DEFEAT FASCISM BEFORE FASCISM DEFEATS YOU

All,

The major and most important issue facing the United States in 2024 and beyond is whether FASCISM will flourish and ultimately prevail in every single political, economic, social, cultural and judicial Institution in the country no matter who is (cough) "elected" in November.  It is crystal clear to me and millions of others not only here but throughout the world that we are all at this point seriously "on the brink and about to sink." For more deadly evidence of this fundamental fact please read and share the very stark information from both May 16 and May 22 provided below...Stay tuned and especially STAY WOKE because it is destined to get far worse very soon...

Kofi 

https://panopticonreview.blogspot.com/2024/05/supreme-court-justice-samuel-alito.html

Thursday, May 16, 2024

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, An Upside Down American Flag and January 6, 2021: How the US Supreme Court Became an Arm of the Republican Party

FALL OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE
by Kofi Natambu

AMERICA wants another
Pep talk
It’s never satisfied
Banality rules
its days & nights

Another mass rally

Never satisfied
Mass media not enuff
Mass boredom not enuff
Mass murder not enuff
now
nothing can quench its
rampaging thirst
for lies

AMERICA wants a panacea
wants a placebo
wants a panderer
wants a papier-mache god
it can pray to
wants a Victim it can identify with
scream at
cry over
stomp on
BE!

AMERICA WANTS ANOTHER ENEMY
(besides itself)
You see: it’s never satiated
Infantilism rules
Its afternoons & evenings

Another mass tally

Never satiated
Stupidity not enuff
Cynicism not enuff
Suicide not enuff
now
nothing can impede
its spiralling flight
toward emptiness

AMERICA wants another alibi
wants another excuse
wants still another thrill
wants another ‘reason’
to eat up the world
wants a Fear it can live with
fawn over
suck on
talk about
BE!!

[Poem from the book THE MELODY NEVER STOPS by Kofi Natambu. Post Aesthetic Press, 1991]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/us/justice-alito-upside-down-flag.html

At Justice Alito’s House, a ‘Stop the Steal’ Symbol on Display

An upside-down flag, adopted by Trump supporters contesting the Biden victory, flew over the justice’s front lawn as the Supreme Court was considering an election case.

 

A photo obtained by The Times shows an inverted flag at the Alito residence on Jan. 17, 2021, three days before the Biden inauguration.

by Jodi Kantor
May 16, 2024
New York Times

Wednesday, May 22, 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/us/justice-alito-flag-appeal-to-heaven.html

Another Provocative Flag Was Flown at Another Alito Home

The justice’s beach house displayed an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, a symbol carried on Jan. 6 and associated with a push for a more Christian-minded government.

 

The “Appeal to Heaven” flag flew outside the Alitos’ New Jersey vacation home last summer, along with a “2022” Phillies flag and a Long Beach Island flag.

by Jodi Kantor, Aric Toler and Julie Tate
May 22, 2024
New York Times

Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs.

This time, it was the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which, like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Also known as the Pine Tree flag, it dates back to the Revolutionary War, but largely fell into obscurity until recent years and is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms.

Three photographs obtained by The New York Times, along with accounts from a half-dozen neighbors and passers-by, show that the Appeal to Heaven flag was aloft at the Alito home on Long Beach Island in July and September of 2023. A Google street view image from late August also shows the flag.

The photographs, each taken independently, are from four different dates. It is not clear whether the flag was displayed continuously during those months or how long it was flown overall.

A Google street view photo taken in August 2023 shows the flag flying at the Alitos’ house.

Justice Alito declined to respond to questions about the beach house flag, including what it was intended to convey and how it comported with his obligations as a justice. The court also declined to respond.

In commenting for the Times report last week about the upside-down American flag at his Virginia home in 2021, Justice Alito said that it had been raised by his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, during a clash with a neighbor.

The revelation about that flag prompted concerns from legal scholars and ethicists, and calls from dozens of Democratic lawmakers that the justice recuse himself from cases related to Jan. 6. The news also drew criticism from some conservative politicians, including Senator Lindsey Graham, who said that displaying the inverted flag was “not good judgment.”

