Presidential Election of 2020

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      How Will Biden Deal With Republican Sabotage?

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      When Joe Biden is inaugurated, he will immediately be confronted with an unprecedented challenge — and I don’t mean the pandemic, although Covid-19 will almost surely be killing thousands of Americans every day. I mean, instead, that he’ll be the first modern U.S. president trying to govern in the face of an opposition that refuses to accept his legitimacy. And no, Democrats never said Donald Trump was illegitimate, just that he was incompetent and dangerous.It goes without saying that Donald Trump, whose conspiracy theories are getting wilder and wilder, will never concede, and that millions of his followers will always believe — or at least say they believe — that the election was stolen.Most Republicans in Congress certainly know this is a lie, although even on Capitol Hill there are a lot more crazy than we’d like to imagine. But it doesn’t matter; they still won’t accept that Biden has any legitimacy, even though he won the popular vote by a large margin.And this won’t simply be because they fear a backlash from the base if they admit that Trump lost fair and square. At a fundamental level — and completely separate from the Trump factor — today’s G.O.P. doesn’t believe that Democrats ever have the right to govern, no matter how many votes they receive.After all, in recent years we’ve seen what happens when a state with a Republican legislature elects a Democratic governor: Legislators quickly try to strip away the governor’s powers. So does anyone doubt that Republicans will do all they can to hobble and sabotage Biden’s presidency?The only real questions are how much harm the G.O.P. can do, and how Biden will respond.The answer to the first question depends a lot on what happens in the Jan. 5 Georgia Senate runoffs. If Democrats win both seats, they’ll have effective though narrow control of both houses of Congress. If they don’t, Mitch McConnell will have enormous powers of obstruction — and anyone who doubts that he’ll use those powers to undermine Biden at every turn is living in a fantasy world.But how much damage would obstructionism inflict? In terms of economic policy — which is all I’ll talk about in this column — the near future can be divided into two eras, pre- and post-vaccine (or more accurately, after wide dissemination of a vaccine).For the next few months, as the pandemic continues to run wild, tens of millions of Americans will be in desperate straits unless the federal government steps up to help. Unfortunately, Republicans may be in a position to block this help.The good news about the very near future, such as it is, is that Americans will probably (and correctly) blame Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, for the misery they’re experiencing — and this very fact may make Republicans willing to cough up at least some money.What about the post-vaccine economy? Here again there’s potentially some good news: Once a vaccine becomes widely available, we’ll probably see a spontaneous economic recovery, one that won’t depend on Republican cooperation. And there will also be a vast national sense of relief.So Biden might do OK for a while even in the face of scorched-earth Republican opposition. But we can’t be sure of that. Republicans might refuse to confirm anyone for key economic positions. There’s always the possibility of another financial crisis — and outgoing Trump officials have been systematically undermining the incoming administration’s ability to deal with such a crisis if it happens. And America desperately needs action on issues from infrastructure, to climate change, to tax enforcement that won’t happen if Republicans retain blocking power.So what can Biden do?First, he needs to start talking about immediate policy actions to help ordinary Americans, if only to make it clear to Georgia voters how much damage will be done if they don’t elect Democrats to those two Senate seats.If Democrats don’t get those seats, Biden will need to use executive action to accomplish as much as possible despite Republican obstruction — although I worry that the Trump-stacked Supreme Court will try to block him when he does.Finally, although Biden is still talking in a comforting way about unity and reaching across the aisle, at some point he’ll need to stop reassuring us that he’s nothing like Trump and start making Republicans pay a political price for their attempts to prevent him from governing.Now, I don’t mean that he should sound like Trump, demanding retribution against his enemies — although the Justice Department should be allowed to do its job and prosecute whatever Trump-era crimes it finds.No, what Biden needs to do is what Harry Truman did in 1948, when he built political support by running against “do-nothing” Republicans. And he’ll have a better case than Truman ever did, because today’s Republicans are infinitely more corrupt and less patriotic than the Republicans Truman faced.The results of this year’s election, with a solid Biden win but Republicans doing well down-ballot, tells us that American voters don’t fully understand what the modern G.O.P. is really about. Biden needs to get that point across, and make Republicans pay for the sabotage we all know is coming.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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      No, Georgia’s governor cannot ‘overrule’ its secretary of state on voting.

