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STRESS TEST  |  PROLOGUE  | 
JANUARY 6  |  FALLOUT
  |  IMPEACHMENT
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  • Stress Test This Is Not a Test
Selected press releases and other documents from the frontlines:
Arizona  |  Georgia  |  Michigan  |  Nevada  |  Pennsylvania  |  Wisconsin

(ema, revised  and updated Feb. 7, 2021 Day after day, week after week following the November election, President Trump maintained, despite the evidence, that he had won and won big.  Trump had been telegraphing for months before the election that he would challenge the outcome if he didn't win.  He and his allies focused on six key states, waging an aggressive litigation, disinformation and pressure campaign to overturn the results, putting America's democracy through a severe stress test.

In an election in which 160 million people vote, it is inevitable that there will be irregularities due to human error, technical problems or, in a few cases, malfeasance.  These must be investigated, remedied and, if they involved illegalities, prosecuted.  The strategy Trump and his allies carried out was to highlight reported irregularities, many of which were disproven, debunked, shown to be simple mistakes, or based on hearsay
(1, 2, PDF), and charge something much bigger had happened—systematic, widespread fraud affecting hundreds of thousands of votes. 

The fact that AP and other major news organizations called the election for Biden on Nov. 7 did not stop Trump.  The fact that officials charged with election security declared on Nov. 12 that, "The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history" did not stop Trump.  The officials stated, "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."  The fact that states, even Republican controlled states, certified results did not stop Trump.  The meetings of electors on Dec. 14 did not stop Trump.

Trump issued a flood of tweets with unsubstantiated, wild claims about election fraud, which were repeated and amplified by outlets such as OAN, The Epoch Times, Newsmax, Sean Hannity and on social media.  In the 2016 election, Russian disinformation was a major concern, but for 2020 domestic disinformation was rampant. The idea, Steve Bannon said in 2018, is to "flood the zone with s**t."  Against the flood, social media warnings had little effect. 

Trump's base stood with him.  Supporters turned up in large numbers for the Million MAGA March in DC on Nov. 14.  There were "Stop the Steal" events in key states, and a second big rally in DC was held on Dec. 12.

The Trump legal effort
failed miserablyTrump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, senior legal advisor to the Trump campaign, led the official team.  In addition, attorney Sidney Powell, whom the Trump legal team cut ties with on Nov. 22, and attorney Lin Wood drew attention with separate legal efforts.  Marc Elias, the prominent Democratic election lawyer who runs Democracy Docket, tallied 66 post-election cases filed by Trump and his allies in eight states seeking "to halt vote counting, delay certification and create uncertainty around the election results."  Trump and his allies' legal maneuverings included several attempts to engage the U.S. Supreme Court.  On Dec. 11 the Court refusing to take up the long-shot Texas v. Pennsylvania et al. case brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.  In late December the Trump campaign petitioned the Court to take up claims from Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.  At year's end Elias reported Trump/GOP were 1-59 in court.  In case after case, the Trump campaign presented anecdotes, affidavits, and broad assertions which courts found unconvincing, even embarrassingly so (1, 2)

Some observers described Trump's actions as a coup attempt that had very little chance of success or even an incompetent coup.  If it was a coup, it happened not at the barrel of a gun, but by means of a barrage of litigation and disinformation.  In fact the Trump "legal strategy" may not have been a legal strategy at all, but rather, as Election Law Blog's Rick Hasen Rick Hasen described it, "a loss leader, grift and delegitimization device."  In the month following Election Day, while the Trump campaign  spent a relatively modest amount on its legal efforts challenging the election outcome, the campaign, the RNC and Save America, Trump's new leadership PAC, brought in $207.5 million (+).  Other analysts pointed out that Trump's post-election legal maneuvers served as a kind of loyalty test, allowing him to solidify control over the Republican Party.

Meanwhile, conspiracy theories spread and took hold, as one Georgia legislator said, like kudzu.  Dominion Voting Systems was a frequent target and was forced to defend itself repeatedly (12, 3).  Fantastic stories circulated.  On Dec. 1 Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society held a press conference to tell the story of a USPS contractor driving a trailer truck of "144,000-288,000 completed mail-in ballots" from New York to Pennsylvania (+).  On Dec. 2 Trump ally Roger Stone, appearing on The Alex Jones Show, stated, "I just learned of absolute incontrovertible evidence of North Korean boats delivering ballots through a harbor in Maine, the state of Maine," Stone said. "If this checks out, if law enforcement looked into that and it turned out to be true, it would be proof of foreign involvement in the election (> at 6:55)."