During the period the Appeal to Heaven flag was seen flying at the justice’s New Jersey house, a key Jan. 6 case arrived at the Supreme Court, challenging whether those who stormed the Capitol could be prosecuted for obstruction.In coming weeks, the justices will rule on that case, which could scuttle some of the charges against Mr. Trump, as well as on whether he is immune from prosecution for actions he took while president. Their decisions will shape how accountable he can be held for trying to overturn the last presidential election and his chances at regaining the White House in the next one.

The flag was a presence at the Jan. 6 attack on the capitol.Credit: JT/STAR MAX/IPx, via Associated Press

The disclosure about the new flag is troubling, several ethics experts said in interviews, because it ties Justice Alito more closely to symbols associated with the attempted election subversion on Jan. 6, and because it was displayed as the obstruction case was first coming for consideration by the court.

Judges are not supposed to give any impression of bias, yet the flag could be seen as telegraphing the Alitos’ views — and at a time when the justices were on the cusp of adopting a new ethics code. “We all have our biases, but the good judge fights against them,” said Charles Geyh, a law professor at Indiana University Bloomington. “When a judge celebrates his predispositions by hoisting them on a flag,” he added, “that’s deeply disturbing.”

Records show that the Alitos have owned the beach house since 2014, and he is a well-known presence in the waterfront community. Residents said they recalled seeing the justice last summer, though it is unclear how much time he spent there. Neighbors said that once they realized what the flag signified, they were surprised to see it displayed, particularly in a prominent spot where many boaters glide by. The six people who shared their accounts and photographs asked not to be identified because they didn’t want to antagonize a longtime neighbor. When The Times visited the house on Wednesday, the flagpole was bare.

Until about a decade ago, the Appeal to Heaven flag was mostly a historical relic. But since then it has been revived to represent “a theological vision of what the United States should be and how it should be governed,” said Matthew Taylor, a religion scholar at the Institute of Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies. He is also the author of a forthcoming book tracing how a right-wing Christian author and speaker who repopularized the flag helped propel Mr. Trump’s attempt to overturn the election.

That figure, Dutch Sheets, has led a yearslong campaign to present the flag to political figures, including Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential pick, and an Indiana gubernatorial candidate whom Mr. Sheets wrapped in the flag at a recent rally. Republican members of Congress and state officials have displayed the flag as well, among them Doug Mastriano, a Pennsylvania state senator and a leader of the “Stop the Steal” campaign. The highest-ranking elected official known to show the flag is Representative Mike Johnson, who hung it at his office last fall shortly after becoming speaker of the House.

A spokesman for Mr. Johnson said that the speaker “has long appreciated the rich history of the flag, as it was first used by General George Washington during the Revolutionary War.” It was a gift, the spokesman said, from Pastor Dan Cummins, a guest chaplain for the House of Representatives.

“An Appeal to Heaven” is one of three flags outside the office of the House speaker, Mike Johnson. Credit:  Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Since its creation during the American Revolution, the flag has carried a message of defiance: The phrase “appeal to heaven” comes from the 17th-century philosopher John Locke, who wrote of a responsibility to rebel, even use violence, to overthrow unjust rule. “It’s a paraphrase for trial by arms,” Anthony Grafton, a historian at Princeton University, said in an interview. “The main point is that there’s no appeal, there’s no one else you can ask for help or a judgment.”

In 2013, Mr. Sheets, a prominent figure in a far-right evangelical movement that scholars have called the New Apostolic Reformation, discovered the nearly forgotten flag and made it the symbol of his ambitions to steep the country and the government in Christianity, he wrote in a 2015 book also titled “An Appeal to Heaven.”

“Rally to the flag,” he wrote. “God has resurrected it for such a time as this. Wave it outwardly: wear it inwardly. Appeal to heaven daily for a spiritual revolution that will knock out the Goliaths of our day.”

He placed the high court at the center of his mission. In 2015, the court’s ruling that states must allow same-sex marriage had galvanized the movement and helped it to grow. In a speech three years later, he said, “There’s no gate that has allowed more evil to enter our nation than that of the Supreme Court.”

But Mr. Sheets and fellow leaders described Justice Alito, the member of the court most committed to expanding the role of faith in public life, as their great hope: a vocal defender of religious liberty and opponent of the right to abortion and same-sex marriage.

Dutch Sheets, a right-wing Christian author and speaker, repopularized the flag and helped propel Mr. Trump’s attempt to overturn the election.Credit...Gary S. Chapman

“You can’t say that marriage is a union between one man and one woman,” the justice said in a 2020 speech. “Until very recently that’s what the vast majority of Americans thought. Now it’s considered bigotry,” he said, a point he had made strongly in his dissent to the ruling.

