...because, despite being POTUS, the legal advice your getting (or ignoring) sucks. Yeah, that could be it.Our highly trained security professionals are not allowed to do their job on the Border because of the Judicial Activism and Interference by the 9th Circuit. Nevertheless, they are working hard to make America a safer place, though hard to do when anybody filing a lawsuit wins!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2018
Look at that map and be afraid (I know it's summer in Antarctica, but still!). Be doubly afraid because our President is so stupid.I know you're Mr. America-is-all-that-matters, but climate is actually a global phenomenon. Here's today's global weather map (oh, and red=hot.) As a whole, Earth is about 1.2 degrees above preindustrial temps today pic.twitter.com/kRaGd7cZF3— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) November 22, 2018
You just can’t win with the Fake News Media. A big story today is that because I have pushed so hard and gotten Gasoline Prices so low, more people are driving and I have caused traffic jams throughout our Great Nation. Sorry everyone!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2018
Price of a barrel of oil was $53 in Jan 2017. You, Russia & Saudis drove it up to $82. Now you want credit for it coming down? But thanks for inventing Thanksgiving & traffic jams on the 3rd Wed in Nov. I bet a lot of people will go shopping on Friday for the first time ever too.— Facts Do Matter (@WilDonnelly) November 22, 2018
He is literally too ignorant to understand how ignorant he is.Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS - Whatever happened to Global Warming?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2018
A report this month in Nature raises a different, intriguing possibility about how urbanization might be making rainfall flooding worse, or at least how it did in Houston’s case: by literally slowing down storms. Researchers at the University of Iowa and Princeton built a model to estimate Harvey’s rainfall totals in the region. Then they took the city out of the model. They found the storm would have dropped less rain, and in different places, on a Harris County made of cropland.
Why? Basically, they think, the scale of the urban agglomeration in and around Harris County is creating atmospheric friction, putting a drag on storm winds. Climate change is supposed to produce more slow-moving storms like Harvey, which increases the scope of rainfall damage by leaving storm clouds to linger over one place—but cities may be slowing them down further, according to a co-efficient the authors call “roughness.” (Their models also conclude the growth of the city since 1950 is linked to a “clear increase in the magnitude and variability” of flooding.) In the case of Harvey, the storm’s extremely slow speed caused it to linger over East Texas for three days, concentrating rainfall damage.
It’s one more threatening way that “natural” disasters are evolving into our own creations.
Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Mattis confirmed that he had been given the additional authority, but would await a request from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) before deciding how to use it.
“I have the authority to do more, now we’ll see what she asks me for,” Mattis said, referring to DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. He said he had no immediate intention of changing the mission.
Mattis said, depending on the DHS request, that troops may be given powers to temporarily detain migrants, but not the authority to arrest them. They would only be permitted to detain migrants for “minutes, not even hours” while they hand them over to border agents.
He said troops could help protect the border agents with shields and batons, but would be unarmed.
Two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said a memo signed by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly gave Mattis the authority to protect immigration agents and if necessary, could include actions like use of lethal force, crowd control, temporary detention and cursory searches.
The White House late Tuesday signed a memo allowing troops stationed at the border to engage in some law enforcement roles and use lethal force, if necessary — a move that legal experts have cautioned may run afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act.
The new “Cabinet order” was signed by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, not President Donald Trump. It allows “Department of Defense military personnel” to “perform those military protective activities that the Secretary of Defense determines are reasonably necessary” to protect border agents, including “a show or use of force (including lethal force, where necessary), crowd control, temporary detention. and cursory search.”
However an earlier “decision memo” that came to the same recommendations that were contained in the “cabinet memo” was signed by President Trump, according to documents obtained by Newsweek.
Credible evidence and intelligence indicates that migrant caravans originating from Central America and moving toward the southern border of the United States...may prompt incidents of violence and disorder that could threaten U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other United States personnel and prevent them from performing the federal functions necessary to secure and protect the integrity of the southern border.
