Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced her campaign to be reelected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives despite losing seats against one of the least popular presidents in history. This is not the first such loss for Pelosi who remains one of the most polarizing and unpopular figures in American politics. Pelosi claimed that former Vice President Joe Biden was not only already the “President-Elect” but insisted that she and Biden had a “tremendous mandate” despite the election blows in the House and the close presidential election. She insisted that she is “part of that mandate” from the American people.Pelosi put on a bizarrely gleeful press conference to a largely supportive press corps despite the possible loss of roughly 10 seats in an election that Democrats and the media predicted would be a blue wave. Indeed, Pelosi was supposed to be picking up that number of seats while Democrats were given an over 70 percent chance of retaking the Senate. As for the presidential election, we are still counting votes in states with a razor-thin margin — an election that the media predicted would be a blowout for Biden. Instead, the country was divided almost down the middle after the Democrats outspent Republicans. Not only did Biden spend far more than Trump but donors like Michael Bloomberg dumped a $100 million in Florida alone and still lost the state by a good margin.
Nevertheless, Pelosi claimed that the election gave Biden and herself a “tremendous mandate.” Indeed, she added: “I think Joe Biden has . . . a bigger mandate than John F. Kennedy.” Where is Senator Lloyd Bentsen when we need him?
The reference to Kennedy’s win in 1960 was also curious since that election may have been secured by widespread fraud in Illinois and Texas. To this day, many historians question whether Kennedy actually won the election. Hardly the election you want to reference when the Democratic Party is opposing court review of close races in places like Nevada.
What was particularly striking in how Pelosi heralded Biden as a leader who will unite rather than divide and show tolerance for opposing views. It is a value that Pelosi has admired from a safe distance as one of the most polarizing figures in American politics. Indeed, some of us called for her resignation after her outrageous and juvenile protest during the State of the Union address, including ripping up the address from the Speaker’s Chair.
One threat for Pelosi could come from the small number of moderate Democrats remaining in the caucus combining with the Black Caucus to install the first African American Speaker. Ironically, the Republicans would likely prefer to take Pelosi in the position, particularly with the runoffs in Georgia in January.
Obviously, Biden was not the “President-Elect” and there is no “tremendous mandate” for either side. Yet, while hitting President Donald Trump with “disinformation” labels for his post-election comments about effort to steal the election, Twitter and Facebook were entirely happy with the obviously untrue statements from Pelosi about Biden being elected. They also did not strike out at Democratic statements that Trump was trying to steal the election. Indeed, one of Facebook’s much maligned “Oversight Board members” immediately celebrated the defeat of Trump as the ending “the wave of hate and intolerance” across the globe.
Pelosi’s comments would ordinarily be viewed as delusional from anyone else. But this is Washington. They were not delusional; just dishonest. That is never a problem in Washington. The Democrats may well reelect Pelosi because polls and seats change but the establishment does not. Even with dissenters objecting to the radicalization of the rhetoric in the election, Pelosi has the edge because she has the goods to deliver for votes. Members reelected her after the disastrous 2016 election despite polls showing that she was radioactive as a leader, the second most unpopular Democrat after Hillary Clinton herself. The fact is that these elections are not about the voters or even the party. It is about power and who can use it and who can keep it. Pelosi can engage in utter fantasies about “tremendous mandates” to dupe voters while offering juicy committee assignments and campaign donations to entice members. Washington will soon be back to normal with a tremendous mandate for the resilience of the establishment.
Turley has been an enabler for quite awhile now, But I don’t think anybody could have guessed that he would turn full sycophant. Again the question must be asked, Is Turley working for the RNC or Trump campaign? Has he been hired as a staff lawyer or consultant?
FWIW, I’ve been operating under the assumption that’s he’s being paid by the RNC since he started nattering on about “executive overreach” in Obama’s 2nd term (he mysteriously abandoned the topic as soon as Trump was elected).
Fish Wings: The turning point for Turley, regarding this presidency, was when William Barr’s appointment was announced. Turley wrote a glowing appraisal of Barr’s abilities while noting he was a close, personal friend. From that moment onward, Turley scarcely wrote a negative word about Donald Trump.
True. And that goes double when Turley agreed to become a Fox News contributor. Oh sure, he will criticize Trump when he must do so to retain his credibility, but he seems to reserve his most vociferous condemnation for others. For example, Turley excoriates Michael Cohen in the harshest terms and yet he does not acknowledge that Cohen was acting on orders from Trump. If only Turley would see fit to hold Trump morally accountable for Cohen’s admittedly despicable and illegal conduct.
