Kathianne
10-21-2020, 01:36 AM
One of the things that Dems come back to, time and again, is 'what if Trump won't accept the results of the election?' Well it's never been about Trump accepting, but the Dems. Since 2016 they have been all in on getting him out. They are preparing and I fear it is going to get very ugly if Biden should lose:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/joe-biden-raising-cash-to-fight-donald-trumpafter-the-campaign?source=articles&via=rss
Biden Raising Cash to Fight Trump—After the Campaign
LAWYERED UP, READY TO GO!
One top-level donor said the campaign has “pre-funded” legal costs—or essentially set aside cash for the possibility that a fleet of lawyers might be needed in November.
Scott Bixby
National Reporter
Hanna Trudo
Updated Oct. 20, 2020 6:07AM ET / Published Oct. 20, 2020 4:37AM ET
When the Biden campaign began slowly scheduling in-person fundraising events at the beginning of the summer after months of entirely virtual campaigning, some staffers weren’t sure that the juice would be worth the squeeze. Were the potential health risks and logistical stresses posed by having the former vice president in a pandemic worth a fundraiser that might only bring in enough money to cover the costs?
“You have to remember, people were still talking about a capital-D depression,” one top fundraiser told The Daily Beast, remembering one June fundraiser in New Mexico that brought in just $25,000. “It almost felt dirty, asking people—even wealthy people—who were convinced that the sky was going to fall for money.”
Smash-cut to two weeks before Election Day, and Joe Biden—whose opponent is ostensibly a literal billionaire—is the one swimming in cash. Biden’s campaign reported raising roughly $147 per second in September, entering the final full month before the election with a record $432 million in cash on hand, according to a statement by campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon.
Even by post-Citizens United standards, it is an absurd, Scrooge McDuck-level haul. The Biden campaign could suspend fundraising entirely and drop more than $20 million a day, every day, until the election without bouncing a single check. But according to top-level donors and an ambitious schedule of upcoming fundraisers, there’s no plan to slow down—just in case the trove of “fuck you” money needs to become “see you in court” money.
According to fundraisers who spoke to The Daily Beast, the campaign is still leaning hard on its donor network, explicitly pointing ahead to its potential need to fund legal battles in multiple states following the election. The expectations on that network are high; according to a Biden Victory Fund calendar of events obtained by The Daily Beast, the campaign has 37 events planned from Oct. 17 through Oct. 24—nearly five a day, on average.
The rationale? In part, lingering anxieties that President Donald Trump will make good on his public statements implying that he may refuse to accept election results if he loses, which could trigger court fights in multiple states and appellate courts—the kind of legal battle that could get very expensive very quickly.
But even if the election is wrapped up more tidily than Trump’s warnings indicate, legal fights over ballot access have already begun in states around the country. In Michigan alone, a court case seeking to extend the deadline for counting absentee ballots beyond 8 p.m. on Election Day seems destined for the state Supreme Court after a state appeals court ruled on Friday that the extension—the result of a Democratic suit seeking to curb limits on mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic—was unnecessary.
Those and other battles, the Biden campaign said, are critical to fight now.
“The Biden campaign has assembled the biggest voter protection program in history to ensure the election runs smoothly and to combat any attempt by Donald Trump to create fear and confusion with our voting system, or interfere in the democratic process,” Biden campaign spokesperson Michael Gwin told The Daily Beast. “We’re confident that we’ll have free and fair elections this November, and that voters will decisively reject Donald Trump’s erratic, divisive, and failed leadership at the ballot box.”
The Democratic nominee’s campaign says it has worked behind closed doors for much of the general election to help bulletproof what they can control of the voting and post-voting process ahead of the fall. Their pre-emptive efforts, which are indeed ongoing, broadly include providing “support for election jurisdictions” during what they see as “extraordinary conditions” leading up to Nov. 3.
Specifically, they have formed internal initiatives around “voter education to raise awareness of options for in-person and mail voting, aggressive response[s] to vote suppression activities, and robust programs for identifying and countering foreign interference and misinformation from foreign or domestic sources,” according to details shared by the campaign recently. They also pointed to several prominent legal hires working in tandem with the campaign on “special litigation” areas around the election, including General Counsel Dana Remus, a former senior counsel at the White House, and Walter Dellinger and Donald Verrilli, both former solicitors general.