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      President Trump on Monday morning inaccurately described Georgia’s vote counting process and implausibly urged the state’s Republican governor to “overrule” its Republican secretary of state.Why won’t Governor @BrianKempGA, the hapless Governor of Georgia, use his emergency powers, which can be easily done, to overrule his obstinate Secretary of State, and do a match of signatures on envelopes. It will be a “goldmine” of fraud, and we will easily WIN the state….— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2020
      The tweet was the latest of Mr. Trump’s continuing assault on election results in Georgia and its top Republican officials, which has ignited an intraparty feud in the state.Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia does not have the authority to do what Mr. Trump is suggesting. Moreover, signature verification is already part of the vote counting process.When absentee ballots are received, Georgia’s election officials verify the signature on the envelopes. The ballots and envelopes are then separated to protect privacy, so rechecking the envelopes during a recount would be meaningless.“Georgia law prohibits the governor from interfering in elections. The secretary of state, who is an elected constitutional officer, has oversight over elections that cannot be overridden by executive order,” a spokesman for Mr. Kemp told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.The notion that “the governor has inherent executive authority to suspend or investigate or somehow interfere with this process — that’s just not true,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor at Georgia State University. “There is no plausible case here whatsoever.”Unlike the federal government, Georgia does not have a unitary executive and its governor and secretary of state have separate duties. Even the governor’s emergency powers are limited.Mr. Kreis said that Georgia’s code was “very clear” on the kinds of things a governor can do in a state of emergency. Mr. Kemp can move resources and funds and enact temporary measures, Mr. Kreis said, but “he does not have the authority to expressly interfere with elections.”Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, continued to push back on Mr. Trump’s and his allies’ baseless claims of mass voter fraud in a news conference on Monday.“The truth matters, especially around election administration,” Mr. Raffensperger said. “There are those who exploit the emotions of many Trump supporters with fantastic claims, half-truths, misinformation and frankly, they’re misleading the president as well, apparently.” More

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      1918 Germany Has a Warning for America

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      HAMBURG, Germany — It may well be that Germans have a special inclination to panic at specters from the past, and I admit that this alarmism annoys me at times. Yet watching President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign since Election Day, I can’t help but see a parallel to one of the most dreadful episodes from Germany’s history.One hundred years ago, amid the implosions of Imperial Germany, powerful conservatives who led the country into war refused to accept that they had lost. Their denial gave birth to arguably the most potent and disastrous political lie of the 20th century — the Dolchstosslegende, or stab-in-the-back myth.Its core claim was that Imperial Germany never lost World War I. Defeat, its proponents said, was declared but not warranted. It was a conspiracy, a con, a capitulation — a grave betrayal that forever stained the nation. That the claim was palpably false didn’t matter. Among a sizable number of Germans, it stirred resentment, humiliation and anger. And the one figure who knew best how to exploit their frustration was Adolf Hitler.Don’t get me wrong: This is not about comparing Mr. Trump to Hitler, which would be absurd. But the Dolchstosslegende provides a warning. It’s tempting to dismiss Mr. Trump’s irrational claim that the election was “rigged” as a laughable last convulsion of his reign or a cynical bid to heighten the market value for the TV personality he might once again intend to become, especially as he appears to be giving up on his effort to overturn the election result.But that would be a grave error. Instead, the campaign should be seen as what it is: an attempt to elevate “They stole it” to the level of legend, perhaps seeding for the future social polarization and division on a scale America has never seen.In 1918, Germany was staring at defeat. The entry of the United States into the war the year before, and a sequence of successful counterattacks by British and French forces, left German forces demoralized. Navy sailors went on strike. They had no appetite to be butchered in the hopeless yet supposedly holy mission of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the loyal aristocrats who made up the Supreme Army Command.A starving population joined the strikes and demands for a republic grew. On Nov. 9, 1918, Wilhelm abdicated, and two days later the army leaders signed the armistice. It was too much to bear for many: Military officers, monarchists and right-wingers spread the myth that if it had not been for political sabotage by Social Democrats and Jews back home, the army would never have had to give