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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

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      Is There a Lockstep Mentality on the Left?

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      To the Editor:Re “Groupthink Has Left the Left Blind,” by Bret Stephens (column, Nov. 17):I have read a great deal lately about how the woke left delivered the victory to President-elect Joe Biden and should be recognized and rewarded for its contribution. This incisive and insightful piece by Mr. Stephens may lead us to quite a different conclusion.Perhaps the dogmatic groupthink of the radical left and the media attention it garnered actually nearly cost Mr. Biden the election and seriously eroded what could have been a blue wall in down-ballot contests. At the risk of excommunication from the liberal community I have always embraced, let me say that “leftism” continues to break a singular rule of combat: Never hand your opponent a loaded gun!Cullen SchippeAlbuquerqueTo the Editor:I could be more sympathetic to Bret Stephens’s argument that leftist elites — who allegedly demand conformity of thought — are alienating centrist liberals if more than a handful of congressional Republicans could acknowledge that Joe Biden won the presidency. Clearly no political party has a corner on lockstep mentality.If my choice is between lemming Trumpers who reduce all liberals to socialists, Communists and anarchists and ditch our democratic norm of accepting fair election results, or leftist woke forces, I will gladly take my chances with the latter.Amy LefkofCharlotte, N.C.To the Editor:Three cheers for Bret Stephens as he articulates exactly what I feel as a white, female, senior lifelong Democrat. I am tired of the woke part of the Democratic Party making me feel guilty for the accident of my birth: being white of Northern European descent.I am tired of the politics of identity when identity does not decide how everyone sharing that identity thinks or acts. I am tired of the liberals who cannot look beyond the personality of the president to recognize that he may actually have done something good.Get out from behind the screen of pious disapproval and learn about others who can actually be rational when they make decisions that don’t agree with yours.Lynn BentPortola Valley, Calif.To the Editor:I consider myself one of those “woke” whom Bret Stephens refers to. I strive to be actively attentive to important issues, especially of racial and social justice. I also believe we have a moral obligation to “stay woke,” to take a stand and be active, challenging injustices and racism in our communities and fighting hatred and discrimination wherever it rises.I firmly believe that Donald Trump has harmed the soul of America. Wokes forever!Louis CampagnaRidgefield, Conn.To the Editor:Bret Stephens is right that many on the left had blinders on during the election. Which is why I am optimistic. President Trump may have lost the match but he is not down for the count. The House races saw important G.O.P. gains, and Republicans may well win the majority in 2022. Republicans are likely to hold on to the Senate. And Mr. Trump somehow managed to get three conservatives seated on the Supreme Court.I wouldn’t be surprised to see his victorious return in 2024, after people tire of the lockdowns and high taxes imposed by the Biden administration.David TulanianLas VegasTo the Editor:Even as a lifelong liberal Democrat, I readily concede, as Bret Stephens contends, that the left has turned its back on complexity and nuance, and harmed its own moral standing in the process. The progressive wing of the party fails to appreciate the extent to which it alienates a large segment of the population, or the reasons. And I get how no one wants to feel looked down upon.But how are we to respond, Mr. Stephens, to those who claim, as U.S. deaths pass 250,000, that the virus is a hoax, or those who insist, with no evidence whatsoever, that they know — just know — that the election was rigged, stolen, fake?Karen McAndrew AllenShelburne, Vt.To the Editor:Bret Stephens’s column would be more persuasive if the centrist faction of the Democratic Party actually stood behind policy positions that are up to the task of addressing the massive social failures left in the wake of decades of neoliberalism and winner-take-all capitalism. The center instead only offers more of the same corporatist policies that gave rise to the cult of Donald Trump in the first place.To win big, Democrats must pay heed to the needs of disaffected Trump voters. The party must present an inspiring vision for the middle class that addresses systemic macroeconomic issues such as the widening wealth gap, access to health care and education, monopoly power and money in politics.We can fight right-wing populism only with left-wing populism. Moderation just holds the door open for demagogues.Robert FerrySeattle More

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      ‘Democracy Should Not Be Taken for Granted’

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      “Mr. Biden has vowed to turn the page on the ‘aberration’ of Mr. Trump’s foreign policy,” wrote Robert Malley and Philip H. Gordon in the Op-Ed “Trump Still Has 70 Days to Wreak Havoc Around the World.” But is that what people around the world really want?We asked readers living outside of the United States to give us their perspectives on the election and the way that President Trump and President-elect Biden have handled the transition. Some were disappointed in the results.“Trump is not popular in Korea, but his actions to break through the long-frozen U.S. and North Korean relationship were very promising,” wrote Youngsook Soahn in Seoul, South Korea. “I doubt a President Biden and the Democrats will do any good for the Korean Peninsula.”For others, the race itself was a cautionary tale:“To see the U.S. move away from a slide into autocratic leadership was gratifying, but everything that has happened since has only reinforced the idea that this may be a brief sojourn from the madness,” wrote Jack McColl in Melbourne, Australia. “It seems the time we could rely on the U.S. to play a consistent leading role in global society has come to an end.”More reactions from international readers follow. They have been edited for clarity and length.South America‘Biden understands the necessity of ending the Maduro regime’Fernando Coca Ruiz, Tarija, Bolivia: America has shown the world that democracy should not be taken for granted, that it requires our willingness to participate constantly in order to make sure it actually represents “The People.” As for my own country, I’m sure Joe Biden understands the necessity of ending the Maduro regime. It would be a major win for him and for the Venezuelan people. But I’m concerned that hard-line progressives like Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will influence the administration to support socialist presidents like Alberto Fernández in Argentina and Luis Arce in Bolivia. If this were to happen, Latinos and the new administration will move further apart. Just look at the election results in Miami.