The religious leaders cast Mr. Trump as another of their heroes. A few weeks before the 2020 election, at a Las Vegas megachurch prayer service for his second term, a pastor from the group presented Mr. Trump with an “Appeal to Heaven” flag from the stage. When he lost, Mr. Sheets and a team of others formed an instant, ad hoc religious arm of the “Stop the Steal” campaign, blitzing swing state megachurches, broadcasting the services at each stop and drawing hundreds of thousands of viewers.

On Jan. 6, the “Appeal to Heaven” flag was prominent: at the Washington Monument, where throngs gathered to hear President Trump deliver a speech contesting the election results, and later above the angry mob that surrounded the Capitol. The flag was visible above clashes with law enforcement on the building’s west terrace, as rioters breached police lines underneath the scaffolding set up for President Biden’s inauguration, and finally, inside the building.

By that day, scholars say, the flag had become popular enough to sometimes be used by a few other groups, including militia members. But most often, they said, it is tied directly to Mr. Sheets, his contemporaries and adherents and their vision for a more Christian America.

Last October, soon after the flag was last documented at the Alito beach home, Mr. Sheets devoted a prayer session to the court, this time sounding triumphant. He cited the Dobbs decision, overturning the federal right to abortion, in which the majority decision had been written by Justice Alito.

“We have reached another phase in the process of shifting the Supreme Court,” he announced. Through the justices, he said, “God’s intent for institutions of government can now be fulfilled.”

Alan Feuer contributed reporting.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

 

Jodi Kantor is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and co-author of “She Said,” which recounts how she and Megan Twohey broke the story of sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein, helping to ignite the #MeToo movement.    

Instagram 

More about Jodi Kantor

Aric Toler is a reporter on the Visual Investigations team at The Times where he uses emerging techniques of discovery to analyze open source information. More about Aric Toler

 See more on: Samuel A. Alito Jr., U.S. Supreme Court

 

 

The Fundamental Crisis and Foundational Contradiction Facing the United States During the Upcoming Presidential Election Year of 2024: Fascism guided, informed, and enabled by the Doctrines and Practices of White Supremacy and Global Capitalism--PART 6

DEFEAT FASCISM BEFORE FASCISM DEFEATS YOU

“What’s Past is Prologue…”

All,

THE REAL NEXUS BETWEEN 'RACE AND CLASS' IN AMERICAN POLITICS TODAY IS THAT THE DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE OF WHITE SUPREMACY AS A MAJOR IDEOLOGICAL, STRUCTURAL, INSTITUTIONAL, SYSTEMIC, AND MATERIAL FORCE AND REALITY WITHIN THE LARGER CONTEXT OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM ITSELF IN ALL OF ITS DIMENSIONS IS AS ALWAYS INEXTRICABLY CONNECTED AND MUTUALLY DEPENDENT FORCES IN THE UNITED STATES.

THUS WHAT REALLY NEEDS TO BE OPENLY ACKNOWLEDGED AND SAID TODAY BECAUSE IT IS THE WHOLE DAMN TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH IS THE FOLLOWING:

This country is in much deeper trouble than it actually thinks it is. The most fundamental and horrifying fact is that in the last two elections in 2016 and 2020 a whopping 58% of ALL WHITE VOTERS nationally across the board in every single individual class group from the poor to the working class to the middle and upper middle classes as well as the wealthy throughout the entire country have voted overwhelmingly for Trump TWICE and in spite of everything (e.g. two impeachments, four major criminal indictments totaling 91 counts of felonious criminality, electoral insurrection and an attempted coup, numerous civil suits for sexual assault, personal defamation, massive criminal financial fraud in the hundreds of millions of dollars, a torrential and frankly psychotic onslaught of lies and endlessly virulent and violent fascist invocations in the name of dictatorial demands for and promises of public 'retribution') STILL openly and shamelessly support him for the presidency in 2024

THE MOST IMPORTANT, TERRIFYING, BUT ALMOST NEVER PUBLICLY COMMENTED UPON FACT IS THE FOLLOWING:

