Former President Donald Trump on Saturday blasted the U.S. Supreme Court while airing grievances about a New York Times report’s accurate characterization of the November 3, 2020 election.
Trump did not directly cite or quote the actual report, but it appears to be one which begins like this: “Donald Trump is no longer center stage.”
The report continues by pressing the thesis that “many conservative activists” believe “that the best way to raise money and keep voters engaged is to make [Trump’s] biggest fabrication” about the 2020 election “their top priority.”
That “fabrication,” of course, is that widespread election fraud carried Joe Biden to the White House.
Here’s more from the Times report:
In recent weeks, many of the most prominent and well-organized groups that power the G.O.P.’s vast voter turnout efforts have directed their resources toward a campaign to restrict when and how people can vote, with a focus on the emergency policies that states enacted last year to make casting a ballot during a pandemic easier. The groups believe it could be their best shot at regaining a purchase on power in Washington.
[ . . . ]
For now, many conservative groups are choosing to side with the former president, even at the risk of feeding corrosive falsehoods about the prevalence of voter fraud.
Naturally, Trump disagreed with the insinuation that he lost fair and square to Biden nearly five months ago. By so doing, he played squarely into the fundraising strategy the Times sought to call out as problematic for those who wish to truly debate broader conservative political ideals and downright alienating for the country’s changing demographics. (The Times piece broadly questioned whether attacks voting reforms would simply turn voters away from the Republican Party.)
“Sadly the Election was Rigged, and without even going into detail, of which there is much, totally game changing,” Trump’s statement awkwardly read.
It continued by rubbishing the legal concept that is the hallmark of modern governance: delegation. State legislatures routinely allow executive level officials to manage the nuances and intricacies of government. Election procedures are no different. Legislatures establish big-picture goals and outline the way they want things done; appointed officials deal with the details. In many states, election matters are handled by Secretaries of State.
Trump doesn’t like that — and used the concept to once again argue that the election was, in his view, rigged.
“Democrats could not get Republican Legislatures in Swing States to approve many of the voting changes which took place before the Election, which is mandated under the Constitution of the United States,” he said. “For that reason alone, we had an Illegitimate Election.”
He then aimed at the Supreme Court, which on March 8 jettisoned the final attempts by Trump and his supporters to litigate the 45th president into a second term.
“The Supreme Court and other Courts were afraid to rule, they were ‘gutless,’ and will go down in history as such,” the ex-president said. “No wonder why so much money is being raised on this issue, and law-abiding people have every right to do so!”
The statement thus concluded with an explicit call to resurrect grievances surrounding the Nov. 2020 election and to channel any residual anger into political donations.
Vice President Mike Pence earlier penned his own complaints about the constitutional process of electing a president. Those complaints contained dubious assertions surrounding how the constitution actually works.
Attorney Jenna Ellis, who once worked for Trump, predictably touted the statement while driving her Twitter audience toward her newest endeavors.
President Trump is 100% right. ⬇️ https://t.co/4PdV4TpAAd pic.twitter.com/h1Tuq2h0ET
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) March 20, 2021
[Photo by Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images]
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