Trump Mocks Biden by Saying He’ll ‘Listen to the Scientists’
HEAD SCRATCHER
One top-level donor told The Daily Beast that the campaign has “pre-funded” legal costs—or essentially set aside cash for the possibility that an Achaean fleet of attorneys might need to be called upon in November. This practice—akin to setting aside a legal defense fund, although perhaps “legal offense fund” is more appropriate—isn’t unheard of.
“Campaigns these days do typically set up separate funds for recounts and election contests for possible post-election litigation,” said Richard H. Pildes, a professor of constitutional law at the New York University School of Law and a leading expert in election law. “The reason is that under federal election law, a campaign can raise contributions to these funds from donors who have already maxed out their contributions to the campaigns.”
It’s not uncommon in the legal world for a campaign, or any client, to give attorneys a retainer or deposit in advance of potential litigation, which would confirm an attorney-client relationship—preventing that attorney from being hired by an opponent and conferring privilege over whatever preliminary discussions of legal strategy the campaign might have.
“In general, I would expect a campaign to focus as much of its money as possible to prevailing on Election Day,” said Michael T. Morley, an assistant professor of law at Florida State University and an expert on election law. “A major presidential campaign generally wouldn’t worry much in advance about setting aside substantial amounts of money for a post-election challenge, because if the outcome of an election hinged on one or two recounts or election contests, tremendous amounts of additional financial support would almost certainly be immediately forthcoming to help that candidate prevail. Every campaign is different, of course, and has its own strategies.”
Part of the calculus, campaign veterans said, is simple economics: it’s better to have more money than you need than less. Other campaigns have been in this position—with so much cash on hand, and more coming in the door, it’s hard to figure out where to put it—and had to scramble to put it to good use.
“He had so much money at the end we were searching for ways to spend it all,” one former aide to the Obama campaign recalled. Back in the fall of 2008, that campaign’s money masters found themselves in a similar situation to the one Biden finds himself now: sitting atop a pile of cash with just weeks left in the election and scrambling for ways to get it out the door.
Among the expenditures the campaign decided to make was to blanket TV with what was in essence a 30-minute infomercial about the then-senator. The “ad” they produced, titled “American Stories, American Solutions” ran at 8 p.m. ET on, among other stations, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, BET, and Univision. CNN declined to run the spot, but Fox did—and even agreed to move back the start of a scheduled World Series game in order to do so.
“That’s the thing people were mad about,” the former aide recalled. Indeed, when word surfaced that the ad might dislodge the fall classic, Obama’s opponent, the late Sen. John McCain, offered a patented one-liner.
“It used to be that only rain or some other act of God could delay the World Series,” McCain said. “But I guess network executives figured an Obama infomercial was close enough.”
But the infomercial approach that worked for a senator in his first term of office wouldn’t necessarily provide as clear a benefit for a former two-term vice president with four decades of time on Capitol Hill under his belt.
“That 2008 Obama event did prove to be a ratings success,” said Alan Schroeder, professor emeritus at Northeastern University and the author of several books on the history of modern presidential debates. “But the times are different, and so is the candidate. Obama at that point was a more intriguing figure, poised on the cusp of history, where Biden is more familiar and less glamorous.”
Meanwhile, the utility of having a legal team at the ready in case of legitimately contested result—or, perhaps more likely, in case of a presidential conniption in the face of a potential loss—is clearly more evident.
— with additional reporting by Sam Stein
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/nation-braces-for-election-violence-guns-batons-molotov-cocktails
Nation braces for election violence, ‘guns, batons, Molotov cocktails’
by Paul Bedard, Washington Secrets Columnist | | October 20, 2020 09:36 AM
...
https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/20/trump-resistance-plans-mass-mobilization-after-election-to-shut-down-the-country-if-biden-doesnt-win/
Trump Resistance Plans ‘Mass Mobilization’ After Election To Shut Down The Country If Biden Doesn’t Win (https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/20/trump-resistance-plans-mass-mobilization-after-election-to-shut-down-the-country-if-biden-doesnt-win/)
Shut Down DC's 'Strategic framework for action following the 2020 election' sketches out their plans for rioting and attacking American institutions and life unless and until Joe Biden is installed as president.
By Joy Pullmann (https://thefederalist.com/author/joy-pullmann/)OCTOBER 20, 2020
Riot and protest instigators plan to “make sure Trump leaves the White House” by any means necessary after the Nov. 3 election, according to website posts from the group Shut Down DC and their allies (https://www.scribd.com/document/480775634/Hold-the-Line-a-Guide-to-Defending-Democracy). “W]e’re making plans to be in the streets before the polls even close, ready to adapt and respond to whatever comes our way,” the group says (https://web.archive.org/web/20201019122623/https://www.shutdowndc.org/election2020) on its website currently.
