The Virtuous Man

[Boobs]

The Virtuous Man

Gage Skidmore 2019

   Having selected Senator Kamala Harris of California as his running mate in the previous week, Joe Biden was headed to the Democratic National Convention - not physically, of course, as the COVID pandemic had forced both parties to host their conventions primarily virtually - in what was to be a show of the Democratic Party’s force and unity.

   Despite the online format, shortened schedule – two hours of speeches and votes each day instead of the usual day-long proceedings – and the early technical issues on the first night, each of the four nights broke the previous year’s records for viewership. Several explanations have been proposed, with pandemic social distancing measures leading people to watch at home and increased enthusiasm and interest in the election being the most commonly supported reasons.

   Many of the convention’s speakers received high marks for their oratory - from those of Senators Doug Jones, Tammy Duckworth, and Elizabeth Warren to Governors Michelle Lujan Grisham and Gretchen Whitmer, as well as those of expectedly skilled speakers such as former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Former Ohio Governor John Kasich - the only Republican to speak at the convention - provided a scathing attack on President Trump for “his lack of values, whatsoever” - but viewers believed his tone was out of synch in between the positivity of the rest of the night.

   The convention’s keynote speaker, Kansas State Senator Barbara Bollier, a former Republican-turned-Democrat running for the open Senate seat in Kansas, was initially expected to be a dud, having been added at the last minute when Harris was selected as the running mate. However, Bollier surprised the virtual crowd by outlining, month by month, each of Trump’s mistakes on handling the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming “he has, deliberately and distinctively, destroyed trust in government and in each other throughout his administration.” Bollier said it was the Democrats’ “duty and opportunity to remind the country and the world what competency and compassion looks like.” Bollier promised that, should they gain the reins of power, Joe Biden and the Democrats “shall work day and night, as hard as Americans work each day, to fulfill and exceed their promises, and to rebuild the promise of America.”

   In her acceptable speech, Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris spoke of using “[her] opportunities to fight for the rest of the country which isn’t as lucky” and that the Biden-Harris ticket “would give no safe harbor to the hate, exploitation, and corruption that has plagued this country for the past four years.” Harris’s speech earned high marks for its sincerity and toughness.

   But the star of the convention was naturally Joe Biden. In his nomination acceptance speech, Biden, not usually known as a powerful or florid speaker, revealed his vision for America. Through his speech, Biden flowed through American history, speaking on “the moments of crisis that called the country’s greatest heroes to action, those men and women who fought against indignity and injustice when all hope seemed lost.” Biden stressed that “the time we are living in now is unique but not unprecedented, is precarious but not hopeless, and that the strength of the will of the people is only cause for optimism. These times have opened our eyes further to how much we owe each other, that so much of what we had taken for granted has come from the love for our fellow Americans that each and every one of us has in our hearts.” Biden’s impassioned plea for American unity - “that America was the envy of the world and it can be again, with our opportunity to rebuild the country in the image of righteousness, justice, and the American dream” - was heard loud and clear, with his speech setting the convention viewing record at forty-eight million people tuning in through the network channels or on livestreams online.

   The well-recorded convention “bump” brought the Biden-Harris ticket up from polling, on average, about seven points ahead of Trump to nearly fifteen, with the ticket hitting 53% in more than a dozen polls.



   While the Democratic National Convention proved to be a rousing success, the Republican’s convention revealed itself to be a bigger mess than expected. Arguments over voting procedures, faulty internet connections, and a confusingly surreal acceptance speech by President Trump in the cemetery at Gettysburg comprised a convention that failed to project confidence and competence. At one moment, it appeared that Vice President Michael Pence was being dumped off the ticket in real time, with Florida Senator Rick Scott and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley receiving a few, supposedly symbolic, delegate votes. Even Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, received three delegates for the position of running mate. However, the convention’s delegates were readily whipped into supporting the Vice President for renomination.

   Trump’s nighttime speech at Gettysburg, lit by stadium-style lights, did little to dispel accusations of his declining mental state. He appeared as pale as a ghost despite his usual color, his speech rambling about “the importance of stopping socialism and the Chinese invasion” and rejecting the Democrats. Trump paused for thirty or more seconds at a time, staring miserably into the cameras set up, and, most dramatically, attempting, and failing, to cover up a cough.

