Bernstein: White House Talking About Throwing The Election To The House To Hold On To Power

RCP video ^ | 8/4/2020 | Ian Schwartz

[Sir Napsalot]

Carl Bernstein warned President Trump may throw the election to the House of Representatives to decide in an attempt to hold onto office on CNN Monday night.

"We need a political and cultural protector in this country between now and Election Day from the president of the United States and his recklessness," Bernstein demanded.

"Everything is about the base, as he calls it, and getting the base to somehow re-elect him or get him close enough to reelection that he can then put into authoritarian practice, some kind of mechanism that will allow him to hold on to power, perhaps throw the election into the House of Representatives, which indeed is being talked about in the White House," Bernstein said.

(snip)

CARL BERNSTEIN: I think we have to recognize that we have a national emergency unlike anything in our history. That national emergency is that we have a president of the United States who is demonstrably unfit, incompetent, not honest, and not capable of dealing with this horrible situation.

We need a political and cultural protector in this country between now and Election Day from the president of the United States and his recklessness. People are dead because of his recklessness.

We need the political system to respond, which means Republicans particularly, because the Republicans on Capitol Hill as well as those who left the White House, they know he is not a stable individual. They have told dozens of people, they believe the president of the United States is out of control, that he is not fit to be the president of the United States.

We need to be protected from this president so that we can be protected from COVID. ...

[Redmen4ever]

I thought Joe Dementia was going to win in a landslide.

In the event no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the Electorate College (possibly because the Dems mess up big time with their mail-in ballots), the election of the President goes to the House (on the basis of the states), and the election of the V.P. goes to the Senate. Members could only vote for one of the top five vote-getters in the Electoral College. For the moment, I’ll assume members must choose between Trump and Biden, and Pence and Biden’s not yet named running mate.

Currently, the Republicans control 26 state delegations in the House, the Democrats 23, and there is 1 tie (Pennsylvania). Assuming no change, Trump would be re-elected President.

Currently, the Republicans have 53 Senators and the Democrats and their allies 47. So, Pence would be re-elected Vice President.

On the assumption the election is close, and so is not decided by the Electoral College, Republicans should improve on their positions in Congress.

Bottom line: without some shenanigans, the Republicans would prevail if the election were thrown to the Congress.

Now, what possible shenanigans might be pulled? Possibly a Democrat Elector or two could be persuaded to vote for Romney for President and Kasich for V.P., or some other NeverTrump Republicans. Maybe they could fetch a few Republican votes in the House or Senate, and all the Democrat votes, and so be elected President and V.P.

BELOW THE BOTTOM: This election is not over by a long-shot. There are reasons to think Trump will do well in spite of the current main stream media polls. Democrats are moving from hopeful to desperate.

[ml/nj]

Trump would lose in the house

The Constitution says:

The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice.

Right now by my count Republicans have a majority of the House seats in 27 States; the Democrats in 22; and one State is tied. It will be the next Congress that would do the voting, but right now if the voting were thrown to the House, I think it would favor Trump.

ML/NJ

[Boogieman]

Right, the President is supposed to think that the Democrat dominated House would re-elect him?

What planet is Bernstein from?

[Agamemnon]

One what basis is Pelosi the speaker in Jan 2021? Her term as Speaker ends and she has to be re-installed by a new Congress, but that is true only if all House races are decided. If all Mail-in ballots have not been counted, by what authority does she remain as Speaker?

This is Constitutional crises time. Only executive intervention by way of delaying elections (Directive 51) is possible in advance of the election to try to rectify the situation. This could be Trump playing "chicken" with Pelosi to see who blinks (we know who does, don't we?)

In fact if Mail-in ballots are still outstanding, her election to anything is also in question.

Mail-in ballots will have to be discounted on an Equal Protection XIV Amendment Civil Rights basis. No provenance, therefore, no assurance that any were cast legitimately. Illegitimate votes dilute legitimate votes -- voting rights distorted = Civil Rights issue. DOJ assures electoral integrity and settles Civil Rights cases. The ball is back in the Executive Branch's court either way.

Even if CA managed to count all its ballots and other States had not, the 2020 election could not be decided because electors can't be certified simply on the basis of how CA voted. Again it is a XIV issue.

Mail-in balloting is a death match. It is a purposeful action by one party to try to take over the entire system of government by theft. But in this way and on this occasion the fraudulent attempt is there for all to see.

It is my belief it will not end well for those pushing to distort the election process.

Interesting times.

FReegards!

[rarestia]

Only make that mistake once.

[EEGator]

“I thought Joe Dementia was going to win in a landslide.”

I don’t know why he isn’t up by 50 points...

[scrabblehack]

How else would the election go to the House? Oh, that’s right - a 269-269 tie.

If Trump could rig that, why couldn’t he rig a win?

[backwoods-engineer]

After the war, I propose that Bernstein and other Marxist “journalists” get the Julius Streicher treatment. Long rope, lumber, some assembly required.

[backwoods-engineer]

50 votes in the House for Presidential tiebreaker, not 435. Different rules apply. Look it up.

[metmom]

How would the democrat controlled House give the election to Trump?

Not going to happen, not in a million years.

They don’t know what they want to do with the election.

My opinion is they should just hold it as usual, with voter ID required at polling places and mail in ballots only from people registered and verified on the voter rolls.

No dead people voting. No pets, no illegals. Just living, breathing, cognizant, law abiding citizens of this country.

[DoodleDawg]

If Trump could rig that, why couldn’t he rig a win?

LOL! I think Bernstein is just trolling for headlines. I guess the mainstream media shows haven't been calling him enough recently.

[Gnome1949]

If the 2020 election results are in complete chaos, how do we know who controls the House of Representatives?

[DuncanWaring]

If no one candidate gets a majority of Electoral College votes (currently the infamous “270”), then Congress performs the election, with each state getting one vote.

[j.havenfarm]

It would take more than one rino.. Each state gets one vote not matter how big it’s delegation is. So for example, California has 53 delegates but only gets one vote. Taken together I’ll bet Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota have barely a million population between them ,1/40th of what California has. So in this little subset that’s 4 votes for Trump, and 1 for Biden. Republicans have a majority in 26 state delegations, 23 for the rats, and one is tied. I’d have to go back and see how
Many are close, but I think any republican who voted to negate this result would literally be taking his life in his hands

[DuncanWaring]

That’s guaranteed.

[DuncanWaring]

Haven’t been paying attention, have you?

If the election goes to the House, each state gets one vote.

[DuncanWaring]

If the election falls to the House, each state gets one vote.

[Sir Napsalot]

Those Deep State hacks and their media allies give ‘whistle blower’ a real bad name. IOW, they are NOT whistle blowers.

[Magnum44]

I hadnt looked into the details of that before. Funny they would go to the House instead of the Senate, each state getting one vote being the case. What rules govern how each states vote is determined among the states representatives?

[Robert DeLong]

Is he throwing it to enable a Biden win? I mean the Democrats are the majority party in the House. Absolutely ludicrous claim.