The Banter Brief: He's Not Leaving

He's telling you what he is going to do. Believe him.

Sep 25, 2020

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1. Most Important Story Of The Week

(MANDEL NGAN / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Trump is not going anywhere

This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Donald Trump. Responding to questions on Wednesday as to whether he would commit to a peaceful transition of power if he loses the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Trump said this:

“Well, we’ll have to see what happens. You know that. I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster.”

“Get rid of the ballots, and you’ll have a very — you’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly, there’ll be a continuation,” he went on.

“The ballots are out of control. The Democrats know it better than anybody else.”

Of course there is nothing “out of control” about the mail-in ballots — they are a completely safe and accountable way to vote. But Trump wants to sow as much chaos before the election as possible to ensure there is real doubt about the outcome of the election. When there is doubt, Trump will use everything in his power to declare himself victor and throw the country into an unprecedented crisis of democracy.

He’s telling you what he’s going to do. Believe him.

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Fighting Back Against Trump’s New Plot To Steal The Electoral College

This week we learned about another plot by the president’s re-election campaign to cheat on November 3rd. We need to fight back, hard, says Bob Cesca.

2. Poll Analysis

The Economist’s election simulation is undoubtedly good news for Biden as we move into the final weeks of the election:

And more good news on the Senate for Democrats:

3. Quote Of The Week

“The worst case, however, is not that Trump rejects the election outcome. The worst case is that he uses his power to prevent a decisive outcome against him. If Trump sheds all restraint, and if his Republican allies play the parts he assigns them, he could obstruct the emergence of a legally unambiguous victory for Biden in the Electoral College and then in Congress. He could prevent the formation of consensus about whether there is any outcome at all. He could seize on that uncertainty to hold on to power.”

- Barton Gellman in The Atlantic

4. What to Watch

We’ve asked readers to watch Stephen Colbert monologues before, and for good reason. So here we are again. Watch, because good Lord this is important:

5. Good News

More good vaccine news

Novavax is perhaps the most promising of all the potential coronavirus vaccines, and for good reason (from NYT):

Although Novavax is months behind the front-runners in the vaccine race, independent experts are excited about its vaccine because its early studies delivered particularly promising results. Monkeys that were vaccinated got strong protection against the coronavirus. And in early safety trials, published early this month in The New England Journal of Medicine, volunteers produced strikingly high levels of antibodies against the virus.
It is not possible to make a precise comparison between early clinical studies of different vaccines, but John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, said that the antibodies from Novavax were markedly higher than any other vaccine with published results. “You just can’t explain that away,” he said.

The Novovax vaccine is based on older, more “tried-and-true vaccine technology”, and just entered phase three trials. Given the efficacy shown thus far, there is a possibility we could get clear results long before the trial is over. Fingers crossed.

Have a great weekend!

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