Behind the scenes in the Trump room

On Wednesday, the president’s family was heavily involved in efforts to question the validity of the vote tallies. Mr. Trump had joked at a rally that if he lost, he would never speak to any of his adult children again.

  NYT

Might not have been a joke. At least as regards Eric and Junior.

In the final weeks before Election Day, Mr. Kushner reassembled a group of people who had been involved in Mr. Trump’s first campaign, including the former White House deputy chief of staff, Katie Walsh, to work with Mr. Miller and others on the final weeks of spending on television.

But by Wednesday, several White House officials and outside advisers said they were hopeful, but not particularly optimistic, that Mr. Trump’s legal challenges in several states would be able to change the trajectory of the race.

[...]

Mr. Kushner was making calls, looking for what he described as a “James Baker-like” figure who could lead the legal effort to dispute the tabulations in different states, according to a person briefed on the discussions.

Surely they already had somebody lined up for that. How could they not be prepared?

(Mr. Baker led George W. Bush’s successful recount case in 2000.) The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was working out of the campaign headquarters in Virginia. Another son, Eric Trump, whose wife, Lara, has been heavily involved in campaign activities, spoke at a news conference in Philadelphia, alongside Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor.

“They’re not letting poll watchers watch the polls,” a visibly angry Eric Trump said, in a baseless attempt to cast doubt on the ballot counting still ongoing in Pennsylvania. Mr. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, also made the groundless assertion that the election in Pennsylvania was being stolen. He also floated the idea of a “national lawsuit” about allegations of fraud, but it was not clear what that meant.

Please. Is ANYthing Rudy says clear?

With Florida looking red early on Tuesday night, President Trump and his advisers thought they were witnessing a repeat of election night 2016, when a victory in Florida foreshadowed a victory over all.

Inside the East Room, the mood was upbeat as hundreds of people, including cabinet secretaries, ambassadors and former officials who have remained loyal to Mr. Trump, mingled and dined on sliders and French fries.

Let's stop here to remember that the campaign using the White House is a violation of the Hatch Act. (As if anybody would ever hold them to account for any violations of any laws.)

That mirage of victory was pierced when Fox News called Arizona for former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. at 11:20 p.m., with just 73 percent of the state’s vote counted.

Mr. Trump and his advisers erupted at the news.

[...]

What ensued for Mr. Trump was a night of angry calls to Republican governors and advice from campaign aides that he ignored.

What were the Republican governors expected to do? Just be his punching bags?

Standing in the East Room at 2:30 a.m., [Trump] dismissed the election as a “fraud” and claimed he wanted to stop the counting of votes and leave the results to the Supreme Court.

And nobody called him on it, no doubt. Certainly nobody said what should have been said, "You big ignorant baby. That's not how elections work in this country."

The Trump campaign knew Arizona could be up for grabs, but the Fox News call putting it in Mr. Biden’s column was symbolic, making it the first state that appeared to have flipped from the president’s 2016 batch of winning states. Gov. Doug Ducey, Republican of Arizona, had been on the phone all night with administration officials and campaign staff members, adamant that there were still Republican votes to be counted in his state.

Chickenshit.

Jason Miller, Mr. Trump’s political adviser, disputed the accuracy of the call on Twitter and frantically called Fox News, asking the network to retract it. He was unsuccessful.

Nobody's afraid of a loser.

Instead of retracting it, the decision desk at Fox News doubled down on its call, putting Arnon Mishkin, the head of the desk, on air to defend the call. Several hours later, The Associated Press also called Arizona for Mr. Biden. (Other news organizations, including The New York Times and CNN, had not declared a victor by Wednesday afternoon because of absentee ballots that remained to be counted.)

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, was also in touch with Rupert Murdoch, the Fox News owner, as the night wore on.

Rupert's looking for a winner, not a loser.

[O]n Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, insisted the president would win Arizona by 30,000 votes.

Sure, why not? And if Trump's campaign manager says it, it's true.

Mr. Trump spent much of Tuesday evening and early Wednesday watching election results roll in on Fox News from the White House residence.

Why didn't he just watch OANN? I'm sure they were more favorable to him.

In conversations with Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, he asked about the possibility that fraud was being committed, according to people briefed on the call.

On Twitter, Mr. Ducey [of Fox] insisted that all the counting be completed before anyone else called the state.

LOL

Angry and feeling stung, the president and his aides watched as Mr. Biden gave a brief speech in Wilmington, Del., projecting victory for himself. “We feel good about where we are, we really do,” Mr. Biden told supporters, who honked their horns in support. “We believe we are on track to win this election.”

While Mr. Biden was speaking, the president tweeted for the first time all night, baselessly claiming that Democrats were trying to “steal” the election. In a follow-up tweet, he said that he, too, would deliver remarks. A podium with a presidential seal had already been set up in the East Room.

Hatch Act.

Mr. Trump’s advisers tried to persuade Mr. Trump to speak in the East Room before Mr. Biden made his remarks in Wilmington, but they were unsuccessful. Instead, they sat and watched as Mr. Biden set the tone for the night.

I wonder how much - if anything - Trump's advisers are getting paid to give him advice that he never follows, and then be blamed for his failures.

In the Oval Office, he huddled with aides who discussed how to frame the state of the race and whether he could declare victory or should take a more subtle tone.

He did not choose the latter approach.

LOL. No, he did not.

As the map closed in on the Trump campaign on Wednesday, with Michigan and Wisconsin being called for Mr. Biden, the president was not seen in public all day. A Marine who stands guard in front of the West Wing doors when the president is in the Oval Office had not been spotted all day.

He was stress-eating, locked in his toilet, right?

From the residence, Mr. Trump continued making calls to supporters and friends throughout the morning, sounding subdued and somewhat dispirited to some people. Outside the White House, finger-pointing about what went wrong had already begun. Some aides said that Mr. Trump had often resisted entreaties from Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, and Brad Parscale, his former campaign manager, and others to spend more time in Arizona. But they said he had resisted in part because he did not like traveling west and spending the night on the road.

They and several other aides had also tried and failed to get Mr. Trump to stop attacking an Arizona favorite son and war hero, Senator John McCain.

Yeah, he didn't do himself any favors there. Not the brightest bulb on the tree.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.