A strange new defense of Trump's coup effort is both wrong and dangerous

[Nevilledog]

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Greg Sargent
@ThePlumLineGS
Don't let Trump and his propagandists get away with claiming he *really believed* the 2020 election was stolen. It's nonsense. Yet, incredibly, it's now being used in court to defend Trump coup memo author John Eastman. Time to bury this claim for good:

washingtonpost.com
Opinion | A strange new defense of Trump’s coup effort is both wrong and dangerous
Time to bury the idea that Trump "really believed" the 2020 election was stolen.
9:09 AM · Mar 9, 2022

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/09/trump-john-eastman-coup-defense-wrong-dangerous/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/wgwEX

Ever since Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol, we’ve heard endless variations of a particularly pernicious claim: Trump and many GOP voters really believed the election was stolen from him. This helps explain the ferocity of the Jan. 6 violence, we’ve been told, even if it doesn’t justify it.

This notion is both baseless and unintentionally exonerating. We don’t know what Trump and his voters actually believed. And casting this as rooted in delusion leaves no space for the possibility that Trump — and many of his supporters — are now fully on board with efforts to overturn election losses in the full knowledge that they are, in fact, procedurally legitimate.

But now this idea is being directly marshaled as a legal defense on behalf of Trump and at least one of his co-conspirators, lawyer John Eastman, the author of the now-infamous Trump coup memo.

So it’s time to bury this argument for good. It’s preposterously absurd based on widely available facts. And it’s also dangerous: If it succeeds politically, it could open the door to all kinds of further antidemocratic abuses.

*snip*

[Pantagruel]

1. Indisputable evidence on tape

that Trump knew he lost Georgia and by exactly how many votes.

[BlueIdaho]

2. You mean like he really believed he could shoot someone

In the middle of 5th avenue and get away with it? Would that do for a murder defense? Fuck him, he believes whatever he needs to believe in the moment to justify his murderous criminal lifestyle.

[Cracklin Charlie]

3. This corpse should have been buried two years ago.

Yet, here we are…still burying it.

Let’s get on with the justice.

[uponit7771]

7. +1, just read an article on how eastern NATO countries were screaming about Russia and ignored

... mostly by NATO pols taking money from oligarchs.

Here in the US the left is screaming about propaganda outfits like FAUX News causing damage here in the US and shouldn't be treated like a news outlet.

The article was scary, they were pretty much saying the same thing we're saying thing we're saying but through a Putrid / Russian lens.

I just don't know how to scream any louder

[ProfessorGAC]

4. They Really Thought It Was Stolen Because...

...they thought they sufficiently rigged it.
Then like Doyle Lonnigan in The Sting they believed they lost because somebody cheated better than them.
They leave out the "we rigged it" part, though.

[Walleye]

8. 👆why they were so pissed.They couldn't win an election, they were sure they cheated better

[kentuck]

5. Because intent is very difficult to prove in court.

However, that should not be an issue with Trump. Everyone told him he had lost the election. He had no rational reason to believe otherwise.

[spanone]

6. Being stupid is not a defense.

[blm]

9. If he truly believed it then declare him mentally incompetent.

Unfit for any position of responsibility.

[Mad_Machine76]

11. +1

He's either a criminal or mentally incompetent. Either way, should never be allowed to run for President ever again, if not in jail or in a mental institution.

[Mad_Machine76]

10. He laid the groundwork for him to claim the election was rigged

but he was running around attacking the increased allowable use of mail-in ballots (due to the pandemic) as fraudulent LONG before the election happened and claiming that the election would be illegitimate (if he didn't win). Furthermore, nobody ever produced ANY evidence after the election that the election was rigged/stolen/illegitimate, so a peaceful and uninterrupted transfer of power clearly was not on his mind.

[Ms. Toad]

12. It's neither new, nor strange.

Nor is it a defense. You don't get to break laws to get your way simply because the court(s) ruled against you.

Your honor, I was breaking Joey out of jail after his conviction, sentencing, and multiple appeals becaues I really truly believed he didn't break the law.

[Caliman73]

13. He is either lying, or delusional.

A delusion is an idiosyncratic belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument, typically a symptom of mental disorder.

Either Trump is lying (extremely likely) or he is delusional. Trump was informed, repeatedly that there were no significant irregularities in the election that would have influenced the outcome. Trump lost. He was told he lost. The courts rejected all of his claims that he was cheated.

So, once more, either he and his lawyers are lying or Trump is delusional, as he continues to maintain the idiosyncratic belief despite all available evidence to the contrary and the shared reality.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

14. I really doubt that TFG actually believes the Big Lie