   As the two weeks of convention came to a close, the Republican ticket failed to take advantage of the (previously expected) good press, but managed to close the polling gap down to a nine- or ten-point advantage for the Democrats. The Trump-Pence ticket was stuck in the doldrums of the low 40s, unable to break through to a more convincing position, which had left Trump, according to Capitol Hill gossip columns, swinging between depression, anger, and binge-eating.

   In an effort to raise Trump’s spirits, campaign manager Bill Stepien encouraged Trump to return to the campaign trail, an choice that Stepien had described in post-election interviews as “a natural environment for Trump to be his most gregarious, enjoyable self’, although the move brought criticism from Democratic governors, who refused to grant the campaign permits to hold rallies in their states. In response to Michigan Governor Whitmer’s decision to forbid the campaign from hosting a rally in Grand Rapids, Trump tweeted that “Gretchen Sh*tmer brought socialism to Michigan, so it’s no wonder that she’s too embarrassed to let me see the horrible, horrible things she’s done to her state!”

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Good

[Mike Thick]

BIG Joe

[S019]

This seems interesting

[Boobs]

Gage Skidmore 2019

   Following Labor Day, the general campaigns of the Biden and Trump camps continued to diverge. The President harkened back to his 2016 campaign and spent most of his time on the trail, hosting rallies in Republican-controlled states like Texas, Georgia, and Arizona, nearly always to the lament of local mayors. Phoenix mayor Kate Gallego called the President “reckless, ridiculous, and reprehensible,” with Trump responding with a tweet threatening to send federal agents to “teach Phoenix and their Bimbo Mayor Katie a lesson in law and order.” Meanwhile, Biden continued with his front-porch-style campaign, through online events, much to the chagrin of some, who believed that Biden was effectively phoning it in during one of the most consequential elections of their time. However, as Biden himself was relegated to his Wilmington basement, his campaign quietly began a massive mail campaign, hoping to reach poorer voters with less access to the internet. Many of the mailers contained instructions on absentee ballots, encouraging voters to drop them off at their county elections offices rather than mailing them in.

   President Trump’s campaign against the US Postal Service continued, as Trump recalled many mail sorting machines and issued orders to remove mail drop off boxes, to much controversy. Two lawsuits in early September, one filed by Common Cause in Washington State and represented by Marc Elias and another filed by an elderly woman from Sarasota, Florida, sought to force the USPS to return to its regular level of service, on the grounds of the Voting Rights Act and that excessively delayed service prevented vital prescription medication from arriving, respectively. While judges in both cases ruled against the postal service and the President, the administration appealed the case and refused to restore funding to the USPS.

   The President remained fixated on attacking Kamala Harris, with him and his campaign team believing her to be an easier and more effective target than Biden. A video posted to Trump’s Twitter account questioned Harris’s eligibility to be Vice President, plastering the words “Jamaican. Indian. Radical. Socialist… but NOT American” over a video of the Senator. Democrats throughout the country impugned the President as “racist and desperate”, with Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown tweeting that “Kamala Harris represents American values better than Trump, a fraud who never worked in his life, could ever dream of.”

   However, in the early stretch of the campaign, the Trump campaign attempted to define Biden as a weak, incompetent and corrupt politician. Through ads highlighting Biden’s gaffes and misspeaks, Trump tried to draw a contrast, to little success. In mid-September, Trump ordered Attorney General Bill Barr to open a federal case against Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, on grounds of espionage for foreign powers. Trump initially attempted to coerce the FBI to investigate Hunter Biden, but found the process too slow-moving and uncontrollable. When reports of Trump’s order to Barr leaked to the press, Democrats and liberals decried the move as authoritarian and illegal. Utah Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican, said that Trump “has transgressed the pale into tinpot dictatorship,” and that “any and all patriotic Americans ought to vote against the President”. While Romney stopped short of outright endorsing Biden, he was laughed off of Fox and Friends, with Brian Kilmeade calling the Senator “a Democrat [sic] cuck”.

   During a virtual event on September 21st with astronaut and Democratic candidate for Senate in Arizona Mark Kelly and his wife, gun control advocate and former Representative Gabby Giffords, Joe Biden spoke highly of his running mate Kamala Harris, saying she is “an incredibly sharp and passionate woman, a credit to her race, to African Americans, really.” Users on Twitter denounced the remarks as racist and patronizing, and the hashtag #BidenSoRacist trended for hours after the event.
 
