“A Republic, if you can keep it.”
* “This was an election that we won easily. We won it by a lot. This election has to be turned around.” That was the fabulist-in-chief, still stopping well short of conceding reality.
* There’s ample precedent for Donald Trump being a sore loser. Recall his reaction to losing the Iowa caucus to Ted Cruz in 2016. “Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa,” defiantly declared Trump. “He stole it.”
* Trump’s team, says the incumbent president, is now “cooperating” on the transition—while he vows to keep up the fight of non-concession. That’s incongruous and hypocritical to anyone outside his cult base.
* “It’s very hard to get a case to the Supreme Court. I probably can’t get a case.” That was President Long Shot, in acknowledging, as it were, the reality that his fight to overturn his loss will never get in front of SCOTUS Judges Barrett, Kavanaugh & Co.
* “I’m ashamed that I endorsed him.” That was the endorser-in-chief referring to Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who did not support Trump’s voting-fraud claims. “An enemy of the people.” That was the divider-in-chief referring inimitably to Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who also did not support Trump’s fraud claims.
* Will a former President Trump create a de facto, parallel universe White House? Heads up: MAGA-Lago.
* Donald Trump’s pardoning of Michael Flynn and Corn the turkey in the same week seemed perversely appropriate.
* Among world leaders, including autocrats, Russia’s Vladimir Putin still remains the most notable exception in not offering congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden. Putin has his obvious reasons. He won’t be Biden’s handler. And he knows that leverage-wise, Hunter Biden is not the same as golden showers.
* While Trump does a presidential hissy-fit on the way out, scenarios for how he could malinger on continue apace—from building a media empire to playing GOPster king-maker to ramping up a 2024 comeback. It’s all about Trump-first aggrandizement and dog whistling to his cult followers. Speaking of, at least the Rev. Jim Jones drank his own Kool Aid.