motherjones--2020-11-25--Trump’s Lawyers Performed Another Embarrassing “Election Fraud” Show

President Trump called into a bizarre meeting disguised as a hearing on unsubstantiated election fraud on Wednesday .
The sham meeting designed to look like legislative session was in fact just a GOP hosted session at a hotel , organized by Pennsylvania state Republicans and the president ’ s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani , who ’ s leading the campaign ’ s legal effort to challenge the result of the election .
Trump , who originally was rumored to appear in person , instead called into campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis ’ cell phone midway through the proceedings and ranted about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ held the cell phone up to a microphone ( interrupted occasionally by the sound of another incoming call to her phone ) .
“ This election has to be turned around because we won Pennsylvania by a lot and we won all of these swing states by a lot , ” Trump said over the phone , despite the fact that the states of Pennsylvania and Michigan—another key swing state that the president lost— have already certified their votes , giving president-elect Joe Biden the Electoral College margin he needed to win the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turn the election over because there ’ s no doubt we have all the evidence , we have all the affidavits , we just need some judge to listen to it properly , ” Trump said , as a crowd of supporters cheered in agreement .
The meeting was just the latest , fleeting attempt for Trump and his campaign to try overturn the election results by spreading unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud that allege a vast international conspiracy to fix the 2020 election .
Leading the effort is Giuliani , who for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ witnesses to a panel of Republican state senators that told stories of voting irregularities they witnessed on Election Day .
But at no point did Giuliani nor any witnesses present any evidence of election fraud .
Instead , Giuliani marveled incredulously that there were more absentee ballots than were mailed out .
( That ’ s because people could go in person to an election board office to request a mail-in ballot ) .
He suggested that thousands of dead people voted .
( They didn ’ t ) .
And at one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that a single person may have cast nearly 700,000 ballots .
The witnesses that the president ’ s lawyer rolled out to show evidence of election fraud included a first-time poll worker who apparently did not understand that it is proper election procedure to separate envelopes from ballots to ensure voter secrecy , as well as an elderly voter who did not understand how an electronic voting machine worked and thought it was “ odd.
” There was also an attorney claiming to be an expert in Pennsylvania election law , though @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Florida and Illinois .
The president , who said over the phone he had been watching the meeting on OANN , soaked it all up .
“ This election was lost by the Democrats , they cheated , it was a fraudulent election , they flooded the market , they flooded everybody with ballots and I just want to thank everybody for being there , ” Trump said .
It ’ s easy dismiss this latest stunt in the Trump campaign ’ s trifling effort to change the results of the election as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the final pitiful whimpering of the clown show coup , but there ’ s something sinister at play .
As my colleague Ari Berman wrote , Trump and his enabler ’ s vast effort to undermine the legitimacy of the election could set the stage for GOP state lawmakers to pass new voter suppression measures : It ’ s very easy to imagine state-level Republicans introducing legislation in early 2021 to cut back on mail voting or early voting , which helped lead to record turnout in 2020 .
Republican attorneys general have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campaign ’ s efforts to block mail ballots that legally arrived after Election Day from being counted in Pennsylvania , claiming that the authority of the state legislature , which refused to give voters more time to send their ballots back , should supersede the judgements of state courts that did allot this extra time—an argument that could give GOP-controlled state legislatures even more sway over voting laws in 2021 .
Though Wednesday ’ s meeting doesn ’ t have any real consequence for the Pennsylvania state Senate—it was merely a caucus meeting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy committee—the lawmakers who led it vowed to investigate the election measures that allowed a record number of people to vote in Pennsylvania .
While Giuliani and Ellis kept repeating that the state legislators should overturn the will of their state ’ s voters , the lawmakers ’ questions were often more pointed toward looking at how they could use these erroneous claims of fraud as reason to push future voter restrictions .
Still , while the lawmakers seemed unlikely to intercede to subvert the 2020 election results , that didn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s ego , offering up histrionics to appease the president bunkered at the White House .
“ In a hundred years this will be the most important hearing this state senate committee has ever held , ” Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano said .

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President Trump called into a bizarre meeting disguised as a hearing on unsubstantiated election fraud on Wednesday. The sham meeting designed to look like legislative session was in fact just a GOP hosted session at a hotel, organized by Pennsylvania state Republicans and the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who’s leading the campaign’s legal effort to challenge the result of the election.
Trump, who originally was rumored to appear in person, instead called into campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis’ cell phone midway through the proceedings and ranted about the “stolen election” as Ellis held the cell phone up to a microphone (interrupted occasionally by the sound of another incoming call to her phone). “This election has to be turned around because we won Pennsylvania by a lot and we won all of these swing states by a lot,” Trump said over the phone, despite the fact that the states of Pennsylvania and Michigan—another key swing state that the president lost— have already certified their votes, giving president-elect Joe Biden the Electoral College margin he needed to win the 2020 election. “We have to turn the election over because there’s no doubt we have all the evidence, we have all the affidavits, we just need some judge to listen to it properly,” Trump said, as a crowd of supporters cheered in agreement.
The meeting was just the latest, fleeting attempt for Trump and his campaign to try overturn the election results by spreading unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud that allege a vast international conspiracy to fix the 2020 election. Leading the effort is Giuliani, who for hours on Wednesday presented a host of witnesses to a panel of Republican state senators that told stories of voting irregularities they witnessed on Election Day. But at no point did Giuliani nor any witnesses present any evidence of election fraud. Instead, Giuliani marveled incredulously that there were more absentee ballots than were mailed out. (That’s because people could go in person to an election board office to request a mail-in ballot). He suggested that thousands of dead people voted. (They didn’t). And at one point Giuliani suggested, with no evidence, that a single person may have cast nearly 700,000 ballots.
The witnesses that the president’s lawyer rolled out to show evidence of election fraud included a first-time poll worker who apparently did not understand that it is proper election procedure to separate envelopes from ballots to ensure voter secrecy, as well as an elderly voter who did not understand how an electronic voting machine worked and thought it was “odd.” There was also an attorney claiming to be an expert in Pennsylvania election law, though is only licensed to practice law in Florida and Illinois.
The president, who said over the phone he had been watching the meeting on OANN, soaked it all up. “This election was lost by the Democrats, they cheated, it was a fraudulent election, they flooded the market, they flooded everybody with ballots and I just want to thank everybody for being there,” Trump said.
It’s easy dismiss this latest stunt in the Trump campaign’s trifling effort to change the results of the election as another sad sideshow of American democracy, the final pitiful whimpering of the clown show coup, but there’s something sinister at play. As my colleague Ari Berman wrote, Trump and his enabler’s vast effort to undermine the legitimacy of the election could set the stage for GOP state lawmakers to pass new voter suppression measures:
It’s very easy to imagine state-level Republicans introducing legislation in early 2021 to cut back on mail voting or early voting, which helped lead to record turnout in 2020. Republican attorneys general have intervened in litigation to back the Trump campaign’s efforts to block mail ballots that legally arrived after Election Day from being counted in Pennsylvania, claiming that the authority of the state legislature, which refused to give voters more time to send their ballots back, should supersede the judgements of state courts that did allot this extra time—an argument that could give GOP-controlled state legislatures even more sway over voting laws in 2021.
