Wednesday April 24th, 2024 9:39PM

How low can you go, sir?

By Bill Crane Columnist

Like many, I was surprised, but not shocked, when Donald Trump posted a respectable win over Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College in 2016. There would be a few faithless electors in the Electoral College who tried to break away from supporting Trump that day, but they were ruled out of order. A subsequent Supreme Court decision this year bound Electors to the direction given by the popular vote and prevailing laws of each state.
 
Four years and one hard-fought election contest later, Trump's electoral margin of loss is the same as was his victory over Clinton. Clinton's loss also came down to close contests in a handful of states, specifically Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. 
 
I understand and appreciate both the disappointment and inability to accept this loss by the President and his supporters, but while they collectively blame state and local election officials, U.S. Senators in those states, the U.S. Supreme Court and Dominion Voting Services...consider a few more documentable facts which point more to the existing conclusion of this election.
 
In Georgia there were 24,000 MORE GOP voters in the General Primary and Runoff, who voted by Absentee and mail, who did not vote at all in the General Election. Trump's loss of the state was 12,700, if he had not discouraged mail-in voting, arguably those voters could have delivered him victory. U.S. Senator David Perdue's vote total was also 820 votes higher than Trump's, while Joe Biden out-polled Jon Osoff by nearly 100,000 votes. 
 
And now after also losing nearly 58 suits and legal actions in each contested state as well as the U.S. Supreme Court, President Trump is now apparently ready to go on back on his own word to accept the results of the Electoral College.
 
In five contested states, Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the Trump campaign gathered GOP state electors to cast 'alternate' ballots on Monday, December 14th, meeting day of the Electoral College. When the new Congress convenes on January 6, 2020, the day after runoff elections here in Georgia, a largely ceremonial certification of the Electoral College results will have a new moment of high drama. Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks will lead efforts supposedly supported by Georgia members of Congress Jody Hice and Marjorie Taylor Greene to object to the Electoral Votes of those five contested states, claiming that nearly 100,000 votes in those states were either fraudulent, or stolen from President Trump. The alternate Elector votes for Trump in those states will be offered. For those objections to even be heard, they will need to be joined by ONE Senator from a contested state.
 
However as even President Trump has come to realize this path will also not be successful in blocking President-elect Joe Biden from being inaugurated on January 20, 2021, he is now discussing declaring martial law using the U.S. Military to compel errant states to 're-run' their elections. And even better...at the same meeting this stroke of genius was discussed, the President considered appointing Sidney Powell as White House Special Counsel to look into election fraud.
 
Martial law? Using our all-volunteer military against our own citizens and to compel the elected civilian government leaders to schedule and legally hold another election, with dates required set by state law, with 30 days remaining, from the day this is being written, until the Inauguration of your successor? 

President Trump's legal defense fund now exceeds $200-million raised, and there are only the most minimal of filing and disclosure requirements related to this type of fundraising. The President and his campaign have barely expended $8-10-million in legal fees on the less than stellar results of his team thus far, but coincidentally the President has a massive mortgage principal balloon payment of $100-million due on Trump Tower in 2022. Since a 2012-refinance he has paid only interest. Other publicly disclosed loans with major principal payments due in 2021 and 2022 total nearly $900-million. Google it.
 
It will take more than martial law, a complete civil war, and the destruction of our republic to get you there sir... But hey you gotta break a few eggs to make Eggs Benedict at Mar a Lago right? For those of us who agreed with and even applauded certain aspects of your agenda, tax and regulatory cuts and rollbacks, conservative bench appointments, and reasserting America's voice in certain foreign policy discussions...you are destroying what little is left of your increasingly tattered legacy. How low can you go sir? Even Vlad Putin has already congratulated the President-elect.

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