Trump tries to leverage power of office to subvert Biden win
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump sought to leverage the power of the Oval Office on Friday in an extraordinary attempt to block presidentelect Joe Biden’s victory as criticism mounted that his futile efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election could do long-lasting damage to democratic traditions.
Trump summoned a delegation of Republican lawmakers from Michigan, including the state’s Senate majority leader and House speaker, in an apparent extension of his efforts to persuade judges and election officials in the state to set aside Biden’s 154,000-vote margin of victory and grant him the state’s electors.
His efforts to override the public’s will extended to other battleground states that Biden carried as well. It all added up to an unprecedented attempt by a sitting president to maintain his grasp on power, or in failure, to delegitimize his opponent’s victory in the eyes of his army of supporters.
Rick Hasen, an election law expert and professor who has been meticulously chronicling the 2020 race, wrote that there would be “rioting” in the streets if an effort was made to set aside the vote in Michigan, calling it tantamount to an attempted coup.
The president on Friday again falsely claimed victory, declaring as an aside during a White House announcement on drug pricing, “I won, by the way, but you know, we’ll find that out.”
Trump’s roughly hour-long meeting Friday with the Michigan lawmakers came days after he personally called two local canvass board officials who had refused to certify the results in Wayne County, Michigan’s most populous county and one that overwhelmingly favoured Biden. The two GOP officials eventually agreed to certify the results. But following Trump’s call, they said they had second thoughts.
The Board of State Canvassers
is to meet Monday to certify the statewide outcome and it was unclear whether Republican members of that panel would similarly balk.
Some Trump allies have expressed hope that state lawmakers could intervene in selecting Republican electors, as the president and his attorneys have pushed baseless allegations of fraud that have been repeatedly rejected in courtrooms across the country. It was with that in mind that Trump invited the Michigan lawmakers.
He was also said to be considering extending a similar invita
tion to legislators from Pennsylvania.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters that the meeting with Michigan officials was “not an advocacy meeting” and insisted Trump “routinely meets with lawmakers from across the country.” But such meetings are in fact rare.
Biden legal adviser Bob Bauer said Trump’s efforts were harmful to democracy.
“It’s an abuse of office,” he said. It’s an open attempt to intimidate election officials, it’s absolutely appalling. … It’s also pathetic.”