Tag: ben ginsberg
Prominent Conservatives Issue Massive Report Debunking 2020 Election 'Fraud'

Prominent Conservatives Issue Massive Report Debunking 2020 Election 'Fraud'

A who’s who of political conservatives – former federal judges, U.S. senators, and Republican Party election lawyers – have issued a report that is the most extensive rebuttal yet of Donald Trump’s stolen election claims in six of 2020’s battleground states.

The report, Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election, refutes the 187 claims made in Trump’s 64 post-election lawsuits, as well as erroneous conclusions in several post-election reviews that pro-Trump state legislators outsourced to pro-Trump contractors. (Trump lost every lawsuit except one that involved a non-election issue.)

But the report’s most intriguing aspect may be the short summaries where it described how sufficient numbers of otherwise loyal Republican voters in six states turned away from Trump in 2020 compared to 2016, causing his loss.

Those summations, coming from conservatives, echo the House Select Committee’s testimony, from mostly Republican witnesses, which polling has found to be persuasive in moving political independents to reject Trump’s ongoing election-denial claims and to frown on 2022’s election-denying candidates.

“Our conclusion is unequivocal: Joe Biden was the choice of a majority of the Electors, who themselves were the choice of the majority of voters in their states,” the report’s introduction said. “Biden’s victory is easily explained by a political landscape that was much different in 2020 than it was when President Trump narrowly won the presidency in 2016.”

“President Trump waged his campaign for re-election during a devastating worldwide pandemic that caused a severe downturn in the global economy,” it continued. “This, coupled with an electorate that included a small but statistically significant number willing to vote for other Republican candidates on the ballot but not for President Trump, are the reasons his campaign fell short, not a fraudulent election.”

Lost Not Stolen was co-authored by former U.S. Sens. John Danforth (Missouri) and Gordon Smith (Oregon), former federal judges J. Michael Luttig, Thomas B. Griffith, and Michael W. McConnell, former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, Republican election lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg and David Hoppe, former chief of staff to ex-House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Here are excerpts summarizing the ticket splitting in the six battleground states.

Trump Did Worse Than 2016 In Arizona

“Biden outperformed [Hillary] Clinton’s 2016 results, and Trump performed worse than he had in 2016,” the report said, before parsing Biden’s 10,457-vote margin.

“Disaffection for Trump among Republican voters led to ticket-splitting that hurt Trump and helped Biden,” it said. “Nearly 60,000 voters did not vote for Trump even though they voted Republican down-ballot; of these, 39,000 voted for
Biden. Considering only the two most populous counties in the state, more than 74,000 disaffected Republicans did not vote for Trump in 2020; 65% of these (48,577 votes) voted for Biden; those 48,577 votes alone represent 4.6 times Biden’s margin of victory over Trump.”

Bigger Turnout In Georgia

Biden beat Trump by 11,779 votes, making Biden the first Democrat to win the state since Bill Clinton in 1992.

“Biden capitalized on grassroots organizing, a rapidly diversifying electorate, significantly increased turnout, and suburbs growing in population and becoming inhospitable to 2020 Republican candidates,” the report said. “Democrats have made slow and steady gains in Georgia, with candidates focusing on bringing out Democratic voters who did not vote in previous election cycles, thus closing the gap with Republicans in recent elections. In addition to bringing out Democratic voters, Biden also succeeded among swing and suburban voters.”

Michigan Suburbs Went Blue

In 2016, Trump won by 10,700 votes. In 2020, Biden won by 154,188 votes.

“Biden’s victory is attributed to gains in suburban counties, especially those in Detroit suburbs, as well as strength in urban cores and small metropolitan areas,” it said. “Trump increased his share of votes in 63 of the state’s 83 counties, winning 73 counties; but Trump won fewer counties than the 75 he took in 2016, and the counties he did win are sparse in population. In addition, support for third-party candidates dwindled from five percent of the vote in 2016 to just 1.5% in 2020.”

Latina Women Boosted Biden In Nevada

Though not widely covered nationally, Trump’s allies filed 10 suits that claimed that “thousands and thousands” of people voted illegally.

“President Biden carried Nevada by a margin of 33,596 votes over Trump, out of nearly 1.4 million votes cast,” it said. “Biden’s win in Nevada, like Clinton’s, is attributable to a reliable base of Democrats in southern Nevada [greater Las Vegas]. He performed far better with Latina women than Latino men and outperformed Trump with independents.”

Biden Outdid Clinton In Pennsylvania

In 2016, Trump won by 44,292 votes, compared to 2020 where Biden won by 80,555 votes out of 6.9 million votes cast.

“While Biden’s largest vote margins came from dense population centers with large Black populations, including Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, he made gains in Republican counties and outperformed Clinton in counties she won in 2016,” it said. “Democrats saw increased support in suburban Philadelphia counties (as compared to 2016), while Republican gains in suburban Pittsburgh were not as great.”

Winning Suburbs In Wisconsin

In 2016, Trump won by 22,748 votes. In 2020, Biden won by 20,682 votes.

“Biden’s win has been attributed to improved performance in Wisconsin suburban and smaller metropolitan counties, as well as traditional Democratic strength in urban areas,” it said. “Republicans’ margins in Milwaukee’s suburban counties were lower than in 2016, while Democrats made gains in urban cores and large suburbs and reduced their losses in small metropolitan areas.”