In several contested states, there were legislative hearings into the election.  Most of these were orchestrated by Trump allies and looked more like show trials than efforts to get at the truth.  Trump also pushed for special legislative sessions in key states to overturn the results and appoint new electors.

While Trump and his allies flooded the zone with misinformation and disinformation, Republican elected officials by and large remained silent and on the sidelines. 
On Capitol Hill, only a handful of Republicans publicly acknowledged Biden as president-elect and called on Trump to restrain himself.  Shockingly in December, when the Texas v. Pennsylvania et al. lawsuit went to the Supreme Court, 126 House Republicans signed onto the amicus brief.

Matters came to a head in the Jan. 6, 2021 special joint session of Congress.  What is normally a pro forma affair, where the electoral votes sent in from the states are opened and tallied and the election certified, turned into a dark day for democracy as Trump supporters laid siege to and invaded the Capitol, disrupting the proceedings.  What happened on Jan.6 was the culmination of, and a direct result, of Trump's litigation, disinformation and pressure campaign.

Trump and his allies put America's democracy through a severe test
, at a time when the nation was already being sorely tested by the pandemic and spiking numbers of COVID-19 cases.  The effort damaged American democracy, undermining people's confidence in the integrity of the election process, hampering the peaceful transfer of power, and weakening our international position by making us look more like a third world dictatorship than a beacon of democracy. 

The 2020 election was conducted under the extraordinary circumstance of the pandemic and the unprecedented use of mail-in ballots posed challenges, but there was not significant fraud and election officials across the country did their job.  There will be lessons learned and state officials are already considering changes and improvements to election processes, but the question of how to counter misinformation and disinformation is one is not easily solved.

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Big picture:

Jim Rutenberg, Jo Becker, Eric Lipton, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Martin, Matthew Rosenberg and Michael S. Schmidt.  "77 Days: Trump's Campaign to Subvert the Election."  New York Times, Jan. 31, 2021.

Molly Ball.  "The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election."  Time, Feb. 4, 2021.

Toluse Olorunnipa and Michelle Ye Hee Lee.  "Trump's election fraud falsehoods have cost taxpayers $519 million (and counting)."  Washington Post, Feb. 6, 2021.


See also:
"Fact-checking false claims about the 2020 election."  PolitiFact.com (Poynter Institute).

"Issues: Voter Fraud."  FactCheck.org.


Elise Viebeck, Emma Brown and Rosalind S. Helderman. "Judges turn back claims by Trump and his allies in six states as the president’s legal effort founders."  Washington Post, Dec. 4, 2020.

Matthew S. Schwartz.  "Trump's Legal Losses Come Fast And Furious."  NPR, Dec. 5, 2020.


Philip Bump.  "Trump's campaign sent nearly as many emails in the three weeks after the election as the three weeks before."  Washington Post, Nov. 30, 2020.

Darragh Roche.  "Trump Campaign Has Sent Out Over 400 Fundraising Emails Since Losing Election."  Newsweek, Dec. 4, 2020.

Rick Hasen.  "Trump’s Continuing Failing Lawsuits as a Loss Leader, Grift, and Delegitimization Device."  Election Law Blog, Dec. 5, 2020.


Paul Kane and Scott Clement.  "Just 27 congressional Republicans acknowledge Biden's win, Washington Post Survey finds."  Washington Post, Dec. 5, 2020.

Nomaan Merchant and Alanna Durkin Richer.  "Hundreds of GOP members sign onto Texas-led election lawsuit."  AP, Dec. 10, 2020.

Toluse Olorunnipa and Cleve R. Wootson Jr.  "In challenging election defeat, Trump cements his control over the Republican Party."  Washington Post, Dec. 12, 2020.

Amy Gardner.  "'I just want to find 11,780 votes'; In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor."  Washington Post, Jan. 3, 2020.


Organizations mentioned above:
Democracy Docket: democracydocket.com
"the leading progressive platform dedicated to opinion, advocacy and information about voting rights, elections, redistricting and democracy."
Team:  Marc Elias, Founder  |  Allie Rothenberg, Managing Editor  |  Sam Gottstein, Press, Digital, Creative  |  Kelsey Movsowitz, Writer, Editor.
Sponsored by: DCCC, DNC, DSCC and Priorities USA.

Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society: got-freedom.org
"A national constitutional litigation organization...embarked on a multistate effort in 2019 to ensure election integrity in the 2020 elections."
Phil Kline, Director.