All About Faithless Electors

 

Everything You Wanted To Know About Faithless Electors But Were Afraid To Ask

 As we all know, the electoral college is undemocratic and should be abolishes. You also know that treasonous criminal Donald Trump lost the 2016 presidential election by over 2 million votes but won the rigged electoral vote. Had the members of the electoral college been moral and patriotic they would not have cast their vote for treasonous criminal Trump but instead cast their votes for one of the patriotic candidates. The following article discusses faithless electors.

List of the electoral college electors  DOX THEM!

In United States presidential elections, a faithless elector is a member of the United States Electoral College who does not vote for the presidential or vice presidential candidate for whom they had pledged to vote. That is, they break faith with the candidate they were pledged to and vote for another candidate, or fail to vote. A pledged elector is only considered a faithless elector by breaking their pledge; unpledged electors have no pledge to break.

Electors are typically chosen and nominated by a political party or the party's presidential nominee: they are usually party members with a reputation for high loyalty to the party and its chosen candidate. Thus, a faithless elector runs the risk of party censure and political retaliation from their party, as well as potential legal penalties in some states. Candidates for elector are nominated by state political parties in the months prior to Election Day. In some states, such as Indiana, the electors are nominated in primaries, the same way other candidates are nominated.^[2] In other states, such as Oklahoma, Virginia, and North Carolina, electors are nominated in party conventions. In Pennsylvania, the campaign committee of each candidate names their candidates for elector (an attempt to discourage faithless electors). In some states, high-ranking and/or well-known state officials up to and including governors often serve as electors whenever possible (the Constitution prohibits federal officials from acting as electors, but does not restrict state officials from doing so). The parties have generally been successful in keeping their electors faithful, leaving out the rare cases in which a candidate died before the elector was able to cast a vote.

There have been a total of 165^[3] instances of faithlessness as of 2016, 63 of which occurred in 1872 when Horace Greeley died after Election Day but before the Electoral College convened. Nearly all have voted for third party candidates or non-candidates, as opposed to switching their support to a major opposing candidate. During the 1836 election, Virginia's entire 23-man electoral delegation faithlessly abstained^[4] from voting for victorious Democratic vice presidential nominee Richard M. Johnson.^[3] The loss of Virginia's support caused Johnson to fall one electoral vote short of a majority, causing the vice presidential election to be thrown into the U.S. Senate for the only time in American history. The presidential election itself was not in dispute because Virginia's electors voted for Democratic presidential nominee Martin Van Buren as pledged. The U.S. Senate ultimately elected Johnson as vice president after a party-line vote.

The United States Constitution does not specify a notion of pledging; no federal law or constitutional statute binds an elector's vote to anything. All pledging laws originate at the state level;^[5][6] the U.S. Supreme Court upheld these state laws in its 1952 ruling Ray v. Blair. In 2020, the Supreme Court also ruled in Chiafalo v. Washington that states are free to enforce laws that bind electors to voting for the winner of the popular vote in their state.^[7]

Legal rulings

The constitutionality of state pledge laws was confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1952 in Ray v. Blair^[8] in a 5–2 vote. The court ruled states have the right to require electors to pledge to vote for the candidate whom their party supports, and the right to remove potential electors who refuse to pledge prior to the election. The court also wrote:^[8]

However, even if such promises of candidates for the electoral college are legally unenforceable because violative of an assumed constitutional freedom of the elector under the Constitution, Art. II, § 1, to vote as he may choose [emphasis added] in the electoral college, it would not follow that the requirement of a pledge in the primary is unconstitutional.

— U.S. Supreme Court, Ray v. Blair, 1952

The ruling only held that requiring a pledge, not a vote, was constitutional and Justice Jackson, joined by Justice Douglas, wrote in his dissent:^[8]

No one faithful to our history can deny that the plan originally contemplated what is implicit in its text – that electors would be free agents, to exercise an independent and nonpartisan judgment as to the men best qualified for the Nation's highest offices.