“Trump has shown that he will stop at nothing to maintain his grip on power. Trump will not leave office without mass mobilization and direct action,” an Oct. 13 version of the same web page reads, according to Internet Archive records (https://web.archive.org/web/20201013182838/https://www.shutdowndc.org/election2020).
The group linked to protests at the homes of Trump administration officials tells its DC-area supporters to “Come to Black Lives Matter Plaza” on election night “to create serious disruption if Trump really tries to steal the election!” Black Lives Matter Plaza (https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/05/870833518/black-lives-matter-plaza-across-from-white-house-is-christened-by-d-c-leaders) is the site of repeated anti-Trump summer rioting (https://wtop.com/dc/2020/08/about-100-people-gather-near-black-lives-matter-plaza-in-sunday-night-march/) and defacement of the historic Saint John’s Church one block away from the White House.
On the page, Shut Down DC sketches out its plans for election night and immediately following. On Nov. 4-7, the group says it plans to “do whatever it takes”:
In the days following the election we’ll continue to come out into the streets every day to respond to rapidly changing events. We may be waiting for votes to be counted or we may be responding to major attacks on democracy. Over the next few weeks we’ll use our Spokes Council process to plan actions that are flexible and can scale to respond to a lot of different scenarios.
Then, on Nov. 8-11, the group’s plan is to meet members of Congress returning to Washington DC for the lame-duck session. “If Trump is trying to launch a coup, that’s no time for business as usual. We’ll meet them at the train station or the airports or if they drive into town we can meet them at their homes,” the website says.
A slide deck posted on the group’s website (https://www.shutdowndc.org/updates/report-back-from-yesterdays-organizing-call) from an “organizing call” claims this group is working in concert with leftist groups around the nation to prepare for President Trump to “steal the election” and attempt a “coup.” The slides pinpoint now as the time these groups are “gathering gear” to respond.
https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/slidedeckshutdowndc1.jpg
The post-election plan of action links to the group’s advice about (https://web.archive.org/web/20201019215316/https://www.shutdowndc.org/security?link_id=5&can_id=6fbe91d2fc9a030bae9d78b25968cb98&source=email-heres-our-plan-this-is-a-long-email-but-please-read-it-to-the-end&email_referrer=email_963176___subject_1320107&email_subject=heres-our-plan-this-is-a-long-email-but-please-read-it-to-the-end) taking “appropriate precautions” for security. This includes forming “affinity groups” “that will go into more detail and possibly engage in higher risk actions.”
“Keep in mind that not everyone needs to know every detail of your plans,” says the post-election plan about “taking appropriate precautions.” “We don’t! Feel free to only share what people outside your [affinity group] need to know, and keep the specific action details close to the vest.”
What kinds of actions these might be are stated (https://web.archive.org/web/20201019221908/https://docs.google.com/document/d/16GHA84_eBU0lqJc0QBD_iIsoBZTC3_v5oWAWXy_upR4/edit) in a “Strategic framework for action following the 2020 election” that sketches out their plans for rioting and attacking American institutions and life until Biden is installed as president. It claims if Trump declares victory that will mark “the start of the coup.”
“At some point in the days following the election Trump will almost certainly either attempt to declare outright victory or attempt to invalidate the results of the election. That is the start of the coup,” it claims. “…Trump can only seize power if the world believes that he has the power. That’s why we’re starting this phase of the election in the streets… We need to show that we’re ungovernable under a continued Trump administration…That can mean blocking traffic at major intersections and bridges, shutting down government office buildings (why should ICE or the FBI be able to keep doing Trump’s bidding when he’s leading with a coup?!?), or blockading the White House.”
The document bases its action plan upon the scenarios (https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/19/we-gamed-out-the-2020-election-and-found-our-constitution-can-handle-the-madness/) projected by the establishment leftist “Transition Integrity Project” for election night and sketches these activists’ response to each, explicitly rejecting the possibility that Trump could legitimately win. It continues:
We’ll keep it going until Trump concedes. We could be in the streets throughout the fall and into the winter– maybe as lots of rolling waves of action or possibly as a few major tsunamis! In other parts of the country, as vote counts conclude, our focus will turn from protecting the vote counts to themselves being ungovernable.
