Category Archives: Mojometers

UPDATED: Sununu, Trump and their zombie lie

[UPDATE: NH Governor Sununu issued a statement to WMUR today: Gov. Chris Sununu said Monday (February 13, 2017) he is unaware of widespread voter fraud in the Granite State, but he said he wants to work with President Donald Trump’s administration to “learn of any evidence they may have.”

However, here’s what Sununu “knew” about his state in October 2016 and what he told to a Boston radio station “There’s no doubt there’s election fraud here.”]                 

This latest GOP nation-wide outbreak of voter fraud lies originated right next door in Vermont’s upside down doppelganger, New Hampshire. ZedLiesThat state’s new Republican  Governor Sununu created a vote fraud lie last year that will not die. And that zombie lie is now it is serving Donald Trump and the GOP well.

While in a close race for governor Chris Sununu (son of a former NH Governor and White House chief of staff to George HW Bush) made some totally false charges on talk radio, claiming, “We have same-day voter registration, and to be honest, when Massachusetts elections are not very close, they’re busing them [the others!] in all over the place,”

Sununu quietly walked back this lie… a bit, but he started the infection and he has kept up a voter fraud  drumbeat and still promises someday to “tighten-up” what he says, contrary to evidence, are “lax” voting regulations. Zombie lies over vote fraud are GOP-wide, with currently more than dozen Republican-led state legislatures at work passing legislation making it harder (for some) to register to vote.

And now President Trump who sees voter fraud everywhere opposition votes are counted boosted Sununu’s earlier lie this past week.

President Donald Trump reportedly brought up even more baseless claims of voter fraud on Thursday, during a closed-door meeting with several senators. […] Trump and 10 senators originally meant discuss Trump’s nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Present at the meeting was former New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who has handled Gorsuch’s confirmation process for the White House.

[Ayotte’s narrow loss and Hillary Clinton’s 3000-vote win in the state], Trump reportedly said, were due to “thousands” of people who were “brought in on buses” from Massachusetts to vote “illegally” in the state.  

Never mind that no evidence exists of a small fleet of buses,that would have been needed to carry “thousands” of voters from Massachusetts; that’s what the President of the United States asserted!

At the White House meeting President Trump’s version of the zombie lie was greeted with “an uncomfortable silence.” Sadly, reports don’t indicate the any specific reaction from attendee Kelly Ayotte, who narrowly lost her NH Senate race to Democrat Maggie Hassan. But we do know and probably haven’t heard the last about Donald Trump’s ongoing sensitivity about his popular vote loss to Hillary Clinton.

Uncomfortable silence and falsehoods not withstanding, Vice President Mike Pence has been ordered by Trump to form a commission to investigate alleged voter fraud. If ever it takes shape, Vice President Pence’s commission on imaginary voter fraud might want to interview New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu for starters, because if Pence only knew what Sununu knew* he might know enough to kill his zombie lie.

[*see  Calvin Trillin: ‘If you knew what Sununu’]

Will Phil Scott need a bigger fig leaf?

Donald J. Trump had rough week after he questioned an Indiana-born California federal judge’s neutrality due to his Mexican heritage. Many Republicans denounced the presumptive nominee’s comments as racist. While some say they’ve had enough of Trump, many will still vote for him.

Blogger Charlie Pierce  puts it all in context: this contempt of judges is not a defect but a feature of Republican politics, and Pierce correctly says Trump’s behavior is an exaggeration, not an aberration.

Part of the conservative brand within the Republican Party has been to attack the integrity of the judicial process, and of the individual judges working within it, every time a decision comes down that sets the flying monkeys aloft.

Republicans, Feel the Quease? For those Republicans feeling queasy due to Trump’s comments — that Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan (R) characterized as “a textbook definition of a racist” — relief may be at hand. Hillary Clinton’s campaign has a public-service-minded web service for the suffering GOP called Republicans against Trump. Visitors to the site can simply fill out a form, take a pledge and get a free bumper sticker.

And if anyone is wishing to keep score, MSNBC has complied a tally of 64 well-known Republican power brokers and office holders that will never support Trump (but offer no alternative) and a few that will be voting for Hillary.

figleaffPhil 2Here in Vermont the two Republican gubernatorial candidates have taken different tracks dodging Trump. Bruce Lisman is undecided,still apparently withholding judgment on Trump, still “listening to what he has to say.” What do you suppose he will have to hear from the Donald to make up his mind?

And Phil Scott keeps talking about his own common-sense leadership. Apparently though, that “leadership” doesn’t include speaking out against fellow Republican Trump’s racist language.

So for now Scott is reluctant to show much leadership, and he’s looking ever more embarrassingly foolish behind the Jim Douglas for President fig leaf.