The-Ave.US

Hard to say.

The Daily Mail, a rightwing U.K.-based tabloid, says, “The president was forced to affirm there would be a peaceful transition of power if Joe Biden wins in November after refusing to answer a direct question on the matter earlier this week during a White House press conference” (story here). That’s pretty grandiose.

The half of that which is clearly true is that Trump refused to answer a reporter’s direct question about it on Wednesday, prompting Biden to ask, “What country are we living in?”

That drove some embarrassed Republicans “to come to the defense of U.S. election integrity, ensuring there will will a ‘peaceful’ and ‘orderly’ transition no matter who the victor is,” as Daily Mail described it. McConnell & Company did kind of say that, but if that’s some sort of pledge, it’s not clear how they plan to fulfill it given the president of their party is thoroughly unmanageable even by them.

The other half is the Trump-friendly newspaper’s interpretation of this ambiguous remark to a Virginia rally crowd Friday night, September 25, 2020:

“And we do want a very friendly transition. But we don’t want to be cheated and be stupid and say ‘Oh let’s transition.’ Well we’ll go and we’ll do a transition and we’ll know that there were thousands and thousands of ballots that made a difference through cheating. We’re not going to stand for it.”

If you know what that gobbledygook means, please share.

Here’s a possible clue: He also said, at the same rally, in the same breath, that if he loses it will be because the Democrats cheated. “That’s the only way we’re going to lose, is if there’s mischief,” referring to mail ballots.

And earlier on Friday, he castigated his own FBI director for testifying before Congress that there’s never been any serious cheating with mail ballots, which have been used longer than Trump has been alive, and are perfectly legal despite his unrelenting efforts to paint mail voting as “cheating” and “illegitimate” (although note he never uses the word “illegal” to describe mail voting, possibly because he votes by mail himself).

That doesn’t really sound to me much like the interpretation Daily Mail is putting on it.

Here’s what I think is going on. It looks like Trump is spooking folks on his own side. The Daily Mail scribblers folded first, like novice poker players. Possibly McConnell & Company, who have their wits more about them, sent up a teensy leetle signal flare to Trump to tone it down a teensy leetle bit because he went a teensy leetle too far. As in, keep going and we won’t have your back anymore.

I say “possibly.” Biden specifically used the word “coup” to describe what Trump was saying, and maybe that rattled McConnell ever so little bit, as in cool it or we could lose the Senate because you’re making people nervous about us. I say “maybe.” I don’t know.

But Trump backing down? Nah. It’s not in his DNA. He’s incapable; this I do know for certain, as certain as anything can be known.

If anything’s actually happening here, it looks more like McConnell backing away from Trump’s madness to save his own ass. He’s got a Senate majority to worry about. But I don’t think anything has changed here. Just the same old garbage from Trump that you’re not voting legitimately unless you vote for him.

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