in.The deceit found willing supporters. “Im Felde unbesiegt” — “undefeated on the battlefield” — was the slogan with which returning soldiers were greeted. Newspapers and postcards depicted German soldiers being stabbed in the back by either evil figures carrying the red flag of socialism or grossly caricatured Jews.By the time of the Treaty of Versailles the following year, the myth was already well established. The harsh conditions imposed by the Allies, including painful reparation payments, burnished the sense of betrayal. It was especially incomprehensible that Germany, in just a couple of years, had gone from one of the world’s most respected nations to its biggest loser.The startling aspect about the Dolchstosslegende is this: It did not grow weaker after 1918 but stronger. In the face of humiliation and unable or unwilling to cope with the truth, many Germans embarked on a disastrous self-delusion: The nation had been betrayed, but its honor and greatness could never be lost. And those without a sense of national duty and righteousness — the left and even the elected government of the new republic — could never be legitimate custodians of the country.In this way, the myth was not just the sharp wedge that drove the Weimar Republic apart. It was also at the heart of Nazi propaganda, and instrumental in justifying violence against opponents. The key to Hitler’s success was that, by 1933, a considerable part of the German electorate had put the ideas embodied in the myth — honor, greatness, national pride — above democracy.The Germans were so worn down by the lost war, unemployment and international humiliation that they fell prey to the promises of a “Führer” who cracked down hard on anyone perceived as “traitors,” leftists and Jews above all. The stab-in-the-back myth was central to it all. When Hitler became chancellor on Jan. 30, 1933, the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter wrote that “irrepressible pride goes through the millions” who fought so long to “undo the shame of 9 November 1918.”Germany’s first democracy fell. Without a basic consensus built on a shared reality, society split into groups of ardent, uncompromising partisans. And in an atmosphere of mistrust and paranoia, the notion that dissenters were threats to the nation steadily took hold.Alarmingly, that seems to be exactly what is happening in the United States today. According to the Pew Research Center, 89 percent of Trump supporters believe that a Joe Biden presidency would do “lasting harm to the U.S.,” while 90 percent of Biden supporters think the reverse. And while the question of which news media to trust has long split America, now even the largely unmoderated Twitter is regarded as partisan. Since the election, millions of Trump supporters have installed the alternative social media app Parler. Filter bubbles are turning into filter networks.In such a landscape of social fragmentation, Mr. Trump’s baseless accusations about electoral fraud could do serious harm. A staggering 88 percent of Trump voters believe that the election result is illegitimate, according to a YouGov poll. A myth of betrayal and injustice is well underway.It took another war and decades of reappraisal for the Dolchstosslegende to be exposed as a disastrous, fatal fallacy. If it has any worth today, it is in the lessons it can teach other nations. First among them: Beware the beginnings.Jochen Bittner (@JochenBittner) is a co-head of the debate section for the weekly newspaper Die Zeit and a contributing opinion writer.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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      Dear Joe, It’s Not About Iran’s Nukes Anymore

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      With the assassination by Israel of Iran’s top nuclear warhead designer, the Middle East is promising to complicate Joe Biden’s job from day one. President-elect Biden knows the region well, but if I had one piece of advice for him, it would be this: This is not the Middle East you left four years ago.The best way for Biden to appreciate the new Middle East is to study what happened in the early hours of Sept. 14, 2019 — when the Iranian Air Force launched 20 drones and precision-guided cruise missiles at Abqaiq, one of Saudi Arabia’s most important oil fields and processing centers, causing huge damage. It was a seminal event.The Iranian drones and cruise missiles flew so low and with such stealth that neither their takeoff nor their impending attack was detected in time by Saudi or U.S. radar. Israeli military analysts, who were stunned by the capabilities the Iranians displayed, argued that this surprise attack was the Middle East’s “Pearl Harbor.”They were right. The Middle East was reshaped by this Iranian precision missile strike, by President Trump’s response and by the response of Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to Trump’s response.A lot of people missed it, so let’s go to the videotape.First, how did President Trump react? He did nothing. He did not launch a retaliatory strike on behalf of Saudi Arabia — even though Iran, unprovoked, had attacked the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure.A few weeks later Trump did send 3,000 U.S. troops and some antimissile batteries to Saudi Arabia to bolster its defense — but with this message on Oct. 11, 2019: “We are sending troops and other things to the Middle East to help Saudi