Some of those activities, including crowd control and detention, may run into potential conflict with the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act. If crossed, the erosion of the act’s limitations could represent a fundamental shift in the way the U.S. military is used, legal experts said.That is a fundamental shift this country doesn't need. We shall see what the courts say. We already know what Trump says:
There are a lot of CRIMINALS in the Caravan. We will stop them. Catch and Detain! Judicial Activism, by people who know nothing about security and the safety of our citizens, is putting our country in great danger. Not good!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018
Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have “Obama judges,” and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country. It would be great if the 9th Circuit was indeed an “independent judiciary,” but if it is why......— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018
.....are so many opposing view (on Border and Safety) cases filed there, and why are a vast number of those cases overturned. Please study the numbers, they are shocking. We need protection and security - these rulings are making our country unsafe! Very dangerous and unwise!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018
Roberts said Wednesday the U.S. doesn’t have “Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.” He commented in a statement released by the Supreme Court after a query by The Associated Press.Roberts was trying to speak for the independence of the judiciary. But he has now entered the fray, which is why Chief Justices don't comment like this (and shouldn't be prompted to by Presidents). Now, if this case gets to the Supreme Court, how does Roberts prove his independence? By ruling against Trump? Or for him? Does he become a "Trump judge" if the Court does the latter? Trump will surely say so. Is he a "Bush Judge" if the Court rules against the DOJ's legal theory (very likely, since the claim the people in Tijuana, Mexico represent a threat to the U.S. is a finding of fact in court; appellate courts must take findings of fact as given to them; they rule only on matters of law. If the lower court found the facts supporting the President's assertion weren't shown, the Supremes can't find them somewhere). Trump will complain publicly about that, too. Either way, Trump gets the last word, which in his book means he wins.
Roberts said on the day before Thanksgiving that an “independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”
On the one hand, several major evangelical leaders and institutions have been vocal advocates for the dignity of refugees, and for a more compassionate public policy toward immigration overall.
In June, delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual conferences passed a near-unanimous resolution affirming the dignity of migrants and refugees. More recently, six major evangelical leaders, including Russell Moore, director of the Southern Baptist Convention’s policy arm, and Galen Caley, a vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, released joint statements urging President Donald Trump to allow members of the Honduran migrant caravan currently making its way to the US-Mexico border to seek asylum in the United States.
“People fleeing for their lives are not to be used as political props,” Moore has said. “Those escaping violence and persecution in Honduras and elsewhere bear the image of God and should be treated with dignity and compassion. As Christians, we should share the heart of Jesus for refugees and others imperiled.”
On the other hand, white evangelicals report being more hostile to refugees, and to migrants more generally, than any other religious group in America. A full 68 percent of them say they believe America has no responsibility to house refugees, according to a poll by Pew conducted this spring. Another poll, conducted by Washington Post/ABC in January, found that 75 percent of white evangelicals said they thought that the Trump-era federal crackdown on undocumented immigrants was a good thing, compared to just 46 percent of Americans overall.
....
The reasons for this discrepancy are complicated. They include a white evangelical population that gets its moral sense as much from conservative media as it does from scripture. There’s also a more general conflation of white evangelicalism with the GOP party agenda, which has been intensifying since the days of the Moral Majority in the 1980s.
Stetzer acknowledged that “what you have is a distance between the grassroots and what’s often called the evangelical leadership” on immigration, with evangelicals in the pews generally far more negative on immigrants than those in the pulpit. “The leaders of evangelical institutions have increasing distance from one another at this issue.” Only, he said, once evangelical leaders and pastors were successful in promoting a Biblical theology of immigration, rather than one gleaned from cable news, could everyday evangelicals adopt a less reactionary stance towards migration.
At the same time, Wussow noted, “One of the propositions that Romans 13 stands for that government is ... an institution that’s been created by God, for the good of humanity.” Ultimately, he said, the idea of national borders — and that a government’s response is primarily to care for its own people — is also scriptural.
“I think if you just sort of step back and look at scripture, God seems to see the world in terms of nations,” he said, adding: “We think that every government has an obligation and responsibility to care first for those who are within its sovereignty and then answer the question, What can we do to extend compassion to those who are fleeing persecution.”
But, Yang pointed out, the idea of civil disobedience — even when it comes specifically to immigration — is also deeply rooted in scripture. He cited the biblical story in the book of Genesis of Abraham smuggling his wife Sarah into Egypt, having her pose as his sister, to protect her. “People need to also understand that the laws are broken in scripture,” she said.
