Trump flirts with extremes to overturn election, unnerving palace guard

Crackpots and pans

Since the sealing of Joe Biden's Electoral College win last week, the numbers of allies urging Donald Trump to fight on have diminished. But those on the extremes keep telling the defeated president what he wants to hear, stoking delusions and bringing their harebrained ideas — including a military intervention — into the White House.

"Sources who have gotten used to Trump’s eruptions over four years sound scared by what’s transpired in the past week when I’ve talked to them," tweeted New York Times' correspondent Maggie Haberman. A senior administration official told Axios' Jonathan Swan that "it’s impossible not to start getting anxious about how this ends," describing the hardened aides now alarmed as those "who have endured arguably more insanity and mayhem than any administration officials in history."

The president met Friday with far-right, conspiracy theory-churning lawyer Sidney Powell, The New York Times reported, and like-minded former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who has called on Trump to impose martial law and deploy the military to "rerun" the election in swing states that went for Biden. Trump asked about that idea. Every other Trump adviser present repeatedly pointed out that Powell has never backed up her claims, such as a Venezuelan plot to rig voting machines, with proof. In one of a flurry of losing lawsuits, Powell presented as a star witness "a military intelligence expert" who turned out to have spent his Army years as a vehicle mechanic and who never worked in intel.

But Trump expressed interest in naming Powell as a special counsel to investigate election fraud and giving her a security clearance. White House counsel Pat Cipollone and chief of staff Mark Meadows pushed back against the idea in one of several heated exchanges that featured yelling and screaming, with the lawyers often accusing one another of failing to sufficiently support the president's efforts. Axios reported, quoting a source, there is no one "in the president’s entire orbit — his staunchest group of supporters and allies — who doesn't think that Sidney Powell should be on that first rocket to Mars."

That Trump is even entertaining the idea of installing Powell underscores the increasingly desperate steps he has been weighing as he tries to reverse the election results, The Associated Press wrote. Under federal law, the U.S. attorney general, not the president, is responsible for appointing special counsels. Powell was back at the White House on Sunday night, CNN reported.

Army officials spoke up last week to shoot down the intervention scheme promoted by Flynn and the fanatic MAGA fringes. "There is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election," Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said in a statement.

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani dialed in Friday and opposed a special-counsel post for Powell. But separately, Giuliani has called on the Department of Homeland Security to seize voting machines to hunt for evidence of fraud. Outgoing Attorney General William Barr has said his investigators found no rigging of machines. Acting DHS Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli told Giuliani his agency had no authority to take possession of the machines, according to the Times.

Fox tucks tail on fraud tales

After Fox News received legal threats from one of the companies named in baseless election-fraud theories circulated by some of its opinion hosts, its networks are hurrying to reduce their exposure.

Lou Dobbs of Fox Business Network on Friday night introduced a segment that calmly debunked several accusations of fraud that Giuliani and other Trump supporters have lobbed against the election technology company Smartmatic. The fact-checking video was repeated over the weekend on Fox News Channel shows hosted by Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro.

Smartmatic had demanded "a full and complete retraction of all false and defamatory statements and reports," which were made largely by Powell and Giuliani. It wasn't clear where the threat of legal action stood after Fox ran the video. Erik Connolly, an attorney for Smartmatic, told CNN: "We cannot comment due to potential litigation." Smartmatic also has demanded retractions from Newsmax and OAN.

Another target of the Trumpworld conspiracy theories, Dominion Voting Systems, hired a high-powered libel lawyer, Tom Clare, who has threatened legal action against Powell and the Trump campaign, The New York Times reported.

Blame Russia? Trump's not listening

From the beginnings of his 2016 campaign to the closing days of his presidency, there is a constant with Trump: He gets defensive about accusations against Russia — almost as if he's the one getting blamed.

A day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said aloud what top officials have been saying for days without being named — "we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians," Pompeo said, behind a massive cyberattack against the U.S. government and private companies — Trump took to Twitter to contradict his top foreign affairs official and give Russia cover. He also downplayed the damage from what U.S. cybersecurity officials labeled a "grave" threat.

"I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control," Trump tweeted Saturday. "Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of … discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!)," Trump said, pointing to no actual evidence.

Sen. Mitt Romney on Sunday portrayed Trump's position as preposterous. "I think we’ve come to recognize that the president has a blind spot when it comes to Russia," said the Utah Republican, long a Trump critic.

GOP senators Trump counts as allies weren't buying it either. "Increasingly clear that Russian intelligence conducted the gravest cyber intrusion in our history," tweeted Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said, "I have no reason to believe it's China. I think that's a mistake." Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the House intelligence chairman who led impeachment efforts, called Trump's response "uniformly destructive and deceitful, and injurious … to our national security."

