Donald Trump personally intervened in another state by placing multiple calls this past week to the speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, asking him to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.
According to The Washington Post, “President Trump called the speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives twice during the past week to make an extraordinary request for help reversing his loss in the state, reflecting a broadening pressure campaign by the president and his allies to try to subvert the 2020 election result.”
Trump’s desperate intervention in the Keystone State comes after he tried – and failed – to convince GOP lawmakers in Michigan and Georgia to overturn Biden’s victories.
Like his previous efforts to pressure lawmakers into ignoring the will of their constituents, this brazen attempt in Pennsylvania is likely to result in failure.
More from The Washington Post:
The calls, confirmed by House Speaker Bryan Cutler’s office, make Pennsylvania the third state where Trump has directly attempted to overturn a result since he lost the election to President-elect Joe Biden. He previously reached out to Republicans in Michigan, and on Saturday he pressured Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) in a call to try to replace that state’s electors.
The president’s outreach to Pennsylvania’s Republican House leader came after his campaign and its allies decisively lost numerous legal challenges in the state in both state and federal court. Trump has continued to press his baseless claims of widespread voting irregularities both publicly and privately.
Trump’s legal challenges and recounts have failed, so he’s going full coup
Donald Trump’s legal challenges in battleground states – led by his cartoon lawyer Rudy Giuliani – have failed. In most cases, they’ve been laughed out of court.
In states where Trump has sought recounts, from Georgia to Wisconsin, those have only cemented and sometimes even expanded Biden’s lead.
Now, Trump appears to be going full coup, hoping he can pressure lawmakers in states that Biden won to overturn the will of the people and install him as president for another four years.
These efforts will fail, of course, but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