In fact, she argued: “The whole scripture is based on migration. Every single major biblical character was an immigrant. Jesus himself was a refugee. Abraham, who’s considered the father of our faith ... was an immigrant. Joseph was a victim of human trafficking.”
White evangelicals, in other words, are only part of the story of evangelicalism in America. And as their numbers shrink, an “evangelical” approach to politics may come to look very different.
Trump says people shouldn’t worry about US troops spending Thanksgiving at the border because they are “tough people”— Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) November 20, 2018
Trump says “don’t worry” about troops who have to spend thanksgiving on the border, they’re tough people and proud to be protecting the nation.— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) November 20, 2018
One of the most fascinating arguments of the book is that while Christians knew there were problems with the text, it wasn’t the “faith killer” that it is today. Knust and Wasserman show that interest in the “original version” and “accuracy” of the New Testament texts is very much a recent phenomenon that began in the 18th and 19th centuries with the rise of critical scholarship.
Prior to that, and in the early Church in particular, Christians were more likely to have been used to thinking about the Jesus story in practice, rather than on paper. As they told me, “The stories and sayings Christians tell, hear, read, copy, illustrate, and perform, in and out of church, have always been as important—even more important!—for determining beliefs about ‘the gospel’ than the words in a given text.”
What the history of this story shows, as Knust and Wasserman so deftly demonstrate, is that even though this story doesn’t belong to the author of the Gospel of John (and, many might argue, probably never happened), this isn’t the central point. To early Christians this story had “broad appeal,” and that appeal was not exclusively grounded in the claim that it was historically accurate. As they write in the conclusion to their book, the “lesson” of the woman caught in adultery isn’t just that the text of the Gospels changed, but that what survived and counted as ‘authentic’ was greatly influenced by local liturgical traditions.
Though they are careful to point out that we don’t know for sure where the story came from or why it was added to the Gospel of John, Knust, an associate professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Boston University, and Wasserman, a professor of Biblical Studies at Ansgar Teologiske Høgskole in Norway, told The Daily Beast that the interpolation took place “in a context where Greek was used but Latin was also spoken, and probably because the interpolator thought it fit best into that Gospel.” They added that “we can only speculate about why John and not some other Gospel,” but mentioned several theories, including the prominence of stories about women in the Fourth Gospel. They also note the intriguing theory of New Testament scholar Chris Keith that, in addition to portraying Jesus as forgiving, the story also presents Jesus as able to write. Perhaps it was added, then, to combat the scandalous accusation that Jesus wasn’t fully literate.
Even if all politicians lie, I believe that post-truth foreshadows something more sinister. In his powerful book “On Tyranny,” historian Timothy Snyder writes that “post-truth is pre-fascism.” It is a tactic seen in “electoral dictatorships” – where a society retains the facade of voting without the institutions or trust to ensure that it is an actual democracy, like those in Putin’s Russia or Erdogan’s Turkey.
In this, Trump is following the authoritarian playbook, characterized by leaders lying, the erosion of public institutions and the consolidation of power. You do not need to convince someone that you are telling the truth when you can simply assert your will over them and dominate their reality
A group of Senate Democrats is suing to block Matt Whitaker from serving as acting attorney general on grounds that his placement in the post was unconstitutional.
The suit, which is being filed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is the latest and most aggressive salvo against the Whitaker appointment. Last week, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel defended Whitaker’s promotion in a memo that drew immediate criticism for its expansive understanding of the president’s power. That view is in hot dispute, including from the state of Maryland, which petitioned a federal judge to stop him from serving on constitutional grounds.
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“Installing Matthew Whitaker so flagrantly defies constitutional law that any viewer of Schoolhouse Rock would recognize it,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “President Trump is denying Senators our constitutional obligation and opportunity to do our job: scrutinizing the nomination of our nation’s top law enforcement official. The reason is simple: Whitaker would never pass the advice and consent test. In selecting a so-called “constitutional nobody” and thwarting every Senator’s constitutional duty, Trump leaves us no choice but to seek recourse through the courts.”
