Republicans used to accuse Democrats of being ‘sore losers’, but now they clearly own the title.
Almost one in three Republican voters still believe that Donald Trump will be reinstated as president before the end of the year, something that legally can’t happen.
The Economist/YouGov poll was conducted between November 6 and 9 and surveyed 1,500 Americans and found that 28 percent of respondents thought it likely or very likely that Trump would return to power before the year was out.
That is an increase from 22 percent the month before.
It suggests that far from fizzling out, the ‘big lie’ that Trump was unfairly robbed of election victory and will be returned to the White House is gaining strength.
Some 13 percent of Republican respondents said it was ‘very like’ Trump will be reinstated with 15 percent saying it was ‘somewhat likely.’
Overall, just 16 percent of respondents said they thought he would return by the end of 2021.
Trump himself reportedly told close allies during the summer that he would be restored to power this year as he fought a string of ill-fated legal battles to overturn the result.
In September, at a rally in Georgia, he was asked by a host for the conservative media network Real America’s Voice when he would be reinstated.
‘Well we’re going to see,’ he answered.
‘There’s been tremendous voter fraud. And it’s being revealed on a daily basis and we’ll see what happens.’
But vocal supporters have faced some humiliating setbacks along the way.
My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell – who has emerged as a key proponent of conspiracy theories – offered the date of August 13.
But he backtracked as the date approached with little indication the legal challenges would work.
‘Nobody said that, nobody said that, nobody said that, nobody said that, nobody said that, nobody said that, OK? I think this interview is over,’ he told Vice News.
There’s no way for Trump to be reinstated and there was no widespread evidence of election fraud.
According to Trump’s own Homeland Security and Justice Departments 2020 was the ‘most secure’ election in U.S. history.
Biden won more than 7 million votes than Trump and won the Electoral College 306 to 232.
Biden became president on January 20, 2021.
Trump does have an avenue back to the White House – he could win the 2024 presidential race.
He has kept the door open to do that and said he’d make an announcement after the 2022 midterm elections.
Trump nearly lost his chance to become president again.
Had the U.S. Senate convicted him on impeachment charges of inciting an insurrection they could have also barred him from entering a future presidential race.
Details of the new poll came as it emerged that Sen. Mitch McConnell asked aides to draft a letter disinviting Trump from Joe Biden’s inauguration shortly after the Capitol riot – before Trump got the jump on the situation and announced he wasn’t going.
‘McConnell felt he could not give Trump another opportunity to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power,’ writes Jonathan Karl in his new book, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show.
‘McConnell wanted to get a letter together from the top four congressional leaders informing Trump that he had been disinvited,’ according to the book, ABC News reported Monday.
The reports triggered an angry denial from Trump.
‘From Election Day, November 3rd, the day I realized that the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged, I would never have agreed to go to Joe Biden’s Inauguration. This decision was mine, and mine alone,’ he wrote in an emailed statement.
‘The old broken-down Crow, Mitch McConnell, had nothing to do with it.’