The false advocates of “morality” here chirping loudly even though they are of a piece with the frauds at university who claim there is no such thing as morality
Unfortunately for the billionaires, the workers are coming to a similar post-modernist point of view “beyond good and evil” and in the end, will take pleasure is staking them through the heart
This time, the workers’ rebellion comes in a roundabout unexpected way, through the Trump faction
For now, we see who the bootlickers of global capitalism are: Joe Biden’s sycophants
-Saloth Sar
Kurtz, your mother’s calling. You have to go home.Time for dinner.
Can you play again tomorrow? I get to be the President-elect!
So, anyone who is not in complete lockstep with your opinion has sold out to the other side. Nuance of opinion is the mark of a thinking man. Staunch adherance to a single point of view is the mark of man of flawed thinking.
“she added “I think Joe Biden has . . . a bigger mandate than John F. Kennedy.”
Pure comedy gold, is she intending to mention another election in our history decided by fraud intentionally?
Software “glitches” that magically transform votes for Trump into votes for Biden (MI, and maybe elsewhere). Treating republican ballot-counting watchers as if they’re bird watchers (PA and elsewhere). Nonresidents and dead people voting by mail (NV and elsewhere). Allowing democrat ballots to be cured, but not republican ones (PA and possibly elsewhere).
Looks like the democrats have found themselves a new “insurance policy.”
Sam, don;t be a sucker. There is no proof for any of that and you are being used by a narcissist who isn’t man enough to take his medicine. He lost. 4 years ago Hillary lost the same 3 states by much smaller margins – while winning the national vote – did not cry about it and claim cheating. She conceded the next day and wished Trump well. She had the cojones to show up at the inauguration to show her support for our government. Your leader is puny mouse with the soul of a roach.
As to the allegations, they have all been debunked and poll watchers from both parties have had privileges as they always do.
+10
NYT in 2012 on the dangers of mail-in voting: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/us/politics/as-more-vote-by-mail-faulty-ballots-could-impact-elections.html?smid=tw-share
Turley mocks Pelosi for a “bizarrely gleeful press conference” & deliberately ignores Trump twice declaring victory at press briefings while vowing massive litigation & enlisting the Supreme Court to nullify tens of thousands of votes by Joe Biden supporters. Turley appears to be giddy with delight at the prospects of Republicans being reduced to only controlling one branch of government after controlling all 3 branches 4 years ago. Take that, Pelosi!
Trump is about to get beat by a Democrat he called “the worst candidate in the history of American politics…Joe doesn’t even know he’s alive…he can’t even draw a crowd of 10 people.” Trump is about to become the first incumbent president to lose reelection in 28 years. Five states which Trump won in 2016 flipped to Biden. Arizona has only been won by a Democratic presidential candidate once in the past 48 years. The last time Democrats won Georgia was 28 years ago. Turley ignores Trump’s devestating losses in those red states & instead thinks it’s far more newsworthy that Democrats have a smaller House majority.
Turley calls this a close election, but Biden stands to win 306 Electoral College votes, the same number Trump received in 2016, which he gleefully & repeatedly called “a landslide.” It would clearly be a monumental mistake to call Turley an unbiased observer.
+10
I love that the professor and many commenters (not the trolls. Molly and her ilk are zombies) have such a great knowledge of law and such a great respect for it. What you all don’t seem to realize is that for law to prevail it must be upheld and many in Washington, and the DNC in totality, simply don’t care. Law doesn’t do *anything* ‘just because’. When is this going to sink in? Are you all in ivory towers? Does your own privilege really protect you to that extent when most of us are struggling due to dem policy that you can be so oblivious/callous?
And I’m sorry, but you can absolutely blame the state of so many young and unfathomably ignorant Americans on parenting trends of the past 30 years. Yeah, education is a big part of it, but the home environment created the kids, and the parents are the ones that somehow failed to counter anything being taught to their kids in spite of their psychosis level helicoptering.
Not a troll, just someone who disagrees with you.
yadda yadda, Professor. Biden upward of 4 million in popular vote, on path to over 300 in the EC.
120 thousand new covid cases yesterday w/ 1200 deaths nationally. Meadows tests positive for covid. The president unhinged and insane…
But don’t worry, as per your reporting and opinion…, the earth is still flat.
