Sheer power underlines Trump’s poll fraud rants

Some people have an ego which is bigger than the Grand Canyon. Donald Trump appears to be one of them.

Even after being trounced in the presidential elections, he continues his tirade undeterred, crowing like a rooster from the rooftop that the polls have been rigged.

He is bent on reversing the 2020 election results, and that was blatantly evident in an hour-long phone call he had with a Georgia election official.

Trump pressed Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state’s presidential election. The president repeatedly cited disproven claims of fraud and raised the prospect of a “criminal offence” if officials did not change the vote count, according to a recording of the conversation.

A “bold, bald-faced abuse of power,” according to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. “Hard to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act,” said senior Republican Paul Ryan.

It just goes to show that he wants to blunt the opinion of the people. The reason being that he has inflated notions of his own importance.

Donald Trump’s obsession for clinging to power trumps all other concerns.

Trump is rejecting the will of the voters and casting aside results of the Electoral College enshrined in the Constitution.

Trump’s refusal to concede defeat, undermining the democratic tradition of a peaceful transfer of power and precluding the transition to a Biden administration, is particularly risky for a nation struggling to tackle a surging pandemic that has killed more than 350,000 Americans.

He does not appear to be serious about bringing the coronavirus under control. Clinging to his seat is the main issue.

Trump may well be living in a fantasy world of his own, a world where he is still the president, was responsible for the birth of the Covid vaccine, and says has done more for African Americans than any other president before him than any president “maybe”, including Abraham Lincoln. It also demonstrates just how unhinged and dangerous he can be.

The call showcased Trump’s evolution since Nov. 3. At first, he privately accepted that he had been beaten even as he publicly protested, hoping to show his loyal supporters that he was still fighting while eyeing his own future, politically and financially.

But as the weeks have gone on, Trump has embraced the narrative that his victory was ‘stolen.’ His shrinking inner circle is now largely populated by those peddling conspiracy theories. The president lives in a media echo chamber made up of conservative television and social media voices spotlighting and amplifying his claims of fraud.

Asked if he felt like the president was pressuring him to do something illegal, Raffensperger told on Monday: “I think he was looking for any kind of advantage he could get, and I just don’t see how he’s going to get it.”

The fact is that Republicans have themselves approved of the election results and see no dodginess in them.

Various election officials across the country and Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have said there was no widespread fraud in the election. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, battlegrounds crucial to Biden’s victory, have also vouched for the integrity of their state elections.

Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, which has three Trump-nominated justices.

Raffensperger added that Georgia’s presidential votes were counted three times – first right after the election, then in an audit that hand tallied the results and finally in a machine recount at Trump’s request.

“If they support a challenge of the electors for Georgia, they’re wrong, dead wrong.”

Trump is on slippery ground, and the sooner he realises the full importance of this, the better.