   Throughout September, many of the large cities in the country reported spikes in the homeless population, with almost every shelter filling up each night. Many observers place the blame on mass evictions caused by the lack of an extension of increased unemployment benefits and a second stimulus check, causing many furloughed or unemployed workers’ families to be unable to make rent. However, the rapidly changing situation meant that accurate data on evictions was unavailable, while Trump placed the blame squarely on “failed socialist policies by Democratic big-city mayors”. The President’s executive order of a month prior to increase benefits and defer payroll taxes went unfunded and unenforced, thus failing to ameliorate and prevent much of the upheaval from occurring.

   On September 26th, the state Attorneys General of Michigan, Dana Nessel, and Maryland, Brian Frosh, filed suits against the USPS in the District Court of Western Michigan and Maryland, respectively, arguing that the reduced level service endangers the ability of the state to conduct its elections for state offices. These suits were filed with the hope of bolstering the cases filed earlier, Common Cause v. USPS and Bronson v. USPS.

   Biden and Trump met in Cleveland, at Case Western Reserve University, on September 29th for the first presidential debate, despite the Trump campaign’s efforts for additional, earlier debates. The debate was moderated by Andrea Mitchell, with no audience in attendance in efforts to uphold pandemic procedures. In general, the debate proved to be an hour and a half of intense acrimony between the candidates, with viewers perceiving that the two deeply loathed each other.

   Two debate moments proved to be the most memorable. The first was when Mitchell asked for Biden to comment on Trump’s statement that he “built the greatest economy in history, only to have the Chinese create a virus to destroy [his] work.” Biden replied that “simply put, it’s a load of malarkey. President Obama and I created a playbook for dealing with a pandemic, and President Trump shredded that playbook up for no reason at all. And now hardworking Americans have had to pay for Trump’s mistakes.”

   However, it was overshadowed by Trump’s response to a question on, facing nearly 60% disapproval on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, what he would do to restore the American people’s trust in his administration on this issue. Trump responded that he will encourage states to reopen to ensure that homelessness and poverty do not continue to increase, but finished by saying that Americans “really can’t trust Joe on keeping their families safe, I mean, people, look at his family, half are dead and the others are crooks. Joe doesn’t even care about his family. I care about my family. I care about you.” Mitchell looked visibly stunned, and asked Biden for his response. Biden, unmistakably holding back fierce anger, remarked that “the President is showing his true colors, that he’s a bully with no heart or care for other people. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself, and he has never faced adversity or tragedy in his life. Here’s the deal: he doesn’t care, and he doesn’t want to care. That’s not a leader.”

   Flash polls following the debate showed that Biden was believed to be the clear winner of the debate, with a tie/“No One” coming in second. In the week following the debate, Trump’s polling average dropped first below 40% and then below 39%, while Biden held steady at around 52%.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Beautiful!

[Ferguson97]

Trump mocking Biden's dead family members is something I can easily see him doing. He's such a sad, pathetic man.

[DeSantis4Prez]

I love me a good Biden 2020 timeline.

[Boobs]

Gage Skidmore 2011

   

   October proved to be the most important month of the campaign, as both the Trump and Biden camps sought to solidify their support and swing the few remaining undecided voters toward them. October 6th proved to be a milestone in the election as the CDC announced that 200,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus. This proved to be the major theme of the October 7th Vice Presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. While the debate was ostensibly moderated to cover a variety of topic, the freshness of the COVID-19 death announcement, and the strategy of the Biden-Harris camp, meant that most of the hour and a half was focused on the reaction to the virus, both in terms of public health and economics. Harris hit Pence on his role in the response, specifically his public posturing as the head of the COVID-19 strategy in the administration - bringing up the 200,000 number a dozen times through the debate. The Vice President, audibly flustered but visibly still stoic as ever, said that “without the administration’s comprehensive strategy, there would be a lot more deaths, from both the virus and from economic devastation”, which led the Senator to stifle a coy smile before looking directly into the camera to state “People, it is clear that the administration is wildly, criminally irresponsible - Mr. Pence is seriously bragging and gloating about two hundred thousand dead Americans.” Pence, meanwhile, attacked Harris for “sticking to her San Francisco, Marxist views so much that she refused to compromise to pass a relief bill for our nation’s workers”, referring to the standstill in the Senate to pass a stimulus bill. The Vice Presidential debate received fewer views than the first Presidential debate, and the attitudes of viewers were more evenly split - while pundits said that, generally, Harris was the winner, but that Pence more than held his own.

