That was JD's weakest moment because Walz bullseyed him there and frankly there's nothing JD can say because it's just all true. Sometimes in debates like these you think wow you should've came up with a better answer to a question know was coming, but in this case all he can do is spin nonsense and try to make it sound convincing. If he actually admitted Trump lost he'd be defenestrated.
Oh, there were better options than ignoring the question and it isn't about how quick on his feet he is. He has to have expected that to come up. There were months to get an answer ready or a few to have in your pocket depending on how the night goes. If I were fully in his shoes, I would have said, "Well, we're never going to know now, are we? Because we stopped everything and let things get covered up and didn't see the process through." I think that answer would sound reasonable to the people that it matters to. It's not a betrayal of Trump because that is essentially Trump's position except Trump puts some bluster on top.
It's not Trump's refusal to admit defeat that's the issue; it's what he was willing to do in the name of holding on to power. We don't actually have to worry about a repeat of January 6 because he will never again be in a position to lose an election as an incumbent. We do, however, have to worry that he'll decide to call off the 2028 election, or that he will have declared himself dictator for life long before then,
No. I'm not saying it can never happen but we aren't there.
I wish I could read minds without line of sight. Trump is way too far away from me. But I have some strong opinions. Trump is a front man for an operation. No idea is his because he doesn't have enough understanding to make a plan. He goes with suggestions from cleverer slimeballs. Most of those people I can't even name and I don't know what they wanted to or thought they could accomplish. I think Trump was aware that he lost, but it is possible that slimeballs convinced him that he didn't or that it didn't matter. What mattered to Trump himself is not being seen as a loser, either as a loser of a contest or as going down as a one-term President that didn't get reelected. Trump doesn't want to get anything done. He doesn't care what is going on in the country, except around Mar-A-Lago or Trump Tower. He doesn't care what is going on in the world. The only thing he will wield power for is to get validation. That's the big deal for him. He wielded very little power as President. He didn't make deals. He didn't come to work until late morning. He had the right to morning briefings of the most important things going on in the world and he didn't listen to them. He spent his evenings yelling his TV. Rinse, repeat. He liked BEING President, but he didn't lead, he didn't get Congress or anybody to do what he wanted. His only accomplishments were the tax cut that the Congress wanted and the court justices that any Republican would have nominated. He did harm in a variety of ways, but all of them appear to have been disorganized and happenstance because he doesn't control his mouth and doesn't usually understand what he is doing or talking about. When he left the White House he was immediately planning his return for one reason: Validation. Since that time he got another: Pardon Power. But he doesn't want nuclear codes. He doesn't want to send troops places. He doesn't want any of the difficulty or outcry of forming a police state or dictatorship or whatever. He needs to pardon himself for past crimes and he needs to prove that he isn't a reject. He can accomplish both in 4 years and bow out more or less gracefully.
The pressure campaigns and fake electors and Trumped up fraud theories WERE intended either to steal the election or to make it forever look like it was stolen from him and they would have gladly had the former, but I don't know if they thought they could accomplish that. Maybe they did. It didn't work. It was never working at any point. The lackeys did their jobs. But so did the Republican governors and the courts. They kept doing their jobs. The courts kept asking for evidence and the lackeys kept admitting as quietly as possible that they didn't have any. It all came to a head inside the Capitol on January 6. Ted Cruz and James Lankford made speeches indicating all that they were willing to stick their necks out. Just that we needed a couple more weeks to check on everything. That might have happened if it weren't for what was going on outside.
I believe that the riot was a chaotic element. I don't believe that Trump thought all of that would happen. If he did, I think he would have been there to see it. He made speeches just like all the time that just amounted to bombastic rhetoric. It was always irresponsible and critics were always saying out loud where he could hear it that it was irresponsible. But all he ever saw was an energized crowd and riotous applause and those are the things he most loves to see. I'm not giving Trump a pass here. He instigated violence. His words literally asked for it. And the people he was talking to were not out for a fun night in an arena and going out for a burger and a drink after and going home. They were an enriched group of his craziest supporters out of town with nowhere to be and some of them had brought weapons and all of them were convinced that their way of life was hanging in the balance and he has culpability on THAT as well. Trump doesn't need to understand any of this stuff to be responsible for it. I don't think he cared who got hurt in the process of getting his validation. The rioters themselves were morons who didn't understand the situation they were in. There was no useful objective that they could accomplish by storming the Capitol. Any really clever schemer pulling Trump's strings would've known that, so I am doubtful that any clever schemer was actually guiding it. A rally/protest certainly, but storming the Capitol was never going to be good for Trump's cause. On the moron rioter level, I do believe there were some who hoped to kill Pence or Pelosi. That might have been accomplished. But it wouldn't have helped Trump's cause. It would have been SO MUCH worse for him if they had accomplished that.
But here's the big point: It was still January 6 when the rioters got stopped. The police did their jobs. Trump was eventually prevailed upon to do his job, but if he hadn't more resources would have been brought in. It was still January 6 when Congress got back in their seats and approved the votes in an orderly fashion. They did their jobs. The Vice President did his job. Biden was inaugurated on scheduled. The FBI did its job. It was still January when those rioters started getting arrested. The courts did their jobs. It was still 2021 when rioters started going to prison. It was still 2021 when Trump's lackeys started getting sued and losing law licenses. I don't know how many of his lackeys will go to prison. I don't know if Trump will be convicted for all of this. But before and after January 6, he and his lackeys and schemers did not at any time make any headway in changing the outcome of the election. The whole system stayed intact and is robust enough to take all of this in its stride and keep moving.
Pocket said:
and that Vance, unlike his predecessor, will gladly go along with it.
You'd have to pitch the situation to me. A parallel situation is not going to happen at the start or end of Trump term. It would have to be some totally other thing. But I believe that if Vance were somehow in some supposedly difference making situation like Pence was, he's going to save his own neck.
and Vance has responded the only way Republicans can respond:
by doubling-down.
During the vice presidential debate, Vance similarly refused to answer if he would contest this year’s election if Trump loses
www.independent.co.uk
Well, that is just dumb. If he was willing to say it, why didn't he say it when not saying anything made him look foolish?