Arabia. But — are you ready? Saudi Arabia, at my request, has agreed to pay us for everything we’re doing. That’s a first.”It sure was a first. I’m not here to criticize Trump, though. He was reflecting a deep change in the American public. His message: Dear Saudis, America is now the world’s biggest oil producer; we’re getting out of the Middle East; happy to sell you as many weapons as you can pay cash for, but don’t count on us to fight your battles. You want U.S. troops? Show me the money.That clear shift in American posture gave birth to the first new element that Biden will confront in this new Middle East — the peace agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and between Israel and Bahrain — and a whole new level of secret security cooperation between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which will likely flower into more formal relations soon. (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel reportedly visited Saudi Arabia last week.)In effect, Trump forced Israel and the key Sunni Arab states to become less reliant on the United States and to think about how they must cooperate among themselves over new threats — like Iran — rather than fighting over old causes — like Palestine. This may enable America to secure its interests in the region with much less blood and treasure of its own. It could be Trump’s most significant foreign policy achievement.But a key result is that as Biden considers reopening negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal — which Trump abandoned in 2018 — he can expect to find Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates operating as a loose anti-Iran coalition. This will almost certainly complicate things for Biden, owing to the second huge fallout from the Iranian attack on Abqaiq: The impact it had on Israel.After Trump scrapped the nuclear deal, Iran abandoned its commitments to restrict its enrichment of uranium that could be used for a nuclear bomb. But since Biden’s election, Iran has said it would “automatically” return to its nuclear commitments if Biden lifts the crippling sanctions imposed by Trump. Only after those sanctions are lifted, said Tehran, might it discuss regional issues, like curbs on Iran’s precision missile exports and capabilities.This is where the problems will start for Biden. Yes, Israel and the Sunni Arab states want to make sure that Iran can never develop a nuclear weapon. But some Israeli military experts will tell you today that the prospect of Iran having a nuke is not what keeps them up at night — because they don’t see Tehran using it. That would be suicide and Iran’s clerical leaders are not suicidal.They are, though, homicidal.And Iran’s new preferred weapons for homicide are the precision-guided missiles, that it used on Saudi Arabia and that it keeps trying to export to its proxies in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq, which pose an immediate homicidal threat to Israel, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iraq and U.S. forces in the region. (Iran has a network of factories manufacturing its own precision-guided missiles.)If Biden tries to just resume the Iran nuclear deal as it was — and gives up the leverage of extreme economic sanctions on Iran, before reaching some understanding on its export of precision-guided missiles — I suspect that he’ll meet a lot of resistance from Israel, the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia.Why? It’s all in the word “precision.” In the 2006 war in Lebanon, Iran’s proxy militia, Hezbollah, had to fire some 20 dumb, unguided, surface-to-surface rockets of limited range in the hope of damaging a single Israeli target. With precision-guided missiles manufactured in Iran, Hezbollah — in theory — just needs to fire one rocket each at 20 different targets in Israel with a high probability of damaging each one. We’re talking about Israel’s nuclear plant, airport, ports, power plants, high-tech factories and military bases.That is why Israel has been fighting a shadow war with Iran for the past five years to prevent Tehran from reaching its goal of virtually encircling Israel with proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Gaza, all armed with precision-guided missiles. The Saudis have been trying to do the same versus Iran’s proxies in Yemen, who have fired on its airports. These missiles are so much more lethal.“Think of the difference in versatility between dumb phones and smartphones,’’ observed Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment. “For the past two decades we have been consumed by preventing Iran’s big weapon, but it is the thousands of small smart weapons Iran has been proliferating that have become the real and immediate threat to its neighbors.’’That is why Israel and its Gulf Arab allies are not going to want to see the United States give up its leverage on Iran to curb its nuclear program before it also uses that leverage — all those oil sanctions — to secure some commitment to end Iran’s export of these missiles.And that is going to be very, very difficult to negotiate.So, if you were planning a party to celebrate the restoration of the Iran-U. S. nuclear deal soon after Biden’s inauguration, keep the champagne in the fridge. It’s complicated.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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      Recount in two Wisconsin counties reinforces Biden’s victory.