As it becomes clear that Trump’s coup is failing, institutions and the elites will start to abandon him – or we will approach them as part of the problem. Either Amazon will shut down AWS for the Trump loyalists in the government or we’ll shut down their fulfillment centers. Either governors will tell their national guards to stand down or we’ll shut down their state capitals as well. Over time, Trump will grow increasingly isolated and his empire will crumble down around him.
Then — and this is the important part — Biden will move into the White House and be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.
On its Facebook page, the group recently posted a picture of a mob arriving at Sen. Lindsey Graham’s house at 6 a.m. to harass him for following the Constitution. In the picture, one protest sign reads, “We can’t sleep so neither should Lindsey.”
https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Shut-Down-DC-LindseyGraham.jpg
“Preventing Donald Trump from stealing the election and remaining in office is likely to take mass, sustained disruptive movements all over the country,” the group’s website posted on Oct. 7 (http://%22puting%20[sic]%20pressure%20on%20the%20media%20and%20social%20me dia%20agencies%20to%20refuse%20to%20declare%20a%20 victor%2C%20resisting%20demands%20to%20call%20the% 20vote%20in%20forvor%20[sic]%20of%20trump%2C%20physically%20protecting%20the%2 0vote%20count%20from%20counter-protestors%2C%20federal%20agents%2C%20or%20white%2 0supremacist%20militias%20are%20all%20potential%20 actions%20in%20this%20moment%2C%22%20says%20the%20 group%27s%20%22disruption%20guide%20for%202020.%22 %20the%20guide%2C%20a%20google%20document%2C%20had %2061%20viewers%20at%20the%20moment%20it%20was%20r eviewed%20for%20the%20federalist./).
“Puting [sic] pressure on the media and social media agencies to refuse to declare a victor, resisting demands to call the vote in forvor [sic] of Trump, physically protecting the vote count from counter-protestors, federal agents, or white supremacist militias are all potential actions in this moment,” says the group’s “Disruption Guide for 2020 (https://web.archive.org/web/20201019223108if_/https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WtDZYQ7Q-PUhxhv8VuRVfeD7q3DSpthktlYD-nx4pSc/edit).” The guide (https://www.scribd.com/document/480758760/Stopping-the-Coup-the-2020-Guide), a Google document, had 61 viewers at the moment it was reviewed for The Federalist.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/joe-biden-raising-cash-to-fight-donald-trumpafter-the-campaign?source=articles&via=rss
Biden Raising Cash to Fight Trump—After the Campaign
LAWYERED UP, READY TO GO!
One top-level donor said the campaign has “pre-funded” legal costs—or essentially set aside cash for the possibility that a fleet of lawyers might be needed in November.
Scott Bixby
National Reporter
Hanna Trudo
Updated Oct. 20, 2020 6:07AM ET / Published Oct. 20, 2020 4:37AM ET
When the Biden campaign began slowly scheduling in-person fundraising events at the beginning of the summer after months of entirely virtual campaigning, some staffers weren’t sure that the juice would be worth the squeeze. Were the potential health risks and logistical stresses posed by having the former vice president in a pandemic worth a fundraiser that might only bring in enough money to cover the costs?
“You have to remember, people were still talking about a capital-D depression,” one top fundraiser told The Daily Beast, remembering one June fundraiser in New Mexico that brought in just $25,000. “It almost felt dirty, asking people—even wealthy people—who were convinced that the sky was going to fall for money.”
Smash-cut to two weeks before Election Day, and Joe Biden—whose opponent is ostensibly a literal billionaire—is the one swimming in cash. Biden’s campaign reported raising roughly $147 per second in September, entering the final full month before the election with a record $432 million in cash on hand, according to a statement by campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon.
Even by post-Citizens United standards, it is an absurd, Scrooge McDuck-level haul. The Biden campaign could suspend fundraising entirely and drop more than $20 million a day, every day, until the election without bouncing a single check. But according to top-level donors and an ambitious schedule of upcoming fundraisers, there’s no plan to slow down—just in case the trove of “fuck you” money needs to become “see you in court” money.
According to fundraisers who spoke to The Daily Beast, the campaign is still leaning hard on its donor network, explicitly pointing ahead to its potential need to fund legal battles in multiple states following the election. The expectations on that network are high; according to a Biden Victory Fund calendar of events obtained by The Daily Beast, the campaign has 37 events planned from Oct. 17 through Oct. 24—nearly five a day, on average.