Trump has won more votes over the course of two elections than ANY OTHER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FROM EITHER PARTY IN AMERICAN HISTORY. Trump received a total of 137 million votes in the last two elections (63 million in 2016 and 74 million in 2020) which is a record previously held by Barack Obama who received 134 million votes combined in 2008 and 2012. The huge difference of course is that Obama only received these many votes because 95% of black voters and 70% of Asian and Latino voters voted for him. I keep trying to remind people that Obama (like every other Democratic party candidate in the last 60 years (!) received only a paltry 41% of the white vote (43% in 2008 and an even more dismal 39% in 2012). For example Hilary Clinton only received 37% of the white vote nationally in 2016 and Biden only received 42% of the white vote in 2020. This means of course that Obama, Clinton, and Biden between them only received 40% of the national white vote in this country in the last four elections. This means that ALL of them lost the white vote by a landslide.

Reminder: The largest national voting demographic in the country are white Americans who constituted 65% of all American voters in 2020 and were 70% of voters from 2008-2016. Which means as always that the white share of the voting public is larger than ALL OTHER racial/ethnic groups--male and female combined!

BTW the single largest voting bloc in the entire country is WHITE FEMALE VOTERS who make up 33% of all voters in the U.S. today—WHITE MALES now stand at 32%
.
ANOTHER ABSOLUTELY HARROWING STAT THAT SHOULD NEVER BE IGNORED: In the last 70 years of presidential elections since 1952 (a total of 18 elections overall and counting) a majority of white voters have voted for a Democratic party candidate ONLY ONCE (1964).

What all this means in a larger sense is that because the GREAT MAJORITY OF WHITE AMERICAN VOTERS in GENERAL SINCE 2016 HAVE ACTUALLY IN FACT openly supported and most importantly have continued to vote for Trump FAR MORE THAN ANY OTHER CANDIDATE IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY we are all in very big trouble come 2024 and that the actual political prospects for what happens not only to the presidency but even more importantly Congress (as well as civil society in general) is the worse than at any time since the horrendous 1980s…

Kof

HAPPY LABOR DAY!
September 4, 2023

“What’s Past is Prologue…”

[NOTE: The following commentary and open letter to a friend and colleague was originally posted here on November 11, 2016]

"It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have."

--James Baldwin

“One cannot change in one’s head that which can only be changed in society.”

—C.L.R. James

Hey Ray,

I know your intentions are good and you accurately recognize from a theoretical and analytical standpoint the integral and indispensable role of the fundamental materiality of corporate capitalism and its corresponding political/ideological identity of neoliberalism. That’s all fine and absolutely necessary to any coherent and productive analysis of contemporary politics and culture in the 21st century as far as it goes. However from a larger, more nuanced, and detailed analytical perspective it’s absurd and inherently counterproductive to act as though a thoroughgoing critique of the severe social, economic, and cultural fallout (and the informed civic rage which animates it) that is the direct result of over 60 million citizens openly endorsing and electing an authoritarian wealthy white rightwing “populist" to lead the country is not equally important and necessary as well. After all white supremacy, misogyny/patriarchy, and class exploitation are all joined at the hip at the levels of both material reality and ideological/social values and identity in this society (and always were). This means among many other things that a “purely” economic class analysis alone (what many and various Marxist theoreticians and scholars from George Lukacs to Antonio Gramsci have all for very good and sound reasons thoroughly critiqued as “economism”) is not only inadequate and irrelevant, but undesirable. My larger point here is that ideological and “cultural” factors having to do with “race", gender, sexual identity, and a broader intersectional critique of the dialectical (and dialogical) tension between these categories are essential to and more importantly inseperable from the still broader political, economic, and ideological critique of global capitalist hegemony that hovers over all of these various social and economic relations. Thus no myopic/reductive/sophist analyses by either fundamentally nationalist, populist, or even analytically reductive quasi-Marxist tendencies and theoretical frameworks are inherently sufficient in themselves and that means one must always be especially vigilant in actively interrogating and challenging these constructs on the levels of not only theory, but strategic and tactical dimensions as well. Kapiche? Comprende? Dig?... Good…

Love & Struggle,

Kofi

GOP Senators Continue Their Anti-Democratic, Illegal, and Unconstitutional Attempt to Steal the Presidential Election From New President-Elect Joe Biden

 