‘Biden will have a very hard time reversing the damage’Saul Zambrano, Mexico City: The U.S. presidential election has made the limits and shortcomings of its electoral system more evident than ever. Biden will have a very hard time reversing the damage that has been done in a short Trump administration. And I’m appalled and ashamed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s refusal to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden. Looking at the club of countries that haven’t congratulated him, it’s clear we shouldn’t be a part of it.‘It will be business as usual’Uziel Nogueira, Florianópolis, Brazil: Even Pinochet accepted the results that ended his dictatorship of 25 years. As far as the impact to Brazil, it will be business as usual. The good news is Bolsonaro’s foreign policy will now be guided by national interest and not to please Donald Trump.North America‘America had chosen a racist’Liza, Bequia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: I’m on the formation committee of Democrats Abroad, Caribbean Islands Group. We’re thrilled that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were elected and our overall sense is that throughout the plethora of Caribbean island nations, most people are relieved by this win. They recognize that Trump threatened to destroy democracy itself. And in a region where the Indigenous are primarily Black, they were saddened and appalled that America had chosen a racist to lead it. Black Lives Matter gave them hope, and so do Biden and Harris.Harris’s Jamaican heritage, and her many accomplishments, fuel a particularly deep-welled source of pride throughout the region. She coolly exhales benevolent messaging over the seemingly endless conflagrations of our outgoing leadership. Likewise, the Biden/Harris “unity first” and “facts matter” prescriptive is resoundingly joyful and heartening.‘The rot in your democracy will continue to spread’Glen Rowe, Nanaimo, British Columbia: As a neighbor and a friend, I am deeply concerned for the well-being of your country. While I am profoundly relieved that Biden and Harris have won your election, I worry that they will be rendered largely ineffective by Mitch McConnell and his obstructive, anti-democratic crew of Republican senators and the rot in your democracy will continue to spread. My country’s well-being is tied to yours.The Middle East‘Trump has been unintentionally beneficial to Middle Eastern peace’Terry Plasse, Sde Yaakov, Israel: I’m a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen and have lived in northern Israel the past six years. Most of the American expats I know in Israel share my negative view of Donald Trump. Israelis without ties to the U.S. are mostly concerned with how he has affected Israel and most favored moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. I think Trump has been unintentionally beneficial to Middle Eastern peace. Not because he did any negotiating, but because several Arab countries in the region have decided that they share more interests with Israel than the U.S. And those shared interests or alliances with Israel may be more valuable than those with the U.S. (an example of transactional diplomacy, which is not a bad thing).‘Biden needs to show no leniency’Mohammad Reza Mohammad Karimi, Karaj, Iran: President-elect Biden is expected to correct the global perception that Americans condone lies, violate international commitments, commit fraud, abuse offices and support dictators — as long as they remain economically strong. To do this, Biden needs to show no leniency to Donald Trump and let the law take its natural course. If a court were to sentence Trump to prison, Biden should not try to protect him. This alone will ensure that Trump’s type of misrule is never, ever repeated and the havoc unleashed on the world will become a lesson for all future generations.AsiaHope for ‘an ambitious climate policy’Pratik Londhe, Pune, India: The new administration gives me hope, especially for an ambitious climate policy. The U.S. can take the lead and set the example for the rest of the world with something like the Green New Deal. This could set off a chain of events across the globe in favor of renewable energy and sustainable development. The politics in my country repeatedly sidestep this issue.‘We do not need a hot war nearby’C.K. Ung, George Town, Penang, Malaysia: The chaos in the U.S. before and after Election Day was a big concern for countries in Southeast Asia. In the months before the election, the U.S. had escalated its military movements in the South China Sea and around Taiwan, maybe to show voters that Trump’s administration is tough on China. With Trump and his supporters taking actions on multiple fronts to retain his presidency, there is a risk that he may actually provoke a shooting war in the South China Sea, which would cause economic hardship to countries in Southeast Asia. Times are bad and people are suffering under the Covid-19 pandemic. We do not need a hot war nearby to add to our suffering.They are ‘amused by his Twitter feed’Jeff Axelrod, Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu, China: Some of my students at the Chinese high school where I teach say they’re a little sad Trump will be leaving. They’ve been entertained and amused by his Twitter feed. But as an American expat, I’ve had several local adults ask for my opinion — they don’t want to offend by stating theirs first — and they’ve been greatly relieved when I’ve told them I’m not a fan. They see him as immature, petty and dangerous.AustraliaAmerica has ‘missed the boat, badly’Leslie Michael Anderson, Orange, New South Wales: I don’t really believe that Biden is strong or smart enough or has the ability to do much good for the American people. After more than four decades in politics his contributions have basically been to agree with whatever was happening, including the invasion of Iraq. I don’t like Trump but I don’t believe that Biden can be trusted to do more than make promises. If America is looking for a leader with the ability to make a real difference they have missed the boat, badly.Africa‘We should not be so reliant on the U.S.’Faadiel Essop, Paarl, South Africa: I’m glad Trump’s presidency is (hopefully!) coming to an end so President-elect Biden can begin to restore U.S. relations with Africa. Maybe he could increase support to help counter major burdens of diseases such as H.I.V.