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      Wisconsin’s two largest counties have concluded recounts requested by the Trump campaign, with the results slightly increasing Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s margin of victory and reaffirming his win over President Trump in this month’s election.Dane County certified its election results on Sunday, and Milwaukee County certified its totals on Friday. The Wisconsin Elections Commission is scheduled to meet on Tuesday.The conclusion of the recount adds yet another loss in the Trump campaign’s effort to upend Mr. Biden’s win. The president’s team has been dealt a series of losses in court in several key states, including Pennsylvania and Michigan.As Mr. Trump continued to propagate baseless claims of voter fraud in Wisconsin and across the country, his campaign requested recounts in two heavily Democratic counties. But it had little effect on the final results.In Milwaukee County, Mr. Biden’s ticket received 317,527 votes. Mr. Trump’s ticket received 134,482, according to county results. Both totals increased slightly compared with an earlier count, and Mr. Biden gained 132 votes.Dane County, which includes the city of Madison and the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin, found that 260,094 votes were cast for Mr. Biden, while 78,754 were cast for Mr. Trump. Compared with earlier results, the final tally included 91 fewer ballots for Mr. Biden and 46 fewer for Mr. Trump — a net gain of 45 for Mr. Trump.Before the recount totals were announced, Mr. Trump signaled that he would continue to fight the results. “The Wisconsin recount is not about finding mistakes in the count, it is about finding people who have voted illegally, and that case will be brought after the recount is over, on Monday or Tuesday,” he wrote Saturday on Twitter. “We have found many illegal votes. Stay tuned!”The Wisconsin Elections Commission has estimated that a statewide recount would cost $7.9 million. Milwaukee County estimated that its recount would cost about $2 million, and Dane County estimated about $740,808. According to state law, Mr. Trump’s team will be expected to foot the bill because the margin between the candidates exceeded 0.25 percent.Both Milwaukee County and Dane County live-streamed their recounts. Mr. Trump has insisted that his campaign observers were unable to watch vote counts, a claim that has been disputed. More

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      How Joe Biden Can Unify the Country

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      We had asked readers what they thought was the greatest challenge facing the president-elect and what advice they would give him. We published several responses on Saturday. Below are a few more, reflecting the most common answer: the need to heal a divided country.To the Editor:Joe Biden’s greatest challenge will be trying to win the trust of the more than 73 million people who voted for President Trump. This matters if we are ever to have a chance of returning to some form of normalcy.Proposal: During his first 100 days he should hold town halls with just Trump voters. He should ask them to share what most worries them. He should listen carefully. After those town halls he should report publicly on what concerns were most prevalent, and what concrete steps his administration will be taking to try to address those concerns in a reasonable and balanced way.David ShineArmonk, N.Y.To the Editor:President Biden’s big challenge will be unifying the country. He should take a page from F.D.R.’s playbook and bring back some form of the “fireside chat.”Barack Obama was a great president but aloof. He needed to toot his own horn, let the country know about his administration’s good work. Donald Trump, on the other hand, crowed about make-believe accomplishments and insulted the intelligence of many Americans.Joe Biden is warm, honest and genuine. He may not win over all disbelievers, but it can’t hurt to let everyone know on a regular basis that he cares, what his administration is working on to revive America and why folks shouldn’t believe untrue allegations coming from the opposition.How great it would be to have a president who treats us all as adults!John StearnsMountain View, Calif.To the Editor:Joe Biden will have any number of “greatest challenges” to choose from, but the greatest — and arguably most important — will be to bring as many Trump supporters as possible on board with the notion that Mr. Biden is the president of all of us, not just those who voted for him. It has been four long years since we had such a president, and it won’t be easy.Therefore I suggest that Mr. Biden begin immediately to contact influencers in sports, film, music, theater, motorcycle enthusiasts — people who supported President Trump but who can see the value in a nation united rather than divided. Make them presidential emissaries, or ambassadors, who will take to social media and television (Fox News, for instance) in order to reach the people who need to hear the message.And it is a simple one: I know how you feel, because I also voted for Mr. Trump. I’m as disappointed as you are. But I also know that this nation is suffering in many ways, and we have to fix this. Are you with me?Linda LevyLawrenceville, N.J.To the Editor:The greatest challenge to the Biden presidency, and to the country as a whole, is this fact: Almost 50 percent of our nation believes Trumpian rhetoric. President Trump’s lies run the gamut of