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Greg Sargent Profile picture
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13 Nov, 4 tweets, 3 min read
* Donnie Jr. is privately urging his father not to concede

* No 2024 hopeful has dared suggest that Trump lost

* GOP elites are widely treating the refusal to concede as just another tool for motivating partisans

I think this all bodes very badly:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Amazing, from NYT:

"No prominent potential Republican candidate for president in 2024...has criticized Trump for his refusal to acquiesce to the transition of power."

This is being widely reported on as just another tactic to keep GOP voters energized:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
We're at the point where GOP elites are perfectly comfortable treating the refusal to concede in a legitimate election as just another tool for motivating partisans and for casting a cloud of illegitimacy over the rightful victor.

That seems suboptimal:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Agree with @brianbeutler: Biden and Dems should make a more public case that Trump is sabotaging the transition, that this is hurting the country, and that it's the latest symptom of a party yoking itself to this maniac for purely instrumental purposes:

mailchi.mp/crooked.com/bi…

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More from @ThePlumLineGS

Greg Sargent Profile picture
14 Nov
It's surprising that anyone could look at the campaign Biden just ran and miss the degree to which it actually did internalize and act on the need to disarm Trump's version of economic populism. 1/
Biden managed the debates over China, trade, and international supply lines, by seizing on the openings provided by Trump's epic failures on all those fronts. The Covid debate, in a surprise that still hasn't been fully appreciated, created those openings. 2/
Biden also was able to manage both immigration and the racial protests without any retreat -- in fact, with the opposite of a retreat -- in a way that didn't end up causing destructive losses of white voters. If anything, they may have even helped with educated whites. 3/
Read 9 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
11 Nov
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/…
Read 4 tweets
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

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