Trump Won't Commit to Peaceful Power Transfer at Surreal Press Briefinghttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/23/donald-trump-press-conference-us-elections-breonna-taylor... Wednesday was one of those days when to have a seat in the White House briefing room felts like stepping through the looking-glass into Blunderland, where the mad hatter has an authoritarian streak a mile wide.Trump careered from touting miracle vaccines to building supreme court suspense, from insulting a female member of the British royal family to abruptly departing for a mysterious “emergency” phone call.
But first, there was the small matter of kneecapping American democracy.
Perhaps it was not chance that the president, ever eager to generate media outrage, gave the first question to Brian Karem, who describes himself on Twitter as a “Loud Mouth” senior White House reporter at Playboy.
“Will you commit to make sure there’s a peaceful transferral of power after the election?” Karem asked.
All of his 43 predecessors would have said yes, presumably. But Trump replied:
“We’re going to have to see what happens, you know that. I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.”
Karem shot back:
“I understand that, but people are rioting. Do you commit to make sure that there’s a peaceful transferral of power?”Still Trump refused to commit.
“Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it. And you know who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats know it better than anybody else.”
Later, Karem remarked on Twitter:
“This is the most frightening answer I have ever received to any question I have ever asked. I’ve interviewed convicted killers with more empathy. @realDonaldTrump is advocating Civil War.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/BrianKarem/status/1308902603145850882And Julian Castro, who served in Barack Obama’s cabinet, tweeted:
“In one day, Trump refused a peaceful transition of power and urged the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice to hand him an election if the results are contested. This is Fascism, alive and well in the Republican Party.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/JulianCastro/status/1308918756438138881------------------------------------
Steve Bannon Urges Republicans To Sign Up As Election Officials And Contest Every Mail-In Ballothttps://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/09/23/steve-bannon-urges-republicans-to-sign-up-as-election-officials-and-contest-every-mail-in-ballot/amp/Former White House chief strategist and accused fraudster Steve Bannon told attendees during a Wednesday night livestream held by the Metropolitan Republican Club that they should sign up as election officials to contest every mail-in ballot in November, as he alleged a think tank called the Transition Integrity Project will “steal” the election from President Trump.
Bannon, who faces federal charges of conspiring to commit fraud and money laundering in connection with a campaign to raise private money to build Trump’s long-promised border wall, said that 60 million to 80 million voters will cast mail-in ballots in the presidential election, which means “we need to sit there and contest every ballot,” presumably referring to Republicans
According to Bannon, the bipartisan Transition Integrity Project—which games out scenarios in which the election is contested—laid out the “lawfare” they will pursue to ensure Democratic nominee Joe Biden defeats Trump.
Both Bannon and Raheem Kassam, a former Breitbart News editor from London, England, who introduced Bannon on the livestream, claimed that coverage of the Transition Integrity Project by The Atlantic and the New York Times legitimized the think tank, whose efforts culminated in an August report stating Trump is “likely to contest [the election] through by both legal and extra-legal means.”
Bannon also claimed the “mainstream media and Silicon Valley oligarchs” will be “ripping down social media” in order to “make it very difficult for conservatives to communicate” after the election, allegedly so that Biden won’t have to concede while mail-in ballots are being counted.
“You’re going to have your Twitter accounts taken down or blocked for sharing false information,” Bannon said, likely referring to the social media company’s new policy of labeling misleading tweets as misinformation, or locking accounts until users delete tweets in violation.
Bannon stressed the importance of the Metropolitan Republican Club in the party’s election efforts, telling the 130-odd attendees who tuned in, “
You guys are thought leaders, you’ve got to go to the barricades, weaponize yourself and make yourself useful in battleground states.”
“The mainstream media and oligarchs in Silicon Valley intend to have Facebook, YouTube and Google not declare Trump the winner,” Bannon said, and will instead “have Election Week and Election Month to push through to December, and push to [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi’s House of Representatives in January, when new Congress meets.
It’s going to be the equivalent of a civil war when they refuse to declare Trump the president [and say] under no circumstances can Biden concede.”--------------------------------
Trump tells reporters he wants a replacement for RBG quickly as he believes 2020 election will end up going to SCOTUS: “Yes, I think it’s very important. I think this will end up in the Supreme Court and I think it’s very important that we have nine justices."
https://mobile.twitter.com/Acosta/status/1308857897074520066