It'll be Biden's problem

The president-elect will inherit a government so laced with electronic tunnels bored by Russian intelligence that it may be months, years even, before he can trust the systems that run much of Washington, The New York Times writes.

Biden on Thursday vowed to impose "substantial costs on those responsible for such malicious attacks." But the quandary is that retaliation for cyber intrusions often results in escalation.

Reuters reported that the new president could consider a range of options from new financial sanctions to cyberattacks on Russian infrastructure. The overarching goal of any action, which also could include stepped-up counter-cyberespionage efforts, would be to create an effective deterrence and diminish the potency of future Russian cyberspying, a person familiar with the deliberations said.

Worry on COVID mutation muted

Top public health officials for both the Trump administration and incoming Biden administration on Sunday said that while U.S. health agencies are tracking reports of a new contagious strain of COVID-19 detected in the U.K., there is no current indication the mutated virus will be resistant to vaccines rolled out this month, reports Newsday's Laura Figueroa Hernandez.

Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams and Biden’s nominee for the same post, Dr. Vivek Murthy, made the comments while on the Sunday political talk show rounds.

Meanwhile, the military leader of Operation Warp Speed, Gen. Gustave Perna, said Saturday that he was at fault for the confusion last week over the allotment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to states. More than a dozen governors complained that they had received far fewer doses than originally promised.

"Where I failed — I failed, nobody else failed — was to have a clear understanding of that cadence" of the vaccine distribution process, said Perna, previously commanding general of U.S. Army Materiel Command. Once the problem was found, "we adapted accordingly," he said.

At last, coronavirus relief bill set

Top Capitol Hill negotiators said they wrapped up a deal Sunday on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package, with final passage expected on Monday.

The measure would bring long-overdue help to businesses and individuals and provide money for the mass vaccination program.

It would establish a temporary $300-per-week supplemental jobless benefit and a $600 direct stimulus payment to most Americans, along with a new round of subsidies for hard-hit businesses and money for schools, health care providers and renters facing eviction.

Why Electoral College endures

After another election in which a handful of swing states got outsized attention, and others not much at all, calls have been revived — mostly from Democrats — to abolish the Electoral College. Defenders of the system argue that letting the popular vote decide presidential elections would shift too much power to big cities and suburban centers, leaving rural America ignored.

The obstacles to changing the system are formidable, writes Newsday's Figueroa. Amending the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College would require two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of state legislatures to pass an agreement, or two-thirds of state legislatures could call for a constitutional convention. With Republicans controlling a majority of legislatures, that's not happening anytime soon.

Instead, a number of legislatures, including New York's, have signed onto the National Popular Vote Compact, an effort to bypass a constitutional amendment by having states agree to award all their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote — not necessarily just the winner of their respective states. So far, 15 states and the District of Columbia, with a combined 196 of the 538 electoral votes, have signed on to the compact.

More coronavirus news

See a roundup of the latest regional pandemic developments from Long Island and beyond by Newsday's Lisa L. Colangelo. For a full list of Newsday's coronavirus stories, click here.

What else is happening:

• While Trump keeps plotting to overturn the elections, those around him are making plans to move on, The Washington Post reports. Vice President Mike Pence has begun looking for a new home in the Washington suburbs. Meadows has discussed opening a consulting firm with other White House aides and allies. Top economic adviser Larry Kudlow has told friends about returning to broadcasting and has his next gigs lined up.
• How many ways did Trump blow the response to the coronavirus pandemic that has now claimed more than 317,000 lives in the U.S.? An in-depth Washington Post review catalogs them: skepticism of science, impatience with health restrictions, prioritization of personal politics over public safety, undisciplined communications, chaotic management style, indulgence of conspiracies, proclivity toward magical thinking, allowance of turf wars and flagrant disregard for the well-being of those around him.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who walked a tightrope over Trump's attempts to involve him in schemes against Biden, told The New York Times he looks forward to the new administration. "Joe Biden, it seems to me, knows Ukraine better than the previous president," he said.
• Biden isn't discussing a federal investigation of his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings with prospective candidates for attorney general, incoming White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on "Fox News Sunday." She said, "He will not be discussing it with anyone he is considering for the role. And he will not be discussing it with a future attorney general."
• Dr. Deborah Birx, the outgoing White House coronavirus response coordinator who has been seeking a role in the Biden administration, urged Americans last month to limit holiday gatherings to "your immediate household." But the day after Thanksgiving, The Associated Press reports, she joined three generations of her family from two households at her Delaware vacation home. She insisted that everyone belonged to the same household, though they live in different homes. Her daughter's sister-in-law dropped the dime, alleging Birx "cavalierly violated her own guidance."
• Biden is scheduled to get his COVID-19 vaccination on Monday with news media watching. Surgeon General Adams said Trump has to wait 90 days from when he was given an antibody treatment in early October to recover from the coronavirus; that would push Trump's inoculation into January, at the earliest.