Though Wednesday’s meeting doesn’t have any real consequence for the Pennsylvania state Senate—it was merely a caucus meeting for the state’s Senate majority policy committee—the lawmakers who led it vowed to investigate the election measures that allowed a record number of people to vote in Pennsylvania. While Giuliani and Ellis kept repeating that the state legislators should overturn the will of their state’s voters, the lawmakers’ questions were often more pointed toward looking at how they could use these erroneous claims of fraud as reason to push future voter restrictions.
Still, while the lawmakers seemed unlikely to intercede to subvert the 2020 election results, that didn’t stop them from kowtowing to the president’s ego, offering up histrionics to appease the president bunkered at the White House. “In a hundred years this will be the most important hearing this state senate committee has ever held,” Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano said.


motherjones--2020-11-25--The Safest Ways to Celebrate Thanksgiving, According to Science

How are your Thanksgiving plans different this year ?
You may have heeded the urgent advice to put travel plans on ice , but you ’ re still trying your best to feel the holiday spirit , somehow ?
As the latest coronavirus surge continues unabated , and as various kinds of restrictions swing into effect across the country , the Mother Jones Podcast team is bringing you two chats with top infectious-disease experts on how to stop the spread and keep you and your family safe during a holiday season unlike any other .
Science communication expert Jessica Malaty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few tips for you , and a couple for the incoming president , too .
Rivera spoke to our senior editor Kiera Butler about Thanksgiving strategies— ” a negative COVID-19 test is not an immunity passport , ” she warns—as well as her work to document up-to-the-minute coronavirus data and trends at the COVID Tracking Project .
“ Nobody here is saying we should cancel Thanksgiving , ” Rivera says .
“ What we ’ re saying is it needs to look very different from years past.
” Some top-line tips : Stay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hosting a gatherings , keep it small , outdoors , and masked .
Read more from Mother Jones ’ interview with Rivera , and how the Biden administration must beat viral misinformation influencers at their own game to combat the coronavirus , here .
Also on the show , host Jamilah King spoke to Dr. Peter Hotez , a vaccine scientist , pediatrician , and dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston , about the state of vaccine development right now , including which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get it first , and when .
He gives his Thanksgiving tips , too : “ We are in a public health crisis , ” he says .
“ Don ’ t do reckless , irresponsible things .
Let ’ s just hang on a few more months and everyone can get vaccinated and live.
” Listen to the full episode , below : Listen to the latest episode of the Mother Jones Podcast : Subscribe using Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Stitcher , or your favorite podcast app .

How are your Thanksgiving plans different this year? You may have heeded the urgent advice to put travel plans on ice, but you’re still trying your best to feel the holiday spirit, somehow? As the latest coronavirus surge continues unabated, and as various kinds of restrictions swing into effect across the country, the Mother Jones Podcast team is bringing you two chats with top infectious-disease experts on how to stop the spread and keep you and your family safe during a holiday season unlike any other.
Science communication expert Jessica Malaty Rivera, a microbiologist, has a few tips for you, and a couple for the incoming president, too. Rivera spoke to our senior editor Kiera Butler about Thanksgiving strategies—”a negative COVID-19 test is not an immunity passport,” she warns—as well as her work to document up-to-the-minute coronavirus data and trends at the COVID Tracking Project. “Nobody here is saying we should cancel Thanksgiving,” Rivera says. “What we’re saying is it needs to look very different from years past.” Some top-line tips: Stay at home, and if you are hosting a gatherings, keep it small, outdoors, and masked. Read more from Mother Jones’ interview with Rivera, and how the Biden administration must beat viral misinformation influencers at their own game to combat the coronavirus, here.
Also on the show, host Jamilah King spoke to Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine scientist, pediatrician, and dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, about the state of vaccine development right now, including which segments of the population are expected to get it first, and when. He gives his Thanksgiving tips, too: “We are in a public health crisis,” he says. “Don’t do reckless, irresponsible things. Let’s just hang on a few more months and everyone can get vaccinated and live.”
Listen to the full episode, below:


motherjones--2020-11-25--Perdue and Loeffler’s Well-Timed Stock Trades Give Georgia Democrats an Opening

Sen. David Perdue has hit a tough string of headlines recently that are complicating his effort to win reelection as a Republican in Georgia .
The coverage shares a theme : Perdue used his position in the Senate to enrich himself and his wealthy donors .
The stories follow the revelation from this spring that Perdue , a multi-millionaire , traded stocks following a private January briefing on the coronavirus at the same time he publicly downplayed the pandemic ’ s threat .
If this sounds familiar , it ’ s because his colleague Sen. Kelly Loeffler ( R-Ga. ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Senate ethics investigation .
Together , Perdue and Loeffler make a unique pair : two uber-rich senators whose wealth helped bring them power and put them in a position where they could make more money .
The last thing Perdue and Loeffler want is for their actions to become the theme of Georgia ’ s crucial runoff elections , which together will determine if the Senate remains under Republican control .
After both failing to notch over fifty percent of the vote on November 3 , the senators are headed to January 5 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ facing Jon Ossoff and Loeffler vying against Raphael Warnock .
Traditionally , runoffs in red southern states are a mechanism that have helped ensure Republican victories .
But the old math may be different this year : Georgia went for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1992 , in part because reliable voters in the suburbs bucked the GOP .
Democrats have a chance to win both runoffs if those high-turnout voters show up in January convinced the two sitting Republicans are crooked .
Instead , the Republicans have sought @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fears among their base of the consequences of Democrats taking control of the Senate .
“ We have to remind people of what the Democrats will do , ” Perdue told supporters on a recent call that was leaked to the Washington Post .
“ It has nothing to do with Kelly or me.
” But Democrats see a clear opportunity in making the race all about Perdue and Loeffler and their stock trades .
Perdue , who was elected in 2014 , and Loeffler , appointed in January , are both very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Loeffler and her husband , Jeff Sprecher—the CEO of Intercontinental Exchange , which owns the New York Stock Exchange—are worth $ 800 million , making her the richest member of Congress .
Perdue , the former CEO of Dollar General , is worth between $ 14.9 million and $ 42.6 million , according to his last financial disclosure , which reports value ranges for individual holdings .
While both Loeffler and Perdue have denied wrongdoing related to their investments and said they relied on portfolio managers to make day-to-day decisions , watchdog groups @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while legal and allowed under Senate rules , inevitably risks conflicts of interest while creating a perception they are personally benefiting from official actions .
As a result , most members of the Senate refrain from trading in individual stocks .
“ This has every appearance of insider trading and even if not , it creates the appearance of a conflict of interest , ” says Craig Holman , an exert in ethics issues for the watchdog group Public Citizen , of the Georgia lawmakers ’ trades .
“ They just don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just three weeks into her Senate career , Loeffler attended a private Senate briefing by Dr. Anthony Fauci , director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases , and Dr. Robert Redfield , the head of the Centers for Disease Control , about the coronavirus threat .