GOP senators threaten to object to Electoral College results if commission is not formed nbcnews.com "The most deadly, dangerous, and powerful enemy of African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans in general, Women in general, the poor in general, the working class in general, children in general, Freedom in general and Democracy in general in American society today is the truly heinous Republican Party and their endless number of severely bigoted and demagogic minions, mentors, sponsors, and supporters. Anyone who doesn't know or believes this blatantly obvious fact is not only a hopeless FOOL but ultimately deserves their "fate.” —Kofi Natambu, July 15, 2009 "The Republican Party is the most dangerous organisation in human history. 'Has there ever been an organisation in human history that is dedicated, with such commitment, to the destruction of organised human life on Earth?' Not that I'm aware of." --Noam Chomsky, April 24, 2017 "Trump is not just an ethically dead aberration. Rather, he is the successor of a long line of fascists who shut down public debate, attempt to humiliate their opponents, endorse violence as a response to dissent and criticize any public display of democratic principles. The United States has reached its endpoint with Trump, and his presence should be viewed as a stern warning of the nightmare to come. Trump is not an isolated figure in US politics; he is simply the most visible and popular expression of a number of extremists in the Republican Party who now view democracy as a liability." --Henry A. Giroux, "Fascism in Donald Trump's United States", December 8, 2015 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/gop-senators-threaten-object-electoral-college-results-if-commission-not-n1252667 2020 Election GOP senators threaten to object to Electoral College results if commission is not formed The move has essentially no chance of overturning the results of the presidential election won by Joe Biden. by Lauren Egan, Kasie Hunt, Frank Thorp V and Leigh Ann Caldwell January 2, 2021 NBC News Nearly a dozen Republican senators and senators-elect demanded Saturday that a commission audit the results of the 2020 election and said they would otherwise object to the Electoral College votes that declared President-elect Joe Biden the winner.   Even though there is no evidence of any fraud in the election — despite numerous claims by President Donald Trump — the group of lawmakers said in a statement that they were calling on Congress to create a commission with "full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states." The new Congress is to meet Wednesday to formally count the Electoral College votes, the majority of which Biden won, The group of Republican lawmakers threatened "to reject the electors from disputed states as not 'regularly given' and 'lawfully certified' (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed."   With the House in Democratic hands, there is no chance that the action will have any effect on the outcome, and Biden will be sworn in on Jan. 20. But the action by Republicans in both chambers will prolong the debate over certification until the final votes are tallied in Congress.   Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Mike Braun of Indiana signed on to the statement Saturday, as did Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.   The senators stopped short in their statement of saying they would bring forward a vote to object to the results. Already, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she would vote to affirm the results, urging her colleagues from both parties to recognize the outcome and to "join me in maintaining confidence in the Electoral College and our elections so that we ensure we have the continued trust of the American people."   Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, one of the states where Trump has been contesting the results, said: "I voted for President Trump and endorsed him for re-election. But, on Wednesday, I intend to vigorously defend our form of government by opposing this effort to disenfranchise millions of voters in my state and others."   An objection is not considered unless it is in writing and signed by both a member of the House and a member of the Senate. For the objection to be sustained, both chambers  must vote for it by simple majorities. If the chambers do not both agree, the original electoral votes are counted.   Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who will be one of four lawmakers who participate in tallying electoral votes as the ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee, criticized the Republicans' move as a "publicity stunt." "It is undemocratic. It is un-American," she said. "And fortunately it will be unsuccessful. In the end, democracy will prevail."   Biden campaign spokesman Mike Gwin also dismissed it as stunt that "won't change the fact that President-elect Biden will be sworn in on January 20th, and these baseless claims have already been examined and dismissed by Trump's own Attorney General, dozens of courts, and election officials from both parties."   Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told Senate Republicans that a vote on objections would be "the most consequential vote" of his career, and he has been encouraging his Republican conference not to join the objections.   Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., on Wednesday became the first senator to say he would object to certifying some states' Electoral College results, forcing other Republicans to vote on whether to reject Trump's unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud or disenfranchise millions of voters.   In a series of tweets Saturday evening, Trump praised the senators' actions, falsely claimed that he won by a "landslide" and said, "Our Country will love them for it!" Trump has lashed out at members of his party who have failed to back up his outlandish claims of fraud, and he has called for the resignation of local GOP officials who have refused to overturn their states' results. Trump has not yet commented on the latest development, but his campaign tweeted a message of thanks to the senators. ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Lauren Egan is a reporter for NBC News based in Washington. Kasie Hunt, the host of MSNBC's "Kasie DC," is a Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News. Frank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate. Leigh Ann Caldwell is an NBC News correspondent. Marianna Sotomayor contributed.   PHOTO: Texas Senator Ted Cruz

NOTE:  This post can also be found here at the Panopticon Review On Facebook page. 

