Tuesday November 8, 2022 is Election Day in the United States of America. In addition to Congressional "midterms" at the federal level, many state governors and other more local offices are up for grabs. Given how things shook out over Election Day 2020, things could get a little crazy.
...or, perhaps, not! But here's the Megathread for if they do. Talk about your local concerns, your national predictions, your suspicions re: election fraud and interference, how you plan to vote, anything election related is welcome here. Culture War thread rules apply, with the addition of Small-Scale Questions and election-related "Bare Links" allowed in this thread only (unfortunately, there will not be a subthread repository due to current technical limitations).
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So what do you guys think was up with trumps big announcement tonight? The music started playing, he looked off in the distance in contemplation for an uncomfortable minute, made a pretty good soliloquy speech then announced that he will make a big announcement at Mar Lago on the 15th. Stating that he did not want to detract from the candidates running for election tomorrow.
Did he change his mind on a run for presidency at the last minute?
Did he personally change his mind last minute to move his presidential announcement?
Was he told to stand down by someone in the party?
Was this all some scripted thing to get the MAGA vote for tomorrow?
I think it must have been something last minute because making a half-ass announcement like that is burning some credibility, as well as a wasted opportunity to be the first to maneuver and scare off his political rivals in the GOP. I'm really confused by the political strategy for this blown announcement thing.
All my Red Team friends are praying he's announcing he will back down and endorse DeSantis. Maybe a little too optimistic.
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I'm not so sure. There's a reason that "two more weeks" is a flippant meme used frequently against MAGA people, Q believers, and low-information dissident rightists. The ecosystem of grifters that has sprung up around these people is practically always promising some big revelation ("trust the plan," "tick tock," "release the kraken," etc.) and it never fails to reel in and rile up the true believers and hardcore partisans.
This just seems like more Trump showmanship:
People eat this stuff up.
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Trump was never going to announce his run at a random rally in Ohio.
People talk, still, about the moment that he came down the escalator in trump tower. Of course he’s going to make a huge show of his announcement by doing it at mar a lago.
I know this is off-topic for an election thread, but what happened to all the "Trump is going to jail for sure this time" due to the top-secret documents he took without permission investigation? That seems to have quietly gone nowhere, like all the impeachment enthusiasm.
Is he going to be arrested? Or was this just more of the same?
The /r/politics consensus is pretty much that Trump obviously deserves to go to prison, but nothing will happen to him because he's rich / Democrats are too scared of the Republican backlash to do the right thing.
(Other replies capture the facts on the ground; I'm talking about the feelings from the anti-Trump side of the Culture War.)
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I don't think anyone who should be taken seriously is saying that Trump will go to jail for the documents. They're saying that he might be indicted and convicted. That doesn't mean jailtime.
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If I understand everything correctly, the whole thing is tied up in court at the moment over what was seized at Mar-A-Lago. The court-appointed special master is still reviewing everything to decide what Trump gets back as part of his personal effects and what the FBI gets to use as evidence in any criminal prosecutions that may move forward. I think once the legal minutia gets settled, the press will start reporting those decisions and it'll get headlines again.
Not everything is tied up.
The DoJ won an appeal at the 5th circuit to get the classified documents specifically.
Many people are expecting an indictment shortly after the election because of the DoJ rules proscribing indictments around an election.
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Good question.
Who is Donald Trump, and what was all this grand show that began in 2015 about?
There are three possible explanations.
1/ Donald Trump is the most evil man alive, new Hitler who wanted to destroy our precious democracy and bring back thousand years old reich. Fortunately, he was thwarted and stopped by brave and vigilant people of color.
2/ Donald Trump is the greatest hero alive, new Jesus who wanted to save America from liberal pedophiles and make it great again. Unfortunately, he was stabbed in the back and defeated.
3/
https://i.imgur.com/P5Ow9yw.jpg
Now, look what happened after 2020: nothing for two years. Nothing at all happened to Donald Trump, his family and his properties. Some people who trusted him are tortured in prison (no one cares, least of all Trump), but Don is safe and secure as usual, he got away with everything as he always had for his whole life.
So, what explanation looks most plausible?
Is Jeffery Epstein just out of shot in that photo?
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Trump going to jail seems unlikely, but investigating and prosecuting can take a long time, so if he were to be it taking this long isn't that much evidence against
Not to mention that the DoJ won't do an indictment of a political figure within like 90 days of an election.
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