Fake News
Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on January 20th, 2021. To paraphrase Gerald Ford, “…our long national nightmare will be over”.
But of course – it won’t be. Donald Trump once told CBS reporter Lesley Stahl that he called the media “fake news” all the time, so that folks would stop believing them. And now the media and the chief election official of every state in the nation declare the veracity of 2020 election results. But they are ignored.
It’s just fake news.
A recent survey shows that only 3% of the nation really believes that Donald Trump won the election. But somehow it doesn’t even matter that folks know Biden’s victory is true. Many continue to “spout” the Trump line: the election rigged, the mail-in vote fraudulent. That moment on Tuesday night when Trump led in Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania is a reality frozen in time that all must accept.
It’s Kelly Ann’s “alternative facts”. The truth must be “fake truth”.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo further added to the false confirmation. He discussed a “transition” to the “second Trump administration”. He’s a West Point graduate. At eighteen years old he solemnly swore to, “…protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and bear true faith and allegiance to the same”. He graduated from Harvard Law School. He was a Congressman from Kansas and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. And he knowingly and willfully participates in this disinformation, “fake truth” operation.
Disinformation
Vladimir Putin couldn’t have asked for anything more. The President, the Senate, the Cabinet; all deny the Constitutional transition of power – the lynchpin of our Republic symbolized by the Election of 1800.
In eighth grade American History class, we learned about the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. They were the fiercest of rivals. In my era, we taught that Adams had a troubled Presidency with the “Alien and Sedition Act” that curtailed freedom of speech and the press. But he begrudgingly accepted the results of the election. And Adams left before Jefferson’s inaugural and went back to Boston. But without force of arms, the government transited from Federalist control to Jeffersonian power. It was a first in world history.
But Donald Trump is signaling the exact opposite. He fired the Defense Secretary who dared to question the use of active military troops against protestors, and replaced the entire top echelon of civilian leadership with those absolutely loyal – to him. He ordered his administration not to cooperate with the Biden team, not even to share information or allow office space.
His White House even declares that any Trump political appointee who dares to look for future employment (after January) will be summarily dismissed for disloyalty.
Biden’s Response
What will he do if Trump refuses to acknowledge the election? Biden smiles, “…he will”. Isn’t he stymied by not having access to the intelligence, the Presidential Daily Brief? “Well, there’s only one President, and I won’t be until January. I don’t need that intelligence yet”.
He’s gathers the knowledgeable. Not only does he have access to the eight years of Obama government officials, but he’s also tapped into those career civil servants who left or were fired in the Trump years. On his COVID task force: Dr. Rick Bright, the Health and Human Services “whistleblower” who was leading the vaccine fight and forced out for questioning the quality of testing.
Biden’s tapped career diplomats who are orchestrating his conversations with world leaders. There are “Biden” translators, “Biden” secured communications, and “Biden” calls scheduled. Is it a hassle, an inconvenience, a violation of the spirit and letter of the law, the Transition Act of 1963 that was modified after 9-11? Of course it is.
But Joe Biden does exactly what we elected him to do. Without drama, or tweets, or declaring victimhood: Joe Biden prepares to lead. And, unlike what the nation witnessed for the past four years, that’s not “fake news” or “fake truth”.
It’s the real deal.
