Literary Corner: Look at Pennsylvania!

 

One way to look at Pennsylvania. Via Philadelphia Magazine.

Look at the Numbers!

by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America

(after an interview with host Steven Inskeep aired on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, broadcast 12 January 2022)

It was too early to ask for fraud and to talk about fraud.¹
Rudy said that, because of the fact it was very early with the —
because that was obviously at a very, very — that was a long time ago.²
The things that have found out³ have more than bore out
what people⁴ thought and what people felt and what people found.
When you look at Langhofer,⁵ I disagree with him as an attorney.
I did not think he was a good attorney to hire. I don't know
what his game is, but I will just say this: You look⁶ at the findings.
You look⁷ at the number of votes. Go into Detroit and just ask yourself,
is it true that there are more votes than there are voters?⁸
Look at Pennsylvania. Look at Philadelphia.⁹ Is it true that
there were far more votes than there were voters?

¹ That would be 17 November 2020, when attorney Rudolph Giuliani told Judge Matthew Brann in federal court in Williamsport, PA, that two voters in Republican counties were not allowed to fix errors in their mail-in ballots, whereas voters in Democratic counties were: "The best description of this situation is it's a widespread, nationwide voter fraud," he said. 

“It’s a widespread, nationwide voter fraud,” Giuliani said. He accused local election officials of being part of a “little mafia” and preventing Republican Party observers from watching ballots being counted. He said only cities “controlled by Democratic machines” had problems, and “you’d have to be a fool to think this is an accident.”

But when Judge Brann asked him to explain why these fraud allegations were not mentioned in the lawsuit he was litigating, Giuliani acknowledged that "This is not a fraud case." This was not because it was "too early to talk about fraud"; indeed Giuliani had started talking about fraud earlier still, in his celebrated Four Seasons Total Landscaping address on 7 November, the day the election was called:

“This is a gross miscarriage of the process that would assure that these ballots are not fraudulent,” he said. “It’s a fraud, an absolute fraud.”

² Obviously so long ago that he can't quite remember, but he's positive there was some reason.

³ Not that he's going to tell us what those things are.

⁴ Where "people" means "Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States".

⁵ Kory Langhofer, Trump's campaign attorney in Arizona, another one of a series of lawyers cited in an Aaron Blake piece in the Washington Post, 19 November 2020, "Trump’s own lawyers keep undermining his voter fraud claims"—

Appearing in a Pennsylvania courtroom Tuesday in the state’s biggest case, Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani conceded, “This is not a fraud case.”

In the same case, a judge asked Trump lawyer Linda Kerns whether she would “agree with me that you are not proceeding based on allegations of fraud or misconduct; is that correct?” Kerns responded, “I am not proceeding on those allegations."

In Montgomery County, Pa., Trump lawyer Jonathan S. Goldstein was asked by a judge, “Are you claiming that there is any fraud in connection with these 592 disputed ballots?” Goldstein responded: “To my knowledge at present, no.”

In Maricopa County, Ariz., home to Phoenix, Trump lawyer Kory Langhofer said, “We are not alleging fraud in this lawsuit. … This is not about fraud.”

—and adduced by Inskeep as another example of how "your own people" denied any knowledge of fraud in the 2020 election. Trump doesn't say it was "too early" for him to discuss fraud, though it was around the same time as it was too early for Rudy, but instead attacks Langofer's qualifications and dark suspicions that he is up to some kind of "game". I always love it when Trump, who hires the "best people", says someone is not a "good attorney to hire" though he's been hiring them for years (Langofer was a counsel to the 2016 presidential campaign and transition team, for Carly Fiorina before that and for Mitt Romney in 2012), but I really think he's not clearly remembering who Langofer is, and winging it.

⁶ We looked at the findings, or at least the ones PBS could identify, and there weren't any findings to speak of.

⁷ We looked at the story that there were 8 million excess votes for President Biden, or USA Today did, and there weren't any, I mean not just not 8 million, but not any at all that "elections expert" Seth Keshel was able to demonstrate, and he turned out not to be interested in showing his work:

"It’s not clear precisely what Keshel has done to create this 'trend analysis,'" Charles Stewart, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in an email. "So as far as I can tell, he’s just pulling numbers out of the air."

In a Facebook message to USA TODAY, Keshel declined to provide additional evidence to support his claims.

"If I sent everyone information, I'd get nothing done," he said.

We looked at the number of votes in Detroit, or AP did, and there were absolutely not more votes than voters:

President Donald Trump also tweeted the false claim about Detroit, while falsely stating he won the state of Michigan: “In Detroit, there are FAR MORE VOTES THAN PEOPLE. Nothing can be done to cure that giant scam. I win Michigan!” 

But there were not more votes cast in Detroit than there are people. According to unofficial election results on the City of Detroit’s website, on Nov. 5, there were 250,138 votes cast and 504,714 registered voters. Detroit has an estimated population of 670,000. 

⁹ We looked at Philadelphia, with help from AP, and it looks like state representative Frank Ryan (R-Lebanon County) must have jumped the gun, though he won't show his work either:

The claim then spread to several right-wing websites and social media influencers, including Trump, whose tweet claiming Pennsylvania had 205,000 more votes than voters was retweeted 117,000 times.

However, these claims rely on incomplete data, according to Wanda Murren, communications director for the Pennsylvania Department of State, who called the lawmakers’ release “obvious misinformation.”

It was not immediately clear where the numbers cited in the release originated and Ryan did not respond to a call seeking comment on Tuesday. However, the apparent reference to SURE (Statewide Uniform Registry of Electors) in Pennsylvania points to state data on the voting history of registered voters, which some large counties have not finished uploading yet.... 

Those claims are easily debunked. In Pennsylvania, for example, there were nearly 7 million votes cast. The total number of registered voters in 2020 was just over 9 million.

The Former Guy invites Inskeep to "look at" something 23 times in the course of the 9-minute interview, in a pattern he's never stopped milking since disputing election results became the main object of his life. 

I'm less inclined than Steve M to fault Inskeep for failure to follow up, in general, I'm very impressed by his interviewing style in so many cases, but in this case, sweet Jesus, we've "looked at" it all! We've looked at everything, in many cases multiple times, and nothing untoward has ever been found. We've done all the "looking at" anybody could ever ask for, and the answer is always the same. Can there ever be a time when Inskeep just says, "Mr. President, we've looked at it already"?