-AIDS and Covid-19. However, the Trump years made us realize that we should not be so reliant on the U.S. and to gaze elsewhere for supporters and allies. On a personal level, I used to attend at least one major science congress in the U.S. until Trump took over, and I imposed a “travel ban” on myself. I’m not sure if I will return now that I am collaborating with scientists in other countries that are far more welcoming and helpful.Europe‘The E.U. has become less dependent on its “big brother”’Charlotte Raab, Leuven, Belgium: I cannot recall ever following an election that closely and anxiously before, not even ones in which I’m allowed to vote. I’m confident this new administration will re-establish the bonds that exist between the United States and the European Union, but the past years have also shown that the E.U. has become less dependent on its “big brother” and can stand up for itself. Biden and Harris will have a lot of work to do rebuilding trust in institutions.‘Biden will bring more interventionist foreign policy’Joshua Rice, Adana, Turkey: I’m an American expat living in Turkey. People here think Biden will bring more interventionist foreign policy in the Middle East. Turks are anti-Kurdish thanks to P.K.K. terrorist attacks and they like that Trump moved our troops away from the border to allow Erdogan to establish a security buffer.‘Johnson eagerly imitated Trump’s insults to the international order’Abigail Maxwell, Northamptonshire, England: As do many Britons, I hope Trump’s defeat will make Mr. Johnson, our prime minister, think again about his threat to break the Good Friday Agreement, by which there is no hard border in Ireland. I hope Mr. Johnson will use his last few days to make a trade agreement with the E.U., on which the British economy depends. While Johnson eagerly imitated Trump’s insults to the international order, I hope he will see that there is more cost to that position now that Trump is gone.‘A giant needs to take care where and on what he steps’Larus Jon Gudmundsson, Iceland: It’s the old story of the fluttering of a butterfly wing in one corner of the world resulting in a hurricane in another. But in this case it’s the kicking of an elephant in an Oval Office whose multiple effects can and will be felt in every corner of the earth. A giant needs to take care where and on what he steps. Being a member of a small nation, I’m very much aware of the effects of your president’s actions. Leaving international treaties and institutions should not be left to the whim of one person.‘Others will take up the baton elsewhere’Diego, Crespos, Spain: I’m certainly glad that Mr. Trump lost the election, but I’m still shocked by the fact that almost half of Americans voted for him. Trump has shown authoritarian leaders all over the world that you can lie shamelessly and despise international organizations and get away with it. We’ll be suffering his legacy for years to come as others will take up the baton elsewhere. That is something that Mr. Biden can’t undo.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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      Why Did So Many Americans Vote for Trump?

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      President Trump’s disastrous mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic probably cost him re-election. Yet it seems mind-boggling that he still won more votes than any incumbent president in American history despite his dereliction of responsibility at a time of a once-in-a-century health crisis and economic devastation.Why are President-elect Joe Biden’s margins so thin in the states that clinched his victory? And why did the president’s down-ticket enablers flourish in the turbulent, plague-torn conditions they helped bring about?Democrats, struggling to make sense of it all, are locked in yet another round of mutual recrimination: They were either too progressive for swing voters — too socialist or aggressive with ambitious policies like the Green New Deal — or not progressive enough to inspire potential Democratic voters to show up or cross over.But they should understand that there was really no way to avoid disappointment. Three factors — the logic of partisan polarization, which inaccurate polling obscured; the strength of the juiced pre-Covid-19 economy; and the success of Mr. Trump’s denialist, open-everything-up nonresponse to the pandemic — mostly explain why Democrats didn’t fare better.This shocking strategy worked for Republicans, even if it didn’t pan out for the president himself. Moreover, it laid a trap that Democrats walked into — something they should understand and adjust for, as best they can, as they look ahead.How could a president responsible for one of the gravest failures of governance in American history nevertheless maintain such rock-solid support? Democracy’s throw-the-bums-out feedback mechanism gets gummed up when the electorate disagrees about the identity of the bums, what did and didn’t occur on their watch and who deserves what share of the credit or blame.When party affiliation becomes a central source of meaning and self-definition, reality itself becomes contested and verifiable facts turn into hot-button controversies. Elections can’t render an authoritative verdict on the performance of incumbents when partisans in a closely divided electorate tell wildly inconsistent stories about one another and the world they share.Mr. Trump has a knack for leveraging the animosities of polarized partisanship to cleave his supporters from sources of credible information and inflame them with vilifying lies. This time, it wasn’t enough to save his bacon, which suggests that polarization hasn’t completely wrecked our democracy’s capacity