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How Trump “Won”—A Warning
By Greg Palast |
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[Atlanta, Sunday, November 3.]
No, I don’t have a crystal ball. But I do have 25 years’ experience investigating voting trickery. And what I see here in Georgia is ugly. What I’ve seen in Arizona, Texas, Michigan and Wisconsin is uglier.
So, I’m warning right now: unless action is taken, and now, by the US Department of Justice to protect the vote, I don’t see how Vice-President Kamala Harris can win.
Why? Join me in going back to the future. |
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| Members of a Georgia MAGA militia in front of the state capitol, Atlanta. All photos by Zach D. Roberts for the Palast Investigative Fund. (2020) Re-print permitted with attribution |
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The day is November 6: This coming Wednesday. A group of MAGA fanatics called True the Vote has, according to an NAACP estimate, challenged the ballots of over 300,000 Georgians—not surprisingly, mostly voters of color. (We’re not guessing: the Palast Investigations Team contacted 800 of these Georgians.)
Trump has been promoting, and raising millions for, True the Vote, which announced its aim of challenging 2 MILLION through Election Day. What’s particularly dangerous is that True the Vote’s 40,000 vigilante volunteers will be blocking the count of ballots on Election Day itself and the days after. Hundreds of thousands of voters who mail in their ballots have no idea their votes are about to be thrown into the electoral dumpster.
On November 8: I expect Georgia’s MAGA-controlled county elections boards to remove one in five of those challenged. In 2020, Trump asked Georgia officials to “find” 11,780 votes. Now they will “find” 60,000 voters to remove—enough for Trump to “win” the State of Georgia.
November 9: The NAACP files suit to overturn the vigilante challenges because they were submitted too close to an election (and after). But the Supreme Court’s shock ruling last week allowing new purges of voter rolls in Virginia effectively nullifies the National Voter Registration Act which was supposed to block these last-minute sneak attacks on voter rolls.
November 12: Arizona disqualifies 30,000 “provisional” ballots, overwhelmingly cast in Hispanic precincts, tipping the race to Trump. (According to the federal Elections Assistance Commission, a breathtaking 2.7 million provisional ballots were rejected in 2020. Who gets shunted to these provisional “placebo” ballots? If you’re Black, Asian-American or Hispanic, the chance you’ll be shunted to a “provisional” ballot is 300% higher than if you’re a white voter.)
December 11: This is the final day under the Constitution –– and new law written by GOP Senate majority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) –– for each state governor to submit the names of the winning Electors. Get ready for this to happen: Michigan again disqualifies tens of thousands of ballots. (Note: Michigan disqualified 75,000 ballots in Detroit in 2016 as “spoiled,” i.e. unreadable, because scanners simply broke down.) Another “Brooks Brothers riot” organized, as in 2000, by Roger Stone, now a chieftain of the Proud Boy, creates mayhem in the Wayne County (Detroit) elections office. That stops the count in Michigan. As a result, Michigan can’t submit its slate of electors by the absolute “certification” deadline of December 11, and the state, though won by Harris, loses all its Electoral votes.
December 17: In Nevada’s capital, Carson City, there is mayhem surrounding the State House. The Three-Percenters pick up the war cry, “Give us Trump or we light this whole sh*t on fire.” (We filmed Trump crony Ali Alexander, with Alex Jones, saying exactly those words in front of Georgia’s Governor’s Mansion) after the last election. |
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| Two supporters of the new Confederacy at a Civil War re-enactment told us they’d chosen their firing points at the top of buildings in Atlanta. From the film, Vigilantes Inc., America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen, available to stream at no cost at WatchVigilantesInc.com |
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In my admittedly dark nightmare, the Molotov cocktails fly and the AR-15s slaughter dozens of pro-democracy demonstrators. The well-planned riots in Nevada and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, are not unexpected. Derek Molenhour, a booster of the openly-armed Three Percenters’ militias, told me, they have long prepared to launch what he calls their “revolution,” justified because Harris, they are certain, could only win by stealing the election.
We can easily imagine that the chaos and flames of insurrection could prevent Nevada’s and Pennsylvania’s newly elected members of the Electoral College from meeting to officially cast their ballots by the December 17 deadline. |
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| Armed Georgia militiamen—on January 6, 2020 at the state Capitol |
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Trump would be thrilled. With no candidate receiving 270 Electoral votes, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson will declare that the race will now be decided by the rules of the 12th Amendment. The 12th Amendment dictates that the House of Representatives will choose our President—and dig this—each state gets one single vote. California and New York will each get a vote. South and North Dakota each get a vote chosen by their Congressional delegations.
With 26 Congressional delegations controlled by Republicans, though a tiny minority of the US population, Trump would be voted back in as President.
On January 20, Americans stunned by this pseudo-legal coup d’état march on Washington. Newly inaugurated President Trump orders troops to round up, even shoot, those complaining about the theft of our democracy.
We are charged with “sedition.”
By January 21, I could be writing my column in an orange suit.
And I’ll have to tell my cell-mates, “I told you so.” |
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Please support the Palast Investigations Team. No other journalism organization goes undercover, goes inside MAGA world, inside the vigilante operations like we do. We are staying on the ground in Georgia, an expensive decision to continue our work…
Unlike other groups, we don’t constantly beg and cajole for funds. Our work is first, but we can’t continue this work in coordination with our partners—from Black Voters Matter to the NAACP to Rev. Jesse Jackson’s RainbowPUSH—without your support. This is the moment.
Please help us continue the work—which will not end on Tuesday.
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