Most people voted by Halloween, but it was election night 2020 that was the horror show. At one terrifying point, after Donald Trump won Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Texas, Ladbrokes had Trump as a four-to-one favorite. America was scared.
Trump’s victory claim election night was monstrous. The president declared further ballot counting would be “a major fraud in our nation.” Trump informed his obsequious, non-masked White House East Room crowd, “We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop.”
Trump’s demented red-baiting mentor, attorney Roy Cohn, famously stated, “I don’t want to know what the law is. I want to know who the judge is.”
President Trump expects Supreme Court pals to save his job. But I expect Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett prefer that people someday forget who appointed them. It’s more likely the Supreme Court will rule on future Trump indictments and self-pardons than anything to do with this valid 2020 election.
Team Trump has electoral anecdotes, not evidence of massive fraud. No intelligent person buys their coast-to-coast conspiracy theories. What relief does this moronic legal team led by Rudy Giuliani request? A mulligan campaign? A do-over election for America’s Commander in Cheat? Joe Biden legitimately won with over four million more votes, and by being a much better person.
A smarter Trump would seize the olive branch Biden extended in his magnanimous Saturday victory speech. A civilized president could concede with grace, tell his Trump troops to stand down and stop insulting Biden and his family.
Instead, Trump keeps throwing unhinged Twitter tantrums. America will be safer once Biden controls all federal executive agencies, especially the military and Department of Justice.
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As Biden-Harris make critical decisions, we can at last rely on leaders who consider our general welfare instead of just the self-interest of one nasty, narcissistic leader. This is the sigh of relief we collectively breathed when this rollercoaster-ride election apparently ended.
Saturday afternoon, I took a break from work in my skyscraper office to go down and see what was happening. Next thing I know, I was participating in a spontaneous Denver parade of festive, masked people strutting our socially distanced stuff down Lincoln.
The scene was joyous. Being around so many fellow celebrators was wonderful. Downtown Denver felt fun and vibrant for the first time in ages. Parents brought children to witness American history. There was sustained Saturday howling in Denver’s Capitol Hill.
America dodged a bullet. Our Mile High City and Colorado led the way. Denver delivered Trump 17% of its vote and Colorado gave Trump only 42%. Colorado had the country’s largest increase in margin of victory from 2016 to 2020; jumping from 4.9% to 13.2%. I’m prouder than ever to be a Coloradan!
Donald Trump is toxic in our Centennial State. Accordingly, the bell tolled on Tuesday for Cory Gardner. Colorado’s one-term senator got in bed with Trump and paid a huge price. It was a reverse Stormy Daniels.
One year ago, I wrote my first Sun column about divisions caused by Trump, and his richly deserved impeachment. Trump supporters refused to engage on Ukrainian Shakedown facts. Trumpster talk radio hosts called it a coup and a hoax. Most Republicans would not look at the evidence.
Finally, Americans had our chance. We all got to be on the president’s jury. Removal was my vote and the verdict of my countrymen. Honest American voters confirmed the correctness of the Trump impeachment. Colorado contradicted Gardner’s commitment to ignoring Trump’s myriad malefactions.
Colorado voters rewarded one of Trump’s toughest prosecutors. Rep. Jason Crow won overwhelming victory in a formerly competitive 6th Congressional District. More people than ever voted. Kudos to the NBA (LeBron), NFL and other celebrity influencers for making increased voting their No. 1 priority.
Now, we have Georgia voting on our minds. While divided government is great for stocks, that would reward two Republican senators who failed America during impeachment. Beyond that, Sen. David Perdue has demonstrated bigotry, by deliberately mangling the name of our VP-Elect and by attacking Jon Ossoff with anti-Semitic imagery. These Trumpster incumbents should exit the Senate.
If Trump goes further nuts in coming weeks, he could ruin Mitch McConnell’s dream of maintaining Senate control. Just imagine defeated Donald Trump going to Georgia to campaign for Senators Kelly Loeffler and Perdue. Would they want him? Bet on Biden-Harris and dedicated Dems doing their utmost to win both Georgia Senate seats.
It was a week to remember, but this drama’s far from finished. Our projectionist president called Kamala Harris a monster because he knows all about being a monster. Big brutes like Trump don’t go down easily. There are always more alarming scenes near the end of scary movies.
Get ready for anything, Joe, Kamala and America. Facing humiliation, huge debts and potential incarceration, Trump is armed and dangerous. Remember Tony Montana as Scarface ended?
Terrifying times persist. The pandemic is raging. So is Trump. If we can survive these next months, Biden-Harris will take power. Expect then a trustworthy vaccine and solutions based on math, science and rule of law. Hold on tight!
Craig Silverman is a former Denver chief deputy DA who also has worked in the media for decades. Craig is columnist at large for The Colorado Sun. He practices law at the Denver law firm of Springer & Steinberg, P.C. and is host of The Craig Silverman Show podcast.
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