   The nation watched with bated breath as Hurricane Rene barreled toward Washington, DC, leading President Trump, his family, and his close advisors to leave the city for an ersatz White House at Mar-a-Lago in Florida to avoid the Category 3 hurricane. The Washington Post printed an instantly-legendary headline - “Trump Takes Lifeboat, Leaves City to Drown”; FEMA, its budget having been emptied earlier by Trump’s executive order for unemployment benefits and Hurricanes Laura and Marco, helped DC, Maryland, Delaware and Vriginia make only barebones preparations before Rene made landfall on Chincoteague Island on October 14th, bringing storm surges of over 12 feet, flooding the island and much of the Atlantic shoreline of Virginia and Maryland. Late in the evening on October 15th, Rene reached DC, causing a storm surge of nearly eight feet, with almost 45% of the city’s residents being trapped and unable to evacuate. The second Presidential Debate, scheduled for that night, was cancelled to allow the administration to respond to the hurricane. A widely-circulated photograph of the National Mall, submerged in the Potomac, came to define public perception of the administration’s handling of Hurricane Rene.

   For days on end, Trump refused to return to Washington, tweeting that “Marxist Mayor Bowser’s handling of Hurricane Rene is horrible, destroying so many lives and businesses. Miserable Murial [sic] should resign!” In turn, Utah Senator and Trump critic Mitt Romney himself tweeted “Trump’s inability to take responsibility has caused death and destruction at every turn. It is time for a President who will take responsibility. The only choice is Joe Biden.” Pundits stated that Romney’s endorsement of Biden is “the most influential and important endorsement of the past twenty years.”

   Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien announced that the President would not be attending the third Presidential debate because he “has more pressing matters than the rigged debates. The last few weeks of October had two final eventful moments. First, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Common Cause v. USPS, where a 6-3 majority (the liberals of the court joined by Roberts and Gorsuch) opined, written by Roberts, that the “overt political motive of DeJoy in the reduction of the Post Office’s service levels” could constitute a violation of the Hatch Act, which would have to be decided in a separate case, but that it was congressional, not executive, responsibility to allocate funding for the Post Office, and thus the restoration of service levels falls to Congress to pass a bill. In effect, the Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs but took no action to reverse any of DeJoy’s decisions.
 
   The second came as a forced “October Surprise” on October 27th, when Attorney General Bill Barr announced an “official Department of Justice investigation” into Hunter Biden and his “business dealings in Ukraine and China, which we believe could contain evidence for treason.” Almost immediately following the DOJ announcement, the U.S. District Court of DC issued an injunction stopping the investigation while it heard a case brought against Barr for violating the Hatch Act. Trump took to Twitter claiming that “Crooked Joe is trying to protect his treason committing son and putting our country in danger. Why does China Joe hate law and order?”

   On the eve of Halloween, Biden’s lead in the polling averages dipped slightly, falling below 50% for the first time since the end of the Republican National Convention in August, while the President was still stuck at 43%, despite Biden losing ground.

[Boobs]

Joe Mabel 2019

   Pollsters’ final polls, on November 2nd, proved to show the gap between Biden and Trump widening once again. However, many Democratic supporters remained uneasy, with severe flashbacks to the 2016 election, only now with additional complications - the state of the Post Office remaining in limbo, voter suppression tactics, rising homelessness and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet absentee and early voting numbers painted a picture of record high enthusiasm - even with some ballots still in transit or remaining to be dropped off, 76 million votes had already been cast, almost a twenty-million vote increase from 2016. At their final virtual rally on Monday night, the Biden-Harris campaign was joined by various politicians and celebrities - Andrew Yang, the Obamas, Billie Ellish, Beyoncé, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to name a few - urging supporters to turn out and vote tomorrow, or drop off their ballots at their local county elections office. The Trump campaign also attempted their own rally outside of Pittsburgh, joined by John James, Scott Baio, and other supporters.

   Anecdotal turnout reports from precincts across the country dominated the news networks throughout Election Day; particularly long lines being reported in southern Atlanta, Indianapolis, and St. Louis.