One can hate the crime but still admire the skill and audacity of the perpetrators. With the mail-in ballot fiasco plenty of folks saw it coming and still it was allowed to happen. Democrat ballot-box stuffing is a “time-honored tradition”. https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/11/06/rod-blagojevich-dems-stealing-elections-a-time-honored-tradition/
We won’t have another honest federal election until we have mandated in-person voting by certified citizens with picture ID, the only exceptions being strictly controlled absentee ballots based on verified requests.
Good analysis! Agreed! And just why is the voter ID requirement so controversial?
Cassidy: “. . . why is the voter ID requirement so controversial?”
Same reason that having police on the streets is considered “so controversial.”
Both deter crime.
The consequences of fraud can literally be world changing. Tale LBJ, for example. He won his Democrat primary race in 1948 by 87 votes. Virtually everybody on all sides now accepts he stole the election by engaging in voter fraud.
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/11/us/how-johnson-won-election-he-d-lost.html
The lawyer who helped him litigate the fraud issues was the ethically challenged Abe Fortas. LBJ won his primary election and went on to defeat his Republican challenger in the general election to become a US Senator. From there, he quickly rose in the Democrat caucus where he was elected by the Senate to be the Senate Majority Leader. To help him in the South, JFK named him to be his VP running mate in ’60. (There is evidence that JFK fraudulently won the presidency in ’60, but we’ll ignore that for now).
LBJ became president after JFK’s assassination. He was elected president in ’64. He believed the Supreme Court may overturn his pseudo-socialist Great Society schemes. So he persuaded Associate Supreme Court Justice Goldberg to resign and accept an ambassador position. LBJ wanted to install onto the Supreme Court, Abe Fortas, the lawyer who helped him overcome the fraud charges to become a US Senator in ’48. After helping LBJ fraudulent win the Democrat primary in ’48, Fortas became a lifelong LBJ confidant. LBJ wanted him on SCOTUS to rubber stamp whatever LBJ wanted/needed. Fortas also served as sort of a spy for LBJ – secretly meeting regularly with members of the LBJ administration where he’d covey how members of SCOTUS were leaning – betraying the confidences of his colleagues and associates on the Court.
87 votes obtained by fraud made LBJ a US Senator. That led to him becoming Senate Majority Leader of the corrupt Democrat controlled Senate; VP; and ultimately President where he connived to install his ethically challenged lawyer on SCOTUS to rubber stamp his unconstitutional Great Society redistribution schemes.
Pelosi’s statement is more “polarizing” than Steve Bannon calling for Fauci to be BEHEADED?!!
Turley is becoming a joke.
Twitter has suspended Bannon’s account because he suggested beheading Fauci and Wray. Maybe JT will write another column complaining about Twitter censorship.
Bannon is currently out on bond for his indictment. Encouraging the beheading of public officials is unwise for someone out on bond. Bannon’s lawyer quit in response. Here’s hoping that Bannon ends up convicted and jailed.
Bannon is presumed innocent and has not surrendered his free speech rights
not that the billionaires, who hate Bannon as much as Trump, and who own the media and some of the article III tyrants too, not that they care about rights
–Saloth Sar
yyy, Bannon is in no position of authority or influence. No comparison.
DV, Pelosi isn’t calling for anyone to be beheaded. No comparison.
Bannon has long been in positions of “influence” through Breitbart, Cambridge Analytica, previous work for the Trump Campaign and Adminstration, his War Room podcasts, and so forth.
It’s a fair point. But Pelosi’s statement is just normal political blather, whereas Bannon’s is highly unusual and deranged. I’d say Bannon’s is more worthy of comment by someone who purports to be concerned with the “polarization” of our politics.
DOH!
“GOP Chair: Michigan counties used software that caused 6,000 votes to switch from Trump to Biden.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P36qnU-Ozc&feature=emb_logo
And the 6000 votes were in just one county in Michigan. Another 47 counties to go.
This entire rig is so sloppy.
If she has actual evidence, she should submit it to authorities.
I guess that you didn’t see the interview last night. There is evidence and it will be submitted. Moreover, there are election workers who have stated that they were instructed to backdate ballots.
I don’t care what she says in public. It’s legal for her to lie to the public, and she does it a lot. If she has evidence, why hasn’t it been submitted ALREADY? What is she waiting for? Let the election workers testify under oath.
WH Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has now tested positive for the coronavirus. Because the Trump WH is stupid and uncaring and doesn’t take basic precautions, he’s been indoors without a mask on in rooms packed full of people.
So?
Is he going to cough and run a fever for a couple of days?
LOL
Over 225,000 people have already died from it, and almost 500,000 have been hospitalized. It is already the 3rd leading cause of death in the US this year. Let me guess: you’re a Trump supporter, so you simply don’t care.
