Trump faces wider inquiry on vote fixing

A federal investigator has issued subpoenas to officials in three US states for communications with Donald Trump over interference in the 2020 election outcome.

Donald Trump has refused to concede the 2020 election, and called for the ‘termination’ of the US constitution so he could become president again. Picture: AFP

A federal investigator has widened his inquiry into election interference by Donald Trump in 2020 in a fresh blow to the former president after his Senate candidate in Georgia was defeated.

Jack Smith, the special counsel and a former war crimes judge, issued subpoenas to officials in the swing states of Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin for all their communications with Mr Mr Trump over a scheme to change the outcome of the 2020 election.

In Georgia, Herschel Walker, a novice candidate chosen by Mr Trump, was rejected in the final race of the midterm elections to give Democrats a 51 to 49 majority in the US Senate. Mr Walker delivered a concession speech, unlike Mr Trump, in which he urged his supporters to “continue to believe in the constitution and … our elected officials”.

Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker delivers his concession speech as his wife Julie Blanchard and former football player Doug Flutie look on in Atlanta, Georgia. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump has refused to concede the 2020 election, and called for the “termination” of the US constitution so he could become president again.

Mr Smith was brought back from The Hague to lead two investigations into Mr Trump – one on the retention of “classified documents and other presidential records” and another into “whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with a transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election”.

He appears to be looking wider than the storming of the US Capitol on January 6 last year, by asking for communications between state officials and Mr Trump aides, including Mr Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, his campaign manager Bill Stepien and his adviser Boris Epshteyn.

Mr Smith does not appear to have contacted Georgia, where the district attorney in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, is holding a separate investigation into the activities of Mr Trump and his allies over the 2020 election.

Voters on Tuesday backed Raphael Warnock, a Baptist pastor, to retain his Senate seat for the Democrats by 51.4 per cent to 48.6 per cent, with a few votes still to be counted.

Mr Walker’s defeat is another flop by a novice candidate promoted by Mr Trump, after several other fumbles in Senate seats and races to be governor. For the first time since 1934, the party of the president did not lose a Senate incumbent in the midterms, usually when the opposition makes gains.

Democrats picked up a seat in Pennsylvania last month, to change the 50-50 split in the Senate of the past two years.

Mr Warnock, 53, who last year became the first black senator elected from Georgia, paid tribute to his mother in his victory speech.

“She grew up in the 1950s … picking someone else’s cotton and someone else’s tobacco,” he said. “But tonight she helped pick her youngest son to be a United States senator.”

Mr Warnock condemned the “forces trying to divide our country”. He compared the fight against Republican efforts to suppress the vote in Georgia to the struggle of civil rights leaders.

“Our ballot is a blood-stained ballot,” he said. “We stand on the shoulders of the martyrs. You can’t lead the people unless you love the people. You can’t love the people unless you know the people. And you can’t know the people unless you walk among the people.”

Mr Walker, 60, was beset by scandals. He was accused of hiding the existence of three children, and two former girlfriends alleged that he had pressured them to have abortions. They said they came forward because of Mr Walker’s policy to oppose abortion, even in cases of incest or rape.

Mr Walker told supporters to believe in the elected officials. “Most of all, continue to pray for them,” he added. “Don’t let anyone separate you.”

On his Truth Social network, Mr Trump posted: “OUR COUNTRY IS IN BIG TROUBLE. WHAT A MESS!”

The midterms were the most successful for any Democratic president since John F. Kennedy in 1962, who had a 62 per cent approval rating, 20 points more than President Joe Biden. Picture: AFP

Populist’s golden touch fails him where it matters most

Commentary by David Charter

Donald Mr Trump has an impressive success rate in endorsing Republican candidates but, as the Georgia Senate race showed, he failed where it really mattered.

Overall, 85 per cent of Mr Trump’s choices – 215 out of 254 – won in the midterm elections, the Ballotpedia website suggests. In the key seats, however, he backed losers.

Most of his choices were in safe Republican seats but of the 36 most competitive House races, as determined by the independent Cook Political Report, Mr Trump endorsed a candidate in only five – and they all lost. In the four most competitive Senate races – Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania – all four of his candidates lost. These swing states and districts are the territory on which the national outcome of US elections depends.

For only the fourth time in a century, the party of the president did not suffer a net midterm loss in the Senate. The midterms were also the most successful for any Democratic president since John F. Kennedy in 1962, who had a 62 per cent approval rating, 20 points more than President Joe Biden.

Against a background of record inflation and wide dissatisfaction, the only conclusion is that something went badly wrong with Republican campaign strategy.

Herschel Walker was perhaps Mr Trump’s most disastrous protege.

Mr Trump is the only declared 2024 presidential candidate so far. He will be hard to beat in a primary contest but there is every sign he would lose the election as he did in 2020.

– The Times