As an activist in the Michigan branch of the right-wing conservative folk political movement Tea Party in the United States, Dunn has been campaigning for Trump on social media since early 2020. This election is about the future of the United States, and fraud cannot be allowed to ruin everything.
Recently, he and many Republican voters in Michigan have been busy promoting an online petition to ask the state legislature to hold a hearing on the fairness of the election in an attempt to overturn Michigan’s vote count.
“We want to get at least 40,000 signatures to be submitted to the Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives as soon as possible to reconsider the results of the legitimate vote before the state legislature submits the electoral list to Congress.” Dunn firmly believes that there is still a chance to change the situation.
Howard, a Washington state voter, like Dunn, claimed to be a Trump supporter, but when asked whether he took action to express his support for Trump after the election, Howard refused to answer and asked the Paper: “Do you mean to question my support for Trump? Are you a fan of Biden?”
Howard explained that his vigilance is necessary. “Some people always want to create divisions among us, especially at this uncertain time. All I’ve been doing is firmly supporting Trump, and he does win, in an unconventional way.”
In the 2020 election, Biden won more than 80 million popular votes, and Trump also won more than 73.8 million popular votes. The number of voters voting for Trump has exceeded the total population of the UK. Although they are not all “Trump fans”, there is no denying that the businessman-born president has a huge support camp.
“See you in Washington, D.C. on January 6th!” Trump tweets Dec 28, 2020 to his supporters to join a protest rally in Washington, D.C., refusing to acknowledge the election results. Four days later, on New Year’s Day 2021, Trump tweeted another “teaser”: At 11 a.m. on January 6, Washington will hold a “large protest rally”.
January 6, 2021 is the day when the two houses of the United States Congress hold a joint meeting to count the electoral votes, and it is also the last chance for Trump to “turn the tables” in law. Although the opportunity of “reversal” is slim, this may become the driving force for Trump supporters to continue.
The mood is like a roller coaster.
Dunn, who was supposed to witness the counting process overnight on “election night” on November 3, 2020, saw Trump grabbing votes in the first few hours of the election, and went to sleep for three hours at ease. After waking up at 2 a.m. the next day, he found that everything was still expected. He deliberately put on a red coat representing the Republican Party and watched Trump’s speech on the East Wing of the White House in front of the TV: “Frankly, we have won the election.”
On the morning of November 4, Dunn was planning a celebration with his friends, when Biden caught up with votes in several swing states, and Michigan “turned blue” later that day, and the red area on the election map gradually narrowed.
“It’s mean Wayne County again.” Dunn said that he had “predicted that there would be problems in the county’s vote count”. Detroit (Note: Detroit is located in Wayne County) had a “voting geek” in the 2016 election. At that time, the district recovered more votes than the blank votes issued, “this time it was repeated”.
Biden gained 330,000 more votes than Trump in Wayne County, Michigan, helping him win the key swing state, CNN reported. Trump’s lawyer Giuliani accuses the election of “fraud” at a press conference on November 19, 2020, and pointed to Wayne County. The next day, Trump also invited the Republican Michigan House leaders to the White House for a “secret meeting”, and speculation was that Trump might ask the Republican-controlled state legislature to appoint voters.
Dunn and a group of Tea Party members began to contact data engineers around after the Michigan tally were announced, hoping to find evidence of the state’s voting system was falsies.” We are fighting election fraud to let the legislature know the truth about Michigan.” In mid-November last year, an American with a doctorate from MIT named Shiva Ayyadurai tweeted a video claiming that he had found illegal software operations that interfered in election voting through research.
“We are deeply encouraged by Dr. Shiva’s discovery.” Dunn retweeted Shiva’s views on social media, which was identified as unconfirmed controversial information by Facebook (Facebbok). His account was blocked for one month since November 26, but Dunn immediately applied for a new account to continue to be active on social media.
At this time, the U.S. government has begun the process of power transition, which exacerbates Dunn’s anxiety. He discussed with many Republican voters how to find a more efficient way to overthrow Michigan’s election results.
Michigan lawyer Anne Vanker proposed to launch an online joint petition called “Stop Stealing the Election”, calling on the state legislature to thoroughly investigate election fraud and reconsider the results of the vote count.
Dunn seems to see a glimmer of hope. He sends emails to members of the Tea Party Patriots, calling for more attention to the petition and completing the target of 40,000 signatures as soon as possible.
However, as of Christmas Day, the cumulative number of signatures was less than 10,000, and Dunn blamed it on “RINO” (Republican In Name Only, which means “Republican in name only”, which is a derogatory term used by Republican conservatives).
“We’re not going to give up, looking forward to January 6th.” Dunn said he could not go to Washington for physical reasons to participate in the protest rally, but would pay close attention to social media.
January 6th “Last Fight”
After the election, Trump repeatedly claimed fraud in the 2020 presidential election without conclusive evidence and launched a series of lawsuits, most of which have been rejected by the court.
The Trump campaign filed another complaint with the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Pennsylvania election results, which set the date of the lawsuit on January 22, 2021, which means that Biden will swear on January 20. The ruling will not be made until after taking office.
Although many Republicans have admitted that Biden won the election, Trump still does not admit defeat. Last week, he repeatedly tweeted to call on supporters to go to Washington to protest the rally on January 6.
Trump’s quest to expand protest demonstrations could spark dangerous riots, with many right-wing extremists even armed with guns, straining the Pentagon, according to an analysis of NBC’s report at the end of last year.
Last month, Trump supporters and opponents clashed violently in Washington, D.C., and four people were stabbed.