   But at the first poll closing times at 6:00 PM Eastern, Kentucky was instantly called for Trump, while Indiana was, according to exit polls, too early to call - which NBC’s Steve Kornacki called “a good sign for the Biden camp, but it’s not definitive at all.” Exit polls also showed Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on track to defeat his Democratic opponent, Amy McGrath, although by a relatively smaller margin than the Presidential race, leading networks to hold off on calling the race until some results are reported. FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver tweeted that “McGrath’s performance against the most unpopular Senator bodes poorly for a strong Democratic majority in the Senate.”

   At the 7:00 mark, several states had closed and exit polls seemed rather rosy for the Biden campaign - a three-point lead in Florida, a two-point lead in Georgia, a fourteen-point lead (and instant call) in Virginia, a four-point deficit in South Carolina - in addition to the instant call in Vermont. The official board stood at Biden 16, Trump 8, but Trump pulling with an early vote count lead in Indiana and even states where Biden was ostensibly leading left most people anxious. Biden’s campaign, and other Democrats, tweeted the usual “stay in line to vote” messages. Trump tweeted that “Florida and Georgia are coming in strong for law and order. If Crazy Joe wins them, it’s because he, or China, stole them!”

   The 7:30 PM closing came with West Virginia being called instantly for Trump, while both North Carolina and Ohio reported paper-thin margins in their exit polls.

   At 7:48 PM,  NBC called Indiana’s 5th congressional district for Democrat Christina Hale. With most of the remaining uncounted votes expected to come from Democratic-leaning Marion County, and Hale receiving 48.7% of the vote in traditionally Republican Hamilton County, NBC called the race as a Democratic gain despite Republican Victoria Spartz holding a 7% lead at the moment. Kornacki stated that “If Biden’s performance in the rest of the country is matching his performance in Hamilton County - holding Trump to a sub-one percent lead - then it’s pretty much the ball game.”

[Boobs]

CC Nicholas A. Tonelli 2011

       

        The 8:00 PM hour had several states called at closing: for the President, Alabama, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee, and for Biden, Maryland, DC, Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and, surprisingly after their close margins in 2016, Maine and the traditional swing state of New Hampshire. The board now stood at Biden 95, Trump 43. A surprising number of states were too early to call - the obvious swing state of Pennsylvania (in which exit polls reported a 4-point lead for the President), Missouri, Mississippi, Michigan, Texas, and Kansas.

        Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight sounded the alarm bells for the Biden campaign, explaining that  “the Pennsylvania exit poll, if it holds, is dangerous news for the campaign. It could be that Biden improved greatly in safe Democratic and Republican states, but failing to make inroads in the swing states he needs to win the Presidency. Holding Trump to a small margin in Indiana does nothing when he’s still winning Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan. And currently, Trump is leading in the actual count in all of the states not yet called. It has to be making the Biden camp nervous.”
At 8:08 PM, with a dump from Broward County, Biden took the lead in Florida. The state’s relatively fast counting of absentee and early votes has meant most pundits were looking to the Sunshine State to gauge an accurate overall image of the election. Dave Wasserman, of the Cook Political Report, boldy tweeted : “Biden is beating Obama’s numbers in working-class St. Lucie County. It’s claiming to have fully reported all votes except a small number of provisional and overseas military ballots, and Biden is receiving 55%. I’ve seen enough - Biden is going to carry the state of Florida.”

        Arkansas was called for Trump at poll closing time at 8:30 PM, although the race in the Second Congressional District was too early to call. The board of official calls sat at Trump 49, Biden 95, although adding too early to call states has Trump 215 and Biden at 124, only leading the actual count in Florida.

        A reporter for CNN was reporting from the county courthouse in Ridgeway, Pennsylvania, stating that “Elk County, a small, rural county of about thirty thousand people in Northwest Pennsylvania, has been one place where Trump greatly improved over Romney’s performance and won the state; coincidentally it has been a county where Hillary Clinton’s vote share collapsed compared to Barack Obama - the former President received 41% of the vote in 2012 while Clinton barely got a quarter of the vote. Tonight, county election officials are claiming they have finished their count of absentee ballots rather quickly, and that Joe Biden has nearly 43% of the vote - a massive overperformance above Clinton. It’s a good sign for Democrats looking to take back the state and thus the White House. But it is just one small county - and the real battle will take place on turnout from the cities and on if President Trump has managed to bring suburban voters back into the Republican fold with his focus on law and order.”

        The clock struck 9:00 PM, and another set of states were closed. Called instantly for Trump were North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska - although both the first and second congressional districts were deemed too early to call. For Biden, New Mexico and New York were called; the Colorado exit poll had Biden leading by 9, but pundits expected the state to count its votes quickly and report results within the next hours. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona and Louisiana were also deemed too early to call.