 

Trump Pressured Georgia Official to ‘Find’ Enough Votes to Overturn Election nytimes.com   https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/03/us/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia.html Trump Pressured Georgia Official to ‘Find’ Enough Votes to Overturn Election The president vaguely warned of a “criminal offense” as he pressured Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a call, according to audio excerpts. by Michael D. Shear January 3, 2021 New York Times WASHINGTON — President Trump demanded that Georgia’s Republican secretary of state “find” him enough votes to overturn the presidential election, and vaguely threatened him with “a criminal offense,” during an hourlong telephone conversation with him on Saturday, according to audio excerpts from the conversation. Mr. Trump, who has spent almost nine weeks making false conspiracy claims about his loss to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., told Brad Raffensperger, the state’s top elections official, that Mr. Raffensperger should recalculate the vote count so Mr. Trump would win the state’s 16 electoral votes. “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Mr. Trump said on the call, a recording of which was obtained by The Washington Post, which published excerpts from the audio on its website Sunday. “Because we won the state.” Mr. Raffensperger rejected the president’s efforts to get him to reverse the election results, which are set to be certified by Congress during a session on Wednesday. Some of Mr. Trump’s allies in the House and the Senate have said they will object to the results of the elections in several states, including Georgia. But Mr. Raffensperger told Mr. Trump that he stood by the results. “Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong,” he said, according to the audio recording. During the call, the president offered several false conspiracy theories, including debunked charges that ballots in Fulton County were shredded and that voting machines operated by Dominion Voting Systems were tampered with and replaced. Ryan Germany, the legal counsel in Mr. Raffensperger’s office, can be heard telling the president that such charges are untrue. “You should want to have an accurate election. And you’re a Republican,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Raffensperger, who replied that “we believe that we do have an accurate election.” Mr. Trump responded: “No, no, no, you don’t, you don’t have, you don’t have, not even close. You guys, you’re off by hundreds of thousands of votes.” Then the president suggested that Mr. Raffensperger could be prosecuted criminally. “You know what they did and you’re not reporting it,” the president said. “You know, that’s a criminal — that’s a criminal offense. And you know, you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer. That’s a big risk.” The president confirmed the call in a tweet Sunday morning, claiming that Mr. Raffensperger “was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!” In a response on Twitter, Mr. Raffensperger wrote: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out.” Michael D. Shear is a White House correspondent. He previously worked at The Washington Post and was a member of their Pulitzer Prize-winning team that covered the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007.  PHOTO: President Trump has spent almost nine weeks making false conspiracy claims about his election loss. Credit: Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor.  inquirer.com https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/trump-pressures-georgia-secretary-election-votes-20210103.html In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor by Amy Gardner January 3, 2021 The Washington Post PHOTO:  In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor Evan Vucci / AP WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that legal scholars described as a flagrant abuse of power and a potential criminal act. The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue Trump’s false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking “a big risk.” Related stories: Georgia elections board member calls for probe into Trump’s call seeking to change results Throughout the call, Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel rejected Trump’s assertions, explaining that the president is relying on debunked conspiracy theories and that President-elect Joe Biden’s 11,779-vote victory in Georgia was fair and accurate. Trump dismissed their arguments. “The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” he said. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, that you’ve recalculated.” Raffensperger responded: “Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.” At another point, Trump said: “So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.” He later added: “So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.” The rambling and at times incoherent conversation offered a remarkable glimpse of how consumed and desperate the president remains about his loss, unwilling or unable to let the matter go and still asserting that he can reverse the results in enough battleground states to remain in office. “There’s no way I lost Georgia,” Trump said, a phrase he repeated again and again on the call. “There’s no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes.” Several of his allies were on the line as he spoke, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell, a prominent GOP attorney whose involvement with Trump’s efforts had not been previously known. In a statement, Mitchell said Raffensperger’s office “has made many statements over the past two months that are simply not correct