The Washington Monthy writes that Trump had an elaborate plan, dreamed up by one of his inner circle (Stephen Miller?) Jared Kushner?), to demand a halt to the counting on Election Day, knowing that the mail-in ballots would favor Biden. But then FOX News called Arizona for Biden, and his plan was foiled. He was furious and demanded that FOX retract its call, but it did not back down. He even attacked the person who heads FOX’s Decision Desk, but to no avail.
Donald Trump telegraphed his plan to steal the election in the days leading up to Nov. 3. He wanted to declare victory on election night, stop the counting mail-in votes he considered illegal, and, if necessary, send the election to the judiciary and eventually the Supreme Court.
Implementing that strategy would require a public relations effort in which Trump made at least a plausible case that he had won re-election. Michigan and Wisconsin looked out of reach. So the president would need to maintain the illusion that he was winning the rest of his 2016 states to have any pathway to 270 electoral votes. The most vulnerable were Pennsylvania and Arizona.
Republicans had ensured, via the courts, that Pennsylvania couldn’t begin counting mail-in ballots prior to November 3rd. So Trump was relying on an early lead in that state coming from those who had voted in person on Election Day. That made Arizona pivotal to the public relations campaign for Trump to claim victory.
But at 11:20 pm on Tuesday, Fox News foiled the plan by calling Arizona for Biden. The Associated Press followed at 2:50 AM. Eventually, they were joined by NPR, “PBS NewsHour,” Univision, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. With Arizona gone, Trump would have no clear path to 270 electoral votes.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Murdoch!”, she wrote …
Not Rupert Murdoch. I’ve read that one of his sons is running Fox and this son has never liked Trump.
And, I have read that when Fox doesn’t do what Trump wants, DT calls Rupert to stop the son from sabotaging one of Trump’s lie/conspiracy theory based plots.
Funny!
One of your best, Jon!
& I have repeatedly said that it45 must have kicked his tv set screen in while watching Fox.
The Replutocrat Party motto is the same under trump, who is NOT any kind of outsider, as it has been for decades, “If you can’t earn it, steal it.” They have seen that lying and stealing is far less work than earning the right to govern, so they have long abandoned any legitimate effort to earn it.
OutFOXed
Talk about irony. The “news” network with uber sycophants Hannity, Pirro and Dobbs.
Out FOXed by his own people! Karma is a _itch. Doesn’t make me like Fox News, but at least they had the decency to acknowledge that 4 more years of trump would be disastrous for the Nation as a whole. They will likely revert to Republican light and let the crazy folks go to the new trump network. My gosh, even Charles Koch is giving a mea culpa and admitting that his Libertarian/free market experiment didn’t really work. My guess is that these rich folks are running scared and want some protection…..most of the crazies have realized that it’s the wealthy people who have manipulated the system to their favor. The fringe is planning it’s revolt and it’s not looking pretty for those with $$$$$ and power.
I am very critical of the news media (not just Fox, but the networks and so-called liberal newspapers). But the one thing that they did right – which likely protected our democracy to live another day – was to agree not to call the states with huge numbers of mail-in ballots left.
Rather than saying “some people say Trump won and other people say they should wait for the mail in ballots and we don’t know which is true”, the news media presented facts as facts. When a huge number of votes haven’t been counted yet, either of the candidates could win and the only “truth” is that elections are about counting the votes.
It’s a surprise, since the news media tends to push narratives like “Elections are about counting the votes that Republicans believe should be counted. Democrats disagree. No one knows for sure which one of those facts is true, since they are both equally valid opinions about the proper way to hold elections.”
This is somewhat off this discussion but I was thinking about what President-Elect Joe Biden said about healing and it is time for the healing to start now.
So, with the thought of healing of this country in mind, what would happen if for one day, for 24 hours, nobody talked about Trump, no media wrote or said anything about Trump, nobody even thought about Trump?
I think not taking about Trump would free up some space in our brains to think about something positive and bring a moment of healing hearts and souls for at least a brief moment in time.
That is indeed a healing thought. I look forward to four years of not having Trump dominating the air space.
Four years of a new nightmare every waking morning. He requires and gets constant attention. It’s been exhausting.
The couple of days, after Biden’s victory had been declared, when he said nothing, we’re a wonderful reminder of sanity. I knew he was plotting something…but it was so nice not to hear about other things, again.
Not out of the woods, yet. Selfish man won’t even acknowledge the serious need for transition.
Let’s hope that Biden is unexciting. That he thoughtfully pursues an agenda meant to rebuild the government that Trump has tried his best to destroy. I hope he is both effective and boring. Trump has meant four years of chaos. At this very moment, his Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency are rushing to sell off leases for drilling in the Arctic Wilderness, a huge area that was previously off limits. Trumpists want to sign the leases before Inauguration Day.
I was thinking of something similar. What if we all said to Trump that if he concedes the election, we will all say only nice things about him until he leaves office. If that happened, it would help us heal a bit, and help him get through the last couple months of his term without having as many self-perceived reasons to retaliate against the world.
Trump doesn’t understand that he is making a total fool of himself by refusing to acknowledge he lost.
It’s impossible. Trump can’t steal the election. 😁
Eddie,
If you recall, Trump ridiculed mail-in voting. He believed his voters would vote in person on Election Day, and Biden voters would vote by mail. He took the gamble that he could “stop the count” at the end of Election Day, and he would be ahead. So, his voters in Pennsylvania were chanting “Stop the Vote,” while his supporters in Arizona, where he was behind, chanted ”Count the Vote.” What he opposed was counting every vote and abiding by the outcome.
dianeravitch, oh dear; it didn’t turn out that way, because he still lost. 😁
Yes. The best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry.
What’s this? The hen is guarding the Foxhouse?
Well, more news tonight–GA Republican Sec. of State “pressured” into throwing out votes
(as suggested by none other than Lindsay Graham).
Trump’s continuing disgraceful post-election behavior is actually a good thing if it helps weaken the two republican bozos in Georgia’s Senate runoff races.
The unbalanced leading the unfit.
2024’s election will play out like 2020’s but, with the possibility the presidency goes to the GOP.
Trump recently gave the tribes, the talking point, “Biden’s voters are anti-Christian”.
The Dems message in return, no response. Dems could shout back, “you’re anti- separation of church and state”. But the latter reply just isn’t as compelling or effective in getting people to the polls, charged with emotion.