        At 9:18 PM, Texas, a state with stringent absentee laws, saw a monumental shift. Harris County, the largest county in the state and home of Houston, and armed with a new county clerk elected in 2018, reported nearly one million votes for Biden - falling approximately fifty thousand votes short. This represented 61% of the votes cast in the county, a massive swing from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 showing, and, with similar or larger swings in suburban counties like Collin, Fort Bend, Denton, and Williamson, as well as strong performances within the urban areas of Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio, flipped the statewide vote, even with no result yet reporting from the Democratic stronghold of El Paso.

        At 9:29 PM, 94% of polling places were reporting, with most of the leftover precincts coming from Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Orange counties, and Biden having a 5.7% (and approximately 400,000 vote) lead. The AP called the state for Biden, the first official “flipped” state from 2016, and most networks followed suit.

        The official balance now stood at 158 Biden, 58 Trump, although the two were tied with uncalled states included at 216 electoral votes.

[Illini Moderate]

Great writing! Very good election TL

[😥]

Great!

[America Needs R'hllor]

This is a delight.

[Mike Thick]

Go Joe!

[Boobs]

Ginger Scout 2014

   The Mid-Atlantic region was hit with an early cold front in the first few days of November, with an early snow blanketing the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Delaware, too, was covered by a light snow. At St. Joseph’s on the Brandywine, a small Catholic church in northern New Castle County, Joe Biden, his wife Jill, his close friend and trusted advisor Ted Kaufman, and Secret Service detail, were visiting on the evening of Election Day. Biden arrived at the church - almost entirely empty - at around 7:15 PM. The Bidens had gone to the church’s cemetery, visiting the grave of Joe Biden’s late son, Beau Biden. The pair spent about an hour at the grave before coming back inside the church, where Biden spoke to a young lady who had come to the church to pray for the health of her elderly aunt. Biden and the woman spoke for approximately twenty minutes and then embraced in a hug.

   Biden and Jill remained in the pews of the church for another hour, praying and solemnly speaking to each other. Meanwhile, Kaufman remained at the back of the church, communicating, quietly of course, with the campaign headquarters at the historic Hotel Du Pont in Wilmington, where important figures of the Biden campaign - Kamala Harris, Valerie Biden Owens, Jen O’Malley Dixon, Anita Dunn, and others - were camped.


   At the White House, the Trump campaign was prepared for Election Day, with mostly an air of gloom foreboding them throughout the day, although President Trump himself seemed to be remarkably optimistic. As polls began to close, however, the President was visibly more angry and dissatisfied, while campaign manager Bill Stepien attempted to assuage the President’s growing rage and claimed that a path to victory was still wide open. After Florida was called for the Biden-Harris ticket, Trump stormed out of the room. When Trump returned after fifteen minutes, Stepien changed the channel to Fox, where Kellyanne Conway was being interviewed. Conway said that “You just have to look at the votes in the Midwest. You see that President Trump is winning these voters, despite the Democrats’ attempts at stealing the election, he’s leading in Wisconsin, he’s leading in Michigan, in Pennsylvania. It is clear Democrats did not learn from the lessons of 2016. I think it is obvious that President Trump’s path to victory is easier than Biden’s. President Trump is winning, big league.”

   Trump began to dig into a bucket of KFC that an intern had brought over, demanding that everyone but Stepien and Vice President Mike Pence leave the room.


   At around 9:45 PM, Kaufman received a call from Valerie, telling him to get Biden back to the Hotel Du Pont. Kaufman walked over to the pew where the Bidens were sitting, before leaning over.

   “Joe, they just called Texas. You’re going to be President.”

[OBD]

BLUE TEXAS!!!

Somehow I feel like this isn't the end though. Great timeline!

[new_patomic]

You've really captured Nate Silver's voice well.

[BigVic]

Trump mocking Biden's dead family members is something I can easily see him doing. He's such a sad, pathetic man.

I'm worried he could do this in RL.

