Election 2020: It's All Over But The Wailing And Gnashing Of Teeth
Trump and his team of attorneys on crack have been trying to convince states not to certify Biden's slates of electors to finish the job, elect Joe Biden President, unleash the Seventh Seal of the Libpocalypse, and unleash Alexandria Ocasio-Bahamut unto a defenseless world, to slaughter and provide free health care to whomever she spies.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, for progressive Democrat-Final Fantasy crossover fans) they failed. Today both Arizona and, later, Wisconsin, the two states remaining, certified Biden as the victor.
Notably, Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona certified the election results - not only while Rudy Guiliani was holding a "hearing" populated by Rep. Paul Gosar (Crazy Wingnut-AZ) and a few other assorted cranks explaining how the Chavez family of Venezuela conspired to shift millions of votes from Trump to Biden - but, in a moment captured on video, was called by the White House literally while he was signing the paperwork. He shook his head, put his phone to one side unanswered, and kept signing. Which really is the best illustration of how Trump's campaign to convince everyone, most of all himself, that he won the election and remains President and really IS the best boy of all, has finally ended.
The remaining steps are the electoral college formally meeting in 2 weeks, followed by Biden taking the oath of office on January 20. Both of these will happen. There is no court case that could remotely stop this from happening - the most absolute outlier of a chance, involving multiple judges turning sudden QAnon believers and passing Rudy's risible lawsuits up the chain, would flip one state, possibly two. There simply aren't even enough lawsuits in process to affect the result any more, much less ones with any hope of success.
Yet Trump soldiers on, because he believes he really is President, as he snarled churlishly to a reporter on Thanksgiving Day. He really believes he is the best boy of all. And right now what administration is left to him is repeating that to him.
There aren't many left. Attorney General Bill Barr, sensibly for his reputation, has been missing in action, a fact Trump complained about among others in a long, whine-filled cry of lament to a remarkably agreeable Maria Bartiromo Sunday morning.
Trump promised on Thanksgiving (just before he snarled to a reporter that he was the President and the reporter was "lightweight", because none of the reporters present were reassuring Trump that he really was the best boy of all) that if the electoral college votes for Biden, then of course he will leave the White House on schedule. He then complained on Twitter that the reporters (lightweights all, who would not acknowledge he was the President or the best boy of all) fixated on that promise of a normal succession and not the implicit fact that of COURSE Trump would win the electoral college ballot, because Trump wins everything.
There are signs he honestly believes this.
He is preparing a fallback scenario though - in true Trumpian temper tantrum fashion, he is apparently planning to upstage the inauguration by holding a campaign rally at the same time, announcing his bid for the 2024 Presidency. He honestly believes that this will gain more media attention, and more of an audience, than Biden's being inaugurated President.
Because he is the best boy of all. Everyone tells him so.
Last week, before the Thanksgiving holiday, over 4 million Americans contracted COVID-19. Trump's only thought for them was, during the Thanksgiving appearance where he was not a lightweight because he is the President, that he created the coming vaccine. To quote directly. "The vaccines – and by the way, don’t let Joe Biden take credit for the vaccine. . . . Don’t let him take credit for the vaccines, because the vaccines were me”
While going to play golf instead of attending boring meetings on pandemic management, deriding the concept of basic social distancing, and mocking his opponent and others for wearing masks and explicitly saying mask-wearing was a political attack against him personally, and making it difficult to impossible for the immigrant researchers and investors who actually developed the vaccines to remain in the country with their families, he, Trump, le vaccin, c'est moi. They were him. He is the vaccine. He is Trump, and he is the President, and you are not, and never will be, because you are a lightweight.
Because he is the best boy of all. Everyone must tell him so.