for self-correction: Sweeping a medium-size city’s worth of dead Americans under the rug turned out to be too tall an order.However, Mr. Trump’s relentless campaign to goose the economy by cutting taxes, running up enormous deficits and debt, and hectoring the Fed into not raising rates was working for millions of Americans. We tend to notice when we’re personally more prosperous than we were a few years before.But the president’s catastrophic response to Covid-19 threw the economy into a tailspin. That is where it gets interesting — and Democrats get uncomfortable.Mr. Trump abdicated responsibility, shifting the burden onto states and municipalities with busted budgets. He then waged a war of words against governors and mayors — especially Democrats — who refused to risk their citizens’ lives by allowing economic and social activity to resume.He spurred his supporters to make light of the danger of infection, made the churlish refusal to wear masks into an emblem of emancipation from the despotism of experts and turned public health restrictions on businesses, schools and social gatherings into a tyrannical conspiracy to steal power by damaging the economy and his re-election prospects.He succeeded in putting Democrats on the defensive about economic restrictions and school closures. As months passed and with no new relief coming from Washington, financially straitened Democratic states and cities had little choice but to ease restrictions on businesses just to keep the lights on. That seemed to concede the economic wisdom of the more permissive approach in majority-Republican states and fed into Mr. Trump’s false narrative of victory over the virus and a triumphant return to normalcy.But Democrats weren’t destined to get quite as tangled in Mr. Trump’s trap as they did. They had no way to avoid it, but they could have been hurt less by it. They allowed Republicans to define the contrast between the parties’ approaches to the pandemic in terms of freedom versus exhausting, indefinite shutdowns.Democrats needed to present a competing, compelling strategy to counter Republican messaging. Struggling workers and businesses never clearly heard exactly what they’d get if Democrats ran the show, and Democrats never came together to scream bloody murder that Republicans were refusing to give it to them. Democrats needed to underscore the depth of Republican failure by forcefully communicating what other countries had done to successfully control the virus. And they needed to promise to do the same through something like an Operation Warp Speed for testing and P.P.E. to get America safely back in business.Instead, they whined that Mr. Trump’s negligence and incompetence were to blame for America’s economic woes and complained that Mitch McConnell wouldn’t even consider the House’s big relief bill. They weren’t wrong, but correctly assigning culpability did nothing to help working-class breadwinners who can’t bus tables, process chickens, sell smoothies or clean hotel rooms over Zoom.The Republican message couldn’t have been clearer: Workers should be able to show up, clock in, earn a normal paycheck, pay the rent and feed their kids. Democrats were telling the same workers that we need to listen to science, reopening is premature, and the economy can’t be fully restored until we beat the virus. Correct! But how does that help when rent was due last week?Make no mistake, it was unforgivably cruel of Republicans to force blue-collar and service workers to risk death for grocery money. Yet their disinformation campaign persuaded many millions of Americans that the risk was minimal and that Democrats were keeping their workplaces and schools closed, their customers and kids at home, and their wallets empty and cupboards bare for bogus reasons.The president’s mendacious push to hastily reopen everything was less compelling to college-educated suburbanites, who tend to trust experts and can work from home, watch their kids and spare a laptop for online kindergarten. Mr. Trump lost the election mainly because he lost enough of these voters, including some moderate Republicans who otherwise voted straight Republican tickets.Democrats need to rethink the idea that these voters would have put Democratic House and Senate candidates over the top if only Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were less radiantly socialist. They need to accept that they took hits on the economy by failing to escape the trap Republicans set by doggedly refusing to do anything about the uncontained contagion destroying it.And they need to understand how Mr. Trump saved his party by weaponizing polarization. Conservatives needed a way not to get spun by the president’s destabilizing act of disloyalty, so they steadied themselves by reaffirming their loyalty down the remainder of the ballot. They were voting against a personal crisis of identity, not the Green New Deal.Democrats might have done better had sunny polls and their own biased partisan perceptions not misled them into believing that backlash to indisputably damning Republican failure would deliver an easy Senate majority — but not much better. Until the mind-bending spell of polarization breaks, everything that matters will be fiercely disputed and even the most egregious failures will continue to go unpunished.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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      Trump, Still Claiming Victory, Says He Will Leave if Electors Choose Biden