One recent legal scholar believes "a state law that would thwart a federal elector’s discretion at an extraordinary time when it reasonably must be exercised would clearly violate Article II and the Twelfth Amendment".^[9]

Chiafalo v. Washington and Colorado Department of State v. Baca

Main article: Chiafalo v. Washington

As of 2020, 33 states plus the District of Columbia have laws against faithless electors, though the laws in half of these jurisdictions have no enforcement mechanism.^[10] Washington became the first state to fine faithless electors after the 2016 election. In lieu of penalizing a faithless elector, some states such as Colorado, Michigan, and Minnesota specify a faithless elector's vote be voided.^[11] Colorado was the first state to void an elector's attempted faithless vote during the 2016 electoral college vote. Minnesota also invoked this law for the first time in 2016 when an elector pledged to Hillary Clinton attempted to vote for Bernie Sanders instead.^[12] Until 2008, Minnesota's electors cast secret ballots. Although the final count would reveal the occurrence of faithless votes (except in the unlikely case of two or more changes canceling out), it was impossible to determine which elector(s) were faithless. After an unknown elector was faithless in 2004, Minnesota amended its law to require public balloting of the electors' votes and invalidate any vote cast for someone other than the candidate to whom the elector was pledged.^[13]

After the 2016 election, electors who attempted to switch their votes in Washington and Colorado were subjected to enforcement of their state's faithless elector laws. The electors received legal assistance from the non-profit advocacy group Equal Citizens founded by Lawrence Lessig. The Colorado case, Baca v. Colorado Department of State, was initially dismissed by the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. On appeal, the 10th Circuit ruled in August 2019 that Colorado's faithless elector law is unconstitutional.^[14] Specifically, the opinion held that electors have a constitutional right to vote for the presidential candidate of their choice and are not bound by any prior pledges they may have made. The opinion said the act of voting for president in the electoral college is a federal function not subject to state law and state laws requiring electors to vote only for the candidates they pledged are unconstitutional and unenforceable. On October 16, 2019, Colorado appealed the 10th Circuit's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.^[15][16]

The decision conflicted with an earlier May 2019 decision by the Washington Supreme Court In re Guerra,^[17] in which three electors who had $1000 fines imposed on them for violating their pledges appealed the fines, which were upheld. In contrast to the Colorado case, the Washington court held that presidential electors are state officials under the control of state law and can be criminally punished by a state if they do not vote as they pledged. On October 7, 2019, these electors also appealed their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.^[18][19]

On July 6, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in both Chiafalo v. Washington and Colorado Department of State v. Baca that states may enforce laws to punish faithless electors.^[20][21]

History

Over 58 elections, 165 electors have not cast their votes for president or vice president as prescribed by the legislature of the state they represented.^[3] Of those:

• 71 electors changed their votes because the candidate to whom they were pledged died before the electoral ballot (in 1872 and 1912).
• 1 elector chose to abstain from voting for any candidate (in 2000).
• 93 were changed typically by the elector's personal preference, although there have been some instances where the change may have been caused by an honest mistake.

Usually, faithless electors act alone, although on occasion a faithless elector has attempted to induce other electors to change their votes in concert, usually with little if any success. One exception was the 1836 election, in which all 23 Virginia electors acted together, altering the outcome of the electoral college vote but failing to change the outcome of the overall election. The Democratic ticket won states with 170 of the 294 electoral votes, but the 23 Virginia electors abstained in the vote for vice president, meaning the Democratic nominee, Richard M. Johnson, got only 147 votes, exactly half of the electoral college (one short of being elected). Johnson was subsequently elected vice president by the U.S. Senate.

List of faithless electors

The following is a list of all faithless electors (in reverse chronological order). The number preceding each entry is the number of faithless electors for the given year.

2016

Main article: Faithless electors in the 2016 United States presidential election

10 – 2016 election: In Washington, Democratic party electors gave three presidential votes to Colin Powell and one to Faith Spotted Eagle^[22] and these electors cast vice-presidential votes for Elizabeth Warren, Maria Cantwell, Susan Collins, and Winona LaDuke. In Hawaii, Bernie Sanders received one presidential vote and Elizabeth Warren received one vice-presidential vote. In Texas, Christopher Suprun voted for John Kasich for president and another elector voted for Ron Paul, giving each one presidential vote. Suprun also voted for Carly Fiorina as vice president while the other elector voted for Mike Pence as pledged.^[23]

In addition, three other electors attempted to vote against their pledges, but had their votes invalidated. In Colorado, Kasich received one vote for president, which was invalidated.^[24] Two additional electors, one in Maine and one in Minnesota, cast votes for Sanders for president but had their votes invalidated; the elector in Maine was forced to cast a vote for Clinton, while the elector in Minnesota was replaced by one who cast a vote for Clinton. The same Minnesota elector voted for Tulsi Gabbard for vice president, but had that vote invalidated and given to Tim Kaine.

