With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half. ~ Otto von Bismarck, who dominated European affairs for two decades
Just when we thought that Donald Trump’s attempt to steal the election from Joe Biden could not get any worse for him in terms of public humiliation, he up and jumps off the bridge on Sunday, January 3rd, blowing up his presidency. The day before, one of the Trumpster fake news sites had published that the Banana Republicans who were attempting to hijack the electoral count would soon announce some earthshattering news. We did not need to wait long to learn what it was.
To everyone’s amazement, we were treated to a one hour leaked group telephone call between Trump with his White House team, and Georgia’s Secretary of State Raffensperger with his in-house attorney, being browbeaten to validate some of Trump’s election fraud claims.
I waited to see what the official and public reactions would be. Trump loves lawsuits, and has already filed suit against Raffensperger for leaking a private conversation with the President.
Trump threatens Georgia Secretary of State
Political journalists are astounded that Trump’s top staff people would let him spend an hour on a phone call in front of numerous witnesses, not only repetitively asking Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes”, but going further, by telling him that he must have known about the fraud in the Georgia election, and did not report it, and he should have, and that was a serious crime for him and his attorney.
“This could go very bad for you”, Trump stated. Raffensperger responded by telling him that Trump’s problem was that the data he was using for his claims were not correct, and he refuted that Dominion, the voting machine contractor, was quickly removing their machines from Georgia, nor were they replacing inside machine components. Raffensperger’s attorney also validated that Trump’s assertions were incorrect.
Georgia’s votes were counted three times, with only minor adjustments made which did not affect the outcome, with Biden winning by 11,779 votes, which is why Trump wanted to “find” 11,780. Trump was claiming that he had won by 400,000 votes, but of course offering no proof, other than claiming to have “statistical analysis” showing that “he should have” won by this much.
The leaked full phone tape and transcript flew around the world in a few hours, and universal reaction was that Trump had crossed a bridge too far in attempting to save his presidency, and adding another criminal charge to the growing list that prosecutors already have.
Why is Trump risking prosecution for election fraud so flagrantly?
If the Trump campaign really had widespread fraud evidence, then his lawyers would have presented it in court. His lead attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is on record during one of the early Pennsylvania court hearings, where the judge admonished his verbally presenting all kinds of election fraud allegations from third parties, but he had not included any fraud claims in the petition for the hearing. Giuliani responded that that was correct, he had not alleged fraud in his petition.
That is when I first discovered that the Giuliani election fraud road show was going to be a big reality TV theatrical performance, which is exactly what it has turned out to be, with Trump’s lawyers winning only one minor case out of over 55 court hearings and rulings, including losing their case in the US Supreme Court.
It appears that Trump was trying to jumpstart the vote flipping by bullying Raffensperger into throwing Georgia to him, as one of the backup strategies if the Republicans could not get all the needed states flipped was to have Congress do a “special investigation” to determine that there was widespread voting fraud.
Trump is grasping at straws to give him some cover for declaring a national emergency, which would trigger over 100 special powers that he would have, like not leaving office, and using the military in any manner he pleases. But the military has been anticipating some desperate acts by Trump.
Our sources at VeteransToday have reported that the military has considered Trump to be a national security threat to the country, in terms of what he might try to do to save himself from the criminal prosecutions that he knows are waiting for him after he leaves office.
Ten past Secretaries of State denounce Trump threats to misuse the military in an election dispute
There was more rain on January 4th on Trump’s parade to steal the election, with all ten living Secretaries of Defense publishing an editorial to demand that Trump end the challenge of the Biden victory. Even former Vice President Dick Cheney, arch conservative, joined the group in Sunday’s Washington Post.
“Each of us swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We did not swear it to an individual or to a party.”… “Efforts to involve the US armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory.”
This was their formal response to recently pardoned General Michael Flynn’s proposal to Trump that he could declare martial law and have the military rerun the swing state elections. Flynn will now be a dead man walking in terms of his reputation within the military.
A list of three and four star generals had written earlier opposition editorials when Trump was attempting to use the military on his order to usurp the authority of the states to handle domestic disturbances with their respective National Guards during last summer’s protests and riots.
The COVID anchor is still around Trump’s neck
Additionally, after his total abandonment of management of the COVID crisis to focus on his reelection campaign, other than to claim the vaccines were all “his” accomplishment, despite Pfizer having funded their effort in house, Trump is now claiming that the 350,000 plus death count is inflated, and other countries are under reporting their numbers.
As always, Trump offers no proof, just claims, and walks away from the microphone. Meanwhile, his WH Chief of Staff Mike Meadows stated that the Trump regime had accepted that it could not control COVID. As we at VT had always expected, Trump had chosen the herd immunity option by letting the virus sweep over the country to give the survivors immunity. He was fine with ‘culling the herd’.
President Trump is showing all the signs of a desperate man, fearing his political and financial world is about to end once he loses his presidential immunity, so he has nothing more to lose by trying to hijack the Biden election.
If Trump gets shut down in hijacking the election on Wednesday the 6th, then his martial law card might be his next play, and we are also expecting another batch of pardons, including himself and his family.
The legal consensus is that he cannot pardon himself for any crimes in office, and his doing so is actually an admission of his culpability. But state cases, like the two in New York investigating the Trump businesses and tax returns will move forward.
And last, his Turnberry Golf Resort has been notified to receive a military cargo plane prior to Biden’s inauguration on January 20. In a criminal case, one is not charged, but arrested. Will Donald fly the coop to be out of arm’s reach? We are certainly going to find out, and he will, too.
Jim W. Dean, managing editor for Veterans Today, producer/host of Heritage TV Atlanta, specially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.