Trump’s frenetic campaign to overturn Biden’s electoral victory
President Donald Trump and his allies are taking increasingly frantic steps to subvert the results of the 2020 US election, including summoning state legislators to the White House as part of a bid to overturn Joe Biden's victory.
Other tactics include personally calling local election officials who are trying to rescind their certification votesinmichigan, suggesting in a legal challenge that Pennsylvania should set aside the popular vote there, and pressuring county officials in Arizona to delay certifying vote tallies.
Election law experts see it as the last, dying gasps of the Trump campaign and say Mr Biden is certain to walk into the Oval Office come January.
But there is concern that Mr Trump's effort is doing real damage to public faith in the integrity of American elections.
Joshua Douglas, a law professor at the University of Kentucky whore searches and teaches election law, said: "It's very concerning that some Republicans apparently can't fathom the possibility that they legitimately lost this election.
"We depend on democratic norms, including that the losers graciously accept defeat. That seems to be breaking down."
The increasingly erratic moves have no reasonable chance of changing the outcome of the 2020 election, where Mr Biden has now received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history and has clinched the 270 electoral college votes needed to win.
But the president's constant barrage of baseless claims, his work to personally sway local officials who certify votes and his allies' refusal to admithelost is likely to have a lasting negative impact on the country.
Legions of his supporters do not believe he lost.
The two Republican canvassers in michigan' s wayne county said on Wednesday they lacked confidence that the election was fair and impartial. They cannot rescind their votes, according to the Michigan secretary of state.
Mr Trump appears intent on pushing the issue. He has invited Michigan's Republican legislative leaders, senate majority leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield, to the White House.
The Michigan legislature would be called on to select electors if Mr Trump succeeds in convincing the state's board of canvassers not to certify Mr Biden's 154,000- vote victory in the state. But both legislative leaders have indicated they will not try to overturn Mr Biden's win. "Michigan law does not include a provision for the Legislature to directly select electors or to award electors to anyone other than the person who received the most votes," Mr Shirkey's spokeswoman said last week.
Mr trump' s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and others held a press conference to allege a widespread Democratic election conspiracy involving multiple states and suspect voting machines.
Mr Giuliani cited a few sworn affidavits that he said showed a vast democratic conspiracy, but added that he could not reveal much of the evidence.
Chris Krebs, the Trump administration election official sacked last week over the comments about the security of 2020, tweeted :" That press conference was the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in Americanhistory. Andpossibly the craziest."