2000 to 2004

1 – 2004 election: An anonymous Minnesota elector, pledged for Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards, cast his or her presidential vote for "John Ewards" [sic],^[25] rather than Kerry, presumably by accident.^[26] All of Minnesota's electors cast their vice presidential ballots for John Edwards, including the elector who cast the anomalous presidential vote. Minnesota's electors cast secret ballots, so the identity of the faithless elector is not known. As a result of this incident, Minnesota statutes were amended to provide for public balloting of the electors' votes and invalidation of a vote cast for someone other than the candidate to whom the elector is pledged.^[13]

1 – 2000 election: Washington, D.C. Elector Barbara Lett-Simmons, pledged for Democrats Al Gore and Joe Lieberman, cast no electoral votes as a protest of Washington D.C.'s lack of voting congressional representation.^[27] Lett-Simmons's electoral college abstention, the first since 1864, was intended to protest what Lett-Simmons referred to as the federal district's "colonial status".^[27] Lett-Simmons described her blank ballot as an act of civil disobedience, not an act of a faithless elector; Lett-Simmons supported Gore and would have voted for Gore if she had thought he had a chance to win.^[27]

1968 to 1996

1 – 1988 election: West Virginia Elector Margarette Leach, pledged for Democrats Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen, instead cast her votes for the candidates in the reverse of their positions on the national ticket as a form of protest against the winner-take-all custom of the Electoral College; her presidential vote went to Bentsen and her vice-presidential vote to Dukakis.^[28]

1 – 1976 election: Washington Elector Mike Padden, pledged for Republicans Gerald Ford and Bob Dole, cast his presidential electoral vote for Ronald Reagan, who had challenged Ford for the Republican nomination. He cast his vice presidential vote, as pledged, for Dole.^[29]

1 – 1972 election: Virginia Elector Roger MacBride, pledged for Republicans Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, cast his electoral votes for Libertarian candidates John Hospers and Tonie Nathan. MacBride's vice-presidential vote for Nathan was the first electoral vote cast for a woman in U.S. history.^[30]

1 – 1968 election: North Carolina Elector Lloyd W. Bailey, pledged for Republicans Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, cast his votes for American Independent Party candidates George Wallace and Curtis LeMay. Bailey later stated at a Senate hearing that he would have voted for Nixon and Agnew if his vote would have altered the outcome of the election.^[31]

1912 to 1960

1 – 1960 election: Oklahoma Elector Henry D. Irwin, pledged for Republicans Richard Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., contacted the other 218 Republican electors to convince them to cast presidential electoral votes for Democratic non-candidate Harry F. Byrd and vice-presidential electoral votes for Republican Barry Goldwater. Most replied they had a moral obligation to vote for Nixon, while Irwin voted for Byrd and Goldwater. Fourteen unpledged electors (eight from Mississippi and six from Alabama) also voted for Byrd for president, but supported Strom Thurmond for vice president – since they were not pledged to anyone, their action was not faithless.^[32]

1 – 1956 election: Alabama Elector W. F. Turner, pledged for Democrats Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver, cast his votes for Judge Walter Burgwyn Jones and Herman Talmadge, the former Governor of Georgia.^[32]

1 – 1948 election: Tennessee Elector Preston Parks was a candidate to be an elector for both the Democratic Party candidate, Harry S. Truman, and the States' Rights Democratic Party candidate, Strom Thurmond. Though the national Democratic Party won the election, Parks had actively campaigned for Thurmond and he voted for Thurmond and Fielding L. Wright.^[32]

8 – 1912 election: the Republican vice-presidential candidate, James S. Sherman, died six days before the popular election. The Republicans had won only two states, Utah and Vermont, and Nicholas M. Butler was hastily designated to receive the eight electoral votes that were pledged to Sherman. All eight Republican electors accordingly voted for Butler for vice president.^[3]