But [John] Oliver argued that Trump’s “weirdest unforced error this week” came during a Medal of Freedom ceremony honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (as well as the wife of one of Trump’s biggest donors). After naming Scalia’s nine children, Trump addressed Scalia’s widow, Maureen, who was in attendance. “You were very busy!” the president told her. “Wow. Wow. I always knew I liked him.”
“What are you doing, you strange, strange man!” Oliver exclaimed. “You’re essentially saying, ‘I like your dead husband because I like people who fuck a lot because I fuck a lot. Guess what? I just took a speech about your dead husband and made it about me fucking a lot. Sorry for your loss, come get your medal.’”
Matthew Wilson, an SMU associate professor of political science, is a leading expert on evangelical Christian voters.
“We should not underestimate the extent to which many evangelicals feel that the church faces existential threats in America today,” he wrote by email.
“The Democratic Party now embraces legal abortion, same-sex marriage, gender fluidity, and a secularized public square … Given all of that, it is not a stretch from the evangelical point of view to think of the Democratic Party as ‘godless.’ "
In other words, the more like Trump we all are, the closer to God we all are. Because: reasons. And fear of a brown planet.
At Culberson’s post-election gathering, according to video from Houston television station KHOU, Young claimed a Pittsburgh-area Democratic Party chairman had been forced out over a Facebook repost about how Americans should “kneel at the cross.”
The post actually criticized NFL players’ anthem protests, one of several that seemed more like racial insults.
But Young took it out of context, telling the Republican gathering the Democratic Party is “no longer a party. It’s some kind of religion that is basically godless, and as long as America — and this is represented by every Democrat I know — does not believe in the sacredness of the life in the mother’s womb, God will not bless America or make us a great nation.”
This is where I usually turn to Professor Darrell L. Bock of the conservative Dallas Theological Seminary, the author of the 2016 book “How Would Jesus Vote? Do Your Political Views Really Align With the Bible?”
“I think the issue of abortion is an important one,” he wrote by email, and some Republicans consider Democrats godless because they dismiss debating other options and seem indifferent to taking any responsibility for a developing life.
Just an ordinary day in the Finnish forest ~ Ihan normipäivä suomalaisessa metsässä #Trump #forest #firesafety #raking #forestry #Finland #Finnish #CaliforniaFire #RakingAmericaGreatAgain #rakingtheforest #Suomi #haravointi #metsäpalot #rakingleaves pic.twitter.com/YOKA3D6C2K— Pyry Luminen (@pyryluminen) November 18, 2018
“He’s a Hillary Clinton backer!” Trump snapped at Wallace.
“He was a Navy SEAL,” Wallace observed.
“It would be nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner,” Trump complained. “Wouldn’t it have been nice?”
“I did not back Hillary Clinton or anyone else,” he fact-checked. “I am a fan of President Obama and President George W. Bush, both of whom I worked for.”
“I admire all presidents, regardless of their political party, who uphold the dignity of the office and who use that office to bring the nation together in challenging times,” he continued.
“I stand by my comment that the president’s attack on the media is the greatest threat to our democracy in my lifetime,” he added. “When you undermine the people’s right to free press and freedom of speech and expression, then you threaten the Constitution and all for which it stands.”
Where Our President said (and I can't wait to hear how this is fake news):President @realDonaldTrump is traveling to California to meet with those impacted by the devastating wildfires. Learn how the Trump Administration is supporting the State of California during this emergency: https://t.co/iHcbAfmsq9 pic.twitter.com/nGY96wHt1F— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 17, 2018
“You’ve gotta take care of the floors, you know, the floors of the forest, very important,” Trump said, flanked by the current and future governors of California. “You look at other countries where they do it differently and it’s a whole different story.”
He added: “I was with the President of Finland and he called it a forest nation, and they spend a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things and they don’t have any problem, and when it is, it’s a very small problem.”