Afterward , Loeffler continued to publicly downplay the risk from the virus and its economic impact .
But in the three weeks following the meeting , Loeffler and Sprecher made more than 20 stock sales amounting to between $ 1.25 million and $ 3.1 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two companies that produce teleworking software .
Once markets began plummeting in late February , the couple sold $ 18.7 million in shares of Intercontinental Exchange stock in three separate deals .
They also sold shares in retail stores like Lululemon and T.J. Maxx , according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution .
Loeffler has denied profiting off confidential information , and notes that her trading was investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee .
The panel told Loeffler in a June letter it found “ no evidence ” she broke the law or Senate rules @ @ @ @ @ @ @ op-ed where she promised “ to end the distraction , ” the senator reiterated that her investments are managed by third party advisers , and claimed that the January 24 briefing included “ no material or nonpublic information.
” While Loeffler wrote that her household would “ divest from individual stocks , ” her subsequent financial disclosure form showed that she kept $ 5 million to $ 25 million worth of Intercontinental Exchange stock , while her husband held on to at least $ 10 million worth of the company ’ s stock @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Senate Agricultural Committee , Loeffler helps oversee the Commodity Futures Trading Commission .
That agency regulates Sprecher ’ s company , giving her influence over the performance of a firm in which she remains heavily invested .
Upon joining the committee , Loeffler said she would “ recuse myself if needed on a case by case basis.
” In May , she announced she was stepping down from a subcommittee with direct oversight of the CFTC in response to criticism , but she retained her seat on the full committee .
Perdue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and was active in the stock market the very same day , buying , as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported , as much as $ 65,000 worth of stock in DuPont , the chemical and materials giant that makes protective equipment including gloves , gowns , and masks .
According to a financial disclosure report , between the day of the briefing and early March he made 10 different purchases of the firm ’ s stock , amounting to an investment of up to $ 185,000 .
Purdue made hundreds of other individual @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2020 , including investing up to $ 50,000 in Netflix , while offloading stock in Caesar Entertainment , a casino company , and nearly $ 400,000 in shares of Kroger , the grocery store chain .
While the coronavirus briefings presented senators clear opportunities to make well timed trades , lawmakers are regularly involved in or have foresight of policy decisions that will affect the financial prospects of companies or entire industries .
In September , the Daily Beast reported that Perdue bought stock in First Data , a card payment processing company @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he pushed to weaken prepaid debit card regulations .
Perdue , or a financial adviser working for him , repeatedly bought and sold First Data stock , with some transactions coinciding with federal policy announcements affecting the firm .
In January 2019 , Perdue , a vocal advocate of increased Navy spending , became the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower .
In the six weeks before taking over , Perdue bought $ 40,000 to $ 290,000 of shares in a Navy contractor , BWX Technologies , the Daily Beast @ @ @ @ @ @ @ month after Perdue ’ s appointment , the stock ’ s value increased by more than 25 percent .
Perdue quickly pocketed the profit , selling the stock between February and July 2019 .
Perdue has responded to questions about these transactions by saying he relies on outside advisers who make trades “ without his prior input or approval , ” according to a spokeswoman .
But Perdue , unlike some lawmakers , has not placed his assets in a blind trust , a widely accepted practice that would ensure he is not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , including those he could potentially influence with official acts .
Perdue hasn ’ t just been out to help himself .
In 2017 , Perdue unsuccessfully sought a tax break for the uber-wealthy owners of sports teams , a tax regulation that would have benefited several of his wealthy donors .
Among them was Loeffler , who co-owns Atlanta ’ s WNBA team .
Self-dealing is never a good look when running for reelection , and Perdue and Loeffler clearly don ’ t want the runoffs to focus on this history .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ final general election debate after Ossoff called him a crook in their second debate and the moment went viral .
Loeffler , for her part , is worried enough about the stock sales that she ran an ad claiming she ’ d been “ cleared ” and that she always “ puts Georgia first.
” President-elect Joe Biden won Georgia in part by drawing support from Atlanta suburbs that not long ago were a Republican stronghold .
These suburban Republicans “ are the reason that we never had a chance in runoffs in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” says Chris Huttman , a Democratic strategist in Georgia .
“ They weren ’ t necessarily conservative , but they were very Republican.
” But in 2016 , turned off by Trump , some of these Republicans began voting for Democrats , and continued doing so in the 2018 midterms and this November , as the counties that make up and surround Atlanta gave Biden his margin of victory .
But returns in suburban Atlanta counties show that Perdue outperformed Donald Trump , and Ossoff underperformed Biden , meaning that a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their tickets and voted for Biden and Perdue .
Perdue and Loeffler must hold onto these voters in the runoff .
“ I ’ m talking about people that may have voted for Biden , ” Perdue said on the leaked call with Republicans .
“ We think some of those people , particularly in the suburbs , may come back to us .
And I ’ m hopeful of that.
” Democrats , on the other hand , need to turn Biden voters who supported Republican Senate candidates in November into Ossoff @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Loeffler may be doing some of that work themselves .
In an effort to keep Trump ’ s base engaged , Loeffler and Perdue have associated themselves with right-wing push to overturn Georgia ’ s November election results , calling on the Republican secretary of state to resign .
The antics are part of a tricky dance : remaining as close as they can to Trump and his supporters while also trying to hold onto anti-Trump suburbanites .
For their parts , Ossoff and Warnock ran their general election campaigns on bread-and-butter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pandemic raged , they hammered their support for protecting coverage for people with pre-existing conditions , which Republicans repeatedly voted against while attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act .
But that message didn ’ t get them across the finish line in November .
“ Republicans just lie about the pre-existing condition stuff , ” says Huttman .
“ Their answer to that is like , ‘ No , I ’ m the pre-existing conditions person.
’ ” That ’ s left voters with a jumbled message .
But for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ promises to be more straightforward .
“ I do think there ’ s some opportunity there just to divorce yourself from the party aspect of it : ‘ These are just bad people who you shouldn ’ t be trusting to make tough decisions.
’ I definitely think that ’ s the way to go , ” Huttman says .
The message could also dampen participation among the occasional voters who turned out for Trump , but whom Perdue and Loeffler might struggle to convince to vote in the runoff .
“ If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the only person they ’ ve ever turned out to vote for is Trump , ” he says , noting that they can be skeptical of other politicians .
“ Why not tell those people that there ’ s really nothing for you here , either ?
That really scrambles the traditional runoff turnout patterns that people have relied on , ” Huttman says .
The deficit could help put the swing GOP voters in the Atlanta suburbs , even though he says they might only make up about 3 percent of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in the driver seat .
That ’ s not the race that Republicans want to run .
On the leaked call , Perdue said the contest was about base turnout and that he wanted to keep the focus on Democrats .
“ This is really not about messaging .
It ’ s not about persuasion in my race .
It ’ s more about getting the vote out , ” Perdue said , a statement that suggests an assumption that he ’ ll hold suburban Atlanta voters who checked his name over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ member of Ossoff ’ s campaign who spoke on the condition they not be named said corruption would be a key talking point in the runoff .
“ Georgians are struggling , ” they said .