1872 to 1896

27 – 1896 election: The Democratic Party and the People's Party both ran William Jennings Bryan as their presidential candidate, but ran different candidates for vice president: the Democratic Party nominated Arthur Sewall and the People’s Party nominated Thomas E. Watson. Although the Populist ticket did not win the popular vote in any state, 27 Democratic electors cast their vice-presidential vote for Watson instead of Sewall.^[33]

1 – 1892 election: An elector from Oregon pledged to vote for Benjamin Harrison voted for the third-party Populist candidate James B. Weaver.^[34]

63 – 1872 election: Horace Greeley, the Liberal Republican/Democrat nominee, died on November 29 shortly before the Electoral College vote in December. Three electors voted for the deceased Greeley as pledged, while the other 63 electors pledged to Greeley voted for other persons, with 18 of them casting their presidential votes for Greeley's running mate, Benjamin Gratz Brown, and the remaining 45 scattering their presidential votes among three non-candidates. The three posthumous presidential votes cast for Greeley were rejected by Congress.^[35]

1812 to 1840

1 – 1840 election: One elector from Virginia, Arthur Smith of Isle of Wight County, was pledged to vote for Democratic candidates Martin Van Buren for president and Richard M. Johnson for vice president; however, he voted for James K. Polk for vice president.^[36]

23 – 1836 election: The 23 electors from Virginia were pledged to vote for Democratic candidates Martin Van Buren for president and Richard M. Johnson for vice president. However, they refused to vote for Johnson because of his open liaison with a slave mistress and voted instead for Senator William Smith of South Carolina, which left Johnson with 147 electoral votes, one short of a majority. Johnson was subsequently elected vice president after a contingent election in the Senate.

30 – 1832 election: All 30 electors from Pennsylvania refused to vote for the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Martin Van Buren, voting instead for William Wilkins.^[3]

7 – 1828 election: Seven of the nine electors from Georgia refused to vote for vice-presidential candidate John C. Calhoun; they instead cast their vice-presidential votes for William Smith.^[3]

1 – 1820 election: William Plumer was pledged to vote for Democratic-Republican presidential candidate James Monroe, who was not contested for re-election, but he instead cast his vote for John Quincy Adams, who was not a candidate in the election. Some historians contend Plumer wanted George Washington to be the only unanimous selection, or that he wanted to draw attention to his friend Adams as a potential candidate. These claims are disputed.^[32] Plumer also cast his vice-presidential vote for Richard Rush, not Daniel D. Tompkins as pledged.

3 – 1812 election: Three electors pledged to vote for Federalist vice-presidential candidate Jared Ingersoll instead voted for Elbridge Gerry.^[3]

Before 1812c

6 – 1808 election: Six electors from New York were pledged to vote for Democratic-Republican James Madison for president and former New York governor George Clinton for vice president. Instead, they voted for Clinton for president, with three voting for Madison for vice president and the other three voting for James Monroe for vice president.^[3]

19 – 1796 election: Samuel Miles, an elector from Pennsylvania, was pledged to vote for Federalist presidential candidate John Adams, but voted for Democratic-Republican candidate Thomas Jefferson. He cast his other vote as pledged for Thomas Pinckney; there was no provision at the time for specifying president or vice president. An additional 18 electors voted for Adams as pledged, but refused to vote for Pinckney.^[37] This was an attempt to foil Alexander Hamilton's rumored plan to elect Pinckney as president, and this resulted in the unintended outcome that Adams' opponent, Jefferson, was elected vice president instead of Adams' running mate, Pinckney. This was the only time in U.S. history that the president and vice president have been from different parties, except for 1864 (although in that year, while the president and vice president were from different parties, they ran on one ticket from the same third party), and the only time the winners were from different tickets. After the 1800 election resulted in a deadlock, the Twelfth Amendment was ratified in 1804. It changed the election procedure so that instead of casting two votes of the same type, electors would make an explicit choice for president and vice president.

What is the Electoral College?