The rationale? In part, lingering anxieties that President Donald Trump will make good on his public statements implying that he may refuse to accept election results if he loses, which could trigger court fights in multiple states and appellate courts—the kind of legal battle that could get very expensive very quickly.
But even if the election is wrapped up more tidily than Trump’s warnings indicate, legal fights over ballot access have already begun in states around the country. In Michigan alone, a court case seeking to extend the deadline for counting absentee ballots beyond 8 p.m. on Election Day seems destined for the state Supreme Court after a state appeals court ruled on Friday that the extension—the result of a Democratic suit seeking to curb limits on mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic—was unnecessary.
Those and other battles, the Biden campaign said, are critical to fight now.
“The Biden campaign has assembled the biggest voter protection program in history to ensure the election runs smoothly and to combat any attempt by Donald Trump to create fear and confusion with our voting system, or interfere in the democratic process,” Biden campaign spokesperson Michael Gwin told The Daily Beast. “We’re confident that we’ll have free and fair elections this November, and that voters will decisively reject Donald Trump’s erratic, divisive, and failed leadership at the ballot box.”
The Democratic nominee’s campaign says it has worked behind closed doors for much of the general election to help bulletproof what they can control of the voting and post-voting process ahead of the fall. Their pre-emptive efforts, which are indeed ongoing, broadly include providing “support for election jurisdictions” during what they see as “extraordinary conditions” leading up to Nov. 3.
Specifically, they have formed internal initiatives around “voter education to raise awareness of options for in-person and mail voting, aggressive response[s] to vote suppression activities, and robust programs for identifying and countering foreign interference and misinformation from foreign or domestic sources,” according to details shared by the campaign recently. They also pointed to several prominent legal hires working in tandem with the campaign on “special litigation” areas around the election, including General Counsel Dana Remus, a former senior counsel at the White House, and Walter Dellinger and Donald Verrilli, both former solicitors general.
Trump Mocks Biden by Saying He’ll ‘Listen to the Scientists’
HEAD SCRATCHER
One top-level donor told The Daily Beast that the campaign has “pre-funded” legal costs—or essentially set aside cash for the possibility that an Achaean fleet of attorneys might need to be called upon in November. This practice—akin to setting aside a legal defense fund, although perhaps “legal offense fund” is more appropriate—isn’t unheard of.
“Campaigns these days do typically set up separate funds for recounts and election contests for possible post-election litigation,” said Richard H. Pildes, a professor of constitutional law at the New York University School of Law and a leading expert in election law. “The reason is that under federal election law, a campaign can raise contributions to these funds from donors who have already maxed out their contributions to the campaigns.”
It’s not uncommon in the legal world for a campaign, or any client, to give attorneys a retainer or deposit in advance of potential litigation, which would confirm an attorney-client relationship—preventing that attorney from being hired by an opponent and conferring privilege over whatever preliminary discussions of legal strategy the campaign might have.
“In general, I would expect a campaign to focus as much of its money as possible to prevailing on Election Day,” said Michael T. Morley, an assistant professor of law at Florida State University and an expert on election law. “A major presidential campaign generally wouldn’t worry much in advance about setting aside substantial amounts of money for a post-election challenge, because if the outcome of an election hinged on one or two recounts or election contests, tremendous amounts of additional financial support would almost certainly be immediately forthcoming to help that candidate prevail. Every campaign is different, of course, and has its own strategies.”
Part of the calculus, campaign veterans said, is simple economics: it’s better to have more money than you need than less. Other campaigns have been in this position—with so much cash on hand, and more coming in the door, it’s hard to figure out where to put it—and had to scramble to put it to good use.
“He had so much money at the end we were searching for ways to spend it all,” one former aide to the Obama campaign recalled. Back in the fall of 2008, that campaign’s money masters found themselves in a similar situation to the one Biden finds himself now: sitting atop a pile of cash with just weeks left in the election and scrambling for ways to get it out the door.
Among the expenditures the campaign decided to make was to blanket TV with what was in essence a 30-minute infomercial about the then-senator. The “ad” they produced, titled “American Stories, American Solutions” ran at 8 p.m. ET on, among other stations, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, BET, and Univision. CNN declined to run the spot, but Fox did—and even agreed to move back the start of a scheduled World Series game in order to do so.