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      President Trump said on Thursday that he would leave the White House if the Electoral College formalized Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s election as president, even as he reiterated baseless claims of fraud that he said would make it “very hard” to concede.Taking questions from reporters for the first time since Election Day, Mr. Trump also threw himself into the battle for Senate control, saying he would soon travel to Georgia to support Republican candidates in two runoff elections scheduled there on Jan. 5.When asked whether he would leave office in January after the Electoral College cast its votes for Mr. Biden on Dec. 14 as expected, Mr. Trump replied: “Certainly I will. Certainly I will.”Speaking in the Diplomatic Room of the White House after a Thanksgiving video conference with members of the American military, the president insisted that “shocking” new evidence about voting problems would surface before Inauguration Day. “It’s going to be a very hard thing to concede,” he said, “because we know that there was massive fraud.”But even as he continued to deny the reality of his defeat, Mr. Trump also seemed to acknowledge that his days as president were numbered.“Time is not on our side,” he said, in a rare admission of weakness. He also complained that what he referred to, prematurely, as “the Biden administration” had declared its intention to scrap his “America First” foreign policy vision.The president was also strikingly testy at one point, lashing out at a reporter who interjected during one of several of his rambling statements about the supposedly fraudulent election.“You’re just a lightweight,” Mr. Trump snapped, raising his voice and pointing a finger in anger. “Don’t talk to me that — don’t talk — I’m the president of the United States. Don’t ever talk to the president that way.”If Mr. Trump sees the end of his presidency as inevitable, he clearly still believes he can bolster his legacy — and badly undermine Mr. Biden, the man who is ending it — by helping to preserve a Republican Senate that could serve as a wall against the new Democratic agenda.The election results left Democrats holding 48 seats in the U.S. Senate. If Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic challengers in Georgia, can both pull off victories over Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, their party will gain de facto control of a Senate divided 50-50 because Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would wield a tiebreaking vote.In his remarks on Thursday, Mr. Trump said he would visit Georgia on Saturday. Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, later clarified that the president meant Saturday, Dec. 5.The president added that he could return to the state to back the Republicans a second time, “depending on how they’re doing.”It is unclear how helpful Mr. Trump’s appearances would be for the two embattled Republican incumbents. After a hand recount of a close vote, Georgia declared Mr. Biden the winner there on Nov. 19 by a margin of 12,284 votes. Mr. Biden is the first Democrat to carry the state in a presidential election since Bill Clinton in 1996.Mr. Trump insisted on Thursday that he had won the vote by a significant margin. “We were robbed. We were robbed,” he said. “I won that by hundreds of thousands of votes. Everybody knows it.”Asked whether he would attend Mr. Biden’s inauguration, as is customary for a departing president, Mr. Trump was coy.“I don’t want to say that yet,” the president said, adding, “I know the answer, but I just don’t want to say.”At times, Mr. Trump shifted his explanation of his defeat from claims of fraud to complaints that the political battlefield had been slanted against him, casting the news media and technology companies as his enemies.“If the media were honest and big tech was fair, it wouldn’t even be a contest,” he said. “And I would have won by a tremendous amount.”After seeming to concede reality, Mr. Trump quickly caught himself and revised his conditional statement.“And I did win by a tremendous amount,” he added. More

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      Biden Urges Unity: ‘We’re at War With the Virus, Not With One Another’

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      WASHINGTON — President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday delivered a raw but optimistic address to Americans in his first nonpolitical speech since winning the election, pleading with the nation to “hang on” and have hope even with the number of coronavirus cases spiking across the country and a hard winter on the horizon.“Looking back over our history, you see that it’s been in the most difficult circumstances that the soul of our nation has been forged,” Mr. Biden said, speaking directly to the camera from a stage at the Queen, a historic theater in Wilmington, Del., where he stepped into a void left for him by President Trump, who has been rarely seen since the election.In an implicit repudiation of Mr. Trump, who has dismissed the coronavirus as the flu and mocked people who wear masks, Mr. Biden urged Americans to see it as their patriotic duty to fight the pandemic together by taking the proper precautions. “I know the country has grown weary of the fight,” he said. “We need to remember we’re at war with the virus, not with one another, not with each other.”As he urged Americans to wear face masks, practice social distancing and limit the size of group gatherings, especially around the holidays, he noted: “None of these steps we’re asking people to take are political statements. Every one of them is based on science, real science.”He said he hoped the good news about effective vaccines would “serve as an incentive to every American to take these simple steps to get control of the virus. There’s real hope, tangible hope. So hang on.”In the two and a half weeks since Mr. Biden won the election, he has been spreading a message of unity in an effort to reach the nearly 74 million Americans who voted for Mr. Trump. On the eve of Thanksgiving, he also addressed the pandemic head on with a mix of realism and hope.“Many local health systems are at risk of being overwhelmed,” he said. “That’s the plain and simple truth. Nothing made up, it’s real. I believe you always deserve to hear the truth, hear the truth from your president.” He added, “Each of us has a responsibility in our own lives to do what we can do to slow the virus.”Mr. Biden, aides said, decided about 10 days ago to give a Thanksgiving address as he watched coronavirus cases spiking across the country and thought about how his own typically large family gathering was going to be scaled down this year. (In his speech, he said he would be celebrating at home with his wife, Jill, their daughter, Ashley, and her husband.)Mr. Biden spoke minutes after Mr. Trump called into a hotel gathering of Republican state lawmakers in Gettysburg, Pa., to discuss with them and his personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, baseless allegations of voting irregularities in the state. Mr. Trump again claimed he won the election he had lost and demanded that the election results be “turned” in his favor.