DONALD Trump likened the US to a “third world country” as he blasted the “rigged” election and once again refused to accept defeat.
The president called the vote a “disgrace to our country” exactly a month after it was announced he had lost to Joe Biden.
“And I think the case has been made and we can find what we can do about it but you will see a lot of big things happening over the next couple of days,” Trump ended.
Trump’s remarks came as he was presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former wrestler Dan Gable in the Oval Office.
He refused to accept defeat, adding he was “2 and 0” despite losing to President-elect Joe Biden by over seven million popular votes and over 70 electoral votes.
Trump touted the career of Gable, a former freestyle wrestler and coach who won the Olympic gold medal for his performance in the 1972 Olympic Games.
“He won 117 consecutive matches and lost only one,” Trump said. “Well you know in politics I won two, so I’m 2 and 0, and that’s pretty good too, but we’ll see how that turns out.”
Trump was dealt his latest legal defeat earlier Monday when a federal judge in Michigan rejected an effort from some Michigan Republicans to de-certify the state’s results.
“Safe harbor” date
This year, December 8 marks the federal election “safe harbor” date and with it, an effective end to the increasingly madcap, unhinged effort of Trump, his campaign and his supporters to challenge the results of the 2020 election.
The US Constitution requires that the presidential term ends precisely at noon on January 20. Leading up to that date, federal law provides that the Electoral College formally votes on “the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December” — this year, December 14. Those electoral votes then must arrive in Washington, DC, by December 23 (this dates back to when it took more than a phone call or click of a button to transmit information over long stretches) and Congress formally counts the electoral votes on January 6.
That brings us to the safe harbor date. Under federal law, any state’s selection of its presidential electors that has been finalized six days before the formal Electoral College voting date (this year, December 14) is final and presumptively cannot be challenged in court or in Congress. In other words: come December 8, the determinations of the states cannot effectively be challenged — by Trump or by his “elite strike force” legal team led by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. The states are not required to finalize their electoral votes by the safe harbor date — but if they do, those determinations are protected by federal law.
The arrival of the safe harbor date should effectively extinguish any dying embers of hope even for the last few remaining election denialists. And what an utter disaster — legally and otherwise — the Trump team’s effort to contest the election in the courts has been. The lawyers for Trump and his campaign have had more than 30 lawsuits thrown out or withdrawn from courts across the country almost as quickly as they’ve been filed.
Realistically, it’s been over for a while; and on December 8th , it’s over formally and legally as well.
Agencies
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