money now than she ever made as a public employee. They know they can't win the poker game, so they'll make money by kicking over the table.

Now that I can see if it's all just a craven cash grab.

Look up a novel called 'Space,' by James Michener. There's a character who goes from getting rich conning people with UFO conspiracies to being a Christian nationalist without breaking a sweat.

Which makes the elections more lopsided and "proof of fraud!"

Yeah, but they're showing that argument doesn't work in terms of actually changing election results, so they're just shooting themselves in the foot at this point as far as I can tell.

Well, I think this is their overall strategy...

  1. Cast doubt on the elections.
  2. Convince Republicans to stop voting.
  3. Skew the results of elections.
  4. Allow (require?) Republican state legislatures to over-turn election results they don't like.

4 is closer than you might think:

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-independent-state-legislature-theory-will-not-empower-state-legislatures-to-override-presidential-election-results/

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/moore-harper-scotus-independent-state-legislature-election-power/670992/

Fortunately the Supremes struck it down, but I doubt they'll stop trying.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-rejects-broad-state-legislature-power-federal/story?id=99232144

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/27/supreme-court-rejects-independent-state-legislature-theory-00103793

Ok, but how do they keep those legislatures in place? Even with gerrymandering, if Republicans aren't voting, that doesn't help them.

Gerrymandering doesn't really apply at the state and local level. Most states are majority Republican at the state legislative level.

https://ballotpedia.org/Partisan_composition_of_state_legislatures

And, in the end, if they get what they want and are able to over-ride election results they don't like, it won't change.

But that's my point- they're only majority Republican because enough Republicans are convinced to still vote for them. If they convince enough of them that voting doesn't work, even if they made the change that legislatures get to choose the president, they are practically guaranteeing the legislature will fall to the Democrats.

In a lot of these rural districts, there aren't enough Democrats to matter.

There are if Republicans don't vote. There are Democrats in those rural districts too. I know because Indiana, where I live, is full of rural districts. Democrats are gaining ground in them too in terms of percentages. They aren't winning, yet, but if Republicans stop voting?