“This was an election that we won easily,” he said. “We won it by a lot.”The president had intended to appear there in person, but he abruptly canceled those plans after a campaign adviser who had been near Mr. Giuliani tested positive for the coronavirus. Later in the day, Mr. Trump invited some of the Pennsylvania lawmakers to the White House to discuss what a person familiar with the situation said were voting irregularities. Mr. Trump did the same thing with a group of Michigan lawmakers — he pressured them to not certify Michigan’s 2020 election vote, which went for Mr. Biden — but it failed to work.In contrast to Mr. Trump’s feckless efforts to overturn the election results, Mr. Biden praised the sanctity of the vote in his speech and commended Americans for casting their ballots in record numbers despite the pandemic. “Our democracy was tested this year,” he said. “What we learned is this: The people of this nation are up to the task. In America, we have full and fair and free elections. And then we honor the results.”He called voting “the noblest instrument of nonviolent protests ever conceived.”Mr. Trump, in the early days of the pandemic, had tried to brand himself a “wartime president,” before claiming, inaccurately, that the country had “rounded the curve.” Mr. Biden on Wednesday appeared to pick up the wartime mantle, describing the coronavirus pandemic as “a nearly yearlong battle” that has “devastated this nation.”“America is not going to lose this war,” he said, reminding people, “Don’t let yourself surrender to the fatigue.”Mr. Biden also tried to paint an optimistic vision of the future, despite the current crisis, and asked Americans to “dream again.”“We’re going to lead the world by the power of our example, not just the example of our power,” he said. “We’re going to lead the world on climate and save this planet. We’re going to find cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s and diabetes, I promise you.”Mr. Biden’s speech was infused with his own experience of devastating loss, which he often cites when he speaks to a nation that has so far lost more than 260,000 lives to the virus.“I remember that first Thanksgiving, the empty chair, the silence,” he said, referring to the death of his son Beau Biden in 2015. “It takes your breath away. It’s really hard to care. It’s hard to give thanks. It’s hard to even think of looking forward. It’s so hard to hope. I understand.”Mr. Trump had no plans to deliver any holiday message of his own. On Tuesday, he took part in the annual turkey pardon, a White House tradition that counted as one of his only public appearances since the election.On Wednesday, after Mr. Biden’s address, the president announced on Twitter that he had pardoned the first of his four national security advisers, Michael T. Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his conversations with a Russian diplomat and whose prosecution Attorney General William P. Barr tried to shut down.Mr. Biden and his aides were trying to treat the last gasps of Mr. Trump’s presidency as a side show. In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday morning, transition officials said the president-elect did not need Mr. Trump to concede in order to carry on with the necessary business before them that began this week after the head of the General Services Administration formally acknowledged the election results.“We do not feel that it is necessary for President-elect Biden to speak with President Trump,” Kate Bedingfield, a deputy campaign manager for Mr. Biden, said on a conference call with reporters. “We believe we’re getting the information our teams need.” More

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      Trump Pardons Michael Flynn

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      WASHINGTON — President Trump pardoned on Wednesday his former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his conversations with a Russian diplomat and whose prosecution Attorney General William P. Barr tried to shut down.“It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter.The presidential pardon appeared to bring to an end the drawn-out legal saga of Mr. Flynn. The Justice Department had moved in the spring to withdraw the charge against him after a public campaign by Mr. Trump and his allies, but the judge overseeing the case, Emmet G. Sullivan, had held up the request to scrutinize its legitimacy.Though Mr. Trump had said that he was “strongly considering” pardoning Mr. Flynn and was said this week to be planning for it, Mr. Barr’s intervention had left open the possibility that his administration could end the prosecution of a presidential favorite without requiring Mr. Trump to take explicit political responsibility for the act.But as the case lingered — delayed first by Mr. Flynn’s unsuccessful attempt to get an appeals court to block Judge Sullivan from reviewing the basis for Mr. Barr’s move, and then by further weeks of inaction from the judge — Mr. Trump ultimately moved to do so after all.Mr. Flynn was the only White House official to be convicted as part of the Trump-Russia investigation that was completed by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Under Mr. Trump and Mr. Barr, the administration has been trying to discredit and dismantle that inquiry. Mr. Trump also commuted the sentence of his longtime friend Roger J. Stone Jr. on seven felonies in a case brought by prosecutors working for Mr. Mueller.John Gleeson, a former federal judge and mafia prosecutor appointed by Judge Sullivan to critique the Justice Department’s attempt to drop the case against Mr. Flynn, argued that the claimed basis for the request made no sense and seemed to be cover for a politically motivated favor. He had said that Judge Sullivan should instead sentence Mr. Flynn — or that Mr. Trump should just pardon him.By doing so, Mr. Trump has now mooted that proceeding, meaning Judge Sullivan will most likely dismiss the matter. The pardon forecloses the possibility of a new legal confrontation over whether the judge could sentence a defendant who had pleaded guilty even though the Justice Department no longer wanted to pursue the case.Several Democratic members of Congress condemned Mr. Trump’s pardon of Mr. Flynn as an abuse of power.