memeorandum: The Crisis of American Democracy Is Not Over (Adam Serwer/The Atlantic)

3:10 PM ET, November 8, 2020

Top Items:

No, not that Four Seasons. How Team Trump's news conference ended up at a Northeast Philly landscaping firm. — What began five years ago with the made-for-TV announcement of Donald Trump's presidential ambitions from the escalator of his ritzy Manhattan high-rise, ended Saturday …

Discussion: Business Insider, The Root, CBS News and New York Times

Daniel Politi / Slate:

Trump Team Holds News Conference Outside Drab Landscaping Firm, Next to Adult Book Store — On Saturday morning, shortly before the AP and other news outlets called the election for Joe Biden, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to announce that his lawyers would be holding a “big press conference” in Philadelphia.

Discussion: The Guardian, Common Dreams, hotair.com, Talking Points Memo and Raw Story

Katelyn Burns / Vox:

The Trump legal team's failed Four Seasons press conference, explained — The bizarre venue overshadowed Rudy Giuliani's conspiracy-theory-laden election rant, providing a poetic stage for the end of Trump's presidency. — SHARE All sharing options — President Donald Trump's legal …

Discussion: crooksandliars.com and USA Today

Bush Center:

Statement by President George W. Bush — President Bush congratulates President-elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris — DALLAS, TEXAS — I just talked to the President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden. I extended my warm congratulations and thanked him for the patriotic message he delivered last night.

Discussion: NBC News, Business Insider, CBS News, USA Today and Slate

Adam Serwer / The Atlantic:

The Crisis of American Democracy Is Not Over — The 2020 campaign was long and brutal, unfolding before a backdrop of death and economic decline. When all the votes are counted, a challenger will have unseated an incumbent president for only the 10th time in American history. Donald Trump's presidency is over.

Discussion: Financial Times, Variety, Daily Kos, POLITICUSUSA and Business Insider

Maria Arias / Axios:

George W. Bush congratulates Biden on election victory — Former President George W. Bush issued a statement on Sunday congratulating President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their election victory. — Why it matters: Every living president has now congratulated Biden …

Discussion: Politico, Reuters, Associated Press, Fox News and Atlantic Council

Eric Bradner / CNN:
Bush congratulates Biden, says election was ‘fundamentally fair’ and ‘its outcome is clear’

Discussion: New York Times, NBC News, The Post Millennial, The Gateway Pundit and The Week

Astead W. Herndon / New York Times:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Biden's Win, House Losses, and What's Next for the Left — The congresswoman said Joe Biden's relationship with progressives would hinge on his actions. And she dismissed criticism from House moderates, calling some candidates who lost their races “sitting ducks.”

Discussion: NBC News, The Guardian, The Hill, USA Today, National Review, Slate, Fox News, Common Dreams, The Post Millennial, Axios, New York Post, Daily Kos, hotair.com, Business Insider and Althouse

NBC News:

Stacey Abrams: We will have unprecedented resources for Georgia Senate runoffs — Voting rights activist and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said Sunday that Democrats are going to have unprecedented financial support for the two possible January Senate runoff elections in her state …

Discussion: Associated Press

Washington Post:
After Biden's win, parties gird for ferocious Senate runoffs in Georgia

Allan Smith / NBC News:
Chris Christie, close Trump ally, suggests it may soon be ‘time to move on’

Discussion: Politico, ABC News, Mother Jones, Newsbusters and Mediaite

Eric Martin / Bloomberg:
Bush Says Vote Was ‘Fair,’ and Outcome ‘Clear’: Election Update

Discussion: NBC News, The Guardian and texastribune.org

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Kushner advises Trump to pursue “legal remedies” to the election — A source close to Jared Kushner said he has advised President Trump to pursue “legal remedies” to the election. A second source close to Kushner confirmed he had not advised Trump to concede.

Discussion: The Guardian, The Independent, Slate, No More Mister Nice Blog and The Week

CNN:

Jared Kushner has approached Donald Trump to concede and Melania Trump advised the President to accept the loss — (CNN)Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, has approached the President about conceding the election, two sources told CNN Saturday.

Discussion: The Hill, The Daily Beast, Mercury News, Mediaite, The Guardian, KRDO, hotair.com and Business Insider

Associated Press:

Trump considers how to keep up fight, find a graceful exit — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump never admits defeat. But he faces a stark choice now that Democrat Joe Biden has won the White House: Concede graciously for the sake of the nation or don't — and get evicted anyway.