disinformation, from the corruption of science (the severity of Covid is a hoax; climate change isn’t dangerous) to the corruption of American values.The Biden administration must undo the damage done by Trumpian disinformation. Mr. Biden should mount a nationwide communications campaign to bring science and our national values back to our social dialogue. Educate people about how democracy is destroyed. Or saved.In addition, Mr. Biden should push to strike down or modify Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. Internet providers must take responsibility, as publishers do, for spreading lies, hate and disinformation.Celia Watson SeupelHigh Falls, N.Y.To the Editor:The greatest challenge facing Joe Biden’s presidency is holding the two wings of the Democratic Party together. If he succeeds, the Democrats may be able to achieve some of their goals. Without control of the Senate, he would have to confine himself to issues popular with the general public.He should aim for what progressives might consider insufficient: protecting and improving Obamacare to bring it closer to universal health care, assistance for displaced workers and job training, reinstating pollution controls canceled by President Trump, an increase in the minimum wage, a substantial pandemic stimulus program, paid parental and sick leave, universal pre-K and easing the cost of higher education.Progressives should understand that achieving even modest goals in the next two years is essential to electoral success in 2022, after which more aggressive programs may be within reach. Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, defunding the police and decriminalizing illegal immigration are nonstarters. If the progressive wing holds out for more, it will achieve nothing now or later. Mr. Biden’s most important battle will be maintaining unity within his own party.Stephen W. SteinNew YorkTo the Editor:Joe Biden’s biggest challenge will be to unite this country so we can all pull in the same direction to defeat Covid, restart the economy, fight racial injustice, open up economic opportunities across all social classes and regain respect around the world.Of utmost importance, he must help us renew our faith in, and dedication to, our democratic values and institutions. My advice? Keep being who you are: calm, confident, compassionate and communicative.Surround yourself with highly qualified and ethical public servants who reflect the diversity of the country. Step across the aisle, listen and compromise. Move us forward. Restore our spirit and pride. Don’t give up. Don’t let our democracy die. We need you desperately.Myra FournierBedford, Mass. More

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      ‘Dear Joe’: Advice for Biden

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      To the Editor:Dear Joe (may I call you Joe?):Do the possible.There is a mess of massive proportions to clean up. Some problems can be fixed quickly, like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Some can be fixed over time, like our declining status in the world. And some can never be fixed, try as you might.If you believe you can “bring us together,” and bridge the cataclysmic divide we face, you are a bigger dreamer than the DACA children. Do the possible. Clean up and depoliticize the Justice Department, and keep your finger off the scale. Get us on the right side of the climate change fight. Reintroduce us to our allies. Get some infrastructure upgrades started; even some Republicans will agree with that.Make your government look and speak like America. Insist on accountability, even for the rich and powerful. You can do all of this and much more. And whatever else you do, don’t forget who elected you.Don’t expect much help from the Hill. Congress is badly broken, probably for the foreseeable future. Use what you have in the presidential toolbox. Do the possible.Richard WilsonOrlando, Fla.To the Editor:The biggest challenge facing Joe Biden’s presidency is Mitch McConnell. Use every ounce of charm and political skill you’ve got in you, Joe. If we can get Mr. McConnell to get behind creating millions of new jobs and reviving the economy by rebuilding our infrastructure, developing renewable energy and bringing manufacturing back to our soil, voters from both sides of this divided country are going to benefit.It’s the only way to start bringing the two sides together. Turn Mitch McConnell into part of the solution, Joe.Judith CressyNew YorkTo the Editor:The greatest challenge facing President Biden will be the simple fact of governing. That is because his opposition — the Trump Republican Party — will do everything in its still formidable power to undermine him. At every turn. Through means legal and otherwise. The members of that opposition have long since given up any claim to governing in the public interest; it is their own interest, and only that interest, that motivates them.Unfortunately, Mr. Biden will attempt to govern the way he’s operated throughout his political life, that is, by constantly “reaching across the aisle” in an appeal to reason and unity. But the Republican Party, even before President Trump took ownership, is not open to such appeals, as was evident every time President Barack Obama reached across the aisle, only to find that he extended his hand into a nest of vipers.One should not try to make nice. I pray that Mr. Biden and Kamala Harris will acknowledge their opposition for what it has become, not what they think it should be.Nathan WeberNew YorkTo