“That’s the thing people were mad about,” the former aide recalled. Indeed, when word surfaced that the ad might dislodge the fall classic, Obama’s opponent, the late Sen. John McCain, offered a patented one-liner.
“It used to be that only rain or some other act of God could delay the World Series,” McCain said. “But I guess network executives figured an Obama infomercial was close enough.”
But the infomercial approach that worked for a senator in his first term of office wouldn’t necessarily provide as clear a benefit for a former two-term vice president with four decades of time on Capitol Hill under his belt.
“That 2008 Obama event did prove to be a ratings success,” said Alan Schroeder, professor emeritus at Northeastern University and the author of several books on the history of modern presidential debates. “But the times are different, and so is the candidate. Obama at that point was a more intriguing figure, poised on the cusp of history, where Biden is more familiar and less glamorous.”
Meanwhile, the utility of having a legal team at the ready in case of legitimately contested result—or, perhaps more likely, in case of a presidential conniption in the face of a potential loss—is clearly more evident.
— with additional reporting by Sam Stein
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/nation-braces-for-election-violence-guns-batons-molotov-cocktails
Nation braces for election violence, ‘guns, batons, Molotov cocktails’
by Paul Bedard, Washington Secrets Columnist | | October 20, 2020 09:36 AM
...
https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/20/trump-resistance-plans-mass-mobilization-after-election-to-shut-down-the-country-if-biden-doesnt-win/
Trump Resistance Plans ‘Mass Mobilization’ After Election To Shut Down The Country If Biden Doesn’t Win (https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/20/trump-resistance-plans-mass-mobilization-after-election-to-shut-down-the-country-if-biden-doesnt-win/)
Shut Down DC's 'Strategic framework for action following the 2020 election' sketches out their plans for rioting and attacking American institutions and life unless and until Joe Biden is installed as president.
By Joy Pullmann (https://thefederalist.com/author/joy-pullmann/)OCTOBER 20, 2020
Riot and protest instigators plan to “make sure Trump leaves the White House” by any means necessary after the Nov. 3 election, according to website posts from the group Shut Down DC and their allies (https://www.scribd.com/document/480775634/Hold-the-Line-a-Guide-to-Defending-Democracy). “W]e’re making plans to be in the streets before the polls even close, ready to adapt and respond to whatever comes our way,” the group says (https://web.archive.org/web/20201019122623/https://www.shutdowndc.org/election2020) on its website currently.
“Trump has shown that he will stop at nothing to maintain his grip on power. Trump will not leave office without mass mobilization and direct action,” an Oct. 13 version of the same web page reads, according to Internet Archive records (https://web.archive.org/web/20201013182838/https://www.shutdowndc.org/election2020).
The group linked to protests at the homes of Trump administration officials tells its DC-area supporters to “Come to Black Lives Matter Plaza” on election night “to create serious disruption if Trump really tries to steal the election!” Black Lives Matter Plaza (https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/05/870833518/black-lives-matter-plaza-across-from-white-house-is-christened-by-d-c-leaders) is the site of repeated anti-Trump summer rioting (https://wtop.com/dc/2020/08/about-100-people-gather-near-black-lives-matter-plaza-in-sunday-night-march/) and defacement of the historic Saint John’s Church one block away from the White House.
On the page, Shut Down DC sketches out its plans for election night and immediately following. On Nov. 4-7, the group says it plans to “do whatever it takes”:
In the days following the election we’ll continue to come out into the streets every day to respond to rapidly changing events. We may be waiting for votes to be counted or we may be responding to major attacks on democracy. Over the next few weeks we’ll use our Spokes Council process to plan actions that are flexible and can scale to respond to a lot of different scenarios.
Then, on Nov. 8-11, the group’s plan is to meet members of Congress returning to Washington DC for the lame-duck session. “If Trump is trying to launch a coup, that’s no time for business as usual. We’ll meet them at the train station or the airports or if they drive into town we can meet them at their homes,” the website says.
A slide deck posted on the group’s website (https://www.shutdowndc.org/updates/report-back-from-yesterdays-organizing-call) from an “organizing call” claims this group is working in concert with leftist groups around the nation to prepare for President Trump to “steal the election” and attempt a “coup.” The slides pinpoint now as the time these groups are “gathering gear” to respond.
https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/slidedeckshutdowndc1.jpg
The post-election plan of action links to the group’s advice about (https://web.archive.org/web/20201019215316/https://www.shutdowndc.org/security?link_id=5&can_id=6fbe91d2fc9a030bae9d78b25968cb98&source=email-heres-our-plan-this-is-a-long-email-but-please-read-it-to-the-end&email_referrer=email_963176___subject_1320107&email_subject=heres-our-plan-this-is-a-long-email-but-please-read-it-to-the-end) taking “appropriate precautions” for security. This includes forming “affinity groups” “that will go into more detail and possibly engage in higher risk actions.”