State Laws and Requirements

List of Electors Bound by State Law and Pledges, as of November 2000
Source:  Congressional Research Service

The Office of the Federal Register presents this material for informational purposes only, in response to numerous public inquiries. The list has no legal significance. It is based on information compiled by the Congressional Research Service. For more comprehensive information, refer to the statutory provisions provided.

• For a discussion of this topic, see "Must electors vote for the candidate who won their State's popular vote?" in the Electoral College FAQ

---

No Legal Requirement
Electors in these States are not bound by State Law to cast their vote for a specific candidate:

ARIZONA - 10 Electoral Votes ARKANSAS - 6 Electoral Votes DELAWARE - 3 Electoral Votes GEORGIA - 15 Electoral Votes IDAHO - 4 Electoral Votes ILLINOIS - 21 Electoral Votes INDIANA - 11 Electoral Votes IOWA - 7 Electoral Votes KANSAS - 6 Electoral Votes KENTUCKY - 8 Electoral Votes LOUISIANA - 9 Electoral Votes MINNESOTA - 10 Electoral Votes

MISSOURI - 11 Electoral Votes NEW HAMPSHIRE - 4 Electoral Votes NEW JERSEY - 15 Electoral Votes NEW YORK - 31 Electoral Votes NORTH DAKOTA - 3 Electoral Votes PENNSYLVANIA - 21 Electoral Votes RHODE ISLAND - 4 Electoral Votes SOUTH DAKOTA - 3 Electoral Votes TENNESSEE - 11 Electoral Votes TEXAS - 34 Electoral Votes UTAH - 5 Electoral Votes WEST VIRGINIA - 5 Electoral Votes

---

Legal Requirements or Pledges
Electors in these States are bound by State Law or by pledges to cast their vote for a specific candidate:

ALABAMA - 9 Electoral Votes

Party Pledge / State Law - § 17-19-2

ALASKA - 3 Electoral Votes

Party Pledge / State Law - § 15.30.040; 15.30.070

CALIFORNIA - 55 Electoral Votes

State Law - § 6906

COLORADO - 9 Electoral Votes

State Law - § 1-4-304

CONNECTICUT - 7 Electoral Votes

State Law § 9-175

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - 3 Electoral Votes

DC Pledge / DC Law - § 1-1312(g)

FLORIDA - 27 Electoral Votes

Party Pledge / State Law - § 103.021(1)

HAWAII - 4 Electoral Votes

State Law - §§ 14-26 to 14-28

MAINE - 4 Electoral Votes

State Law - § 805

MARYLAND - 10 Electoral Votes

State Law - § 20-4

MASSACHUSETTS - 12 Electoral Votes

Party Pledge / State Law - Ch. 53, § 8, Supp.

MICHIGAN - 17 Electoral Votes

State Law - §168.47 (Violation cancels vote and elector is replaced).

MISSISSIPPI - 6 Electoral Votes

Party Pledge / State Law - §23-15-785(3)

MONTANA - 3 Electoral Votes

State Law - §13-25-104

NEBRASKA - 5 Electoral Votes

State Law - § 32-714

NEVADA - 5 Electoral Votes

State Law - § 298.050

NEW MEXICO - 5 Electoral Votes

State Law - § 1-15-5 to 1-15-9 (Violation is a fourth degree felony.)

NORTH CAROLINA - 15 Electoral Votes

State Law - § 163-212 (Violation cancels vote; elector is replaced and is subject to $500 fine.)

OHIO - 20 Electoral Votes

State Law - § 3505.40

OKLAHOMA - 7 Electoral Votes

State Pledge / State Law - 26, §§ 10-102; 10-109 (Violation of oath is a misdemeanor, carrying a fine of up to $1000.)

OREGON - 7 Electoral Votes

State Pledge / State Law - § 248.355

SOUTH CAROLINA - 8 Electoral Votes

State Pledge / State Law - § 7-19-80 (Replacement and criminal sanctions for violation.)

VERMONT - 3 Electoral Votes

State Law - title 17, § 2732

* VIRGINIA - 13 Electoral Votes

State Law - § 24.1-162 (Virginia statute may be advisory - "Shall be expected" to vote for nominees.)

WASHINGTON - 11 Electoral Votes

Party Pledge / State Law - §§ 29.71.020, 29.71.040, Supp. ($1000 fine.)