Really, really clueless:Incredible to be with our GREAT HEROES today in California. We will always be with you! pic.twitter.com/B1MCTF83Zf— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2018
I perhaps wouldn't compare Finland and California climate-wise...— Veli-Pekka Kivimäki (@vpkivimaki) November 17, 2018
And besides, 80% of the country is classified as forest land. We don't exactly manicure all of it. https://t.co/fthi7FUw0N
“Injustice is the perverse root of poverty,” Francis said at a Mass marking the Roman Catholic Church’s annual World Day of the Poor. “The cry of the poor daily becomes stronger but heard less, drowned out by the din of the rich few, who grow ever fewer and more rich.”
Francis also reiterated his support for migrants saying that people must pay attention to “all those forced to flee their homes and native land for an uncertain future”.
Seems likely Democrats will eventually get up to about 60m total votes for the House once unprocessed ballots from CA are tallied. Maybe a bit more (~61M?) based on what's left in other states. Those are similar numbers to what recent GOP *presidential* candidates have received.— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 18, 2018
There's not any precedent for an opposition party coming this close to matching the president's vote total from 2 years earlier. The closest to an exception was when Democratic House candidates in 1970 got 92% of Nixon's vote total from 1968. pic.twitter.com/NOTLQnYI9z— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 18, 2018
What's that Orwell quote about seeing what's right in front of you? The "blue wave" was so big the pundits still can't see it.About 60 million people turned out to vote for Democrats for the House this year. That is a **crazy** number. (Republicans got 45m votes in the 2010 wave.)— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 18, 2018
And this was sort of missed. Why so many stories about Trump voters in truck stops and not so many about "the resistance"?
Apparently this started there, then went here:Rep. Adam Schiff said Pres.Trump “needs to listen to the experts” when it comes to the wildfires ravaging the state, adding that “clearly” the president “isn't one of them.” https://t.co/yNJMK9Rd3s pic.twitter.com/VpunuQHOam— ABC News (@ABC) November 18, 2018
(No surprise the President wouldn't defend his remarks in California), and then here:So funny to see little Adam Schitt (D-CA) talking about the fact that Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker was not approved by the Senate, but not mentioning the fact that Bob Mueller (who is highly conflicted) was not approved by the Senate!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2018
Trump's inability to grasp the most basic features of the Constitution he swore to preserve, protect, and defend, continues unabated.Wow, Mr. President, that’s a good one.— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) November 18, 2018
Was that like your answers to Mr. Mueller’s questions, or did you write this one yourself? https://t.co/Yd27sayt7C
Universities will someday study what highly conflicted (and NOT Senate approved) Bob Mueller and his gang of Democrat thugs have done to destroy people. Why is he protecting Crooked Hillary, Comey, McCabe, Lisa Page & her lover, Peter S, and all of his friends on the other side?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2018
The only “Collusion” is that of the Democrats with Russia and many others. Why didn’t the FBI take the Server from the DNC? They still don’t have it. Check out how biased Facebook, Google and Twitter are in favor of the Democrats. That’s the real Collusion!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2018
The White House is running very smoothly and the results for our Nation are obviously very good. We are the envy of the world. But anytime I even think about making changes, the FAKE NEWS MEDIA goes crazy, always seeking to make us look as bad as possible! Very dishonest!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2018
The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess. They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want. They are a disgrace to our Nation and don’t...— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2018
....care how many lives the ruin. These are Angry People, including the highly conflicted Bob Mueller, who worked for Obama for 8 years. They won’t even look at all of the bad acts and crimes on the other side. A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2018
#Broward election supervisors ongoing violation of #Florida law requiring timely reporting isn’t just annoying incompetence. It has opened the door for lawyers to come here & try to steal a seat in the U.S. Senate & Florida Cabinet— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 8, 2018
#Sayfie
6/6
The story in the New York Times concerning North Korea developing missile bases is inaccurate. We fully know about the sites being discussed, nothing new - and nothing happening out of the normal. Just more Fake News. I will be the first to let you know if things go bad!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2018
The secret ballistic missile bases were identified in a detailed study published Monday by the Beyond Parallel program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a major think tank in Washington.Jump back to last June:
Trump says he trusts Kim Jong Un. And if he's wrong? "I may be wrong, I mean I may stand before you in six months and say, 'Hey I was wrong,'" said Trump, before adding, "I don't know that I'll ever admit that, but I'll find some kind of an excuse." https://t.co/fk4Fpko8qC pic.twitter.com/FKFfSVE7VE— CNN (@CNN) June 12, 2018
The six-month report by independent experts monitoring the implementation of U.N. sanctions was submitted to the Security Council North Korea sanctions committee late on Friday.
