Votes in the US presidential election are nonetheless being counted and made official, and all through this course of, media retailers like the Related Press have remained dependable info sources the place residents can keep apprised of the tallying. I’ve watched a number of information channels since Election Day, and journalists have put spectacular effort into rigorously detailing the numbers—what’s official, predicted, and unknown.
Regardless of all this, President Trump’s marketing campaign mentioned it’s pursuing authorized motion over poll counts in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia. Former vp Joe Biden’s marketing campaign says it’s unfazed, as authorized consultants name the lawsuits baseless. “There’s no authorized trigger of motion that claims, ‘Cease the rely and declare me the winner,’” regulation professor Joshua A. Douglas informed The Washington Put up. However nonsensical claims of election illegitimacy had been by no means about the regulation or about details—they derive from Trump’s authoritarian worldview.
As many votes are nonetheless present process tabulation, Trump has continued spreading disinformation on-line. He tweeted lies about vote counts and procedures in a number of swing states; Twitter labeled these tweets with a banner indicating probably deceptive info. Early on Wednesday morning, Trump additionally made a false victory declare that was broadcast on Fb and Twitter. The Fb submit solely carried a warning label (and rapidly racked up thousands and thousands of views); Twitter had none in any respect. Now, his marketing campaign says it’s submitting lawsuits in a number of states to contest how ballots are processed, whereas MAGA influencers concurrently pushed baseless election fraud claims on their very own social media profiles. Over 150 Trump supporters, some armed, surrounded the entrance to a Phoenix election workplace final evening whereas chanting “Rely the vote.”
The incumbent’s calls for to rely ballots previous a cutoff in a single state blatantly contradict his calls for to low cost these equally located in one other. Logical consistency or precept was of course by no means the level—the Trump marketing campaign’s proclamations and lawsuits had been by no means about procedural guidelines in the first place.
As a substitute, the finest lens by means of which to grasp these occasions is authoritarianism: Ballots solid in Trump’s favor are reliable; these solid in opposition aren’t. As a result of it’s he who must be in energy, noncompliant votes are invalid, and the solely truthful course of is the one which leads to his victory. This worldview is the very cause the president’s enablers now vie to additional exclude as many Biden votes as doable, regardless of how baseless their authorized assertions.
It shouldn’t shock as a result of Donald Trump made his intentions fairly clear: falsely claiming for months that mail-in voting wasn’t safe, denying clear proof of voter suppression, and never agreeing to acknowledge the election’s outcomes earlier than they’re recognized. It shouldn’t shock as a result of the Trump administration has, like all quantity of autocrats who purge opposition inside authorities or imagine media exists to serve their pursuits, carried out reprisals towards Division of Homeland Safety personnel speaking about Russian election interference; pressured officers to control Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention knowledge to reflect the president’s mendacity about Covid-19; and overseen the improvement of a “purge record” of CIA personnel not ideologically aligned with the president. Inside the authorities, misalignment with Trump is routinely disqualifying.
Trump’s 2020 marketing campaign was itself constructed on this basis, as state officers flagrantly walked over the Hatch Act, a 1939 regulation limiting federal officers’ political exercise of their official positions. Trump delivered a marketing campaign speech—accepting the Republican Occasion’s nomination, actually—on the White Home garden, fist raised, the white marble pillars towering behind him. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke at the Republican Nationwide Conference whereas calling in from Israel, a visit made for official authorities enterprise. Studying the administration’s defenses of this and different related habits, although, conveyed that these wielding energy apparently can not abuse it. In a 2016 interview, president-elect Trump asserted it was unattainable for the president to have a battle of curiosity. This went a step additional than implying a scarcity of accountability for these in energy, nevertheless; it urged {that a} chief’s private pursuits truly can not be misaligned with these of the folks they had been elected to serve.