Donald Trump has made a futile but dangerous last stand, without precedent in modern American history, to overturn the result of the presidential election so he can remain in power.
Even as Democratic president-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state of Georgia was confirmed, the president met Republican leaders from Michigan, another state that Mr Biden won, at the White House on Friday in an increasingly desperate attempt to subvert democracy after a series of courtroom defeats over unsubstantiated allegations by his campaign of voter fraud.
The Trump campaign’s apparent current strategy is to persuade Republican-controlled legislatures in Michigan and other battleground states in the electoral college to set aside the will of the people and declare Mr Trump the winner, despite officials having declared the November 3rd vote the most secure election in US history.
“The entire election, frankly, in all the swing states should be overturned and the legislatures should make sure that the electors are selected for Trump,” Sidney Powell, one of Mr Trump’s lawyers, told the Fox Business Network.
On Saturday, the Republican National Committee and the Michigan Republican Party wrote to the state board of canvassers asking it to adjourn for 14 days to allow for an audit of ballots in Wayne County, which includes the majority-black city of Detroit. The letter cited allegations of “irregularities” in the county’s results that have not been substantiated.
Asked to respond, a spokesperson for the Michigan department of state noted that Michigan law does not allow for audits before certification – due to take place on Monday – and said: “Judges initially appointed by both Republicans and Democrats have found allegations of widespread fraud to be wholly meritless.”
Two leading Republican politicians from Michigan who came to Washington at Mr Trump’s behest said after meeting him on Friday that they had no information that would change the outcome of the election in the state. But Mr Trump said on Saturday the media was misreading their joint statement, in which the pair also said they had faith in a review being conducted on Michigan’s elections process. “Massive voter fraud will be shown!” Mr Trump wrote on Twitter.
The two Republican Michigan state legislative leaders in question, the senate majority leader, Mike Shirkey, and the house speaker, Lee Chatfield, visited the White House on Friday at Mr Trump’s request.
Mr Shirkey was greeted by protesters and media at Washington’s Reagan international airport. There were chants of “Certify the results!” and a shout of “Where is the evidence of fraud?”
However, following the White House meeting, Mr Shirkey and Mr Chatfield affirmed their commitment to abide by the electoral process, in an apparent blow to Mr Trump’s efforts.
‘Follow the law’
“We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors,” the pair said in the joint statement. “Michigan’s certification process should be a deliberate process free from threats and intimidation.”
Most experts have dismissed Mr Trump’s efforts as political fantasy and probably unlawful. But they warn that an American president trying to reverse a free and fair election could poison millions of minds, conditioning his base to lose faith in democracy and regard Mr Biden as an illegitimate president.
Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state defeated by Mr Trump in the 2016 presidential election, tweeted on Friday: “Protecting one man’s ego is not worth damaging the legitimacy of our democracy.”
Mr Biden, a former vice-president, won the election and is preparing to take office on January 20th, but Mr Trump has refused to concede.
Speaking in the White House briefing room on Friday about an initiative to lower prescription medicine prices, Mr Trump maintained his baseless claim that he was the true winner.
“Big pharma ran millions of dollars of negative advertisements against me during the campaign – which I won, by the way,” he told reporters.
“But, you know, we’ll find that out. Almost 74 million votes. We had big pharma against us. We had the media against us. We had big tech against us. We had a lot of dishonesty against us.”
Electoral college
Mr Biden received nearly 6 million more votes than Mr Trump but the winner is determined by the electoral college, where each state’s electoral votes, based largely on population, are awarded to the winner of a state’s popular vote.
Mr Biden leads by 306 electoral votes to Mr Trump’s 232 as states work to certify their results by at least six days before the electoral college convenes on December 14th to ratify the vote.
The Trump campaign is particularly targeting Michigan, which Mr Biden won by 154,000 votes, in the hope that Republicans there will manipulate the electoral system.
Even so, Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, told the MSNBC TV network: “It’s incredibly dangerous that they are even entertaining the conversation. This is an embarrassment to the state.”
Earlier this week, two Republicans canvassers blocked the certification of votes in Wayne County. They later relented, amid cries of racism, and the results were certified. It then emerged that Mr Trump made contact with the canvassers, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, on Tuesday to express gratitude for their support.
On Wednesday, Ms Palmer and Mr Hartmann signed affidavits saying they believed the county vote “should not be certified” after all. But Michigan’s secretary of state said they cannot rescind their votes.
Mr Trump’s dominance of the Republican Party is such that few prominent figures have spoken out again his scorched-earth strategy.
‘Overt pressure’
However, Mitt Romney, a senator for Utah and the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, has broken ranks.
“Having failed to make even a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before any court of law, the president has now resorted to overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election. It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American president,” he said.
Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican and Trump supporter, on Friday certified results that showed Mr Biden won the state by more than 12,600 votes after a manual recount and an audit were conducted.
“The numbers reflect the verdict of the people, not a decision by the secretary of state’s office or courts, or of either campaigns,” he told reporters.
Mr Trump’s attempts to reverse his defeat via lawsuits and recounts have met with no meaningful success. Yet his campaign has not abandoned its offensive in the courts.
‘National conspiracy’
Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, has said there are plans to file more lawsuits. He accused Democrats of masterminding a “national conspiracy” to steal the election, referencing China, Cuba, the Clinton Foundation, billionaire George Soros and the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez but offering no proof.
“I know crimes, I can smell them,” said the former mayor of New York. “You don’t have to smell this one, I can prove it to you.” He offered no evidence to support his claims.
Mr Biden, celebrating his 78th birthday – he is the oldest US president-elect in history – met the House of Representatives speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, on Friday after spending most of the week with advisers planning his administration, despite the refusal of the Trump administration to co-operate with his team, even over dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. - Guardian/Reuters