President in waiting
Biden remains calm in the eye of the storm as Trump's hope fades
WILMINGTON, DEL.— The vast windswept parking lot is eerily empty. Feels like lockdown revisited. This concrete expanse, outside the riverfront Chase Center, is where Joe Biden is scheduled to hold his victory celebration. Or concede defeat. Except, as the calendar turns, there was still nothing to celebrate or concede.
To be honest, I’ve covered elections in Afghanistan that were more efficient than the one an anxious America is going through at the moment.
Instead, we get endless mathematical calculations: Nevada and Arizona equals 17 electoral votes for Biden; North Carolina and Georgia equals 31 electoral votes for Donald Trump. In crucial battleground Pennsylvania, carry over the early in-person ballots tally and take away the X factor of mail-in ballots. As of 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Day 3 of the U.S. election, 99 per cent of precincts had reported, but only 88 per cent of mail ballots had been counted. Of mail-in ballots counted at that point, 77 per cent had been cast for Biden. Trump led Biden by the razor-thin margin of 49.8 per cent to 48.9 per cent. And that was heartening for the challenger, eyeballing the Commonwealth’s 20 electoral votes.
Why? Because Trump’s lead had been shrinking all day, dwindling from more than a 10-percentage-point advantage on Wednesday, with around 326,000 mail-ins left to process and the Democratic vote was hugely by mail. The amazing shrinking lead, which had Republican strategists in twitchy conniptions, just as their Fearless Leader was having a Twitter meltdown.
So, Biden could leap ahead, which is what his campaign was steadfastly predicting. And 100,000 of those ballots related to dense urban cities, including Philadelphia and its suburbs, a Biden stronghold. Got it? Pennsylvania’s secretary of state, at a news conference, indicated the Keystone State’s winner “definitely could” be announced by end of day. That beggared belief and later she walked it back to probably Friday. Trump’s campaign had filed multiple lawsuits in Pennsylvania, one of those seeking to allow election observers to get a closer gander at election workers tabulating ballots, specifically in Philly, which a judge granted early Thursday. But mostly lawyers unleashed by the sitting president were getting the heave-ho in their various litigious gambits.
Upside-down and inside-out messaging from Trump’s hardcore devotees. In downtown Phoenix, outside the recorder’s office, the protesters, some of them armed, chanted: “COUNT THE VOTE!” Because Biden was leading. Outside a ballot-counting centre in Detroit, Trump’s supporters had banged on the windows, shouting: “STOP THE COUNT!” Although Michigan was already slotted into the Biden column.
This is, purportedly, democracy in action.
Although by the sitting president’s reckoning, it’s democracy being stolen.
“ANY VOTE THAT CAME IN AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED!”
Uh, no, not true. But Trump has never let facts get in the way of his mendacity. Hence, falsely declaring victory in the wee hours on Wednesday.
While the lights were dimming on Trump’s presidency, he was still manning the barricades at the White House like a psychotic squatter.
Trump surfaced in person for a press conference early Thursday evening.
“If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”
And enough from that staged hooey. As, meanwhile, the president’s obnoxious son, Jr., tweet-agitated for a “total war on this election.” This, amid a spike in gun purchases.
By comparison, Biden projected calm and statesmanlike poise when he departed his suburban family home here in mid-afternoon, moving by motorcade to the Queen Theatre, a century-old live music venue in downtown Wilmington where no music has been heard for eight months.
There, with running mate Kamala Harris, to take in a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic and the economy. It was the former vice-president’s first briefing on public health since Oct. 28. (His campaign had noted that Biden was tested for COVID-19 and the result was negative.)
COVID-19 has practically fallen out of public discussion in recent days, although case rates in the U.S. have hit 9.65 million and passed 235,000 deaths. Yet Trump has more than hinted he’ll fire Dr. Anthony Fauci post-election. Just what America needs: their most trusted authority on infectious disease cashiered because Trump can no longer contain his Fauci pique.
At the Queen theatre, Biden spoke to pool reporters about the COVID scourge that has ravaged this country, so horribly mismanaged — “We’re rounding the corner,” the U.S. president claimed — by the Trump anti-science, antimasking administration.
“We’re reminded again of the severity of this pandemic. Cases are on the rise nationwide, and we are nearing 240,000 deaths due to COVID.
“My heart goes out to each and every family that has lost a loved one to this terrible disease.’’
Then Biden, in his brief remarks, pivoted to the election, repeating familiar themes.
“In America, the vote is sacred. It’s how the people of this nation express their will. And it is the will of the voters — and not anything else — that chooses the President of the United
States. So, each ballot must be counted and that’s what is going on now.’”
No one in this country — with the exception of Trump — can possibly have a greater case of the heebie-jeebies than Biden. Not showing it, though, certainly not tweet-ranting about it; preternaturally serene on the outside.
“Democracy is sometimes messy, so sometimes it requires a little patience. But that patience has been rewarded now for more than 240 years with a system of governance that has been the envy of the world.
“We continue to feel very good about when the count is finished. Senator Harris and I will be the winner.”
He asked everyone to stay calm and carry on.
“The process is working. The count is being completed. And we will know soon.”
Biden campaign manager, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, had earlier briefed reporters.
“The story of today is going to be a very positive story for the vice-president, but also one where folks are going to need to stay patient and stay calm. The counting is happening. It’s going to take time. We need to allow it to get done and done well, and we’re very confident whatever happens with the counting and the timing, we will come out ahead.
“We are absolutely confident that Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States and we are equally confident that we will be able to watch the counting throughout the day and into tomorrow to finalize these last states that are going to put us over the top to 270.”
Bob Bauer, senior adviser to the Biden campaign, addressed the more farcical — diabolical even — elements of recent days, particularly Trump’s legal manoeuvring.
“They (the lawyers) are attempting to give the Trump campaign the opportunity to argue that vote counts should stop. It is not going to stop. I want to emphasize that for their purposes, these law suits don’t have to have merit. That’s not their purpose. It’s to create an opportunity for them to message falsely about what’s taking place in the electoral process.”
Silliness, is what Bauer called it.
“It’s really quite remarkable. These elections officials are working overnight to try to get the count up, try to get it right, and the Trump campaign is continually alleging irregularities, failure of the system, and fraud, without any basis. This is part of a broader misinformation campaign that involves some political theatre.
“All of this is intended to create a large cloud. It is the hope of the Trump campaign that nobody can see through it, but it is not a very thick crowd, it’s not hard to see through what they’re doing. We see through it. So do the courts and so do election officials.”
As for theatre of the macabre, here’s a bit of vaudevillian politics: North Dakota Republican candidate David Andahl, a 55-year-old rancher, has won his 8th District seat.
Dave Andahl died a month ago.
From COVID-19.