[Boobs]

Marianique Santos 2017

   Joe Biden, his wife, and Ted Kaufman arrived at Wilmington’s Du Pont Hotel, where a media corps was assembled at the hotel’s Gold Ballroom awaiting announcements by the campaign, which was assembled in a suite. Upon his entrance into the suite, Biden was greeted by cheers, hugs, and a glass of nonalcoholic sparkling cider - after all, with Texas, Colorado, and Florida called for the Biden-Harris ticket, victory was all but assured. However, the campaign agreed that Biden will not speak until the West Coast polls are closed (and presumably called immediately), at which point the Democratic ticket should have enough electoral votes called for them to put out the possibility of a Trump victory.

   The 10:00 PM closings called only Idaho instantly for Trump and Nevada, long considered a swing state, for Biden, leaving Montana, Iowa, and Utah as too early to call. A shock Fox exit poll in Utah showed the Beehive State as a narrow Biden victory - something that would upend the state’s long-standing allegiance to the Republican party. UT-04 was called at closing for incumbent Democrat Ben McAdams, signalling that, indeed, something was happening on the ground. “It’s clear,” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said, “that Romney’s endorsement of Biden was heard loud and clear in Utah. He might not be very popular with Republicans in general, but with Mormons, his words still carry significant weight. Even if Trump ends up carrying the state, the fact that it is even close… Folks, it’s not pretty for the Republicans.”

   The vote count from earlier states began to slow to a crawl, particularly in large, urban counties, as Trump campaign lawyers demanded to oversee absentee and provisional ballot counting, and Biden campaign lawyers thus demanded to also be included in the process. In Fulton County, Georgia, ballot counting slowed down to fewer than two thousand an hour, as nearly every ballot was attempted to be contested by the Trump team - in a county where over half a million people voted, this rate meant that the count would take days. Similar tales were repeated across counties throughout the country - implying that the true results would not be seen on Election Day or even the next morning.

   Gretchen Whitmer, Governor of Michigan, Biden campaign co-chair, and frequent target of Trump’s tweets, was being interviewed on CNN - asked if she was worried if Trump would repeat his 2016 shock victory of her state, replied that “Our counties are doing the best they can in counting votes fully and accurately. We’ve had so many people voting this year - nearly six million people, I believe - and our wonderful Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, is making sure that we’re gonna process every ballot. I’m confident that, even if it takes a few days, the Biden-Harris ticket is going to carry the great state of Michigan.” A few minutes later, Trump tweeted that “Crazy Gretchen Whitmer just admitted on live television that the Democrats are going to steal Michigan for Biden. I said this would happen, this election was rigged from the start!”

   At around 10:38 PM, Sara Gideon was declared the winner in the Senate election in Maine, defeating longtime incumbent Senator Susan Collins by a margin of 6% at the time of the announcement, although a significant number of votes remained uncounted. Maine was called at closing time for Biden, although the Second Congressional District only now had switched to showing a Biden lead. Gideon comes as the fourth Senate challenger to flip a seat, with Tuberville defeating Jones in Alabama and Kelly defeating McSally in Arizona being called at closing, and Colorado having rather quickly counted to show Hickenlooper dispatching Gardner by a similar margin to Biden’s victory over Trump. In Texas, the Senate race was being counted and tabulated slower than the Presidential race, which was already called for Biden, but MJ Hegar had taken a small lead over incumbent John Cornyn, although the state of the race remained uncertain.
   
   In the House, races in states with ballots counted pointed toward an unmitigated disaster for the GOP caucus. In Colorado’s Third, Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush defeated controversial QAnon-affiliated Republican Lauren Boebert by a five-point margin. In rapidly-diversifying Fort Bend County, Texas’s Twenty-Second saw Sri Preston Kulkarni dispatch Republican Troy Nehls by a ten-point margin, while in the expansive Twenty-Third, Gina Ortiz Jones defeated Tony Gonzales with an impressive thirteen-point victory. In Nebraska’s Second, Democrat Kara Eastman was carried to victory against Don Bacon by Biden’s impressive performance in Omaha, while next door in the First, Republican Jeff Fortenberry was locked in the fight of his life against Kate Bolz. In Florida’s Twenty-Seventh, incumbent Donna Shalala cruised to a fourteen-point win, boosted by Biden’s nearly-30 point win in the district, while Margaret Good eked out a three-point win over the Sixteenth District’s incumbent representative Vern Buchanan in Sarasota. In Virginia’s Tenth, held by a Republican as recently as 2019, had Jennifer Wexton crush her opponent by twenty percent, while incumbents Abigail Spanberger and Elaine Luria defeated their challengers in the Seventh and Second districts, respectively. Even in the strongly Republican Fifth district, Democrat Cameron Webb and Republican Bob Good were locked in a race too close to call, although Webb had opened up a small lead over his opponent.

