Here we go again: What happens if Trump refuses to concede the election?

The stories are popping up again about what will happen if President Trump refuses to accept the election results. What happens if he refuses to concede and vacate the White House? These conversations were held in June and again last month.

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Let me first say that I have no doubt that President Trump will concede when he thinks all of his legal options are exhausted. Why should he concede before that? It is really disingenuous of Democrats to act as though Joe Biden would just throw in the towel and not pursue all the options if he lost a race as tight as this one, especially given some of the concerns that have arisen about the voting process. The sheer amount of mail-in ballots used in this election produced uncertainty, chaos, and confusion in states across the country. This was an election as we have never seen before.

President Trump will respect the peaceful transition of power but he will not go without a fight. Would you? Trump didn’t just run against Joe Biden. He also ran against the Democrat machine, the media, Republican grifters, and those unable to accept the good track record Trump has in office, and of course, the entertainment industry who have been busy creating and airing unflattering movies and productions against him for four years. He will exhaust every legal option. There is a process for that.

Joe Biden was quick to say in June that the military would escort Trump out of the White House if he refused to leave. Last month, Gen. Mark Milley said, um, no, we won’t. He reminded everyone that the military has no role in elections because this is America. It’s not how we roll. Joe Biden, we will soon be reminded, is not so sharp about the Constitution and how everything works. The media has called the election for Joe Biden as I write this Saturday morning. Up until I began this post, I was writing about Biden’s thwarted victory speech last night. I thought that he would have to wait until after the weekend to get his chance to do that.

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President Trump vows to keep up the fight. He issued a statement saying the legal process continues Monday. Some of it reads as follows:

“Beginning Monday, our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated. The American People are entitled to an honest election: that means counting all legal ballots, and not counting any illegal ballots. This is the only way to ensure the public has full confidence in our election. It remains shocking that the Biden campaign refuses to agree with this basic principle and wants ballots counted even if they are fraudulent, manufactured, or cast by ineligible or deceased voters. Only a party engaged in wrongdoing would unlawfully keep observers out of the count room – and then fight in court to block their access.

“So what is Biden hiding? I will not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands.”

There is a process if Trump refuses to accept Biden’s victory if it all holds.

With the final vote in dispute, states with Democratic governors but Republican legislatures — including the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan and Wisconsin, the latter two of which have already been called for Biden — could conceivably end up dispatching two distinct groups of Electoral College voters, reported Marie Claire, citing a study by election scholar Edward B. Foley.

In that scenario, those states would have two competing sets of electoral votes, and, as president of the Senate, Republican Vice President Mike Pence would be tasked with unraveling the situation.

He could opt to throw out both sets of votes from those states, meaning neither candidate could reach the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.

In that event, the members of Congress would vote for president and vice president.

The House of Representatives would vote for president, with each state’s delegation getting one shared vote, and a simple majority of 26 votes needed to elect.

In the Senate, each senator gets one vote, with a simple majority of 51 votes needed to elect.

Should either of those bodies fail to reach a majority, the plot thickens further.

If the Senate elects a vice president but the House of Representatives fails to elect a president, the vice president-elect serves as president until the impasse is resolved.

If neither body can reach a conclusion by Inauguration Day, then the presidential line of succession kicks in, and the speaker of the House of Representatives — currently Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — would serve as president until the knot is untied.

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None of this will happen. President Trump will leave as all others have done before him. All of this speculation is so ridiculous that it can only come from the Trump deranged left. Let me throw this out – Trump will participate in a peaceful transfer of power though the left never did with him. The very day after his inauguration, there were massive rallies against his election victory. The protests and riots have continued for four long years. Trump was not stopped. He managed to accomplish more than any Republican president in my lifetime. Besides a roaring economy that lifted all boats, he leaves a record number of conservative judicial confirmations and three conservative Supreme Court justices. He was the most pro-life president ever. And, though Biden will undo much of what Trump has accomplished, he put America first in trade deals and international agreements that harm our economy like the Paris Climate Accord.

Trump increased his number of votes from 2016, substantially. He will be on record as the candidate who received the second most votes of any presidential candidate, with Biden being the one who has received the most. He destroyed the Clinton machine ( and ISIS) and stopped Hillary Clinton from being president, for which we are all grateful. He earned a second term as president. If it was not for the coronavirus pandemic, the campaign would have had very different results. I’m convinced of that.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | November 21, 2024
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