“ Georgians are struggling to make rent , small businesses struggling to stay open .
People can ’ t spend Thanksgiving with their families .
And David Perdue is looking to make a quick buck .
And it seems to be a pattern in his career as a senator.
” Other Democrats have joined in , helping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ self-dealing around Georgia ’ s two Republican senators .
As former President Barack Obama said during a Georgia campaign stop this month , Loeffler and Perdue “ were publicly telling you that the virus would be no big deal , but behind closed doors they were making a bunch of moves in the stock market to try to make sure their portfolios were protected instead of making sure you were protected .
”

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Sen. David Perdue has hit a tough string of headlines recently that are complicating his effort to win reelection as a Republican in Georgia. The coverage shares a theme: Perdue used his position in the Senate to enrich himself and his wealthy donors. The stories follow the revelation from this spring that Perdue, a multi-millionaire, traded stocks following a private January briefing on the coronavirus at the same time he publicly downplayed the pandemic’s threat.
Democrats have a chance to win the runoffs if high-turnout voters show up convinced the Republicans are crooked.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because his colleague Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) did the same thing, sparking a Senate ethics investigation. Together, Perdue and Loeffler make a unique pair: two uber-rich senators whose wealth helped bring them power and put them in a position where they could make more money. The last thing Perdue and Loeffler want is for their actions to become the theme of Georgia’s crucial runoff elections, which together will determine if the Senate remains under Republican control.
After both failing to notch over fifty percent of the vote on November 3, the senators are headed to January 5 runoffs against Democratic challengers, with Perdue facing Jon Ossoff and Loeffler vying against Raphael Warnock. Traditionally, runoffs in red southern states are a mechanism that have helped ensure Republican victories. But the old math may be different this year: Georgia went for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1992, in part because reliable voters in the suburbs bucked the GOP. Democrats have a chance to win both runoffs if those high-turnout voters show up in January convinced the two sitting Republicans are crooked.
Instead, the Republicans have sought to nationalize the race, and fan fears among their base of the consequences of Democrats taking control of the Senate. “We have to remind people of what the Democrats will do,” Perdue told supporters on a recent call that was leaked to the Washington Post. “It has nothing to do with Kelly or me.”
But Democrats see a clear opportunity in making the race all about Perdue and Loeffler and their stock trades. Perdue, who was elected in 2014, and Loeffler, appointed in January, are both very rich. In August, Forbes estimated Loeffler and her husband, Jeff Sprecher—the CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange—are worth $800 million, making her the richest member of Congress. Perdue, the former CEO of Dollar General, is worth between $14.9 million and $42.6 million, according to his last financial disclosure, which reports value ranges for individual holdings.
While both Loeffler and Perdue have denied wrongdoing related to their investments and said they relied on portfolio managers to make day-to-day decisions, watchdog groups warn that lawmakers trading individual stocks, while legal and allowed under Senate rules, inevitably risks conflicts of interest while creating a perception they are personally benefiting from official actions. As a result, most members of the Senate refrain from trading in individual stocks.
“This has every appearance of insider trading and even if not, it creates the appearance of a conflict of interest,” says Craig Holman, an exert in ethics issues for the watchdog group Public Citizen, of the Georgia lawmakers’ trades. “They just don’t care.”
On January 24, just three weeks into her Senate career, Loeffler attended a private Senate briefing by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control, about the coronavirus threat. Afterward, Loeffler continued to publicly downplay the risk from the virus and its economic impact. But in the three weeks following the meeting, Loeffler and Sprecher made more than 20 stock sales amounting to between $1.25 million and $3.1 million. Loeffler also bought stock in two companies that produce teleworking software.
As a member of the Agricultural Committee, Loeffler oversees an agency that regulates her husband’s company.
Once markets began plummeting in late February, the couple sold $18.7 million in shares of Intercontinental Exchange stock in three separate deals. They also sold shares in retail stores like Lululemon and T.J. Maxx, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Loeffler has denied profiting off confidential information, and notes that her trading was investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee. The panel told Loeffler in a June letter it found “no evidence” she broke the law or Senate rules. In an April Wall Street Journal op-ed where she promised “to end the distraction,” the senator reiterated that her investments are managed by third party advisers, and claimed that the January 24 briefing included “no material or nonpublic information.”
While Loeffler wrote that her household would “divest from individual stocks,” her subsequent financial disclosure form showed that she kept $5 million to $25 million worth of Intercontinental Exchange stock, while her husband held on to at least $10 million worth of the company’s stock and options. As a member of the Senate Agricultural Committee, Loeffler helps oversee the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That agency regulates Sprecher’s company, giving her influence over the performance of a firm in which she remains heavily invested. Upon joining the committee, Loeffler said she would “recuse myself if needed on a case by case basis.” In May, she announced she was stepping down from a subcommittee with direct oversight of the CFTC in response to criticism, but she retained her seat on the full committee.
Perdue attended the same January 24 briefing, and was active in the stock market the very same day, buying, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported, as much as $65,000 worth of stock in DuPont, the chemical and materials giant that makes protective equipment including gloves, gowns, and masks. According to a financial disclosure report, between the day of the briefing and early March he made 10 different purchases of the firm’s stock, amounting to an investment of up to $185,000. Purdue made hundreds of other individual stock trades in the first months of 2020, including investing up to $50,000 in Netflix, while offloading stock in Caesar Entertainment, a casino company, and nearly $400,000 in shares of Kroger, the grocery store chain.
While the coronavirus briefings presented senators clear opportunities to make well timed trades, lawmakers are regularly involved in or have foresight of policy decisions that will affect the financial prospects of companies or entire industries. In September, the Daily Beast reported that Perdue bought stock in First Data, a card payment processing company with business in prepaid cards, after he pushed to weaken prepaid debit card regulations. Perdue, or a financial adviser working for him, repeatedly bought and sold First Data stock, with some transactions coinciding with federal policy announcements affecting the firm.
Senators are regularly involved in policy decisions that affect the prospects of entire industries.
In January 2019, Perdue, a vocal advocate of increased Navy spending, became the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower. In the six weeks before taking over, Perdue bought $40,000 to $290,000 of shares in a Navy contractor, BWX Technologies, the Daily Beast first reported last week. In the month after Perdue’s appointment, the stock’s value increased by more than 25 percent. Perdue quickly pocketed the profit, selling the stock between February and July 2019.
Perdue has responded to questions about these transactions by saying he relies on outside advisers who make trades “without his prior input or approval,” according to a spokeswoman. But Perdue, unlike some lawmakers, has not placed his assets in a blind trust, a widely accepted practice that would ensure he is not personally involved in buying and selling stocks, including those he could potentially influence with official acts.
Perdue hasn’t just been out to help himself. In 2017, Perdue unsuccessfully sought a tax break for the uber-wealthy owners of sports teams, a tax regulation that would have benefited several of his wealthy donors. Among them was Loeffler, who co-owns Atlanta’s WNBA team.
Self-dealing is never a good look when running for reelection, and Perdue and Loeffler clearly don’t want the runoffs to focus on this history. In October, Perdue bailed on his final general election debate after Ossoff called him a crook in their second debate and the moment went viral. Loeffler, for her part, is worried enough about the stock sales that she ran an ad claiming she’d been “cleared” and that she always “puts Georgia first.”
