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Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump is fueling a brand new voter fraud conspiracy.
What’s taking place? California held its primaries final week, and every week later, votes are nonetheless being counted in among the largest races, together with for governor. That’s fairly regular; California at all times counts slowly, due to an exceptionally voter-friendly system and a heavy reliance on vote-by-mail.
Trump, nevertheless, has seized on the sluggish depend — and the lack of Republican candidates like Spencer Pratt, who was vying to advance to the final election within the Los Angeles mayoral race — as proof of one thing nefarious. “Not attainable for Spencer Pratt to have misplaced the L.A. runoffs after the large lead he had. third World Nation. Rigged Elections,” he posted on Monday.
Different Republicans, resembling Home Speaker Mike Johnson and Sen. Ted Cruz, have additionally leaned into the conspiracy.
What’s the context? Pratt, a former actuality TV contestant who misplaced his home within the Palisades hearth early final yr, was initially in second place within the LA mayoral race as votes have been being counted.
Over the week, nevertheless, Pratt steadily misplaced floor to LA Metropolis Council Member Nithya Raman, and on Monday night, the AP known as the race for the second spot in November’s common for Raman. (California makes use of a top-two jungle major system, moderately than partisan primaries. In closely Democratic cities like Los Angeles, meaning it’s attainable to finish up with two Democratic candidates and no Republicans in a common election.)
Why does this matter? In the interim, that is peanut-gallery stuff from Trump. He has no actual energy over California’s elections, which can play out — slowly — no matter he says (although a Trump-appointed assistant US legal professional in California is soliciting “proof” of voter fraud on conservative podcasts).
However renewed, extra mainstream Republican enthusiasm for election conspiracies is a regarding preview for the midterms. The stakes will probably be far greater, and Trump’s rhetoric is already laying the groundwork for a extra critical problem.
And with that, it’s time to log out…
Yesterday’s e-newsletter, about how Trump’s immigration insurance policies are already impacting the World Cup, was a little bit of a bummer. However the World Cup itself isn’t, as these movies of followers greeting the Egyptian and Algerian nationwide groups within the US seize (from the superb soccer publication Males in Blazers). I hope you take pleasure in them, too, and we’ll see you again right here tomorrow!
