Trump’s attempts to overturn the election

Two months after the election, and President Trump is still attempting to thwart the election result. His behaviour became more erratic and unpredictable in recent months. No one can predict what's on Trump's mind or what'd he say or do next. Somehow, he managed to survive the first three years of his presidency, but this year it took a turn for worse. There was no president in the history of the United States as liar, corrupt, foul mouthed, dishonest, selfish and childish as Trump. Even disgraced President Nixon seems like a saint to Trump.

The Year 2020 started with an impeachment trial and ended in losing his re-election bid. Losing is something not in Trump's vocabulary. He's not yet ready to accept that he lost; rather he'd say "I won but there was a large scale of voter fraud".

In early February, Trump was acquitted in his impeachment trial but it was because of the Senate Republicans' fear and loyalty toward him. If they preferred country over person, Trump would never be acquitted. Trump seemed to be more erratic and unpredictable after his acquittal.
He ran for a second term. From the primary to general election, the entire year was marred by controversies and contradictions and to make things worse, there was this pandemic. From the very beginning, Trump viewed the pandemic as a hoax created by the Democrats. Instead of focusing on the health and well being of public, he was more focused on winning his 2nd term.

When several states declared lockdown, the economy cratered as people stayed home and commerce slowed. Schools and businesses were closed and stock market dropped. Trump freaked out because economy was his main strength. He defied scientists and ordered states to reopen businesses and schools. He was aware of the severity of Coronavirus but never admitted it in public or took precautions to prevent it. Rather he mocked people wearing masks. Instead of maintaining social distancing, he held large rallies, events and parties. As a result he, along with his family and staff, were infected by Covid-19.
   
Trump always complained of testing and said, 'because of testing we find more cases'. The entire time, Trump floated the idea that the pandemic would end in a matter of months. Unfortunately, instead of disappearing, Coronavirus kept coming back and in less than a year, more than 341,000 Americans have died.

From early on, Trump was trailing behind Joe Biden in the polls. Independent voters stopped supporting him; even many prominent Republicans openly supported Biden. Due to the pandemic, Democrats were encouraged to vote by mail. Trump hired his own Postmaster General, who dismantled the infrastructure of the postal department to slow down mail delivery. Trump imposed new rules and regulations on the democratic states to make it difficult for people to vote by mail. Simultaneously, he floated unsubstantiated rumours of mail-in vote fraud.

But, nothing prevented Biden's win. A record number of voters participated in this year's election. Biden received more than 81 million votes, roughly 7 million more votes than Trump. Trump openly claimed there was no way Biden can get this many votes unless he cheated.

Instead of conceding or congratulating Biden, Trump filed legal cases against him. Except for one, he lost all 60 cases for lack of proofs. In an attempt to influence the Supreme Court, Trump appointed a new justice just days before the election. Two of his court cases were rejected by the Supreme Court.

Trump tried to stop states and election officials to certify election result in favour of Biden, but they did it anyway. Many Republicans including election officials, mayors, governors, Cyber Security Chief, the Attorney General declared that election was fair.

Despite the fact the Electoral College has cast its votes, states have certified their results, and he lost all his legal cases, Trump still continues his unrealistic and lonely bid to overturn the results of the election he lost. He's now lashing out at Republican leaders who have finally opted to follow the constitutional order rather than continuing to indulge his clownish attempt of a coup.

Except for a handful of Republican Senators, most of them remained quiet about Biden's win. Six weeks after the election, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell accepted Biden's win.

Trump was outraged by McConnell's approval. He vetoed the Defence Bill and refused to sign the pandemic relief package to take revenge against McConnell for supporting Joe Biden. It took both parties several months to negotiate $908 billion this package, which allocated $600 for Americans. After remaining quiet throughout the lengthy negotiation Trump demanded at the last minute to allocate $2,000 instead of $600.

Georgia has two Senate races on January 5th. This race will decide whether Democrats will control both houses of Congress or not. The result will also influence the fate of Biden's policy initiatives as a Republican-controlled Senate would probably block his agenda. If Democrats win the Senate will have 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. The Vice President will have the tie-breaking vote. McConnell rushed in the last moment to pass the pandemic relief package to help Republican Senate candidates in Georgia. Now because of Trump's actions, fate of those Republican candidates is in a limbo.

In last week Trump went to Florida to spend Christmas and New Year's. People doubted if he'd ever return to White House. But, he has decided to return to White House abruptly.

In these final days, we see a defeated president abandoning all things - national security, democratic elections and any pretence of handling the duties of the presidency. All he does is planning conspiracies and chaos to overthrow the election and pardoning controversial felons.

On January 6, electoral votes are officially counted. The Constitution and the Electoral Count Act of 1887 intended the Jan. 6 session to address a narrow question: Are the electoral votes received by Congress ones cast by electors the states appointed?

Unfortunately, Trump thinks this is his last chance to overturn the election outcome. He has been tweeting his supporters to come to the Capital on January 6th, and most probably that's the reason for him to return to White House. Now, Trump is returning to press forward in a bizarre attempt to get members of Congress to challenge and overturn the Electoral College's votes.
 Lizi Rahman is a columnist, author,
educator and activist living in New York