Efforts to reclaim the US Presidential mantle continue, with Donald Trump stating on Sunday morning that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be leading his legal efforts to challenge and overturn the poll results. Poll watchers had declared the results in Joe Biden's favour over a week ago. Despite this, Trump and his team have refused to concede and even continues to prep for a second term in office.
The President alleges foul play, and in multiple Twitter tirades, has alleged that it is he who had actually won the elections, prompting Twitter to keep flagging a rather disturbing number of posts by one of the most powerful people in the world, repeatedly reminding users that Trump's claims vary from other official accounts and that they are 'disputed'. His latest post, which remains untouched by Twitter's censorship, indicates that the President will not be letting the issue go any time soon.
"I look 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!" he tweeted.
For the unitiated, Giuliani has been Trump's attorney in recent years. His tenure however has been tainted with allegations of corruption and profiteering, and had even been under scrutiny during the Ukraine debacle that saw President Trump be impeached.
More recently, he had made headlines after holding a press conference in the parking lot of a Philadelphia landscaping business. Standing in the shadow of a sex shop and a crematorium, just down the road from a state prison, Giuliani called a disgruntled poll watcher to the microphone to discuss the "shenanigans" in the city. Political observers tuning in from nearby Trenton, New Jersey, immediately recognised the man as a convicted sex offender and perennial candidate for office.
In the meantime, the legal battle for President however is not going great. Recently, a law firm leading the Trump campaign case in Pennsylvania seeking to have nearly 2.65 million mail-in ballots thrown out has withdrawn from the case. In related incidents, lawyers from the Trump campaign have withdrawn separately from a a lawsuit in Arizona, conceding that the case would not affect enough votes to change the poll outcome. In Michigan, for the third time, a judge refused intervene in the state's count.
And while Trump insists repeatedly that there has been widespread voter fraud, a Pennsylvania court hearing earlier this week had seen a judge asked a campaign lawyer whether he had found any signs of fraud from among the 592 ballots challenged in that particular lawsuit. The answer was no.
This is also not an isolated case.
In another head-scratching moment, as the campaign tried to stop the vote count in Philadelphia last week, a judge tried to get to the bottom of a Republican complaint over observer access in the room where election workers were processing mail-in ballots. "I am asking you as a member of the bar of this court, are people representing the Donald J. Trump for president (campaign) . in that room?" U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond asked. "There's a nonzero number of people in the room," campaign lawyer Jerome Marcus replied.
Not everyone is however convinced, and many fervent supporters of President Donald Trump rallied in Washington on Saturday behind his spurious claim of a stolen election and swarmed his motorcade when he detoured for a drive-by on his way out of town.
(With inputs from agencies)