President-elect Joe Biden won Georgia in part by drawing support from Atlanta suburbs that not long ago were a Republican stronghold. These suburban Republicans “are the reason that we never had a chance in runoffs in the past, because they always voted,” says Chris Huttman, a Democratic strategist in Georgia. “They weren’t necessarily conservative, but they were very Republican.”
But in 2016, turned off by Trump, some of these Republicans began voting for Democrats, and continued doing so in the 2018 midterms and this November, as the counties that make up and surround Atlanta gave Biden his margin of victory. But returns in suburban Atlanta counties show that Perdue outperformed Donald Trump, and Ossoff underperformed Biden, meaning that a significant number of Republicans outside Atlanta split their tickets and voted for Biden and Perdue. Perdue and Loeffler must hold onto these voters in the runoff. “I’m talking about people that may have voted for Biden,” Perdue said on the leaked call with Republicans. “We think some of those people, particularly in the suburbs, may come back to us. And I’m hopeful of that.”
Democrats, on the other hand, need to turn Biden voters who supported Republican Senate candidates in November into Ossoff and Warnock voters in January. Perdue and Loeffler may be doing some of that work themselves. In an effort to keep Trump’s base engaged, Loeffler and Perdue have associated themselves with right-wing push to overturn Georgia’s November election results, calling on the Republican secretary of state to resign. The antics are part of a tricky dance: remaining as close as they can to Trump and his supporters while also trying to hold onto anti-Trump suburbanites.
For the runoff, an anti-corruption and anti-crook message promises to be more straightforward.
For their parts, Ossoff and Warnock ran their general election campaigns on bread-and-butter issues, particularly health care. As the pandemic raged, they hammered their support for protecting coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, which Republicans repeatedly voted against while attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But that message didn’t get them across the finish line in November.
“Republicans just lie about the pre-existing condition stuff,” says Huttman. “Their answer to that is like, ‘No, I’m the pre-existing conditions person.’” That’s left voters with a jumbled message. But for the runoff, an anti-corruption and anti-crook message promises to be more straightforward. “I do think there’s some opportunity there just to divorce yourself from the party aspect of it: ‘These are just bad people who you shouldn’t be trusting to make tough decisions.’ I definitely think that’s the way to go,” Huttman says.
The message could also dampen participation among the occasional voters who turned out for Trump, but whom Perdue and Loeffler might struggle to convince to vote in the runoff. “If you think about these Trump surge voters, the only person they’ve ever turned out to vote for is Trump,” he says, noting that they can be skeptical of other politicians. “Why not tell those people that there’s really nothing for you here, either? That really scrambles the traditional runoff turnout patterns that people have relied on,” Huttman says. The deficit could help put the swing GOP voters in the Atlanta suburbs, even though he says they might only make up about 3 percent of the voters taking part in the runoff, in the driver seat.
That’s not the race that Republicans want to run. On the leaked call, Perdue said the contest was about base turnout and that he wanted to keep the focus on Democrats. “This is really not about messaging. It’s not about persuasion in my race. It’s more about getting the vote out,” Perdue said, a statement that suggests an assumption that he’ll hold suburban Atlanta voters who checked his name over Ossoff’s in November.
A member of Ossoff’s campaign who spoke on the condition they not be named said corruption would be a key talking point in the runoff. “Georgians are struggling,” they said. “Georgians are struggling to make rent, small businesses struggling to stay open. People can’t spend Thanksgiving with their families. And David Perdue is looking to make a quick buck. And it seems to be a pattern in his career as a senator.”
Other Democrats have joined in, helping paint an unflattering picture of corruption and self-dealing around Georgia’s two Republican senators. As former President Barack Obama said during a Georgia campaign stop this month, Loeffler and Perdue “were publicly telling you that the virus would be no big deal, but behind closed doors they were making a bunch of moves in the stock market to try to make sure their portfolios were protected instead of making sure you were protected.”
“Man, that’s shady,” he concluded. “That ain’t right.”


motherjones--2020-11-24--The Biden Administration Must Beat Viral Misinformation Influencers at Their Own Game

Jessica Malaty Rivera is a microbiologist and an infectious disease expert who specializes in explaining complex scientific concepts to the general public .
Since the beginning of the pandemic , her particular mix of expertise has put her at the center of the conversation around coronavirus messaging .
As the lead science communicator at the COVID Tracking Project , she works closely with data scientists and epidemiologists to present up-to-the-minute , comprehensive public health information on coronavirus trends in the United States .
It ’ s the kind of thing , she says , that would ideally be done by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ left Americans with few reliable resources to track the spread of the pandemic .
In her spare time , Rivera runs an Instagram account where she explains COVID science to her 139,000 followers in friendly , fun-to-watch videos and stories .
Recent posts have included advice on holiday gatherings , an explanation of the science behind flu shots , and a live mythbusting Q & A session where she answers her followers ’ questions .
Rivera talked with Mother Jones about how the Biden Administration can clean up the COVID messaging mess that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to great science communication is empathy .
On what she wishes the government were telling us : We ’ ve been really missing some very specific direction on what we should do , and what we shouldn ’ t do .
The recent messages that we just saw about Thanksgiving travel—we ’ ve been needing those kinds of very direct messages for the last nine months with everything from guidelines to what ’ s happening in the data .
In the absence of very clear and transparent guidelines and reporting structures , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s not there from the government .
From a science communication perspective , early in the pandemic , it was a really unfortunate situation where they [ public health officials ] were trying to essentially preempt bad behavior—panic buying and hoarding of essential PPE—that was causing shortages for people who really needed it .
Then , when the message was flipped [ to recommend wearing masks ] there was a ton of misinformation a ton of broken trust .
Looking back , it shouldn ’ t have been as binary .
It shouldn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t , absolutely not.
” It should have been , “ Let ’ s use masks , let ’ s be reasonable here about what you should be buying , keep N95s exclusive to hospital staff and frontline workers.
” Listen to the latest episode of the Mother Jones Podcast : Subscribe using Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Stitcher , or your favorite podcast app .
On how the Biden administration should improve the COVID communication strategy : States should not be left to themselves to be making these very important @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aligning with all 50 governors , and then the governors aligning with their mayors and all the cities , it ’ s going to make it less fragmented .
So much of what we ’ re dealing with is a deluge of information that is really difficult to parse .
The Biden administration needs to sit down with every single governor and say , “ What do you need , looking at the data in your states ?
How can we make sure that each county each town , is not experiencing and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tools like public service announcements and emergency text message alerts are absolutely available to government .
But we ’ re dealing with a hyper-politicized pandemic right now .
The consequence of that politicization is that agencies like the CDC have been limited in their ability to do such things .
I ’ m hoping that will change as we see a shift in the administration , that they will utilize all these tools of mass communication .
On how the government needs to level up on social media : The government is missing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ media as a means to get people aligned on COVID messaging .
It shouldn ’ t have to be people taking screenshots from articles and sharing pieces of information .