and everyone involved with the efforts on behalf of the President’s election challenge has said the same thing: Show us your records on which you rely to make these statements that our numbers are wrong.” The White House, the Trump campaign and Meadows did not respond to a request for comment. Raffensperger’s office declined to comment. On Sunday, Trump tweeted that he had spoken to Raffensperger, saying the secretary of state was “unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters,’ dead voters, and more. He has no clue!” Raffensperger responded with his own tweet: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true.” The details of the call drew demands from top Democrats for criminal investigations. Campaigning in Georgia, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris called Trump’s conversation a “bald-faced, bold abuse of power by the president of the United States.” Biden’s top campaign lawyer, Bob Bauer, said the recording “captures the whole, disgraceful story about Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy.” Republicans, however, were largely silent. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, when asked about the call while campaigning in Georgia on Sunday for the two GOP senators who face a runoff Tuesday, dodged the question completely. Trump’s pressure campaign on Raffensperger is the latest example of his attempt to subvert the outcome of the Nov. 3 election through personal outreach to state Republican officials. He previously invited Michigan Republican state leaders to the White House, pressured Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in a call to try to replace that state’s electors and asked the speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to help reverse his loss in that state. His call to Raffensperger came as scores of Republicans have pledged to challenge the electoral college’s vote for Biden when Congress convenes for a joint session on Wednesday. Republicans do not have the votes to successfully thwart Biden’s victory, but Trump has urged supporters to travel to Washington to protest the outcome, and state and federal officials are already bracing for clashes outside the Capitol. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during a news conference at the Georgia State Capitol building in Atlanta on Dec. 2. Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution File Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during a news conference at the Georgia State Capitol building in Atlanta on Dec. 2.   During their conversation, Trump issued a vague threat to both Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, the secretary of state’s general counsel, suggesting that if they don’t find that thousands of ballots in Fulton County have been illegally destroyed to block investigators — an allegation for which there is no evidence — they would be subject to criminal liability. “That’s a criminal offense,” he said. “And you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer.” Trump also told Raffensperger that failure to act by Tuesday would jeopardize the political fortunes of David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, Georgia’s two Republican senators whose fate in that day’s runoff elections will determine control of the U.S. Senate. Trump said he plans to talk about the alleged fraud on Monday, when he is scheduled to lead an election eve rally in Dalton, Ga. — a message that could further muddle the efforts of Republicans to draw out their voters. “You have a big election coming up and because of what you’ve done to the president — you know, the people of Georgia know that this was a scam,” Trump said. “Because of what you’ve done to the president, a lot of people aren’t going out to vote, and a lot of Republicans are going to vote negative, because they hate what you did to the president. OK? They hate it. And they’re going to vote. And you would be respected, really respected, if this can be straightened out before the election.” Trump’s conversation with Raffensperger echoed his effort to persuade the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden on a call that led to his impeachment, and once again put him in legally questionable territory, legal experts said. By exhorting the secretary of state to “find” votes and to deploy investigators who “want to find answers,” the president appeared to be encouraging him to doctor the election outcome in Georgia, which could violate state and federal law. Trump’s apparent threat of criminal consequences if Raffensperger does not act could be seen as an attempt at extortion and a suggestion that he might deploy the Justice Department to launch an investigation, they said. “The president is either knowingly attempting to coerce state officials into corrupting the integrity of the election or is so deluded that he believes what he’s saying,” said Richard Pildes, a constitutional law professor at New York University, who noted that Trump’s actions may have violated several federal statutes. But Pildes said Trump’s clearer transgression is a moral one, and he emphasized that focusing on whether he committed a crime could deflect attention from the “simple, stark, horrific fact that we have a president trying to use the powers of his office to pressure state officials into committing election fraud to keep him in office.” Prosecutors probably would exercise discretion in considering a case against an outgoing president, experts said. Edward Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University, said that the legal questions are murky, and that it could be difficult to prove that Trump knew he was encouraging illegal behavior. But Foley also emphasized that the