WISCONSIN - 10 Electoral Votes

State Law - § 7.75

WYOMING - 3 Electoral Votes

State Law - §§ 22-19-106; 22-19-108

Second Biden Trump Debate Fact Check

 

Coronavirus

Trump: Coronavirus is 'going away'

Trump claimed the virus is going away. "We're rounding the corner. It's going away," Trump said.

Facts First: This is false. The US coronavirus situation -- as measured by newly confirmed cases, hospitalizations and the test positivity rate -- is getting worse, not better. There is no basis for his vague claim that we are "rounding the corner."

Trump has baselessly claimed for eight months that the virus would disappear or was currently disappearing.

Trump: 2.2 million people were initially expected to die from coronavirus

Trump claimed 2.2 million people were "expected to die."

Facts First: This is false.

Trump is likely citing a report posted in March by scholars from the Imperial College in London that predicted that a total of 2.2 million Americans could die from Covid-19 if no preventative measures were installed on any level of society.

In other words, that would be the loss of lives if no action were taken at all to mitigate it.

The report did not analyze what would happen if just the federal government took no action against the virus but rather what would occur if there were absolutely no "control measures or spontaneous changes in individual behavior."

Trump: Biden called him "xenophobic" following travel restrictions on China

"When I closed and banned China from coming in ... he was saying I was xenophobic, I did it too soon," Trump said.

Facts First: This needs context.

It's not clear the former vice president even knew about Trump's China travel restrictions when he called Trump xenophobic on the day the restrictions were unveiled; Biden has never explicitly linked his accusation of xenophobia to these travel restrictions.

Biden's campaign announced in early April that he supports Trump's travel restrictions on China. But the campaign did not say the former vice president had previously been wrong about the ban, much less apologize. Rather, the campaign says Biden's January 31 accusations -- that Trump has a record of "hysterical xenophobia" and "fear mongering" -- were not about the travel restrictions at all.

The campaign says Biden did not know about the restrictions at the time of his speech, since his campaign event in Iowa started shortly after the Trump administration briefing where the restrictions were revealed by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

Given the timing of the Biden remarks, it's not unreasonable for the Trump campaign to infer that the former vice president was talking about the travel restrictions. But Biden never took an explicit position on the restrictions until his April declaration of support.

-- Holmes Lybrand

Trump: He was 'kidding' when he suggested injecting bleach

Biden attacked Trump on comments he made over disinfectants and the coronavirus.

"What did the President say? He said don't worry, it's going to go away. Be gone by Easter. Don't worry...Maybe inject bleach," Biden said. "He said he was kidding when he said that but a lot of people thought it was serious."

Trump replied that he "was kidding on that."

Facts First: This is false. There was simply no indication that Trump was being anything less than serious when he made comments in April in which he wondered if it would be possible for people to inject disinfectants to fight Covid-19. The next day he claimed he was being sarcastic.

During an April 23 press briefing, Trump expressed interest in exploring the possibility of "injection inside or almost a cleaning" with disinfectants.

Here's what he said: "[T]hen I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it'd be interesting to check that, so that you're going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me."

The next day Trump claimed he was "asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen."

Read a longer fact check here.

-- Daniel Dale and Holmes Lybrand

Russia

Trump: Biden received $3.5 million from Russia

Trump claimed that Biden received $3.5 million from Russia and that it "came through Putin because he was very friendly with the former mayor of Moscow, and it was the mayor of Moscow's wife. You got $3.5 million. Your family got $3.5 million."

Facts First: This is false.

Trump was seemingly trying to raise an allegation previously made against Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, but there's no connection to Joe Biden.

Hunter Biden also denies the allegation he received $3.5 million. Hunter Biden's lawyer, George Mesires, told CNN that Hunter Biden was not an owner of the firm Senate Republicans allege received the $3.5 million payment in 2014.

A partisan investigation conducted by Senate Republicans, whose report was released this month, alleged that Elena Baturina, a Russian businesswoman and the wife of late Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, sent $3.5 million in 2014 to a firm called Rosemont Seneca Thornton, and that the payment was identified as a "consultancy agreement." The report did not provide any further details about the transaction.