It should be coming from government sources .
The CDC has an Instagram account , and they have a Twitter account , but they ’ re not maximizing the opportunities .
The flip side of that is that there are also a lot of people who are making a lot of noise , a lot of armchair epidemiologists who seize this opportunity as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spread misinformation .
On the kinds of questions she gets on Instagram : Science communication without empathy is really meaningless .
I tell my followers that there ’ s no such thing as a dumb question .
I get questions as simple as what is DNA ?
And what is RNA ?
I love those questions !
Those things come really naturally to me because I ’ ve spent my entire career in it .
How do we understand a press release with data readouts from a clinical trial ?
And what does @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in trials or these vaccines have these kinds of results ?
It ’ s stuff that was very insular in the science community , but now is on public display because of preprints and press releases and articles that are buzzing all day about this .
On what Biden ’ s vaccine messaging plan should look like : I ’ ve said from the very beginning that the only thing that should be leading a vaccine approval is the data and the science .
It ’ s not politics , it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not anything except for that .
There ’ s been a lot of misinformation about the process .
A lot of people deny the fact that the US regulatory system is probably one of the most robust in the world .
And what we ’ ve done with these expedited timelines is not cut corners on safety and efficacy .
If anything , this should be the biggest example of when a lot of people cooperate and work together to remove the bureaucracy and the red tape and plow through it .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We had a number of running starts between a lot of research we did for SARS and MERS .
Because of that , we can communicate that this was a robust , well thought out , and fully committed , vaccine clinical pipeline .
I think a lot of people right now are confused about why it usually takes so much longer .
And I think being clear on how we avoided that is how we can correct that confusion .
There has to be room for acknowledging the extremely rare occurrence of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not actually being true to the science .
I think that we need to be calculating how we speak about such things , because we ’ re talking about probability and incidents being extremely , extremely rare .
But we also must recognize the fact that you ’ re probably going to have more success talking to somebody who is hesitant—somebody who is earnest and wants to actually make informed choices but feels overwhelmed by the information available to them—versus somebody who is hell bent on trying to create a narrative that is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ available .
On her work at the COVID Tracking Project : The COVID tracking project is a volunteer organization that is housed at the Atlantic .
We are a team of data journalists , epidemiologists , and experts in a variety of spaces .
We collect data every day from states directly and make it publicly available .
In the absence of federal standards on reporting , and even federal databases , we provide that every single day .
We get about two million hits to our API each day .
We put @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would hope to see in some data dashboards in the upcoming administration .
It ’ s because we ’ ve spent the last nine months seeing all of the challenges and developing best practices for getting as comprehensive a picture of data as we have access to .
With no federal data standards , that makes the job really difficult .
So this is our call to action—our request is that we have a more streamlined approach to data standards , so that it isn ’ t as patchwork when we ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the trends that we ’ re seeing in all the jurisdictions that we track .

Jessica Malaty Rivera is a microbiologist and an infectious disease expert who specializes in explaining complex scientific concepts to the general public. Since the beginning of the pandemic, her particular mix of expertise has put her at the center of the conversation around coronavirus messaging. As the lead science communicator at the COVID Tracking Project, she works closely with data scientists and epidemiologists to present up-to-the-minute, comprehensive public health information on coronavirus trends in the United States. It’s the kind of thing, she says, that would ideally be done by the federal government—but the Trump administration has left Americans with few reliable resources to track the spread of the pandemic. In her spare time, Rivera runs an Instagram account where she explains COVID science to her 139,000 followers in friendly, fun-to-watch videos and stories. Recent posts have included advice on holiday gatherings, an explanation of the science behind flu shots, and a live mythbusting Q&A session where she answers her followers’ questions. Rivera talked with Mother Jones about how the Biden Administration can clean up the COVID messaging mess that the Trump administration made—and why the key to great science communication is empathy.
On what she wishes the government were telling us: We’ve been really missing some very specific direction on what we should do, and what we shouldn’t do. The recent messages that we just saw about Thanksgiving travel—we’ve been needing those kinds of very direct messages for the last nine months with everything from guidelines to what’s happening in the data. In the absence of very clear and transparent guidelines and reporting structures, we have to look elsewhere because it’s not there from the government.
In the absence of very clear and transparent guidelines and reporting structures, we have to look elsewhere because it’s not there from the government.
From a science communication perspective, early in the pandemic, it was a really unfortunate situation where they [public health officials] were trying to essentially preempt bad behavior—panic buying and hoarding of essential PPE—that was causing shortages for people who really needed it. Then, when the message was flipped [to recommend wearing masks] there was a ton of misinformation a ton of broken trust. Looking back, it shouldn’t have been as binary. It shouldn’t have been, “Please don’t, absolutely not.” It should have been, “Let’s use masks, let’s be reasonable here about what you should be buying, keep N95s exclusive to hospital staff and frontline workers.”
Listen to the latest episode of the Mother Jones Podcast: Subscribe using Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.
On how the Biden administration should improve the COVID communication strategy: States should not be left to themselves to be making these very important decisions. If we have federal government aligning with all 50 governors, and then the governors aligning with their mayors and all the cities, it’s going to make it less fragmented. So much of what we’re dealing with is a deluge of information that is really difficult to parse. The Biden administration needs to sit down with every single governor and say, “What do you need, looking at the data in your states? How can we make sure that each county each town, is not experiencing and believing and communicating things differently?”
Tools like public service announcements and emergency text message alerts are absolutely available to government. But we’re dealing with a hyper-politicized pandemic right now. The consequence of that politicization is that agencies like the CDC have been limited in their ability to do such things. I’m hoping that will change as we see a shift in the administration, that they will utilize all these tools of mass communication.
On how the government needs to level up on social media: The government is missing a huge opportunity in not using social media as a means to get people aligned on COVID messaging. It shouldn’t have to be people taking screenshots from articles and sharing pieces of information. It should be coming from government sources. The CDC has an Instagram account, and they have a Twitter account, but they’re not maximizing the opportunities. The flip side of that is that there are also a lot of people who are making a lot of noise, a lot of armchair epidemiologists who seize this opportunity as a means to grow their platforms and spread misinformation.
On the kinds of questions she gets on Instagram: Science communication without empathy is really meaningless. I tell my followers that there’s no such thing as a dumb question. I get questions as simple as what is DNA? And what is RNA? I love those questions! Those things come really naturally to me because I’ve spent my entire career in it. How do we understand a press release with data readouts from a clinical trial? And what does it mean when these drugs are paused in trials or these vaccines have these kinds of results? It’s stuff that was very insular in the science community, but now is on public display because of preprints and press releases and articles that are buzzing all day about this.
On what Biden’s vaccine messaging plan should look like: I’ve said from the very beginning that the only thing that should be leading a vaccine approval is the data and the science. It’s not politics, it’s not world views, it’s not anything except for that. There’s been a lot of misinformation about the process. A lot of people deny the fact that the US regulatory system is probably one of the most robust in the world. And what we’ve done with these expedited timelines is not cut corners on safety and efficacy. If anything, this should be the biggest example of when a lot of people cooperate and work together to remove the bureaucracy and the red tape and plow through it. We didn’t start from scratch. We had a number of running starts between a lot of research we did for SARS and MERS. Because of that, we can communicate that this was a robust, well thought out, and fully committed, vaccine clinical pipeline. I think a lot of people right now are confused about why it usually takes so much longer. And I think being clear on how we avoided that is how we can correct that confusion.