call was “inappropriate and contemptible” and should prompt outrage. “He was already tripping the emergency meter,” Foley said. “So we were at 12 on a scale of 1 to 10, and now we’re at 15.” Throughout the call, Trump detailed an exhaustive list of disinformation and conspiracy theories to support his position. He claimed without evidence that he had won Georgia by at least a half-million votes. He floated a barrage of assertions that have been investigated and disproved: that thousands of dead people voted; that an Atlanta election worker scanned 18,000 forged ballots three times each and “100 percent” were for Biden; that thousands more voters living out of state came back to Georgia illegally just to vote in the election. “So tell me, Brad, what are we going to do? We won the election, and it’s not fair to take it away from us like this,” Trump said. “And it’s going to be very costly in many ways. And I think you have to say that you’re going to reexamine it, and you can reexamine it, but reexamine it with people that want to find answers, not people who don’t want to find answers.” Trump did most of the talking on the call. He was angry and impatient, calling Raffensperger a “child” and said law enforcement officials “either dishonest or incompetent” for not believing there was widespread ballot fraud in Atlanta — and twice calling himself a “schmuck” for endorsing Kemp, whom Trump holds in particular contempt for not embracing his claims of fraud. “I can’t imagine he’s ever getting elected again, I’ll tell you that much right now,” he said. He also took aim at Kemp’s 2018 opponent, Democrat Stacey Abrams, trying to shame Raffensperger with the idea that his refusal to embrace fraud has helped her and Democrats generally. “Stacey Abrams is laughing about you,” he said. “She’s going around saying, ‘These guys are dumber than a rock.’ What she’s done to this party is unbelievable, I tell you.” The secretary of state repeatedly sought to correct Trump, saying at one point, “Mr. President, the problem you have with social media, they — people can say anything.” “Oh, this isn’t social media,” Trump retorted. “This is Trump media. It’s not social media. It’s really not. It’s not social media. I don’t care about social media. I couldn’t care less.” At another point, Trump claimed that votes were scanned three times: “Brad, why did they put the votes in three times? You know, they put ‘em in three times.” Raffensperger responded: “Mr. President, they did not. We did an audit of that and we proved conclusively that they were not scanned three times.” Trump sounded at turns confused and meandering. At one point, he referred to Kemp as “George.” He tossed out several different figures for Biden’s margin of victory in Georgia and referred to the Senate runoff, which is Tuesday, as happening “tomorrow” and “Monday.” His desperation was perhaps most pronounced during an exchange with Germany, Raffensperger’s general counsel, in which he openly begged for validation. Trump: “Do you think it’s possible that they shredded ballots in Fulton County? ‘Cause that’s what the rumor is. And also that Dominion took out machines. That Dominion is really moving fast to get rid of their, uh, machinery. Do you know anything about that? Because that’s illegal, right?” Germany responded: “No, Dominion has not moved any machinery out of Fulton County.” Trump: “But have they moved the inner parts of the machines and replaced them with other parts?” Germany: “No.” Trump: “Are you sure? Ryan?” Germany: “I’m sure. I’m sure, Mr. President.” It was clear from the call that Trump has surrounded himself with aides who have fed his false perceptions that the election was stolen. When he claimed that more than 5,000 ballots were cast in Georgia in the name of dead people, Raffensperger responded forcefully: “The actual number was two. Two. Two people that were dead that voted.” But later, Meadows said, “I can promise you there are more than that.” Another Trump lawyer on the call, Kurt Hilbert, accused Raffensperger’s office of refusing to turn over data to assess evidence of fraud, and also claimed awareness of at least 24,000 illegally cast ballots that would flip the result to Trump. “It stands to reason that if the information is not forthcoming, there’s something to hide,” Hilbert said. “That’s the problem that we have.” Reached by phone Sunday, Hilbert declined to comment. Mitchell contradicted Trump on several occasions on the call, saying, “Well, I don’t know about that,” when the president alleged that a Fulton County election worker had triple-counted 18,000 ballots for Biden. She claimed that the extent of the fraud is unclear because Raffensperger’s office has not shared all the data Trump’s lawyers have sought. “We never had the records that you have,” she said. Germany noted that the office is barred under law from sharing some voter information. In the end, Trump asked Germany to sit down with one of his attorneys to go over the allegations. Germany agreed. Yet Trump also recognized that he was failing to persuade Raffensperger or Germany of anything, saying toward the end, “I know this phone call is going nowhere.” “Why don’t you want to find this, Ryan?” he asked of Germany. “What’s wrong with you? I heard your lawyer is very difficult, actually, but I’m sure you’re a good lawyer. You have a nice last name.” But he continued to make his case in repetitive fashion, until finally, after roughly an hour, Raffensperger put an end to the conversation: “Thank you, President Trump, for your time.” The Washington Post’s Alice Crites contributed to this article. Posted: January 3, 2021 - 2:56 PM Amy Gardner, Washington Post

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