Came out 15 mins after 2Q GDP was reported at -32.9%
A record drop! Now is his chance to Make America Great Again – we can only go up from here.
I agree with this. He is clearly laying the groundwork for “I didn’t lose, the election was fraudulent and the presidency stolen.” I don’t think that will actually prevent Biden from taking office (if he wins), but it will definitely set up several years of “illegitimate president” bullshit from conservatives and Republicans, and will further erode confidence in elections and government in general. He is (once again) undermining democracy to soothe his fragile ego.
I won’t feel safer until conservative whites begin turning on Trump and the GOP. Not that expect a majority to, but if enough of them can effectively divide up the vote so that it’s absolutely clear that Trump has no white mandate of any kind, then I’ll feel more confident. Perhaps what is needed on top of the pandemic is more economic carnage.
Americans seem to think that the Constitution is equivalent to the laws of physics. That if somethings unconstitutional its impossible.
Regardless, there is no constitutional madate for Presidential elections. The only thing the constitution requires is in Article II, Clause 2 of the Constitution, which grants the states legislature the exclusive right to select the method for selecting electors and Article II, Clause III and the Twelfth Amendment which govern counting and certifying the winner.
The legislatures could pass a law declaring that the electors are those people who Steve Bannon and Stephan Miller choose and that would be fine constitutionally.
If the electors did meet and cast the majority of their ballots for Biden, could the Republican-controlled Senate refuse to certify the results, using some bullshit pretense?
The legislators where control is currently split between two parties? It’s not a constitutional issue. We already have a law setting the date. The president has no power to change that.
Trump likely will say that “I will declare 2021 to officially be known as 2020 v2.0” 
Right. He’s accepted that he’s doomed and he’s flailing about to stop the upcoming tsunami. He can’t do that and he knows it. All he can do is poison the results to boil the remaining scrapings of his base into a hatred stew.
That he’s sinking the rest of the party by doing this makes no difference to him. There is only one cell in his brain and it screams Trump, Trump, Trump all day long. While his behavior is horrifying in all ways, the one possible silver lining is the destruction of Republicanism as a legitimate ideology. If the others stay with Trump, they’re doomed; if they break with Trump, they’re doomed.
And so are the thoughts that Trump is playing 5-D chess. He’s a little boy caught with his hands in the cake, not a military mastermind plotting a coup.
So… isn’t it frightening that the only thing we are confident will prevent Trump from declaring himself president-for-as-long-as-he-feels-like-it is the House majority? A majority that didn’t exist a couple of years ago.
Talking about suspending democracy altogether goes way beyond the dirty tricks of voter suppression and gerrymandering. We’re absolutely at crunch time now for the Republican Party. How can anyone with any ethical standards, anyone gives a whit about the ideals this country was built on, continue to enable this incompetent narcissistic lunatic?
There’s your answer.
Rudy G tried to pull that stunt right after 9/11 but it went nowhere. they only delayed the primary which was scheduled on 9/11
No de jure power. He has plenty of influence over people who do.
There are signs that even the current Republican Party has its limits.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/30/politics/trump-election-tweet-republican-reaction/index.html
I would believe Republicans will simply disown Donald Trump after the election and continue with Republican concepts.
I guess fucking with the election is also fucking with their own election. They have their limits!
Some reality here. There are certain dates that are set in the 20th amendment to the constitution. On Jan. 3, congressional terms expire. On Jan. 20, Trump’s term expires. Now what happens if there are no elections? Or really, some states decide not to hold elections, enough so there is no electoral majority. Then the House, the part whose elections were not canceled chooses the president. Say there were 24 states with Democratic delegations, 20 with Republican delegations and 6 with no delegation (or tied). Now is a 24-20 vote sufficient or are 26 states required even if some are missing? Damfino, but SCOTUS will do whatever benefits the Republicans.
If HR fails to choose a president, then the senate gets to choose a VP. Likely, a couple of Republican states will lack a senator (or in the case of GA, maybe 2) and the Dems will have a majority of what is certain to be a quorum. Then the VP will serve until a president qualifies. So now those states that canceled their elections now hold congressional elections (not presidential electors–that train has left the station) and suddenly there are 26 states with Republican delegations. Game over.
That leaves the possibility that a couple states have tied delegations and don’t vote. Now what? ISTM that the Dems in HR will meet and choose Nancy Pelosi as speaker. So she qualifies as acting president at least until 2023. I can think of worse scenarios.
I know it’s fun sport around here to take shots at the Republicans but you guys are going a little off the deep end. AFAIK not a single GOP official outside of Trump’s direct orbit has supported it. They’ve either said “not gonna’ happen” (maybe not as forceful as I’d like) or cowardly tried to avoid it.
I agree with others that Trump probably doesn’t think the election can be delayed. He’s just laying the groundwork to say he only lost because of fraud. He will never, ever admit that he actually lost. He’ll probably take a non-trivial number of his minions down with him but I have no doubt that the election will happen on time.
They were more outraged at Obama’s tan suit and his coffee cup salute than they are by Trump’s repeated attempts to mess with the election/trying to stay in power beyond the election. They are complicit by their silence.