There has to be room for acknowledging the extremely rare occurrence of vaccine injury. To deny it is not actually being true to the science. I think that we need to be calculating how we speak about such things, because we’re talking about probability and incidents being extremely, extremely rare. But we also must recognize the fact that you’re probably going to have more success talking to somebody who is hesitant—somebody who is earnest and wants to actually make informed choices but feels overwhelmed by the information available to them—versus somebody who is hell bent on trying to create a narrative that is counter to the science and the data available.
On her work at the COVID Tracking Project: The COVID tracking project is a volunteer organization that is housed at the Atlantic. We are a team of data journalists, epidemiologists, and experts in a variety of spaces. We collect data every day from states directly and make it publicly available. In the absence of federal standards on reporting, and even federal databases, we provide that every single day. We get about two million hits to our API each day.
We put out a recommendation list of what we would hope to see in some data dashboards in the upcoming administration. It’s because we’ve spent the last nine months seeing all of the challenges and developing best practices for getting as comprehensive a picture of data as we have access to. With no federal data standards, that makes the job really difficult. So this is our call to action—our request is that we have a more streamlined approach to data standards, so that it isn’t as patchwork when we’re trying to make sense of all of the trends that we’re seeing in all the jurisdictions that we track.


motherjones--2020-11-24--Every Day Trump Repeatedly Emails His Supporters a Dangerous Message: Democracy Doesn’t Work

I ’ ve heard from Eric Trump , Donald Trump Jr. , and Lara Trump .
I ’ ve heard from Rudy Giuliani , Ronna McDaniel , and Newt Gingrich .
And I ’ ve heard from Donald Trump .
Over and over again .
The 2020 election was stolen from Trump .
The left-wing mob , the Democrats , the fake news media—they successfully plotted together to pull off the greatest political heist of all time .
Trump really won .
But fake ballots were counted .
Real ballots were trashed .
American democracy was undone .
The people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Yes , this is what I am told every day—multiple times—by Trump , his family , and his lieutenants .
I am on several rightwing email lists , including various Trump campaign lists , and for the past three weeks , each day I have received a steady stream of emails signed by Trump or one of his minions .
These missives all request money for Trump ’ s so-called “ Election Defense Fund ” —that is , his effort to overturn the election results and retain power—and they are obvious acts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for small amounts—from $ 5 to $ 45—the fine print on the donation page notes that unless you kick in about $ 8,000 , the money goes to Trump ’ s political operation and the Republican National Committee , not the special fund that pays for the legal challenges Trump has been mounting ( and losing ) and the recounts he has been requesting .
These emails are merely the latest iteration of Trump ’ s campaign money-grab , as he tries to financially exploit the clown-show coup Giuliani has been running for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than squeezing cash out of Trump fanatics .
For the recipients , it is solidifying a dangerous message : the election was illegitimate .
Though campaigns typically do not disclose such information , it is a fair assumption that millions of people are receiving these solicitations on a daily basis .
Your pro-Trump uncle or aunt—they are constantly being told that the evil Democrats have mounted a coup to topple Trump .
Yes , Trump tweets this every day .
But for those Trump-supporting Americans not on Twitter , these emails form @ @ @ @ @ @ @ false counter-narrative : the 2020 election was rigged .
In one email with the sender identified as “ Rudy Giuliani Alerts , ” the Trump campaign calls Joe Biden ’ s victory the “ biggest political scam of all time , ” and it claims , “ We have hundreds of affidavits from Americans all over the Country testifying under OATH to voting irregularities .
It ’ s reported that vans , trash cans , and boxes full of ballots for Biden were brought in to be counted during the early morning hours @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , this mailing asserts , “ are attempting to STEAL this Election.
” Eric Trump tells me , “ Make no mistake , Joe Biden , Kamala Harris , and their allies in the Fake News media are trying to steal this Election… Biden couldn ’ t get 10 people to a rally and went days without leaving his house , while my father received 11 MILLION more votes THIS YEAR than he did in 2016.
” His wife Lara emails , “ The reports of voter fraud have been alarming .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in from Americans across the Nation claiming they witnessed irregularities.
” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is also attempting to rile me up : “ It ’ s time for us to get MAD .
This Election is unlike any we have ever witnessed .
The systemic corruption is breathtaking .
The mainstream media , the Left-wing academics , and the entrenched Democrats will all ask us to roll over right now .
There is voter fraud in this Election that MUST be reported and uncovered.
” Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel reports @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ the coronavirus as an excuse to change Election laws ” and that the Republicans have rounded up 1,200 “ incidence reports ” related to fraud and voting irregularities .
Of course , there have been no confirmed instances of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential contest .
The Trump administration ’ s own election infrastructure experts concluded that : “ The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history…There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes , changed votes , or was in any way compromised.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the race for Biden .
Yet Trump keeps insisting he is the victim of a diabolical plot .
In one fundraising email that he signed , Trump insists , “ the Left…RIGGED THE ELECTION !
” He declares that the key swing states—Pennsylvania , Michigan , Wisconsin , Arizona , Nevada , and Georgia— “ should immediately be put in the Trump WIN column .
Biden did not win , he lost by a lot !
” Another contains this plea : “ I need you .
The Left will try to STEAL @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on YOU to step up & FIGHT BACK.
” A third email from Trump states , “ The Fake News media is trying to help Joe Biden UNDERMINE THIS ELECTION , and now I need you to stand with me and DEFEND America .
This is your moment .
If we don ’ t stand up and fight right now , we will lose our country to the Liberal Mob forever.
” This past Sunday my inbox was subsumed with Trump messages exclaiming the election was a hoax .
Five were signed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ YOU are what keeps me motivated , ” Trump wrote , “ I can ’ t DEFEND the election from the Radical Left without you.
” ) Ten were signed by the Trump campaign .
One was designed to make it seem that Giuliani was the originator .
Another said , “ We are going to prove that President Trump won by a landslide.
” Two were from Eric Trump , one from McDaniel , and one from Vice President Mike Pence .
Three additional emails from the Trump campaign offered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Count All Legal Votes ” shirt , with one of these informing me this was my “ last chance ” to procure this fashion statement .
I received most of these emails twice .
( So much for effective sorting software . )
It ’ s easy to dismiss all this as brazen and desperate Trumpian hucksterism .
With millions of Trump voters disappointed in the election results , Trump has the chance to raise millions of dollars for his political operation—which can be used for a possible 2024 run or to keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) on the payroll .
But these emails also reinforce Trump ’ s false tale that he and his voters have been cheated .
Every day , his peeps are being told—again and again—by him and his disciples that the election was crooked .
Trump is reaching people in their in-boxes to sow suspicion and disseminate distrust .
