Donald Trump gestures after his Election Night speech in the East Room of the White House, Washington, DC, November 4, 2020 (Mandel Ngan/AFP)
UPDATE, NOV 5:
Liam Kennedy of EA’s partner The Clinton Institute and America Unfiltered speaks with talkRADIO’s Julia Hartley-Brewer, summarizing the political situation and taking apart the Trumpist conspiracy theories and falsehoods:
For months, Trump has laid the ground to contest this election in several ways.
UPDATE, 2135 GMT:
I chatted with Diana Alghoul of The New Arab about how Donald Trump came close to winning a second term despite the damage of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Like a snake oil salesman, he sells comments such as “Make America Great Again”. He isn’t selling anything good for you or anything that works, but people want to believe it, so they buy it.
Trump got enough people to think that Coronavirus is not important and that a vaccine will be delivered soon. He worked on an “America can beat coronavirus like I did” basis — despite the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicting that more than 500,000 lives could be lost to coronavirus in the US by February.
UPDATE, 2045 GMT:
My conversation with Andrew Pierce of The Daily Show on whether the Supreme Court will back Donald Trump if he defies the outcome of the election.
There is a difference between a legitimate legal challenge and a challenge because you’re trying to defy or even break the system.
Will the Supreme Court back Trump if he loses the election? They might do just that…
Tune in now to #TheDailyShow: https://t.co/QqlRCY4CNh@toryboypierce @ScottLucas_EA #ElectionDay #Election2020 pic.twitter.com/P3SwlS2ely
— Mail+ (@mailplus) November 4, 2020
UPDATE, 1330 GMT:
An extract from my interview with Bloomberg about the seriousness of Donald Trump’s threat to the election and the US system:
A constitutional crisis greater than Watergate. That's the analysis of @ScottLucas_EA after President Trump said he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene, even as several U.S. states continue to count votes.
Check out the full podcast here: https://t.co/w7JXD6PAhg pic.twitter.com/4gAMDLFKWD— Bloomberg Radio (@BloombergRadio) November 4, 2020
On Wednesday morning I spoke with Nick Ferrari of London’s LBC about the quick transition from the US elections to a Constitutional crisis, sparked by Donald Trump’s attempt to hold onto Presidential power.
After discussing the state of the undecided race between Democratic challenger Joe Biden and Trump, I look at Trump’s threat to suspend the counting of mail-in ballots, pursuing that attempt through the courts.
If Trump loses on the electoral front, can he succeed on the legal one, bending and possibly breaking the US system in the process?
US election: what will happen next? Politics professor Scott Lucas gives an illuminating prediction of the next stages in the race to the White House. @NickFerrariLBC | @ScottLucas_EA pic.twitter.com/pbkrJYoiva
— LBC (@LBC) November 4, 2020
As in the presidential election in Iran in 2009, it was the challenger – not the incumbent – who first declared he was on course to win.
The fact is that there is a complete breakdown in the authenticity of the mail-in vote. There are irregularities and discrepancies.
There is no constitutional crisis. The constitution allows the legislatures and the courts to decide who gets the electors.
To begin with, there will have to be recounts in MI, WI and possibly AZ and NV.
Hahaha, this is *almost* perfect. A split congress for at least 2 — maybe 4 — years and a weakened Biden presidency. Hopefully Trump doesn’t chicken out and concede. The added stain of illegitimacy is exactly what needs to happen. And what an embarrassment for Dems and their cheerleaders. Pollsters too. A more propagandist media than 2016, raging pandemic with Trump completely botching the response, and a global recession, and THIS is what they managed? Trump inexcusably fucked up with COVID relief. That alone makes him deserving of the loss he got today, and yet his performance is anything but humiliating. The much needed narrative that his politics are an electoral dead-end just isn’t there, which bodes well for their continuation.
The only way this could have turned out better is a 2 or less electoral vote difference, with Trump squeezing out a win through litigation. Shame, but today turned out much better than I expected.