The country’s leading election lawyers haven’t wanted anything to do with this. Three separate law firms who did get involved withdrew their services at short notice and Rudy was drafted as a late substitute to represent the President’s case in court. It was his first courtroom appearance for 28 years and, apparently, it went as well as you might expect, and he struggled badly.
It’s one thing for media yappers or up-and-coming lightweight politicians to share their opinions, but Mick Mulvaney (White House Chief of Staff until earlier this year) blasting Rudy’s work is significant.
Rudy held a presser yesterday, which had been trailed as the event where they would present the evidence to the public. He put forward several examples and made a number of relevant points about this election fraud business. Unfortunately, their impact was overshadowed by his out-of-control hair dye, so no-one will remember anything else.
Even worse, Trump’s team was live-streaming it, but cut away though, unfortunately, not before their own commentators were caught laughing about Rudy.s meltdown, thinking they couldn’t be heard.
One of the new Representatives given an orientation tour of Congress today (the day the USA set another record of 152,000 new cases) was Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia, the QAnon supporter. I'll let her speak for herself:
Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 @mtgreenee "Our first session of New Member Orientation covered COVID in Congress. Masks, masks, masks.... I proudly told my freshman class that masks are oppressive. In GA, we work out, shop, go to restaurants, go to work, and school without masks. My body, my choice. #FreeYourFace"
Having caused a stir, she also made it into the White House.
In her role at the White House, Kayleigh McEnany is a government employee, not a political operative, and there are strict rules under the Hatch Act that prevent overlap. She has been working quite a lot for the campaign lately, as an unpaid "advisor" to the candidate, which has been pushing the edge of the envelope, but yesterday she ripped it in half. Answering questions on Fox News in her "personal" capacity as an individual, she answered that a particular question should be put to the White House. I've no idea what she was thinking to put herself in that situation in the first place, but then giving that response was barmy. She is the White House Press Secretary, so she was saying "Don't ask me, ask me instead". Getting into that precarious position was unnecessary and easily avoided - and then she tried using the Hatch Act as justification as to why she didn't answer the question. The YouTube videos that include it are a bit long, but you can see the relevant bit here:
That bit at the end of Seth about Trump's fundraising for his election legal fight is interesting. This has been cropping up all over, ie that Trump is using the money he is now raising, which is supposedly for current and upcoming legal costs related to the election fight, to pay off election debt and to pass money to the RNC.
60% of each contribution is going to pay off the campaign's election debt (up to a max of $2.8k for contributions from individuals and $5k for committees) and 40% to the RNC’s Operating account (up to a maximum of $35.5k or $15k). Anything left over above those maximums will also go to the RNC.
What about the Legal Fund, you say? When the election debt is paid off, the 60% will instead go to the Recount Account, to a maximum of $2.8k/$5k. In other words, it's not getting any. There will be legal costs to pay, but they're hoping to bring in multiples of what is needed, and they have structured it so they can legally divert the excess elsewhere.
Those dirty Republicans - that's just what we'd expect of them - stealing the money from their own supporters. The Democrats would never do that.
Apparently, they would. There have been lots of appeals from Joe for funds to help them fight the Republicans in court:
Click to see full-size image.
Click to see full-size image.
However, the details look very similar to the Republicans, though structured differently. Most of the dosh is going to the DNC. The fund gets nothing from any individual contribution of $142k or less ($60k for committees) and a sliding amount until it gets $2.8k of any contribution above $144.8k ($5k from those above $65k). In other words, the Dems are also ripping off their own supporters by asking for money to fund the legal fight and legally diverting it into party funds. Strangely, the press is all over the Trump campaign's "scam", but I've hardly seen anything about Biden's team doing the same.
What happens when Donnie gets jogged on after Xmas? Does Biden have his budget prepared and just throw Trump's in the bin?
Yes, though there may be aspects that remain. As I understand it, budget preparation starts before now, but usually kinda stops if a President loses the election. The budget has been delayed sometimes when there's been a change of President. By carrying on, Departments will do a lot of work that will be wasted.
Neither of these should post about tax, as neither has a clue how taxes work, but her understanding is worse, which makes her boomerang comment about using brain cells before posting on the internet all the sweeter. The responses aren’t too bad on here, but she was copied onto retweets where she was filleted. Having made herself a laughing stock, she posted a clarification, which just made it worse.
Yeah, Trump is gonna hate that Rick Bright is back. I'm not in a position to judge top scientists, but he clearly has stripes in the subject. He gave up a lot to stand up for what he thought was right, and was impressive when he testified at the House Committee. I'm sure Pakman is right about Fauci, ie that it wouldn't be appropriate to include government employees in the group at this stage.
There was an unprecedented occurrence today when Fox News (of all networks) cut the White House Press Secretary’s press conference in mid-flight, on the basis that she was accusing the Democrats of welcoming illegal voter activity, without producing any evidence.
Neil Cavuto has been a bit of a never-Trumper, regularly criticising and fact-checking him, and Trump has returned the criticism a few times and said that Fox should sack him. There are a few other Fox presenters who are tough on Trump, and they seem to survive, despite most of the network pushing his case. I’m not sure whether Cavuto has been emboldened by the election result, or has been told he can weigh in at this stage if he wants, but this was dramatic and you would normally expect there to be consequences. Presumably the White House will complain, but I’m not sure where the Murdochs are positioning themselves right now. It could be that they want the network to revert to standard Republicanism. Also, Kayleigh may have been breaking the law herself, as she is a government employee, and isn’t allowed to get involved in political party issues during working time.
Mark Esper has been sacked as Defence Secretary, replaced by Christopher Miller, making Trump the only President to have had five Defence Secs.
It was an open secret that Esper's neck has been on the block for months for disloyalty to the President and breaking Cabinet unity. He let it be known that he was hoodwinked into taking part in the walk to the church photo op and he spoke out against how Barr used the Insurrection Act to shift the protestors out of the way. He would have been gone long before now if it wasn't an election year.
Click to see full-size image.
CIA Director Gina Haspel and FBI Director Christopher Wray were also known to be in the firing line for not carrying out Trump's wishes, and were definitely being booted if he won, but might hold onto their jobs now. Betsy DeVos was known to have lost Trump's confidence through general under-performance as Education Sec, but she'll see it out now. Administrations are usually trying to persuade high-flyers to hang around for a smooth handover, but this one may go out in the same chaos that it began.
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