I’m not a Trump supporter and it’s way more complicated than that.
PR, of course it’s more complicated than that. It’s also more complicated than “Is he going to cough and run a fever for a couple of days? LOL”
Though miraculously the virus just skips protests and vote counting unless one happens to be non-dem voter. Pfft.
No, it doesn’t. No one said it does. But don’t pretend that all situations are interchangeable. People are less likely to become infected outdoors. People are less likely to become infected if everyone is wearing masks. People are less likely to become infected if people are physically distanced.
All of the people counting the votes are sitting several feet apart, and they’re all wearing masks. Contrast that with Mark Meadows not wearing a mask and scores of Trump supporters cramming a room for Trump’s WH speech after the election –
https://twitter.com/HowardMortman/status/1323947095930404864
It looks like only one person in that room is wearing a mask, HHS Secretary Alex Azar.
News has confirmed that 5 other WH staffers in addition to Meadows have just been diagnosed with the virus. Maybe one of them has also passed it along to Ivanka and Jared in that packed room.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, the jackass who wore the gas mask to Congress to ridicule mask wearing, has now tested positive too.
Turns out that he contracted it a while ago and now has antibodies.
Anonymous’s blame-the-victim knee-jerk reaction is getting old.
Who is the victim in your scenario, DV?
Nancy Pelosi is a classic victim of the media disinformation campaign in regards to the polls. Blue Wave was repeated so many times the dems actually succumbed to their own disinformation. Now with the realization that Trump, for better or worse, truly represented the common man. Dems outspent Republicans 2 to 1 this election cycle. A total of 16 billion, twice what was spent the 2016 election cycle. (CNBC Oct 22) Wall Street gave 50 million dollars to Biden to Trump’s 10.
I don’t think that Nancy Pelosi is a victim of anything.
Botox is a toxin so there is that to consider. Just saying
…..carries an extremely remote risk for transmission of viral diseases and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2017/103000s5302lbl.pdf
CJD usually appears in later life and runs a rapid course. Typical onset of symptoms occurs at about age 60, and about 70 percent of individuals die within one year. In the early stages of the disease, people may have failing memory, behavioral changes, lack of coordination, and visual disturbances. As the illness progresses, mental deterioration becomes pronounced and involuntary movements, blindness, weakness of extremities, and coma may occur.
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Fact-Sheets/Creutzfeldt-Jakob-Disease-Fact-Sheet
Bush and Trump both claimed a mandate, and governed as if they had one, despite losing the popular vote. Biden did not meet polling expectations, and did lose some house seats, but did have a solid pop vote win, will have a solid EC win, and won seats in the Senate. Definitely had a liberal mandate (maybe not a “tremendous” one). I see we are back to the Rs being able to do whatever they want because “it is not illegal”, but the Ds can’t do what they want because it is not fully proper in some way you don’t like.
Also, Trump will wreck havoc in the next two months and you will defend it,
Hopefully whatever wreaking havoc takes place will include the pardoning of Edward Snowden.
+10
Associated Press: “A texting company run by one of President Trump’s top campaign officials sent out thousands of targeted, anonymous texts urging supporters to rally where votes were counted in Philadelphia, falsely claiming Democrats were trying to steal the election.”
These lies are incendiary. Is JT going to condemn them?
Anonymous, I’m sure that Antifa uses texts to conspire to riot, so what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
DV, you may be certain, but you’re not presenting any evidence, and are you truly arguing that Antifa and the Trump Campaign are goose and gander? Really?
Biden is going to be President, elected via the EC, and he’ll have won with the largest popular vote in US history. The popular vote doesn’t matter in terms of the EC, but it does matter in terms of judging whether he has a mandate.
Here’s hoping that Pelosi is ousted as Speaker. The question is who would be good to replace her.
“The popular vote doesn’t matter in terms of the EC”
So, you’ve changed your mind?
Are you familiar with the term “cognitive dissonance”, ChiCom?
No, Russian Troll Rhodes, I didn’t change my mind. I’ve always known that the popular vote doesn’t determine the EC vote. Lying about me is just part of your endless trolling.
The level of delusion you display Anonymous, given that we can quote your own comments to you, used to be considered clinical.
All I can figure as an alternative explanation is that you are engaged in the most sloppy and useless attempt at a psy-op the world has ever seen. Sorry, we all have free will, even without a tual freedom. There’s a reason the strategies in the books you read have failed in the past every. Single. Time. In. Recorded. History. You can’t change human nature’s inclination toward autonomy, period, and you can’t legislate it, period.