“Flynn lied to the F.B.I. about his communications with the Russians — efforts which undermined U.S. foreign policy after sanctions were imposed on Russia for interfering in our elections,” said Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. “And Flynn pled guilty to those lies, twice. A pardon by Trump does not erase that truth, no matter how Trump and his allies try to suggest otherwise.”Allies of Mr. Trump celebrated the move on social media, arguing that Mr. Flynn had been treated unfairly. And the White House spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnany, said in a statement that the pardon brought “to an end the relentless, partisan pursuit of an innocent man.”Mr. Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and a decorated lieutenant general, was an early supporter of Mr. Trump’s campaign. He was rewarded when Mr. Trump named him national security adviser shortly after winning the 2016 election, ignoring warnings from President Barack Obama, who voiced concerns about Mr. Flynn’s management of the intelligence agency.Mr. Flynn was also among a group of associates of the Trump campaign with links to Russian officials whom the F.B.I. scrutinized early in the counterintelligence investigation it opened in July 2016 to try to understand the extent of Russia’s covert interference in the campaign and whether any Trump campaign figures knew about it or were cooperating with it, wittingly or otherwise.It came to light that Mr. Flynn was lying to his colleagues about conversations he had in December 2016 with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak. In the calls, Mr. Flynn urged Moscow not to escalate in response to sanctions imposed by the departing Obama administration over Russia’s covert election interference to help Mr. Trump, and raised the possibility that the incoming Trump administration would work more closely with Russia.The pattern of lying raised new suspicions about Mr. Flynn. The F.B.I. sent agents to interview him at the White House even though deliberations with the Justice Department about whether to first tell Mr. Trump’s new White House counsel were not yet resolved. Notes from a meeting related to that interview suggest a purpose of the interview may have been to see whether Mr. Flynn would lie again to the F.B.I. agents — as he did.Despite firing Mr. Flynn, Mr. Trump asked the F.B.I. director at the time, James B. Comey, to end any investigation into Mr. Flynn. Details about the president’s request became public a few months later after Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey and helped prompt Mr. Mueller’s appointment as special counsel.Although Mr. Trump initially distanced himself from Mr. Flynn, the president later began to disparage the Flynn case as part of his broader attacks on the Russia investigation as a “hoax,” a “witch hunt” and a deep-state plot to sabotage him.Over time, Mr. Flynn’s case became a cause for the right-wing media. Though Mr. Flynn had pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in another criminal trial — as part of a deal to also resolve his liability related to working for Turkey without registering as a foreign agent, while also serving as a top adviser to the Trump campaign — he later hired a new lawyer, Sidney Powell, reversed course and ultimately sought to withdraw his plea.Mr. Flynn was never charged in connection with the Turkey issue. The White House did not immediately release the text of the pardon itself, so it was not clear whether it was written in a way that would foreclose any potential legal liability for Mr. Flynn on that or other matters, like making conflicting statements to Judge Sullivan as part of pleading guilty and then trying to withdraw that plea. Still, Mr. Trump described the pardon as a “full” one.Before Mr. Barr intervened in an attempt to dispose of the Flynn case, Justice Department prosecutors had portrayed his admitted guilt in both matters as a betrayal of trust by a high-ranking official who “failed to accept responsibility for his conduct” and continued to lie.“The defendant monetized his power and influence over our government, and lied to mask it,” they wrote. “When the F.B.I. and D.O.J. needed information that only the defendant could provide, because of that power and influence, he denied them that information. And so an official tasked with protecting our national security, instead compromised it.”At the start of her representation of Mr. Flynn, Ms. Powell had written to Mr. Barr, stressing the need to keep the communication secret, and counseled a strategy of replicating the model of the 2008 prosecution of a senator — also before Judge Sullivan — whose case the Justice Department sought to dismiss after conviction but before sentencing based on a finding of prosecutorial misconduct.She asked Mr. Barr to appoint an outside prosecutor to scour the case file for any material that prosecutors should have turned over to the defense. After Judge Sullivan rejected conspiracy theories about prosecutorial misconduct that Ms. Powell put forward, Mr. Barr followed her suggestion and opened a review.The reviewer Mr. Barr appointed produced documents showing that the F.B.I. had been aggressive when it decided to interview Mr. Flynn. While the Justice Department did not say the prior failure to turn over the files amounted to any misconduct, it cited them as providing a basis for Mr. Barr to abandon the prosecution.The department’s claimed rationale centered on the idea that Mr. Flynn’s lies to the F.B.I. were not crimes because they were not material to any legitimate investigation. One of the files showed that the F.B.I. had been moving to close its inquiry into whether Mr. Flynn was a Russian agent before the question arose of why he was lying to colleagues about his calls with the ambassador.That rationale for dropping the prosecution has been widely criticized by Mr. Gleeson and others since the F.B.I. legally needs little basis to conduct a voluntary interview, and because the mystery of Mr. Flynn’s lies to his colleagues about his interactions with the ambassador, in part regarding sanctions for Russia’s election interference, seemed obviously relevant to the larger Trump-Russia investigation.Mr. Gleeson argued that the department was showing special favor for Mr. Flynn because that is what Mr. Trump wanted, and urged Judge Sullivan not to permit the judiciary to be used as cover for a politically motivated intervention — that is what the pardon power is for. Ms. Powell, for her part, portrayed the case against her client as a corrupt and politically motivated conspiracy and accused Judge Sullivan of being biased.The Justice Department was not consulted on the plan to pardon Mr. Flynn but was given notice on Wednesday before the announcement, according to a department official. The department would have preferred to see whether the matter could be resolved in court, the official said.Before taking on Mr. Flynn, Ms. Powell was becoming known for her Fox News appearances bashing the Russia inquiry. She also sold T-shirts attacking Mr. Mueller and his team on her website.Ms. Powell has in recent weeks attached herself to the Trump legal team trying to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election, pushing a baseless conspiracy theory that Mr. Trump had won by a landslide but that fraudulent election software instead gave the victory to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. After she made particularly wild accusations that even Republican officials had been involved in a payoff scheme, the Trump team disavowed her.Katie Benner and Eileen Sullivan contributed reporting. More