“(North Korea) has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illicit ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, as well as through transfers of coal at sea during 2018,” the experts wrote in the 149-page report.
A Washington-based think tank on Monday said it has identified 13 of the estimated 20 undeclared missile operating bases in North Korea, while noting the somewhat-limited capabilities of the sites.
"Missile operating bases are not launch facilities,” Joseph Bermudez wrote in a report published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “While missiles could be launched from within them in an emergency, Korean People’s Army (KPA) operational procedures call for missile launchers to disperse from the bases to pre-surveyed or semi-prepared launch sites for operations.”
“North Korea’s decommissioning of the Sohae satellite launch facility, while gaining much media attention, obscures the military threat to U.S. forces and South Korea from this and other undeclared ballistic missile bases,” Bermudez wrote, adding that the sites appear to be "active and being reasonably well-maintained."
U.S. analysts said Monday they have located 13 secret North Korean missile development sites, underscoring the challenge that the Trump administration faces in trying to reach its promised broad arms control agreement with Pyongyang.The New York Times (yesterday):
The administration has said it is hopeful about eventually reaching an agreement with North Korea. President Donald Trump declared after his historic summit in June that with President Kim Jong Un there was "no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea." But a report based on satellite imagery shows the complexity posed by an extensive network of weapons facilities that the U.S. wants to neutralize.
And Mr. Trump? He appears still happily convinced that love had conquered all. “We fully know about the sites being discussed, nothing new — and nothing happening out of the normal,” he said on Twitter on Tuesday. “Just more Fake News. I will be the first to let you know if things go bad!”I suppose it's comforting that the U.S. knows about these bases. That the President seems to think everything is fine, is far less comforting.
How bad they have to go before Mr. Trump abandons his delusions of an epochal achievement is anybody’s guess. But once he does, it is easy to imagine him unleashing even more of the apocalyptic language that raised tensions in 2017. The difference is that this time he will probably not have the support of China, Russia or South Korea, which took the June summit meeting as a signal to improve relations with North Korea and are not likely to turn back.
When will Bill Nelson concede in Florida? The characters running Broward and Palm Beach voting will not be able to “find” enough votes, too much spotlight on them now!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2018
Both the state elections department and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which are run by Republican appointees, have said they have seen no evidence of voter fraud anywhere in the state and a Broward judge challenged anyone who has evidence of fraud to file a report.And the President doesn't speak for the White House (!):
White House spokeswoman Mercedes Schlapp said Tuesday the president “obviously has his opinion” on the recount. Trump on Monday tweeted that “An honest vote count is no longer possible” in Florida, without elaborating, and said “new ballots showed up out of nowhere.” It was unclear what he was referring to. He demanded that the election night results — which showed the Republicans leading based upon incomplete ballot counts — be used to determine the winner.
“It’s been incredibly frustrating to watch. You have a 12,000-vote gap and the other candidate refuses to concede,” Schlapp said, referring to Scott’s opponent, incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. “So I think at this point that it’s going to go through the process of the manual recount and the machine recount and we’ll see what happens, but we’re confident that Rick Scott will be the next senator of Florida.”Speaking of speaking out:
The judge said he could see no evidence of any violations, and said “I am urging because of the highly public nature of this case to ramp down the rhetoric.”The irony? Under Florida law, the Republicans may end up getting what they want anyway (how conveeeeenient!):
“If someone in this lawsuit or someone in this county has evidence of voter fraud or irregularities at the supervisor’s office, they should report it to their local law enforcement officer,” Tuter said. “If the lawyers are aware of it, they should swear out an affidavit, but everything the lawyers are saying out there in front of the elections office is being beamed all over the country. We need to be careful of what we say. Words mean things these days.”
In Palm Beach, Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher said the county’s 11-year-old tallying machines aren’t fast enough to complete the recount by Thursday. The county is doing the Senate race first and will then do the governor. If the deadline is not met in a race, the results it reported last Saturday will stand.
