TAKE with Rick Klein
The allegations became stranger. The silence – from even the strongest supporters of former President Donald Trump – has become more apparent.
It should come as no surprise that after he loses or his candidate loses the election, Trump is stepping up false and easily discredited allegations of fraud. He did so back in 2012, when Mitt Romney lost, but Trump did not buy him, again in early 2016, when Senator Ted Cruz defeated him in the Caucasus of Iowa, and even after winning the presidency, but lost the People’s here.
But unlike his false claims about the 2020 election, his latest insinuations of voter fraud have been almost completely ignored. This happened in Pennsylvania, where Trump-appointed Mehmet Oz did not follow Trump’s advice to declare victory before all the votes were counted in the Senate race, and now the recount is continuing, with Oz still in the lead.
Now comes Georgia, where Trump-backed candidates were defeated in the first-round primary last week. On Tuesday, Trump circulated a blog post, citing as “obvious fraud” the fact that Gov. Brian Kemp received nearly 74 percent of the vote in the Republican primary – because it “does not happen” for candidates to win in such a one-sided way. (In fact, many incumbents win the primary with that difference or more.)
Former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally in Casper, Wyatt, May 28, 2022.
Chet Strange / Getty Images
Almost no one follows Trump’s example in this. Former Senator David Purdue stepped down on election night – “we trust the people of Georgia,” he said – and counties certified the counting of votes without incident on Tuesday.
Even MP Jodie Hayes, Trump-backed candidate for secretary of state, acknowledged his race and called for Republican unity – although his opponent probably avoided a run-off just because Democrats passed and voted in the Republican primary, according to the Associated press
One thing that makes these claims harder for some Republicans to swallow is certainly that for the most part they are Republican votes that Trump unreasonably assumes were not properly filed or counted.
For some Republicans and many Democrats, there may be another lesson from the primary season besides the fact that some Trump candidates are losing. Also losing is the idea that combating non-existent voter fraud – and perhaps damaging Republican turnout in the process – is a winning concept for Republicans moving forward.
RANDOWN with Alice Wirsema
The legal changes continue amid the initial census of Republicans in Pennsylvania, which officials must complete in less than a week.
The Supreme Court has ordered the temporary suspension of a third district ruling that undated mail ballots in Pennsylvania must be counted in the contested election in Lehigh County in 2021, Devin Dwyer of ABC News reported. The court’s final decision in this case could affect this year’s primary primary election for a high-profile Republican party between Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick.
The order was dropped hours after a hearing in the British Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, in which representatives of McCormick’s campaign argued in favor of counting undated ballots, which were received by the required deadline for this year’s primary, based on the decision of the Third District.
U.S. Senate Republican nominee David McCormick speaks to supporters of an event on the night of the election in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 17, 2022.
Quinn Glabicki / Reuters, FILE
“The date that matters is the date that [the ballot] it was received, not the date given by the voter on the envelope, “said Ron Hicks, a lawyer for McCormick’s campaign.
Lawyers representing the Oz campaign and the Republican National Committee, respectively, argue that the decision should be postponed until the census is complete and unsubstantiated ballots should not be counted, as was the case under state law when they were filed.
Meanwhile, McCormick’s campaign is also asking the British Commonwealth’s state court to recount in 12 counties due to discrepancies in the counting of votes reported by the Pennsylvania Department of State and individual counties. Despite pointing to these discrepancies, the campaign does not claim to be fraudulent in the vote count – in stark contrast to the effects of the 2020 general election in Pennsylvania.
“We will find out by manual counting where there are any anomalies and we will actually have a receipt that we can trust and check … We do not want to prolong the process. We do not want to cause any delays. We want Republican primary voters to know they have a winner – whether by one vote or 1,000 votes – so we can all stand behind the nominee and defeat Feterman in the fall, “a McCormick campaign spokesman told reporters Tuesday.
The Council with Brittany Shepard
The long process of redrawing the congressional districts of each state is finally over. On Tuesday, the New Hampshire Supreme Court approved the final version of the state’s plans. And now, after months of drawing maps and controversy in the area, all 50 states have legally valid congressional maps for the upcoming mid-season and beyond.
But this does not mean that the boundaries are set in stone. Maps can be changed through litigation, and several efforts to redirect states have been met with allegations of guerrilla fraud and disenfranchisement. Perhaps one of the most notable court battles is in Florida, where in a particularly unusual move, the state legislature adopted a map drawn by advisers to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The DeSantis map largely reconfigured areas with the majority of blacks, particularly the 5th District of North Florida, represented by Al Lawson, a black Democrat.
MP Al Lawson, D-Fla., Descends the stairs of the House after the last vote for the week, February 28, 2020.
CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images, FILE
Proponents of the right to vote – and even a federal judge – tried to thwart the governor’s card, which gives Republicans a big advantage both in the state and nationally, but failed to win. Even when Democrats filed a lawsuit and a district judge ordered the card based on the idea that it “reduces the ability of African Americans to choose candidates of their choice,” the card will remain in place pending a final ruling.
NUMBER OF THE DAY, powered by FiveThirtyEight
6. That’s how many more Democrat-targeted seats have the new maps made in the 2021-22 redirection cycle than the maps made in the last redirection cycle, according to the FiveThirtyEight tracking tool. Meanwhile, the number of Republican seats remains unchanged. Those numbers probably won’t move much either, as New Hampshire was the last state to approve its map on Tuesday. (Several cards are being challenged in court, but it looks like only Florida will be revoked before the November midterm election.) Read more from the FiveThirtyEight team about what Republicans and Democrats won in the diversion cycle.
PLAYLIST
ABC News ‘Start Here’ podcast. Start here starting Wednesday morning with Texas Sen. Roland Gutierrez for new details on the shooting of Uwalde. Then ABC’s Tom Burridge smashed the latest of the war in Ukraine. ABC’s Juju Chang also describes his interview with transgender swimmer Leah Thomas. http://apple.co/2HPocUL
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY
- President Joe Biden attended the change of command of the US Coast Guard at 11 a.m. when Adm. Linda Fagan became the first female officer to lead a branch of the US military. Biden is also meeting virtually at 2.30pm with infant food manufacturers to discuss his administration’s “Operation Fly Formula”, which focuses on accelerating US baby food imports
- White House spokeswoman Carin Jean-Pierre gave a briefing at 3:30 p.m.
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The Note is a daily feature of ABC News that highlights the most important stories of the day in politics. Please check back tomorrow for the latest.
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