In addition to the out-of-side solidarity of supporters, the confrontation between members of the Senate and the House of Representatives in Congress is another “battleground” of the Trump camp.
The Washington Post commented on December 30 last year that Trump pinned his hope in the last move that the joint congressional meeting to count voters on that day (January 6) may turn into a forum for accusing election fraud.
According to CNN’s previous news, on December 31, 2020, US President Trump, who is on vacation in Florida, ended his vacation early and returned to Washington, D.C.
In an interview with CNN, several relevant people said that Trump has been in “angry” during the holiday. He has repeatedly raised the upcoming congressional count of electoral votes to members of Congress and other aides and lobbied senators against it.
According to the U.S. Constitution, if any member of the Senate and the two houses of Representatives raises a negative challenge (to the election results) on January 6th, it will trigger debate and vote in both houses. In the House of Representatives, many Republicans have confirmed that they will challenge.
On December 30, 2020, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri became the first senator to confirm that he would challenge the election results on January 6. On January 2, 11 more Republican senators and elected senators announced that they would oppose the outcome of President-designate Biden when voting in the Congress certified electoral college.
Another focus on January 6 is the current Vice President Pence, who, as the President of the Senate, will preside over a joint meeting of both houses of Congress on January 6 to officially confirm Biden’s victory in the U.S. presidential election.
The role of the vice president at the meeting was largely ceremonial, but there are still many Republican allies and “Trump fans” who want Pence to come forward to overthrow the election results.
Texas Rep. Louis Gomert also launched a lawsuit with other Republicans aimed at giving Vice President Pence the legal authority to overturn the result of “Biden’s election victory” at the meeting on the 6th. However, the lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge on January 1.
Pence’s position is thought-provoking. On the one hand, Pence, the “defendant” of the above-mentioned lawsuit and the object of the plaintiff’s attempt to expand power, asked the judge to reject the “living legal paradox” lawsuit. On the other hand, according to CNN, Pence seems to be supportive of the action that lawmakers will oppose the certification of the results of the U.S. election at the meeting on the 6th.
“Pence shares millions of Americans’ concern about fraud and irregularities in the U.S. election just past, and the vice president welcomes efforts by members of the House and Senate to use their statutory powers to raise objections and evidence,” Pence’ chief of staff, Mark Short said in a statement to CNN.
“What Pence should do for Trump, even if it’s in vain, but at least try to show the unyielding character of the Republicans.” On the Twitter page of voters Howard in Seattle, Washington, there is a tweet about the right-wing extremist underground organization “QAnon” – “Everyone is the leader of Q, or is related to Q”.
The followers of “Q Anonymous” are mostly loyal supporters of Trump and believe in conspiracy theories. According to the New York Times, believers of Anonymous Q believe that “pre-Trump and after Reagan presidents have belonged to a criminal gang that has collude with bankers and heads of state”.
Howard does not deny that he believes in the Anonymous Q argument, but he claims to be not a real follower, but a Trump supporter. Regarding the election results, he said: “I’m disappointed, but I’m not surprised. Biden knows he’s lost, but he’s still going to pretend to win, hoping he’s covering everything up and never getting caught.”
Howard, who regarded the mainstream media in the US as an accomplice to “election fraud”, questioned the purpose of the reporter’s dialogue with him twice in an interview with The Paper. “I am sensitive because I care about this election. This result is about the future of the country, and you don’t care.” When talking about the next U.S. election, he pessimistically believes that Trump can only seize the opportunity of January 6.
“Once he hands over power this time, he can’t make a comeback again, and the conspiracy ‘Deep State’ will not let him enter the White House again.” Note: Deep government is a conspiracy theory that refers to the factual rulers outside the elected government, and the secret groups composed of the army, bureaucrats, consortia, political groups, etc. control the country.)
When Trump is about to become the “past tense”
As the transition of power in the U.S. government progressed, Trump seems to gradually fade away from sight. During the Christmas holiday, he was photographed playing golf at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, many times, and the presidential agenda released by the White House emphasized that “President Trump will continue to tirelessly work for Americans during the holiday”.
As Trump leaves office closer and closer, some of his supporters are beginning to return to reality. Box (alias), a 27-year-old black American youth interviewed by The Paper on the eve of this election, was in trouble after the election.
Although he also insisted on supporting Trump, repeatedly saying that “Biden cheated in the election and the election results should be overthrown”, he was obviously not as enthusiastic about everything about Trump as he had two months ago, refusing to answer questions related to American politics, but focusing more about his livelihood.
Five months before the election, Box knocked door-to-door in North Carolina to canvass for Trump. He also claimed that he had lost his job because of his support for Trump.
He has been out of work for more than three months, unable to pay the rent, and currently lives in a friend’s house on loan.” I was fired for supporting Trump and now I’m going to sue that company, they can’t do that.” Box told The Paper that he recently launched an online crowdfunding, hoping that Trump supporters would donate money to make him a living and pay lawyer’s fees to file a lawsuit.
“I don’t regret supporting Trump, he is the greatest president in American history.” Box said that he would support Trump whenever he ran for president again.
In fact, Trump once hinted at future plans. According to the Capitol Hill, at the Christmas reception held at the White House last December 1, Trump said: “We have had a wonderful four years. Now we are trying to work for another four years, or we will see you again in four years.
“How many people can choose Trump in four years? I don’t think it’s optimistic. Li Jie (alias), a Chinese who has lived in Atlanta, Georgia for more than 20 years, voted for Trump in the election two months ago.
“To be precise, I don’t want to vote for either Trump and Biden. Their political performance is terrible, but Trump’s administration may make the economy better.”