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      Turkey on the Brain

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      So, what do you think Donald Trump is giving thanks for this year?A) Peace and good fellowship throughout the land.B) His thrilling campaign to overturn the election.C) Melania’s new blond look.I know, you’re hoping it’s going to be C. But the man is obsessed with his re-election resurrection.“One thing has become clear these last few days, I am the American People’s ALL-TIME favorite President,” he wrote to his mailing list, a very large group of citizens who’ve gotten hundreds of missives along these lines since Election Day.The all-important bottom line of this correspondence is that everyone should send Donald Trump $5 right away. And, of course, more is OK.In his real outside life — the one he’ll be returning to in just a few weeks — Trump is definitely in need of those fivers. He owed tons of money when he first ran for office. Now a $400 million bill is coming due. And his prize customer, the Republican faithful, is looking a bit shaky. Republicans spent over $23 million at Trump-owned businesses since he started his campaign for president five years ago. That’s more than 100 times as much as in the five years prior. And not necessarily a sum that will continue through his Mar-a-Lago exile.Something needs to be done! And you cannot help but notice that currently, Trump’s one absolute prize Guernsey of a cash cow seems to be his postelection re-election campaign, “Save America.”“Friend,” he asks in another mass email, “Will you allow the CORRUPT Democrats to try to STEAL this Election and impart their RADICAL agenda on our Country? Or will you step UP and DEFEND your Country?” It’s both a plea for cash and a reminder that when the nation looks back on the Trump era it will see a time when capital letters ruled the earth.But if an eager reader decided to send “Save America” a donation to “protect the integrity of this Election,” it’s hard to know where it’d go. According to an email sent under Eric’s name, the money is earmarked for “legal teams in each critical state.” Which is certainly possible. Although experts say the money could also pay consulting fees for the kids. Or even the kennel fees for the family pet, if only Trump didn’t hate dogs.(This last bit of information has nothing to do with Save America. It’s just a sneaky way to work in another reminder that Joe Biden has two shepherds, Major, who came from a rescue center, and Champ.)Back to the money.Our president does have trouble hanging onto cash, whether it’s his or ours. The guy who vowed to eliminate the national debt if elected is leaving office in a fiscal year that recorded the biggest one-year debt figure ever, $3.1 trillion. And during the entire glorious four years, the national red ink went from $14.4 trillion to $21.1 trillion.The return of Trump to his business empire is not going to solve its problems. First, because he seems very bad at handling money, and second, because he doesn’t really intend to go back to a civilian life. If he did, history suggests he’d only succeed in building another tower of overdue bills.While the alleged Trump agenda right now is overturning the national election results, clearly the real plan is to gear up for a comeback in 2024. It’s a pretty dramatic goal. There has been only one president in U.S. history who lost re-election and then ran and won four years later. That would be Grover Cleveland.If you’re ever talking about Trump’s political ambition, be sure to refer to it as “pulling a Grover.”Almost everything Trump does to challenge the election returns or raise money for his next presidential campaign can trickle over to something more personal and short-term. For instance, is he going to try to collect cash for a presidential library? That’s normal for a person in his position. Even though the first noun you connect with Donald Trump is not “contemplation” or “scholarly research.”Or even “book.”It’s become expected for former presidents to raise money for a place to display their memorabilia, host gatherings and sponsor research. But if you get a request for a Donald Trump Library contribution, do not feel compelled to follow through. Even if they offer you a free copy of Ivanka’s “Women Who Work” or Donald Jr.’s magnum opus on “How the Left Thrives on Hate.”Short-term, of course, it’s perfectly OK to blot this out. Spend the holidays on the easy stuff. Biden’s dogs. Don Jr.’s career options. And the inauguration — how do you think Trump will behave? Defeated presidents usually go to see their opponent get sworn in. Even Herbert Hoover, who really, really resented Franklin Roosevelt’s victory, rode with F.D.R. from the White House to the Capitol. Didn’t talk much, just sort of sulked and stared. F.D.R. found other ways to keep himself busy as he rode through the rapturous cheering crowd.But Hoover-Trump is not a great comparison. Unless you can imagine Donald spending his post-presidential career working on famine relief projects.Trump certainly regards himself now as a once and future candidate, and a recent Politico poll showed 53 percent of Republicans are ready to vote for him in the 2024 presidential primaries. Twelve percent prefer Mike Pence and 8 percent opt for Donald Jr.I hope Pence is aware that only 4 percent of his party regards him as a better potential president than Junior. Really, if you want to invest in the future of any Trump minions, I’d go for a line of Rudy Giuliani hair products.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