Donald Trump has now left DC for the final time as the 45th President of the United States. The lifelong showman couldn’t resist a final flourish, choreographing Frank Sinatra’s My Way to blast out its final lines just as Air Force One took off for the last time.
“The record shows, I took the blows
But I did it my way
Yes, it was my way”
Whatever words can be used to describe Trump’s presidency, to the end it’s certainly been theatrical…
The Democrats are on course to pick up two more senators, in Georgia. Bible-belt Georgia. Republican Georgia. Despite Republican incumbent David Perdue finishing almost two points ahead of Democrat Jon Ossoff, he missed Georgia’s 50% threshold by 0.27% of the vote, kicking the election into a runoff vote. This should have been in the bag for the GOP.
It was one of the reasons Guido was comfortable with a Biden presidency. So long as Congress remained split, Biden would not have been able to do anything too radical. Yet Trump’s post-election flailing conspiracies have now lost his party their consolation prize. Trump being a bad loser appears to have lost the Republicans Georgia
The message could have been clear, that the only way to prevent total Democratic control of the Presidency, House, and Senate was to elect just one more Republican Senator. Yet Trump’s insane insistence that he won – despite losing by the enormous margin of 52%-48% – threw the special election into chaos. No doubt that leaked “I just want to find 11,780 votes” call with Georgia officials was the last straw for many voters.
Now early indications are that Republicans stayed home. Either disgusted by GOP indulgence of the President’s behaviour, or frightened that the vote would be rigged. In Republican-controlled Georgia. As the last votes come in from some of the most metropolitan areas in the state, it’s clear Trump’s behaviour has lost what should have been an easy win for his party.
David Cameron has weighed in on the future US-UK partnership by undermining any punditry that claimed a Biden residence would weaken the special relationship. As discussed during the pair’s phone call yesterday, Cameron argues:
“… when you think of the big agendas: how do we fight terrorism? How to do we combat climate change? How do we prevent future health pandemics? How do we tackle global poverty? These agendas, there’s a huge amount of common ground”
Speaking to Today this morning, Cameron also rejected arguments that Brexit will push a wedge between the two leaders. Cameron advises overlooking who gets the first phone call and focusing on the substance – luckily for the UK, Boris rose to the top on both in the president-elect’s mind…
Guido couldn’t help but notice Biden’s margin of victory in key swing states is significantly less than the vote afforded to low profile Libertarian presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen. In four states worth 57 electoral votes, the Libertarian candidate massively exceeds Biden’s lead over Trump. Democrats wisely worked to keep the Green Party’s presidential candidate off the ballot in key states…
Wisconsin (+10) Pennsylvania (+20) Arizona (+11) Georgia (+16) Biden over Trump 20,540 45,727 16,985 10,353 Jorgensen 38,415 77,529 49,984 61,894
These swing states together would have taken Trump’s electoral college vote to a commanding 286. Now it might be the case that those voters would have stayed at home or even voted for Biden if the Libertarian Party not been on the ballot. However it is more likely those votes would have gone to a liberal Republican. It’s the Libertarians Biden has to thank…
Trump’s ever-diplomatic comment on the result so far:
We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020
