mid legal meltdown, Trump tells G20 leaders he wants to work with them for a long time

WASHINGTON, November 23, 2020: A defeated Donald Trump is now embarrassing himself with a comical meltdown of his legal campaign to overturn results of the Presidential election, even as a growing number of moderate Republicans are urging him to pack up from the White House. Trump though continues to dig in despite legal and political setbacks, telling G-20 leaders on Sunday that “It’s been a great honor to work with you, and I look forward to working with you again for a long time.”
In a bizarre turn of events over the weekend, Trump’s legal team fired one of their own because, in the words of one campaign official, she was “too crazy even for the President.” Sidney Powell, the attorney at the center of the storm, is a known conspiracy theorist who alleged among other things that the election was rigged by the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, communist China, computer machinations and algorithm favoring Democrats etc., charges that were publicly backed by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, but which the team has failed to establish in court.
But Giuliani ended up sacking Powell on Sunday after Trump, who has himself spouted conspiracy theories, apparently felt she went over the top, even as some moderate Republicans asked the President to end the “nonsense” and advised him to concede. Except for those on the far right, most pundits are concluding that Trump’s legal strategy of invalidating ballots in heavily black cities such as Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta to win Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, is doomed to fail.
“Quite frankly, the conduct of the President’s legal team has been a national embarrassment,” former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said on one TV show, pointing out that Trump’s lawyers level wild accusations in public but back down inside the courtroom (because there are legal consequences for lying under oath).
‘Biden is a very weak Prez, could start wars’: Chinese govt advisor
“He is certainly a very weak President, if he can’t sort out domestic issues, then he will do something on the diplomatic front, do something against China. If we say Trump is not interested in promoting democracy and freedom, Biden is. (President Donald) Trump is not interested in war… but a Democratic President could start wars,” a Chinese government advisor said.
“Listen, I have been a supporter of the President’s. I voted for him twice, but elections have consequences, and we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn’t happen,” Christie said, adding, “If you are unwilling to come forward and present the evidence, it must mean the evidence doesn’t exist. The country is what has to matter the most. As much as I’m a strong Republican and I love my party, it’s the country that has to come first.”
Christie was one of several Republicans who bailed out on Trump over the weekend, even as the defeated President continued to rage against the dying of his regime. Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland outside Washington DC, was among those who rued Trump’s undermining of America.
“We used to go supervise elections around the world, and we were the most respected, you know, country with respect to elections. And now we’re beginning to look like we’re a banana republic. It’s time for them to stop the nonsense,” Hogan said, adding that Trump’s effort to pressure Republican lawmakers in states to defy popular mandate is “completely outrageous.”
The criticism irked Trump, who taunted Hogan for importing Coronavirus tests from South Korea that were reportedly flawed and were never used. “Stop golfing and concede,” Hogan clapped back.
Trump meanwhile continued his campaign against the media with a torrent of lies and misrepresentation that were, as usual, flagged and fact-checked. On Sunday, he feuded with the press, claiming “Fake News Media” failed to report that he had attended the virtual G20 summit and made a speech. Most media reported that he had made only a token appearance at the summit and spent more time (three and half hours on Sunday) playing golf.
The Trump campaign’s effort to distance itself from Powell’s wild conspiracy theories came after the defeated President himself had talked up the legal team, saying he looked forward to Mayor Giuliani “spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives!”