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The coronavirus pandemic triggered a series of crises that forced his hand. In his last year in office, Trump stopped dancing to-and-fro over the line of dictatorship and resolved to cross it definitively. He moved from crisis to crisis like a mad pyrotechnic sitting on a mountain of dynamite, directing the entire political establishment further and further to the right. He was tolerated and even encouraged by finance capital because his movement was a battering ram for extreme political reaction against the working class. The Supreme Court also rejected a long-shot bid by the state of Texas to throw out the election results in four states that voted for Biden.President Donald Trump speaks from the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention, Thursday, Aug. The Trump campaign, Republican officials, and Trump voters have filed dozens of lawsuits contesting the election results since November 3 and won just one case, a minor victory that did not affect the overall results in any state. The final tally showed that Biden won 306 electoral votes - and the presidency - while Trump notched 232. On December 14, the Electoral College convened across the country, and electors cast their votes for Trump or Biden, depending on how their respective states voted. On December 1, he shared a message on Twitter from a right-wing Ohio activist group calling for Trump to "suspend the Constitution," declare martial law, and have the military hold a "national re-vote."Īs of this month, all 50 states and Washington, DC, had certified their election results. This isn't the first time Flynn has called for a military takeover to throw out the election results. Even if it did, it would not be able to run new elections because the right to vote is not specified in the Constitution or by a federal statute. As Business Insider previously reported, that power lies with Congress.ĭeclaring martial law also does not suspend the Constitution, and the military has no role in administering elections. The president does not have the power to unilaterally cancel, delay, postpone, or change the date of an election, even if he declares martial law. The former national security advisor's remarks are not based in reality.įirst, despite Republican claims of fraud and election rigging, nonpartisan officials and election experts have confirmed that the 2020 election was the safest and most secure in US history. Martial law has been instituted 64 times." These people are out there talking about martial law like it's something that we've never done. "He could order the, within the swing states, if he wanted to, he could take military capabilities, and he could place those in states and basically rerun an election in each of those states," Flynn told Newsmax. Voters in the battleground states where the Trump campaign contested election results voted on hand-marked paper ballots, ballot-marking devices that produce paper ballots, or voting machines with voter-verifiable paper trails. There is no evidence that this allegation holds any merit.
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