Discussion: CNN, Business Insider, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, The Wrap, NBC News, Washington Post, UPI, New York Post, New York Times and Washington Monthly

CNN:
Romney calls for nation to ‘get behind’ Biden and says he has seen no evidence of voter fraud

Discussion: Business Insider, The Hill, Fox News, NBC News, Mercury News, The Daily Caller, Bloomberg and Raw Story

ABC News:
Inside the Trump campaign as it grapples with defeat while plowing forward with legal fight

David Edwards / Raw Story:

Lindsey Graham: If we accept these election results 'you'd never have a Republican president forever' — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned on Sunday that there will never be another Republican president if the current 2020 elections results are allowed to stand.

Ronn Blitzer / Fox News:

Graham: If GOP doesn't fight, there will ‘never be another Republican president elected again’ — Graham warned Republicans will pay dearly if they do not challenge the 2020 election — Sen. Graham: Trump administration election allegations ‘need to be looked at’

Discussion: Associated Press, The Daily Caller, Palm Beach Post, crooksandliars.com and Breitbart

Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:

Fox News Tries to Tell Trump Through the TV: The Party's Over — THANK U, NEXT — The president's favorite network has really tried to hammer home the message that it's time for him to face reality and move on. — President Donald Trump's favorite network has spent the weekend trying …

Discussion: The Hill, Slate, Raw Story and Politico, more at Mediagazer »

Eric Mack / Newsmax:
Fox News Cancels ‘Justice With Judge Jeanine’ This Weekend Over Trump

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Mediaite and Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »

Isaac Schorr / National Review:

Why the Voter-Fraud Canard? — No one in their right mind believes that Donald Trump will still be president come January 20. This is not Bush v. Gore. In that instance, the candidates were separated by barely 1,000 votes in a single state. Trump, in contrast, has lost the electoral college …

Ellen Barry / New York Times:

For a Trump Fan, a Week When Victory Ebbed Away — Nick Rocco, a passionate Trump follower in the Democratic bastion of Massachusetts, slowly realized it wasn't going his way. — WILMINGTON, Mass. — Nick Rocco went into Election Day amped up. A 26-year-old hair stylist …

Politico:

How ‘Obamagate’ and Hunter's ‘laptop from hell’ fizzled — In the end, “the biggest political scandal in the history of our country” and “the second biggest political scandal in our history” turned out to be neither. — President Donald Trump's eleventh-hour efforts to impart a stain …

Discussion: Business Insider, Breitbart and Fortune

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar / Associated Press:

Nursing home COVID-19 cases rise four-fold in surge states — WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite Trump administration efforts to erect a protective shield around nursing homes, coronavirus cases are surging within facilities in states hard hit by the latest onslaught of COVID-19.

New York Times:

Six White House aides, including Trump's chief of staff, have the coronavirus. — Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, has contracted the coronavirus, as have five other White House aides and a Trump campaign adviser, officials say, raising fears of another outbreak sweeping through the ranks of the nation's top officials.

Mary Trump / The Guardian:

Mary Trump on the end of Uncle Donald: all he has now is breaking things … This is how the most colossal and fragile ego on the planet deals with losing the US election: he does not deal with it at all. — My uncle's speech late on election night wasn't just entirely mendacious from beginning to end.

Discussion: Business Insider and Raw Story

Norman Ornstein / USA Today:

Donald Trump has lost to Joe Biden, what's next? The presidential transition from hell. — We're in for a parade of horrors during Trump's remaining time in power. Change is coming, but along the way, fasten seatbelts for severe turbulence. — Our long national nightmare, the Trump presidency, is finally nearing an end.

Discussion: NBC News, The Hill, Washington Post, Associated Press, The Guardian and Bloomberg

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:

Clyburn: Things Like ‘Defund the Police’ Did NOT Help Dems During Election, I Believe It Hurt Jaime Harrison's Senate Race — Congressman James Clyburn (D- SC) has been taking a victory lap of sorts, given how his endorsement of Joe Biden during the Democratic primary catapulted …

Discussion: Townhall

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:

The media never fully learned how to cover Trump. But they still might have saved democracy. — As the cowbells clanged, car horns blasted and anti-Trumpers partied Saturday on my New York City street corner not long after TV networks called the presidential race for Joe Biden, I did what comes most naturally.

Joel Anderson / Slate:

Goodbye, Ben Carson — After almost 30 years as a pioneering neurosurgeon, you could have had a glorious—and prosperous—retirement. You were already a living Black History Month hero, an example to any child whose dreams were bigger and better than their circumstances.

Lev Facher / STAT:

'It's going to be very, very scary': Before Biden takes office, a precarious 10 weeks for escalating Covid-19 crisis — WASHINGTON — Even many public health experts who celebrated President-elect Biden's win this week turned their immediate focus to the crisis it might create …

Discussion: Bloomberg and hotair.com