For decades, liberals have perfected a simple strategy: Accuse opponents of doing what you are already doing and win.
Bizarre as it may seem, Rolling Stone writers Asawin “Swin” Suebsaeng (who, as a bitter Trump critic, wrote a book called Sinking in the Swamp: How Trump’s Minions and Misfits Poisoned Washington) and Adam Rawnsley published a piece saying that Trump plans to steal the 2024 election. They describe how Biden’s allies are building a ‘Superstructure’ to prevent Trump’s plans.
The public will not buy the charge that Trump will likely steal the 2024 election. If anything, they are convinced that the Left’s various attempts to deny Trump a second term from the time he left office – including 91 charges in four different courts and repeated attempts by individual states such as Colorado, Maine, and Illinois even to prevent him a spot on the 2024 ballot – are proof that the opposite is true: Biden is trying to steal the 2024 election even before the country goes to the polls.
Despite nonstop media coverage, the charges against Trump fail to convince many outside the Democratic Party. According to a TIPP Poll conducted in August 2023, over a third (39%) of Americans held a negative view of Trump’s legal challenges. Thirty percent of respondents believed that the legal charges Trump faces amount to ‘political harassment’ by the Biden administration aimed at preventing him from running, while 9% considered the charges to be ‘exaggerated’.
Recent reports that a Wisconsin GOP Congressman, a Never-Trumper, plans to retire from his seat on April 19, ten days after the last date for an automatic special election deadline in his conservative district, add more fuel to this theory. Mike Gallagher’s retirement will mean his district will have no representation in Congress until November 2024. Each Republican House member quitting before his term brings the thin GOP majority even closer to Democratic parity. If Marjorie Taylor Greene pushes through on her resolution to unseat Speaker Mike Johnson, would the House shift control to Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries? If so, could Congress, under a Democratic House and Senate, push through a bill to deny Trump a position on the ballot, as the Supreme Court said it could?
Back to 2020: In 2020, the Left engineered so many last-minute changes to voting that it was plausible that President Biden did not win. Plausible doesn’t mean that it happened for sure. As the dictionary defines it, plausible means that something is superficially fair, reasonable, or valuable but often deceptively so. Liberal NPR analyzed the results and showed what a nail-biter match it was: “Just 44,000 votes in Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin separated Biden and Trump from a tie in the Electoral College.” As a data-driven firm, we remain unconvinced that Trump lost the 2020 election.
How can reasonable people doubt Biden’s victory?
2020 was an election like no other in American history. A raging pandemic and race riots gripped the nation in the aftermath of George Floyd. To avoid disenfranchising voters who may otherwise stay home, the common theme employed by the Left was to ignore voter identification requirements, significantly step up the use of drop boxes, expand no-excuse absentee ballots across states that had no experience with universal mail-in ballots, and use nearly $400 million of Zuckbucks to pay poll workers in Left-leaning areas. During counting, the remedies the Left sought and won were relaxed rules to accept late mail-in ballots and eliminating restrictions to verify ballot signatures against voter rolls.
At a time when the worker shortage was acute, poll workers were hard to come by. Even minor errors in individual precincts, deliberate or otherwise, could swing the outcome. Recall that the 44,000 votes were about a margin of 0.6% in each of these states.
What about electoral history?
Trump received 74 million votes in the 2020 election, 11 million more than in 2016. No American president in 180 years had failed to win reelection if he won more votes than the first election. [In 2012, Obama handsomely won reelection, although he earned 4 million fewer votes than his 2008 total.] Trump expanded his coalition as more urban Black men and Hispanics voted for him, sending shock waves through the Democratic party. Yet he lost in 2020?
The nation had numerous opportunities to examine whether the 2020 elections were fair. In the heat of the aftermath, the courts never took up the question on its merits. The partisan J6 committee spent 18 months on every aspect of the Capitol unrest but never considered what brought hundreds of thousands of voters from around the country to Washington that day. The committee should have examined several vital questions: Did out-of-state residents or illegal immigrants vote? Were signatures on mail-in ballots checked with signatures on voter registration rolls? Were ballots that arrived at counting centers late checked to see if votes were cast before Election day? Why were so few absentee ballots rejected despite the massive expansion of mail voting?
Reasonable people want answers, and not finding them from established outlets only helped increase their discomfort about election integrity. In the Iowa primaries, nearly 70% of caucusgoers said Biden did not win in 2020.