the Editor:The biggest challenge President Biden will face is the ability to focus on the real problems at hand. Covid-19 is raging, our economy is sputtering, many families are on the brink of destitution, to mention a few of the challenges. And complicating these daunting challenges are the calls for accountability for the crimes President Trump has allegedly committed.We can spend the next four years trying to prosecute Mr. Trump. It might be successful and satisfying — but at what price? If we do, surely he will continue to be in the spotlight, and the source of disinformation.My humble alternative: Come Jan. 20, forget Mr. Trump, take him out of the spotlight, and let the New York prosecutors feast on him! Let’s rally behind President Biden’s calls for a bold rational response to Covid, a climate-based investment in our economy and relief for those in need. And let’s (re)create a Democratic Party that pays attention not only to the coastal folks (like me), but also to our brethren in the industrial belt and farms of America.Lastly, President Biden should propose key government reforms — presidential accountability, criminal liability, access to tax returns — that would ensure we never have another Trump.Mark ZillHighlands, N.J.To the Editor:President-elect Joe Biden: Do not issue a blanket pardon to President Trump. He would only use it as “proof” to his followers that he has done nothing wrong and that any claims of wrongdoing were all a charade.Mr. Trump has worked to divide our country and to use his office to promote his own interests. He has immeasurably weakened our country and our standing in the world. He has shown utter contempt for the institutions of our government, for our democracy and for the very lives of our people.Our justice system is strong. Our society is strong. As a society, we need to face the damage that Mr. Trump has done to our nation, his alleged violations of federal tax laws and his self-dealing. Only after that would it be conscionable to consider any form of clemency or pardon.The failure to hold Mr. Trump accountable would demonstrate the United States’ weakness as a nation of laws.James JonesManasquan, N.J.To the Editor:Climate, climate, climate, it’s the climate, stupid.There are many challenges facing Joe Biden’s presidency — Covid, a struggling economy, systemic racism, income inequality, police reform, immigration reform, infrastructure, just to name a few.None of these come close to the challenge of climate change, either in scope or long-term ramifications. I believe that most Americans don’t think it is a hoax and agree it needs addressing, but moneyed interests and the tribal condition of our politics make it much harder to do so.Joe Biden and his team understand the problem and have a good plan to begin to address it. My advice to him would be to keep the focus on this issue as a top priority and to remember that a green economy is good business. For the most part, I support the Green New Deal, as well as the Blue New Deal for our oceans, which doesn’t get much attention. I believe there are plenty of pieces of both deals that a Biden administration can pursue, without getting mired in the pitfalls of partisan politics.Thomas HoopesIpswich, Mass.To the Editor:While curbing polarization and a pandemic are undoubtedly the most pressing issues facing the president-elect, I suspect that the greatest challenges of Joe Biden’s tenure in office will be abroad.The chaos of domestic politics in the last four years has distracted the American public from a worsening international landscape. In the Middle East, Mr. Biden will face an aggrieved Iran; in Asia, a beleaguered Hong Kong; in Africa, a brewing Ethiopian civil war. President Trump may have bombed ISIS to smithereens, but he worsened U.S. relations with key allies while building bridges with autocrats.Members of Mr. Biden’s State Department have their work cut out for them, from rebuilding the World Trade Organization to restraining the excesses of regimes like Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s in Turkey, which have been given free rein under the Trump administration.My advice to Mr. Biden is to repair American foreign policy, while avoiding the moral compromises of the Obama administration, such as the shameful drone program and the failure to end the extrajudicial imprisonment at Guantánamo Bay.Ravi SimonFramingham, Mass.To the Editor:My advice for President-elect Joe Biden on avoiding pitfalls: Please, please don’t tweet. And require your staff not to.Stephen di GirolamoAlexandria, Va. More

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      In Harsh Rebuke, Appeals Court Rejects Trump’s Election Challenge in Pennsylvania