We are not 12-20 year-old balls of malleability who learned nothing prior to their entrance into society. Thankfully, I find you more hilarious than anything else. Watching a person fight their own brain and deploy the tactics of a master Chutes and Ladders player in response to said brain is good fun, like watching a toddler battling a cookie jar with a screw top too large for their hands. And who knows? Maybe you have been diagnosed and are indeed heavily medicated. Would also explain a lot.
Multiple people comment anonymously, James. If you paid attention, that would be obvious to you. It is both ironic and humorous that you compare me to a toddler when you’re the one engaging in childish denigration.
Adam Schiff
PELOSI IS A BABBLING TOWN IDIOT/FOOOOOOL – She has no real understanding what goes on in the real World, only in her World, she is corrupt and morally corrupt, she should resign/retire, go back to her house in San Fran and her freezer stuffed with Expensive Ice Cream and her winery in NAPA.
She has a much better understanding of what goes on in Congress than you do.
“We’ll Get Fu*king Torn Apart Again In 2022″: Democrats Livid In Leaked Caucus Call After Crushing Election Losses”
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/well-get-fuking-torn-apart-again-2022-democrats-livid-leaked-caucus-call-after-crushing
“House Democrats were livid during a Thursday caucus call after the so-called ‘blue wave’ they were promised by pollster evaporated, and they lost several seats, according to leaked excerpts.
According to AP’s Erica Werner, Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger was reportedly the most vocal – reportedly complaining that “we lost races we shouldn’t have lost. Defund police almost cost me my race because of an attack ad. Don’t say socialism ever again,” yelling that the party needs to “get back to basics.”
Jonathan wrote, “Pelosi Claims ‘Tremendous Mandate’ Despite House Losses”
Of course she did, that’s what bald-faced liars do. It’s stone cold obvious that there’s no mandate for either side in this election and this particular Salem Witch Trials School of Thought lie from Pelosi should soundly ring the bells of Democrat voters across the United States as being signature significant of her spinning lies, she spins lies like this all the time. Also Democrat voters that either agree with Pelosi on this lie or are ignorant enough to swallow Pelosi’s continual spun lies are biased partisan hacks.
For a Trump voter to call someone a liar is akin to picking the speck out of their eye while ignoring the plank in your own. Trump supporters have utterly no moral standing to call out any lies. And there will be no reconciliation in this country until Trump supporters admit what we all know to be true that Trump is a chronic and habitual LIAR.
+100
The Democratic Party abandoned its base some time ago, and, ironically, the GOP appears to have become the party of working men and women, regardless of race or ethnic group, while the Democrats now represent big tech and a sundry of billionaires.
The politics of identity and multiculturalism are instrinsically divisive, as Jonathan Sacks, Britain’s chief rabbi, has noted. They replace analysis by class and socio-economic status with a racialized and tribal view of societies, which obscure objective economic realities in favor of subjective perceptions of reality.
As for turnout, why not celebrate Trump’s popular vote as well as Biden’s, since both exceeded the best that Obama could do?
Of course, the popular vote reflects what the Founding Fathers would have considered the passions of the moment; it is not definitive. That is the business of the Electoral College, which was a buffer against passion and corruption, and mob rule, e.g., the argument by Hamilton in the Federalist Papers, no. 68.
Brendan O’Neill’s observations on the election are interesting, as is Matt Taibbi’s latest on whom “Trump’s” party seems to represent at the moment.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/11/06/the-real-resistance/
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/which-is-the-real-working-class-party-cc3
An old guy,
Your comment is interesting but it has nothing to do with the comment you replied to.
Jeffrey,
Where the hell do you get off calling me a either a Trump supporter or Trump voter.
You’re acting like a deflecting troll.
Turley states: “Yet, while hitting President Donald Trump with “disinformation” labels for his post-election comments about effort to steal the election, Twitter and Facebook were entirely happy with the obviously untrue statements from Pelosi about Biden being elected.” Classic “What aboutism.” As if 2 wrongs make a right. Has Turley yet condemned unreservedly Trump’s lies about the Democrats trying to steal the election? If indeed the Democrats have stolen the election, they did so fair and square!
“Classic “What aboutism.”
Read what you just wrote, genius!!
Ms. Pelosi is a smart political operator.
She has given the left their marching orders.
Watch the press coalesce around this storyline.
Watch the usual lefty posters with their strident but clueless comments.