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Greg Sargent Profile picture
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11 Nov, 4 tweets, 3 min read
Trump is raging at Republicans because they aren't doing *enough* to sustain the illusion that the election is being stolen from him, CNN reports. Which highlights a big problem for Republicans: Admitting Trump lost cannot be deferred forever. New piece:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Trump and Republicans have a Faustian bargain going:

* Republicans pretend the election's outcome is still in doubt

* Trump keeps his voters energized for Georgia runoffs

But Trump is growing angry, saying they're not keeping up their end of the deal:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
What's the GOP endgame here?

When Trump loses these lawsuits, and the illusion that the election was stolen from him is impossible to sustain, Trump will grow more unhinged, and demand that Republicans fight harder to save him.

What happens then?

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
As GOP strategist @LPDonovan points out, Trump voters trust him more than they trust GOP leaders.

He has told his voters for years that our system is corrupt and only his word is truth. When he gets certified as loser, GOP leaders become his betrayers:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…

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More from @ThePlumLineGS

Greg Sargent Profile picture
5 Nov
Fox News propagandists are now relentlessly pushing the idea that the election is being stolen from Trump, to provide cover for invalidating countless lawful ballots. What's funny is those Fox personalities helped lure him down the path to his likely loss:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Fox personalities helped construct the bubble of unreality that defined Trump's record and case for reelection.

So it's a fitting end that they're engaged in a frantic effort to prevent voters from rendering their verdict on what they themselves wrought.

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Trump supporters are angrily chanting "count the vote!" in some places and "stop the count!" in others.

The explicit Trumpist position is that lawfully cast ballots should only be counted where it will help him, and not where it will hurt him:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
3 Nov
Whatever happens, don't ever forget this: Trump never had majority support in this country. There's been a durable anti-Trump majority since Day 1.

If Biden wins, it will be time to update the "Emerging Democratic Majority" thesis. I spoke to its author:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
The "Emerging Democratic Majority" thesis is now 18 years old. Amazing.

It appeared on track in 2008 and 2012, but then crashed into Trump in 2016.

Ruy Teixeira, one of its authors, talks to me here about how a Biden win would put it back on track:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
An overlooked Biden achievement: He embraced racial justice protests and offered a robust agenda to combat systemic racism while *also* expanding Dem support among working class whites.

Destroys the idea that retreat on racial issues was needed for that:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Read 5 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
2 Nov
If Trump prematurely declares victory and tries to halt the count of lawful ballots, networks should treat it as a monstrous crime in progress. They should place heavy emphasis on the numbers of *uncounted* ballots, not just precincts reporting. New piece:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
A few things we can do:

* Heavily emphasize numbers of uncounted ballots remaining

* Stop treating Trump's schemes as mere campaign tactics

* Stop casting pro-voting rights rulings as wins for Dems

* Don't treat his declaration of victory as news

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
If Biden wins by a big enough margin, Trump's corrupt schemes will be moot.

If so, certain commentators will claim that this shows Trump never represented the threat to democracy that the hysterics claimed.

But that gets the story entirely backwards:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
29 Oct
Remain vigilant, folks.

The Pennsylvania AG, @JoshShapiroPA, tells me that Republicans will likely use late ballots "as a hook to challenge *all* mail in ballots."

“We have a sitting president who’s actively trying to undermine this election," he says:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
@JoshShapiroPA It's amazing, but here we are:

Pennsylvania state officials are in the position of taking active *defensive* steps to prevent SCOTUS from helping Trump invalidate millions of lawful ballots.

I talked to the Pennsylvania attorney general about this:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
@JoshShapiroPA Pennsylvania AG, on Trump:

"He knows that if all legal eligible votes are counted, he’s more likely than not going to come out on the losing side.”

"Trump keeps saying he's backed by a "silent majority." But his corrupt actions show he knows it's a lie:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
28 Oct
I suggested yesterday that the Wisconsin decision didn't necessarily mean SCOTUS would do the same in Pennsylvania, and you all mocked me mercilessly for it: wapo.st/3kGwD46
However, I should be clear, this doesn't remotely mean all future threats are averted, as @steve_vladeck explains here. There's still reason to doubt that SCOTUS will swing the election, but it's certainly not impossible.
@steve_vladeck Notable: I think this, from the PA decision, may make it harder for Republicans to get the court to order a full scale halt to the vote count. If the late arriving ballots are segregated, it's harder to say the whole pool is tainted by commingling. Nightmare less likely now:
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
28 Oct
A remarkable thing is happening: Trump is sliding bigly among white voters across the board. Coronavirus-denial and open racism are failing him. It's a far cry from the post-2016 pundit awe of his mystical grip on the Real American White Voter. New piece:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
It's a perverse end to all this that coronavirus is ravaging Wisconsin while Trump basically shrugs, potentially putting it out of reach for him.

Meanwhile, his LIBERATE MICHIGAN! fake-populism has flopped: Voters blame Trump over Whitmer for their feud:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
A new analysis from @Nate_Cohn and The Upshot shows Biden making very broad gains among white voters, both college educated and non-college, with notable shifts in the industrial Midwest.

The analysis also shows Trump's race-war strategy has failed:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Read 4 tweets

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