Even after Michigan on Monday certified Biden ’ s victory in that state and the General Services Administration finally recognized Biden as the winner and authorized the start of the presidential transition , the Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ One from Eric Trump had the subject line , “ Stop the Elites from trying to steal the Election.
” Another signed by Donald Trump claimed , “ I had such a big lead in all of these key battleground states late into Election night , only to see the leads miraculously disappear as the days went by .
Perhaps these leads will return as our legal proceedings move forward.
” This is a powerful spray of disinformation .
It ’ s a firehose of propaganda .
Many of his folks will accept @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They will see the election as bogus .
And once Biden is inaugurated , they will refuse to view him as a duly-elected president .
The whole world can watch Trump mislead his devotees with his tweets—many of which are marked as inaccurate by Twitter .
But Trump is spreading his poison farther with this bombardment of emails , none of which comes with a disclaimer .
He is exploiting paranoia and fueling division .
As an aspiring autocrat who now casts himself as the victim of an evil cabal , he will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no matter how many bucks he rakes in .

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.
I’ve heard from Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Lara Trump. I’ve heard from Rudy Giuliani, Ronna McDaniel, and Newt Gingrich. And I’ve heard from Donald Trump. Over and over again. The 2020 election was stolen from Trump. The left-wing mob, the Democrats, the fake news media—they successfully plotted together to pull off the greatest political heist of all time. Trump really won. But fake ballots were counted. Real ballots were trashed. American democracy was undone. The people have been robbed of their rightful president.
Yes, this is what I am told every day—multiple times—by Trump, his family, and his lieutenants. I am on several rightwing email lists, including various Trump campaign lists, and for the past three weeks, each day I have received a steady stream of emails signed by Trump or one of his minions. These missives all request money for Trump’s so-called “Election Defense Fund”—that is, his effort to overturn the election results and retain power—and they are obvious acts of grift. Though they generally ask for small amounts—from $5 to $45—the fine print on the donation page notes that unless you kick in about $8,000, the money goes to Trump’s political operation and the Republican National Committee, not the special fund that pays for the legal challenges Trump has been mounting (and losing) and the recounts he has been requesting. These emails are merely the latest iteration of Trump’s campaign money-grab, as he tries to financially exploit the clown-show coup Giuliani has been running for him.
But this barrage is doing more than squeezing cash out of Trump fanatics. For the recipients, it is solidifying a dangerous message: the election was illegitimate. Though campaigns typically do not disclose such information, it is a fair assumption that millions of people are receiving these solicitations on a daily basis. Your pro-Trump uncle or aunt—they are constantly being told that the evil Democrats have mounted a coup to topple Trump. Yes, Trump tweets this every day. But for those Trump-supporting Americans not on Twitter, these emails form a ceaseless reinforcement of Trump’s false counter-narrative: the 2020 election was rigged.
In one email with the sender identified as “Rudy Giuliani Alerts,” the Trump campaign calls Joe Biden’s victory the “biggest political scam of all time,” and it claims, “We have hundreds of affidavits from Americans all over the Country testifying under OATH to voting irregularities. It’s reported that vans, trash cans, and boxes full of ballots for Biden were brought in to be counted during the early morning hours without Republican poll watchers.” The Democrats, this mailing asserts, “are attempting to STEAL this Election.” Eric Trump tells me, “Make no mistake, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and their allies in the Fake News media are trying to steal this Election… Biden couldn’t get 10 people to a rally and went days without leaving his house, while my father received 11 MILLION more votes THIS YEAR than he did in 2016.” His wife Lara emails, “The reports of voter fraud have been alarming. In addition to hundreds of sworn affidavits coming in from Americans across the Nation claiming they witnessed irregularities.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is also attempting to rile me up: “It’s time for us to get MAD. This Election is unlike any we have ever witnessed. The systemic corruption is breathtaking. The mainstream media, the Left-wing academics, and the entrenched Democrats will all ask us to roll over right now. There is voter fraud in this Election that MUST be reported and uncovered.” Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel reports that the “Radical Left” used “the coronavirus as an excuse to change Election laws” and that the Republicans have rounded up 1,200 “incidence reports” related to fraud and voting irregularities.
Of course, there have been no confirmed instances of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential contest. The Trump administration’s own election infrastructure experts concluded that: “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history…There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” The media—including Fox News!—called the race for Biden.
Yet Trump keeps insisting he is the victim of a diabolical plot. In one fundraising email that he signed, Trump insists, “the Left…RIGGED THE ELECTION!” He declares that the key swing states—Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia— “should immediately be put in the Trump WIN column. Biden did not win, he lost by a lot!” Another contains this plea: “I need you. The Left will try to STEAL this Election! I’m calling on YOU to step up & FIGHT BACK.” A third email from Trump states, “The Fake News media is trying to help Joe Biden UNDERMINE THIS ELECTION, and now I need you to stand with me and DEFEND America. This is your moment. If we don’t stand up and fight right now, we will lose our country to the Liberal Mob forever.”
This past Sunday my inbox was subsumed with Trump messages exclaiming the election was a hoax. Five were signed by Trump. (Under the subject line, “YOU are what keeps me motivated,” Trump wrote, “I can’t DEFEND the election from the Radical Left without you.”) Ten were signed by the Trump campaign. One was designed to make it seem that Giuliani was the originator. Another said, “We are going to prove that President Trump won by a landslide.” Two were from Eric Trump, one from McDaniel, and one from Vice President Mike Pence. Three additional emails from the Trump campaign offered me the opportunity to purchase a “Count All Legal Votes” shirt, with one of these informing me this was my “last chance” to procure this fashion statement. I received most of these emails twice. (So much for effective sorting software.)
It’s easy to dismiss all this as brazen and desperate Trumpian hucksterism. With millions of Trump voters disappointed in the election results, Trump has the chance to raise millions of dollars for his political operation—which can be used for a possible 2024 run or to keep his political operatives (including his kin) on the payroll. But these emails also reinforce Trump’s false tale that he and his voters have been cheated. Every day, his peeps are being told—again and again—by him and his disciples that the election was crooked. Trump is reaching people in their in-boxes to sow suspicion and disseminate distrust.
Even after Michigan on Monday certified Biden’s victory in that state and the General Services Administration finally recognized Biden as the winner and authorized the start of the presidential transition, the Trump gang kept pumping out these emails. One from Eric Trump had the subject line, “Stop the Elites from trying to steal the Election.” Another signed by Donald Trump claimed, “I had such a big lead in all of these key battleground states late into Election night, only to see the leads miraculously disappear as the days went by. Perhaps these leads will return as our legal proceedings move forward.”
This is a powerful spray of disinformation. It’s a firehose of propaganda. Many of his folks will accept Trump’s word on this. They will see the election as bogus. And once Biden is inaugurated, they will refuse to view him as a duly-elected president. The whole world can watch Trump mislead his devotees with his tweets—many of which are marked as inaccurate by Twitter. But Trump is spreading his poison farther with this bombardment of emails, none of which comes with a disclaimer. He is exploiting paranoia and fueling division. As an aspiring autocrat who now casts himself as the victim of an evil cabal, he will profit greatly from this email blitz, no matter how many bucks he rakes in.