“Keep in mind that not everyone needs to know every detail of your plans,” says the post-election plan about “taking appropriate precautions.” “We don’t! Feel free to only share what people outside your [affinity group] need to know, and keep the specific action details close to the vest.”
What kinds of actions these might be are stated (https://web.archive.org/web/20201019221908/https://docs.google.com/document/d/16GHA84_eBU0lqJc0QBD_iIsoBZTC3_v5oWAWXy_upR4/edit) in a “Strategic framework for action following the 2020 election” that sketches out their plans for rioting and attacking American institutions and life until Biden is installed as president. It claims if Trump declares victory that will mark “the start of the coup.”
“At some point in the days following the election Trump will almost certainly either attempt to declare outright victory or attempt to invalidate the results of the election. That is the start of the coup,” it claims. “…Trump can only seize power if the world believes that he has the power. That’s why we’re starting this phase of the election in the streets… We need to show that we’re ungovernable under a continued Trump administration…That can mean blocking traffic at major intersections and bridges, shutting down government office buildings (why should ICE or the FBI be able to keep doing Trump’s bidding when he’s leading with a coup?!?), or blockading the White House.”
The document bases its action plan upon the scenarios (https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/19/we-gamed-out-the-2020-election-and-found-our-constitution-can-handle-the-madness/) projected by the establishment leftist “Transition Integrity Project” for election night and sketches these activists’ response to each, explicitly rejecting the possibility that Trump could legitimately win. It continues:
We’ll keep it going until Trump concedes. We could be in the streets throughout the fall and into the winter– maybe as lots of rolling waves of action or possibly as a few major tsunamis! In other parts of the country, as vote counts conclude, our focus will turn from protecting the vote counts to themselves being ungovernable.
As it becomes clear that Trump’s coup is failing, institutions and the elites will start to abandon him – or we will approach them as part of the problem. Either Amazon will shut down AWS for the Trump loyalists in the government or we’ll shut down their fulfillment centers. Either governors will tell their national guards to stand down or we’ll shut down their state capitals as well. Over time, Trump will grow increasingly isolated and his empire will crumble down around him.
Then — and this is the important part — Biden will move into the White House and be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.
On its Facebook page, the group recently posted a picture of a mob arriving at Sen. Lindsey Graham’s house at 6 a.m. to harass him for following the Constitution. In the picture, one protest sign reads, “We can’t sleep so neither should Lindsey.”
https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Shut-Down-DC-LindseyGraham.jpg
“Preventing Donald Trump from stealing the election and remaining in office is likely to take mass, sustained disruptive movements all over the country,” the group’s website posted on Oct. 7 (http://%22puting%20[sic]%20pressure%20on%20the%20media%20and%20social%20me dia%20agencies%20to%20refuse%20to%20declare%20a%20 victor%2C%20resisting%20demands%20to%20call%20the% 20vote%20in%20forvor%20[sic]%20of%20trump%2C%20physically%20protecting%20the%2 0vote%20count%20from%20counter-protestors%2C%20federal%20agents%2C%20or%20white%2 0supremacist%20militias%20are%20all%20potential%20 actions%20in%20this%20moment%2C%22%20says%20the%20 group%27s%20%22disruption%20guide%20for%202020.%22 %20the%20guide%2C%20a%20google%20document%2C%20had %2061%20viewers%20at%20the%20moment%20it%20was%20r eviewed%20for%20the%20federalist./).
“Puting [sic] pressure on the media and social media agencies to refuse to declare a victor, resisting demands to call the vote in forvor [sic] of Trump, physically protecting the vote count from counter-protestors, federal agents, or white supremacist militias are all potential actions in this moment,” says the group’s “Disruption Guide for 2020 (https://web.archive.org/web/20201019223108if_/https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WtDZYQ7Q-PUhxhv8VuRVfeD7q3DSpthktlYD-nx4pSc/edit).” The guide (https://www.scribd.com/document/480758760/Stopping-the-Coup-the-2020-Guide), a Google document, had 61 viewers at the moment it was reviewed for The Federalist.