   Finally, 11:00 PM came, and the West Coast polls closed, with all four states - California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii - called instantly for the Biden-Harris. Officially, 290 electoral votes had been called for Biden, enough to declare victory. Biden, Jill, Harris, and others were prepared to head down to the Gold Ballroom, ready to give the Democrats’ victory speech. Joe Biden waited for the President’s concession call - the clock pointed to 11:05, then 11:10, then 11:15, when Mike Pence, the Vice President, called the Biden campaign to concede and congratulate.

“Should I expect a call from the President?” Biden asked.

“I wouldn’t count on it,” the incumbent Vice President responded. “He left the White House a few minutes ago.”

   Biden and his team headed down to the Gold Ballroom, where Biden began his remarks.

   “Tonight is not just a victory for myself, or just my team, or just the Democratic Party; it’s a victory for the American people, who have made sure their voices got heard, who went out and voted in a time when hope and trust in the idea of America is at its most vulnerable. But it is like Pope said - ‘Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be blessed.’...”

[John King wannabe]

Victory for the Biden-Harris ticket! Still keeping an eye out on Senate races. I honestly think Mike Pence may concede in front of supporters instead of Trump.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

I wonder how Pence will lie his way out of that concession call

[America Needs R'hllor]

Beautiful!

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Fantastic job!

[Boobs]

Gage Skidmore 2016

   The morning after Election Day saw Biden take the lead in several states - Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Minnesota, padding his Electoral College victory; meanwhile, Maine’s Second Congressional District’s electoral vote was called for Biden, while incumbent Democrat Jared Golden was reelected by a large 12-point margin. The state of Mississippi was called for Trump, albeit with only a two-point margin once all votes were called. In Montana, Trump lead in the actual vote count, with his margin shrinking with nearly every absentee ballot drop - while the crucial Senate race was called for Governor Steve Bullock, who was already leading the incumbent Steve Daines, running ahead of Biden by more than eight percent.

   At a 9:00 AM press conference, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany stated that “the President and his campaign are closely monitoring the situation to make sure that Democrats are not stealing the election.” When asked on whether the President would speak, McEnany stated that “the President is currently preoccupied with a pressing issue, so he will address the nation when he is able.” And when McEnany was pressed on the President’s location, the Press Secretary dodged and said that “the President is incredibly busy, and will be for the foreseeable future.” The White House’s official presidential schedule listed that the President will be engaged in “Executive Time” for over ten hours, punctuated only by meals, while CNN guests believed that Trump left the White House for Mar-a-Lago late last night, judging by his absence from the press and even Twitter.

   By noon, no new states had been called, although Biden was rapidly catching up to Trump in Arizona. Trump still held a vote count lead in Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia, and Wisconsin. However, in Texas, MJ Hegar had declared victory in the Senate race, despite Cornyn not yet conceding - most networks, however, said that the possibility of a Cornyn victory is likely slim.

   The Democrats were in high spirits, confident they would win more states as absentee votes are counted. Dozens of the Democrats’ rising stars in vulnerable House seats were re-elected - Kendra Horn reelected in Oklahoma’s Fifth by a margin of six points, Joe Cunningham in South Carolina’s First cruising to a win of at least seven points, Angie Craig in Minnesota winning by eleven in Minnesota’s Second, Lizzie Fletcher in Texas’s Seventh crushing her supposedly strong opponent by fourteen points, and Connor Lamb winning reelection in Pennsylvania’s Seventeenth in a whopping twenty-six point landslide. Nate Silver, of FiveThirtyEight, claimed that “It is entirely possible that Democrats end up with more seats in the House than they began with - although their performance in Romney-Clinton districts in Southern California has to be worrying.”

   At around 6:00 PM, the networks turned to the White House press room, where Vice President Mike Pence was addressing the nation.

   “My fellow Americans, I want to join in the call of congratulations to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for their hard-fought victory. I had called Joe last night, and he treated me with the grace and humility befitting a President. I know as much as anyone how tough this campaign was, on us as candidates, on the American people in the midst of unprecedented times. I turned to G-d many times throughout this time, and He has guided me through every step of the way. I want to thank my wife, Karen, for the love, friendship, and companionship she has given me in this campaign and throughout our lives. …”