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      In a blistering decision, a Philadelphia appeals court ruled on Friday that the Trump campaign could not stop — or attempt to reverse — the certification of the voting results in Pennsylvania, reprimanding the president’s team by noting that “calling an election unfair does not make it so.”The 21-page ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals was a complete repudiation of Mr. Trump’s legal effort to halt Pennsylvania’s certification process and was written by a judge that he himself appointed to the bench. “Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy,” Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote on behalf of the appeals court in a unanimous decision. “Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”Many courts have used scathing language in tossing out a relentless barrage of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and its supporters since Election Day; but even so, the Third Circuit’s ruling was particularly blunt.“Voters, not lawyers, choose the president,” the court declared at one point. “Ballots, not briefs, decide elections.”The court accused the Trump campaign of engaging in “repetitive litigation” and pointed out that the public interest strongly favored “counting every lawful voter’s vote, and not disenfranchising millions of Pennsylvania voters who voted by mail.”Even though Republican plaintiffs have continued filing lawsuits challenging the integrity of the elections and Mr. Trump has not let up on baselessly questioning the election results on Twitter, judges around the country — some of them appointed by Republicans — have held the line, ruling over and over that the legal actions in several swing states lack both merit and sufficient proof.Last week, a federal judge in Atlanta appointed by Mr. Trump denied an emergency request to halt the certification of Georgia’s vote, saying that such a move “would breed confusion and disenfranchisement that I find have no basis in fact and law.”Then there was the judge whose ruling was upheld by the Third Circuit, Matthew W. Brann of Federal District Court in Williamsport, Pa. When Judge Brann, a former Republican official and member of the conservative Federalist Society appointed by former President Barack Obama, dealt Mr. Trump’s team an initial legal defeat last Saturday, he likened the suit to “Frankenstein’s monster,” saying it had been “haphazardly stitched together.” He also noted that the suit was filled with “strained legal arguments” and “speculative accusations” that were “unsupported by evidence.”The Pennsylvania decision came on a day of baseless tweets from Mr. Trump that the election was “a total scam,” that he “won by a lot” and that the news media “refuse to report the real facts and figures.”Still, when asked on Thursday if he would leave the White House if the Electoral College, as expected, formalizes Mr. Biden’s victory, the president said: “Certainly I will.”On Friday, moments after the three-judge panel from the Third Circuit handed down its ruling, Jenna Ellis, one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, wrote on Twitter that she and Rudolph W. Giuliani, who is leading the president’s postelection legal campaign, planned to appeal to the Supreme Court. In her Twitter post, Ms. Ellis accused “the activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania” of covering up “allegations of massive fraud” despite the fact that all three judges on the panel were appointed by Republicans.But even if the Supreme Court granted the Trump campaign’s proposed request to reverse the Third Circuit, it would not get much, given the narrow way in which the appeal was structured.Mr. Trump’s lawyers had asked the appeals court only for permission to file a revised version of its original complaint to Judge Brann. If the Supreme Court abided by the strict terms of the appeal, it could do no more than return the case to Judge Brann’s court for further action.In a letter to the Third Circuit earlier this week, lawyers for Mr. Trump had suggested that the appeals court could, on its own, reverse the certification of Pennsylvania’s vote, which took place on Tuesday when Gov. Tom Wolf signed off on the slate of 20 electors and solidified President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory there. Georgia certified its vote last week after a hand-recount of its five million ballots left Mr. Biden’s victory intact. But Mr. Trump’s lawyers stopped short of formally requesting such a move.Still, the appeals court shot down that suggestion too, saying the campaign’s arguments for effectively undoing Pennsylvania’s election had “no merit” and would be “drastic and unprecedented.”“That remedy would be grossly disproportionate to the procedural challenges raised,” the judges wrote.In the initial complaint, the campaign’s lawyers had argued there were widespread improprieties with mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania and that Mr. Trump’s poll challengers were not allowed proper access to observe the vote and vote count.But the appeals court dismissed these arguments as “vague and conclusory.”Mr. Trump’s lawyers never alleged “that anyone treated the Trump campaign or Trump votes worse than it treated the Biden campaign or Biden votes,” the court wrote. “And federal law does not require poll watchers or specify how they may observe.”The underlying lawsuit has been beset by legal snafus almost from the moment it began on Nov. 9.One week after it was filed, the Trump campaign was already on its third set of lawyers. On Nov. 17, Mr. Giuliani, rushing into the matter, personally appeared at a hearing in front of Judge Brann and gave a disjointed opening statement that mentioned Mickey Mouse, former Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago and the Philadelphia mafia.Mr. Giuliani also contradicted Mr. Trump — and his own public statements — by admitting at the hearing that no one was accusing Pennsylvania elections officials of committing fraud.“This is not a fraud case,” he said.The appeals court seemed to throw that statement back in Mr. Giuliani’s face in its decision.“The Trump presidential campaign asserts that Pennsylvania’s 2020 election was unfair,” it wrote. “But as lawyer Rudolph Giuliani stressed, the campaign ‘doesn’t plead fraud.’” More