Attention to the Unseen

Edward B. Foley writes: President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated at noon on Jan. 20. President Trump can thunder incessantly about “this Rigged Election!” and dispatch his lawyers to court. His attorney general can try to generate accusations of voter fraud. Republican senators can act as if the result were not clear. For those who are filled with dread that this will somehow prevent Biden from taking office: Relax. It won’t. First, the Trump lawsuits are bogus. Trump hasn’t even…

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Benjamin Wittes writes: And so it has come to this: The president of the United States is trying to overturn the results of a national election he unambiguously lost with a combination of petulant whining, spiteful and flailing executive action, and magic. No, it’s not ultimately going to work, at least not if working is defined as allowing President Trump to maintain power in the face of expressed voter will. But it is working better than I would have believed…

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NBC News reports: There is a growing expectation among President Donald Trump’s advisers that he will never concede that he lost re-election, even after votes are certified in battleground states over the coming weeks, according to multiple people familiar with the president’s thinking. “Do not expect him to concede,” one top aide said. More likely, the aide said, “he’ll say something like, ‘We can’t trust the results, but I’m not contesting them.’” Another adviser said that after the legal battles…

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Timothy L. O’Brien writes: Donald Trump is the luckiest man alive. Unlike almost, well, everyone, he’s been protected from the consequences of his own mistakes his entire life. Born into a wealthy family, he was insulated from lukewarm academic prospects and serial business crack-ups by his father’s money. (“I often say that I’m a member of the lucky sperm club,” is how he put it in one of his books.) Emerging as a reality-TV star in the early 2000s, Trump…

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The New York Times reports: A little-known counterterrorism official named Christopher C. Miller flew to the Middle East last month to pursue a diplomatic idea: asking Qatar to help devise plans to buy off or otherwise marginalize some senior leaders of the Shabab, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia, who are more committed to attacking the West. Mr. Miller had obtained a blessing from Kash Patel, then a senior official at the National Security Council. President Trump’s national security adviser, Robert…

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The Daily Beast reports: The one-time leader of the Proud Boys’ most paramilitary arm is now trying to rebrand the far-right streetfighting group as a more explicitly racist entity. It’s the latest headache for an organization currently in denial about President Donald Trump’s re-election loss. Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman was once the leader of the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights, essentially the frontline shock troops of the group known for taking part in brawls across the country. The Proud Boys’…

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CNN reports: The Trump administration has carried out sweeping changes atop the Defense Department’s civilian leadership structure, removing several of its most senior officials and replacing them with perceived loyalists to the President. The flurry of changes, announced by the Department of Defense in a statement roughly 24 hours after President Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper, have put officials inside the Pentagon on edge and fueled a growing sense of alarm among military and civilian officials, who are…

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The Washington Post reports: A Pennsylvania postal worker whose claims have been cited by top Republicans as potential evidence of widespread voting irregularities admitted to U.S. Postal Service investigators that he fabricated the allegations, according to three officials briefed on the investigation and a statement from a House congressional committee. Richard Hopkins’s claim that a postmaster in Erie, Pa., instructed postal workers to backdate ballots mailed after Election Day was cited by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) in a letter…

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The New York Times reports: Election officials in dozens of states representing both political parties said that there was no evidence that fraud or other irregularities played a role in the outcome of the presidential race, amounting to a forceful rebuke of President Trump’s portrait of a fraudulent election. Over the last several days, the president, members of his administration, congressional Republicans and right wing allies have put forth the false claim that the election was stolen from Mr. Trump…

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Reuters reports: Nearly 80% of Americans, including more than half of Republicans, recognize President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the Nov. 3 election after most media organizations called the race for the Democrat based on his leads in critical battleground states, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Biden – who needed 270 Electoral College votes to win – had 279 of those votes to 214 for Trump with results in three states not yet complete, according to Edison Research. In…

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Reuters reports: Top Republicans in the U.S. Congress for now are supporting President Donald Trump’s attempt to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, but some senior aides said Trump must soon produce significant evidence or exit the stage. A handful of Republican senators have said they recognize Biden as last week’s winner. Many more have not but are suggesting limits to their patience in giving Trump the benefit of the doubt. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, a state that Trump won…

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The Hill reports: President-elect Joe Biden began having calls with foreign leaders this week, as President Trump continues to challenge the results of the election. Biden spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday and with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Irish Prime Minister Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Tuesday. The former vice president addressed the calls in an exchange with reporters later Tuesday, saying he communicated to other global leaders…

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