Each time anyone mentioned doubts about the 2020 election, the Left pilloried them as election deniers. Using terms such as “no evidence,” “unsubstantiated,” “widely debunked,” and “zero proof,” the media squashed all plausible 2020 election irregularity theories and classified them as “conspiracies.”
But 2024 should be different. The RealClearPolitics polling averages, the gold standard to understand the nation’s current mood, have Trump with a +1.7% lead over President Biden. In Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Nevada, Trump leads Biden by over five points, significantly greater than Biden’s 2020 victory margins of 0.4%, 0.3%, 3.2%, and 3.4%, respectively. Trump is leading in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, although by not such commanding leads. If Trump’s leads hold, he will indeed be reelected in November.
If the election is close and Trump loses again – or is somehow convicted by a sham trial – the public will never forgive the Left for stealing the election to favor Biden.
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1. UN Security Council Demands Immediate Ceasefire In Gaza Amid Israeli Airstrikes – Reuters
After vetoing three earlier draft council resolutions on the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s main ally, the U.S., abstained in the vote following global pressure for a ceasefire to ease fears of famine after nearly six months of war.
Hamas welcomed the resolution, which also demanded the unconditional release of all hostages seized by the militant group in its deadly Oct. 7 raid on southern Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose relationship with Washington has been strained by the ferocity of the offensive, said the U.S. failure to veto the proposal was a “clear retreat” from its previous position.
2. Netanyahu Ditches Plans For Israel’s Meeting With Biden Admin After US Fails To Veto UN Ceasefire Vote – DCNF
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu canceled an Israeli delegation meeting with the Biden administration on Monday after the U.S. failed to veto a United Nations (U.N.) ceasefire earlier in the day.
Netanyahu’s office told The Jewish Insider in a statement on Monday:
The U.S. retreated from its consistent stance in the Security Council that only a few days ago tied a ceasefire to the release of the hostages. This retreat hurts the war effort as well as the effort to free the hostages because it gives Hamas hope that international pressure will allow them to get a ceasefire without freeing our hostages.
3. Hamas Stands Firm On Its Original Proposal Of Comprehensive Ceasefire – Reuters
Palestinian militia group Hamas said it had informed mediators that it would stick to its original proposal of reaching a comprehensive ceasefire, which includes the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a return of displaced Palestinians.
It also demanded what it called “a real exchange of prisoners,” referring to the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for Israeli hostages being held in Gaza.
4. Trump Says Israel Is Losing International Support, Should Wrap Up Gaza War – Reuters
Donald Trump said he would have reacted the same way Israel did after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, but that Israel was losing international support and should wrap up its war against Hamas in Gaza.
Hamas’ killing spree through southern Israel, Trump said, was “one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen.” “That being said, you have to finish up your war. You have to finish it up; you got to get it done,” he said.
5. Putin Says “Radical Islamists” Behind Moscow Attack, Links Them To Ukraine – AFP
President Vladimir Putin on Monday acknowledged for the first time that “radical Islamists” were behind last week’s attack on a concert hall outside Moscow but suggested they were linked to Ukraine somehow.
The Russian leader said “many questions” remained unanswered, including why the attackers tried to flee to Ukraine – a claim that Kyiv has rejected.
Putin asked:
Of course, it is necessary to answer the question, why, after committing the crime the terrorists tried to go to Ukraine? Who was waiting for them there?
6. In Overnight Drone Strikes, Moscow Keeps Up Assault On Ukraine’s Energy Grid – RFE/RL
Fresh Russian drone strikes continued to target Ukraine’s energy and civilian infrastructure, causing blackouts in several regions and the capital, Kyiv.
Russia has intensified its attacks against Ukraine’s electrical grid in recent days. Officials in Kyiv reported that more than 1 million civilians were without power.
The World Bank estimated earlier this year that the cost of reconstruction in Ukraine would be at least $486 billion.
7. Ukraine Ramps Up Spending On Homemade Weapons To Help Repel Russia – A.P.
Ukraine’s defense industry is fast growing, and the government is flooding it with money in hopes that a surge of homemade weapons and ammunition will help turn the tide.
The effort ramped up sharply over the past year as the U.S. and Europe strained to deliver weapons and other aid to Ukraine, which is up against a much bigger Russian military backed by a thriving domestic defense industry.
8. China’s Xi Jinping To Meet With American Executives On Wednesday: Report – Reuters
China’s President Xi Jinping will meet with American business leaders in Beijing on Wednesday, following his November dinner with U.S. investors in San Francisco.
