Don’t want to frighten people, but we may see ‘surge upon surge

4 min readNov 29, 2020

He also charged news media and social media companies with ignoring what he said was the worst political scandal in American history, and alleged, again with no evidence, that ballots were requested in the names of dead people, and that “many mailmen are in trouble for selling ballots.” He accused two leading Republicans in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, of failing to properly administer the election. “I’m sorry I endorsed him,” Trump said of Kemp.[See also: “Georgia secretary of state, ‘a Republican through and through,’ defends the integrity of his state’s election — and his own]President Donald Trump drives a golf cart as he plays golf at Trump National Golf Club, Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020, in Sterling, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Trump at Trump National Golf Club on Saturday. (Alex Brandon/AP)
The almost-hour-long interview was a series of similarly brazen claims, with Bartiromo egging him on and echoing his most extreme pronouncements.

On Saturday night, the Washington Post published an extensive account of Trump’s failed mission to overturn the election through litigation in the states he narrowly lost. The paper documented how Trump spurned former allies to surround himself in a bubble of loyalists willing to placate him with a scattershot of fringe conspiracy theories claiming he won.

“He spent part of Thanksgiving calling advisers to ask if they believed he really had lost the election,” the Post reported, citing a person familiar with the calls.

President-elect Joe Biden speaks at The Queen theater, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President-elect Joe Biden speaks in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Though Trump continues to deny the reality of his loss, his administration finally took a step last week to fund Biden’s transition efforts. The president’s staff, the Post and other outlets reported, convinced him that taking that bureaucratic step did not amount to a concession.

He has continued to declare the election a scam even as a series of judges — many appointed by Republicans, himself included — dismissed his lawsuits as baseless. On Saturday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed out a Republican lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of the Keystone State’s election.

“They make it like we don’t have evidence. We have evidence all over the place,” Trump insisted Sunday. He went on to complain that some of his own team’s lawyers were threatened — “psychologically and otherwise” — into resigning from the effort.

At the interview’s close, Trump implied that he would not be conceding the election to Biden even after his successor enters the Oval Office.

“It’s not like you’re going to change my mind. In other words, my mind will not change in six months,” he said.

A worker wear a protective face shield walks between portable units set up for registration and testing at a New York City Health + Hospitals COVID-19 testing site in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
A worker walks between portable units set up for registration and testing in New York City. (Kathy Willens/AP)
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s foremost infectious disease expert, said Sunday that Americans should be ready for a “surge upon a surge” in the coming weeks. Fauci and other U.S. government experts pointed to the winter holidays.

[See also: “Fauci warns of ‘stunning number of deaths’ from coronavirus”]

“There almost certainly is going to be an uptick because of what has happened with the travel,” Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“We are deeply worried about what could happen post-Thanksgiving,” White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Adams had a similar message, while also offering optimism about coronavirus vaccine candidates. But he said there are steps people can take now to “bridge us to a vaccine” with as few deaths as possible. Those steps include wearing masks and getting tested.

“I want to be straight with the American people: It’s going to get worse over the next several weeks,” he said. “But the actions we take in the next several days will determine how bad it is.

Don’t want to frighten people, but we may see ‘surge upon surge

Written by Bagair