Enough, Conservatives Say

The Lost Not Stolen report states bluntly that Trump’s repeated stolen election claims are baseless and harm public confidence in American democracy. It quoted numerous court decisions where judges were extremely critical of Trump, such as this excerpt from a federal court ruling in Michigan:

This lawsuit represents a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process. It is one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election. It is another to take on the charge of deceiving a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed, without regard to whether any laws or rights were in fact violated. This is what happened here.

The report’s co-authors urged conservatives to shun Trump’s continuing claims that the 2020 election was stolen and to instead focus on better candidates in 2022’s midterm and 2024’s presidential election.

“We urge our fellow conservatives to cease obsessing over the results of the 2020 election, and to focus instead on presenting candidates and ideas that offer a positive vision for overcoming our current difficulties and bringing greater peace, prosperity, and liberty to our nation,” it concluded.

The RNC And Their Debate Audiences

The RNC And Their Debate Audiences

After Saturday’s cage match of a Republican debate, one question has seemingly been asked more than any other — besides, well, “What the hell is happening?

“Why were people booing?”

As Vox’s German Lopez reported:

“Something very peculiar happened at the Republican debate on Saturday night: When Donald Trump talked, the audience booed. Yet when Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and even John Kasich talked, they got loud cheers and applause.”

South Carolina voters are known for their tolerance of shady campaigning: In 2000, John McCain lost the state to George W. Bush after an anonymous push poll insinuated that McCain’s adopted daughter was “an illegitimate black child.” Eight years later, McCain came out on top of a crowded field that included Mitt Romney, after Christmas cards with Mormon themes were sent voters around the state.

But stacking the audience of a televised debate with establishment Republicans — the accusation Donald Trump made numerous times during the debate, and one that his campaign repeated afterwards — would be breaking new ground in voter manipulation.

And yet, this seems to be a possibility: contrary to most debates so far this cycle, there was no ticket lottery in South Carolina for interested voters and members of the general public. The candidates got 600 tickets to split between them, and the rest went to the RNC, state and local elected officials, and the media.

This time, Donald Trump might be right.

But Saturday night was not the first time this election season that the Republican Party has sought to alter perceptions of winners and losers by controlling ticket distribution. In fact, as Republican candidates have demanded more control over debate conditions, down to the smallest detail, the RNC has used its control of the ticketing process to balance the scales in favor of party officials and donors.

Before that first debate of this election cycle, Ohio Party chairman Matt Borges said it was his goal “to have as many people as possible attend the debate at Quicken Loans Arena.” After the debate — in which the 4,500 people in attendance watched Megyn Kelly start a “feud” with Donald Trump by asking… questions — the GOP has tried its best to control crowd sizes.

Two months later, the Republican debate at the Coors Events Center at the University of Colorado, which holds 11,000, took place in front of nearly 10,000 empty seats. After a campaign demanding their inclusion in a debate hosted at their school, 150 CU students received tickets to the event, fewer than the Republican National Committee’s allotment for themselves. “This is a television production more than anything else,” Sean Spicer, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, told Boulder’s Daily Camera at the time.

Between that debate and the following one, in Milwaukee on November 10, longtime Republican elections lawyer Ben Ginsberg convened a “family dinner” of disgruntled presidential candidates. By the end of the night, they had come up with a draft letter to the RNC: the party would no longer play a role in deciding debate conditions, including types of questions and whether candidates are allowed opening statements. They would be left with just one primary responsibility: ticketing.

The letter — and the candidate insurrection — was quietly buried, likely due in part to the reaction of media organizations to the candidates’ demands. Megyn Kelly, reading the draft letter, joked, “Maybe like a foot massage?”

The next debate, hosted by Republican billionaire kingmaker Sheldon Adelson at his hotel in Las Vegas, included a generous bundle of extra tickets for Adelson. The Las Vegas Review Journal — which Adelson recently purchased over the protests of paper staff — recently endorsed Marco Rubio for the Republican nomination. At the time of the debate, the Trump campaign was especially concerned about Adelson stacking the Venetian audience with establishment voices. We want all campaigns to feel welcome and comfortable,” said Adelson spokesperson Andy Abboud. “Nobody has a thing to worry about.”

New Hampshire’s Republican debate brought Donald Trump’s first on-stage charge that members of the audience were special interest plants. Of the 1,000 people in attendance at the debate, held at Saint Anselm College, 200 were guests of the academic institution.

“They went out, because they’re rich, and they bought the tickets from the kids that were giving the tickets,” Trump said afterwards, referring to “wealthy donors.”

The RNC did not respond to a request for comment about their ticketing practices.

Of course, no matter the ticketing situation, we can’t discount the possibility that the booing is just that: disgust with a candidate who has scratched the last, thinest veneer off of civility off of this election cycle. Maybe the crowds are stacked, but the sentiment shared by those in the audiences at Republican debates might actually be more widely-held than the RNC would assume.

The next Republican debate on the docket will take place at the Moores Opera House at the University of Houston. It’s 800-person capacity is one of the smallest of the entire election cycle. The Texas Republican Party is lotterying an unspecified number of tickets for the “extremely limited” seating.

Photo: Donald Trump speaks with the media in the spin room after the Republican U.S. candidates debate sponsored by CBS News and the Republican National Committee in Greenville, South Carolina February 13, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Keane