On the day that celebrates our great democracy, Donald Trump said something deeply un-democratic.
“We should be entitled to know who won on November 3,” he told reporters during a visit to his campaign headquarters on Election Day.
Nope! That’s not it at all!
What we are entitled to as a democratic nation is that everyone who cast a ballot under the rules determined by their state can have full faith in the fact that their vote will be counted.
That’s it. That’s democracy.
What Trump is trying to do with comments like these — not to mention his fact-free assertions that if a winner is not announced tonight the vote is somehow “rigged” — provide fodder to explain away a potential loss.
Trump has never been someone who can accept defeat, choosing instead to create an alternate reality in which his business failures were moves of strategic brilliance, his bankruptcies were evidence of his smarts and his many setbacks over his first term as President were proof that the “deep state” hated how much of a threat he was to them.
This latest push by Trump to invalidate votes in places like Pennsylvania and Texas that were lawfully cast is simply in keeping with the never-ending excuse machine that is our current President.
If Trump loses — and that’s an “if” because he’s shown an uncanny ability to over-perform expectations, it will be because the American public decided that they wanted to go in a different direction after four years of the billionaire businessman. Not because he was somehow cheated out of the presidency.
The Point: Election Day is the day we are reminded that the people have the power to choose our leaders and the direction this country heads. Don’t let Trump (or anyone else) change that fact for their own selfish political purposes.
Regulators authorized AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation for altering an email that the Justice Department relied on during its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers lashed out Friday at rival Republicans who tried to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be a ridiculous move comparable to abolishing speed limits.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As some conservatives in South Carolina celebrated getting a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state past a legislative barrier and likely becoming law, they said they are not finished trying to end all abortions.
A Moscow court on Friday put the brother and several allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest for two months as authorities sought to stymie more protests over the jailing of the top Kremlin foe.