One source said Evan Greenberg, the chief executive of U.S. insurer Chubb, proposed the meeting. Other attendees include Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and Craig Allen, president of the U.S.-China Business Council.
9. Feds Crack Down On Pernicious Chinese Hacking Group That Targeted US Gov’t, Dissidents – DCNF
The U.S. on Monday announced actions aimed at exposing a sweeping Chinese hacking campaign that has targeted U.S. government institutions, critical infrastructure, media, and political dissidents for more than a decade.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in the press release:
DOJ will not tolerate efforts by the Chinese government to intimidate Americans who serve the public, silence the dissidents who are protected by American laws, or steal from American businesses. This case serves as a reminder of the ends to which the Chinese government is willing to go to target and intimidate its critics, including launching malicious cyber operations aimed at threatening the national security of the United States and our allies.
10. New Zealand Says Chinese “State-Sponsored” Group Hacked Parliament In 2021 – AFP
New Zealand blamed “state-sponsored” Chinese hackers for a “malicious” 2021 cyber attack that infiltrated sensitive government computer systems.
The country’s counter-espionage agency said a state-backed group known as “APT40” compromised computers linked to its parliamentary network.
11. Taiwan Bets On Vietnam, Indonesia For Future Chip-Industry Talent – Nikkei Asia
As a falling birthrate threatens to shrink Taiwan’s pool of high-tech talent, the island has turned to Southeast Asian students as a source of workers for the semiconductor industry.
On the outskirts of Hsinchu, a city nicknamed Taiwan’s Silicon Valley, students at the Minghsin University of Science and Technology train on equipment used in real semiconductor factories.
12. TikTok Owner Is Paying Influencers To Push New Instagram-Like App In U.S. – NDTV
TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is paying TikTok influencers to promote Lemon8, an Instagram clone, to generate buzz and engagement.
One influencer told The Post that shortly after the House passed the bill banning the popular video platform, she was offered $200 to upload a video promoting Lemon8 on TikTok.
Lemon8 is a ”lifestyle community” and functions like a mash-up of Pinterest and Instagram.
13. Hungary Hid Brazil’s Bolsonaro In Embassy While Police Investigated Alleged Coup Attempt – Politico
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro spent two nights in Hungary’s embassy in Brasília in February, presumably to hide from Brazilian authorities who are investigating his alleged coup attempt.
Bolsonaro’s brief stay at the Hungarian embassy came four days after Brazil’s federal police confiscated his passport and arrested some of his former aides. Under international law, national authorities cannot arrest individuals in foreign embassies.
14. Weapon Export Rules Eased To Allow Japan To Sell Fighter Jets – Kyodo News
Japan eased its strict defense equipment transfer rules to allow the worldwide export of next-generation fighter jets to be jointly developed with Britain and Italy, removing a hurdle for the trilateral project.
The revised rules stipulate that Japan can export the fighter jets, which the three governments aim to deploy by 2035, to a third nation, while the warplanes will never be transferred to a nation where combat is taking place.
Under its war-renouncing Constitution, Japan had maintained the ban on the export of internationally co-developed weapons to third countries.
15. Apple, Google, Meta Probed Under EU’s New Digital Markets Act – WION
The EU has launched investigations as a part of its first investigations into “non-compliance” with the 27-nation bloc’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA), which could lead to hefty fines for the companies.
The new digital competition law has sought to prevent big tech companies, including those in the United States, from cornering digital markets while making it easier for users to move between competing online services, like social media platforms and browsers.
16. Microplastics Found In Soil Dating Back To Ancient Times, Alarms Archaeologists – WION
In a groundbreaking discovery, microplastics have been detected in ancient soil samples for the first time. This discovery can potentially reshape how we preserve archaeological treasures.
Researchers from the University of York have found microplastics in soil samples dating back to the first or second century CE from layers more than 23 feet deep. This finding challenges the assumption of pristine archaeological deposits.
17. Eli Lilly Warns Of Shortage Of Insulin Products – HealthDay
Drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co. said in a recent statement, “The 10 mL [millilter] vials of Humalog® and Insulin Lispro Injection are or will be temporarily out of stock at wholesalers and some pharmacies through the beginning of April.”
In the meantime, however, patients with diabetes may need to consult with their doctors “to discuss switching to the same insulin in a prefilled pen or other insulin treatment options,” Lilly said.
Switching to another product may be easier said than done, noted patient advocate Laura Marston.
Republished with permission from TIPP Insights
