You could be forgiven, amidst the latest incredible vaccine news, for temporarily forgetting that over in the US Donald Trump is still trying to contest an election that he most definitely lost.
In the latest instalment of the bizarre saga, the president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani testified in Michigan on Wednesday that the vote count was deeply flawed and president-elect Joe Biden had not won the state.
His star witness was Mellissa Carone, an IT contractor for Dominion Voting Systems, a company that Trump’s team has accused – without evidence – of tampering with the result which was certified earlier this week.
Slurring her words and constantly interrupting, Carone claimed the record of the official vote numbers “is completely off” by “over 100,000”.
She then repeatedly interrupted panel member Republican Steve Johnson who said there was no evidence of the claims, leading Giuliani to reach over and appear to stop her.
And if that wasn’t enough entertainment, footage from the hearing also appeared to catch a very loud and abrupt fart from Giuliani which caused some incredible side-eye action from Jenna Ellis, the Trump campaign’s senior legal adviser.
Yet despite the comedy value, the continued lies from the Trump campaign and its ongoing attempt to overturn democracy are having serious effects elsewhere.
Death threats are on the rise and local and state election officials are being hounded into hiding, the Associated Press reports.
A Trump campaign lawyer has declared publicly that a federal official who defended the integrity of the election should be “drawn and quartered” or simply shot.
Gabriel Sterling, a Republican election official in Georgia, gave one of the most disturbing press conferences in recent history on Monday as he implored the president to “stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence”.
He then detailed numerous cases of election officials receiving death threats and multiple accounts of harassment.
He said: “My boss, [Georgia secretary of state Brad] Raffensperger, his address is out there. They have people doing caravans in front of their house. They’ve had people come on to their property.
“Tricia, his wife of 40 years, is getting sexualised threats through her cellphone.
“It has to stop.”
Giuliani’s response? Tough beans.
“They’re the ones who should have the courage to step up,” Giuliani said Wednesday in Michigan.
“You have got to get them to remember that their oath to the Constitution sometimes requires being criticised.
“Sometimes it even requires being threatened.”
There is no evidence to support Trump or Giuliani’s claims of widespread voter fraud.
Attorney general William Barr said on Monday the Justice Department has not uncovered any that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
The comments are especially direct coming from Barr, who has been one of the president’s most ardent allies, PA Media reports.
Before the election, he had repeatedly raised the notion that mail-in voter fraud could be especially vulnerable to fraud during the coronavirus pandemic as Americans feared going to polls and instead chose to vote by mail.
Shortly after Barr’s statement was published, Trump tweeted out more baseless claims of voter fraud.
And his attorney Rudy Giuliani and his campaign issued a scathing statement claiming that, “with all due respect to the attorney general, there hasn’t been any semblance” of an investigation.