Hunter Biden was a co-founder and CEO of the investment firm Rosemont Seneca Advisors. But Mesires said Hunter Biden did not co-found Rosemont Seneca Thornton. It's not clear what connection exists between Rosemont Seneca Advisors and Rosemont Seneca Thornton.

Neither the Senate report nor Trump have provided any evidence that the payment was corrupt or that Hunter Biden committed any wrongdoing.

-- Jeremy Herb

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

Borat Brutally Pranks Pedophile Rudy Guiliani

 

Caught in shocking 'Borat 2' bedroom scene with young woman, Rudy Giuliani claims he's the victim: 'Everybody in Hollywood hates me'

Kevin Polowy

·Senior Correspondent, Yahoo Entertainment

Wed, October 21, 2020, 5:34 PM EDT

Editor’s note: There are major Borat 2 spoilers ahead below.

The latest October surprise erupted on Wednesday and came courtesy of an unexpected source: Borat provocateur and prankster Sacha Baron Cohen.

Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and personal lawyer to President Trump, became the focus of the news cycle after being caught on film in a shocking and compromising scene in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Cohen’s new sequel to his subversive 2006 breakout mockumentary, Borat.

Rudy Giuliani. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In one of the film’s final stunts, Borat’s daughter, Tutar (Maria Bakalova), poses as a reporter for a fake far-right news outlet called Patriots Report, which has somehow wangled an on-camera interview with Giuliani at a New York City hotel.

Tutar gushes over the controversial politician, displaying faux nervousness over meeting “one of her greatest heroes.” There’s a flirty undertone to their whole exchange — along with an undeniable creepiness — and at one point the pair offers a toast with what appears to be whisky. Though there doesn’t appear to be anyone else from a video crew present in the hotel suite, Cohen does at one point crash the interview, posing in disguise as a sound technician, but Giuliani clearly doesn’t recognize the comedian before he exits.

The interview itself is inflammatory: “China manufactured the virus and let it out, and they deliberately spread it around the world,” says Giuliani, embracing a disproven internet conspiracy theory.

Sacha Baron Cohen and Maria Bakalova in 'Borat 2.' (Amazon Prime)

But then the situation becomes more fraught: Bakalova, whose character, Tutar, is oft-referred to as being only 15 years old, leads Giuliani into an adjacent bedroom. Giuliani suggests Bakalova give him her phone number and address as they remove each other’s microphones. Guiliani pats Bakalova on the waist. Then, lying on his back on the bed, Giuliani lowers his hand into his pants as Bakalova stands nearby.

At that point, Cohen comes crashing back into the room — this time wearing a wig and women’s undergarments. “She’s 15, she’s too old for you!” Cohen yells.

Giuliani quickly bolts, calling to his security detail in the hallway. “Rudy, Trump will be disappointed. You are leaving hotel without golden shower,” Cohen shouts after him.

Although the scene was filmed months ago, Giuliani appeared on New York’s WABC radio and claimed his inclusion in the movie was in retaliation for the unconfirmed story that he delivered to the New York Post last week claiming Joe Biden’s son Hunter was involved in shady business dealings.

“I had to take off the electronic equipment,” Giuliani said. “And when the electronic equipment came off, some of it was in the back and my shirt ... came a little out, although my clothes were entirely on. I leaned back, and I tucked my shirt in, and at that point, at that point, they have this picture they take which looks doctored, but in any event, I’m tucking my shirt in. I assure you that’s all I was doing.”

“They’ll do anything. They’ve attacked me over everything possible, investigated every business dealing I’ve ever had,” he said. “And now the idiot Borat is going after me with a totally sensationalized false account of a ridiculous movie I guess that he’s done.

“Now let me tell you why I know this is a hit job that happens because it’s not an accident that it happens when I turn in all this evidence on their prince and darling Joe Biden, who’s one of the biggest crooks in the last 30 years, and since I have the courage to say that, I’m the target.”

Giuliani subsequently took to Twitter to profess his innocence — though he has not explained why he followed Bakalova into the bedroom, patted her waist, asked for her personal information or lay down on his back.

The To Catch a Predator moment is perhaps the most stunning in a film that has an abundance of them, from Cohen ordering a cake frosted with the Charlottesville cries of “Jews will not replace us” to persuading QAnon adherents in Washington state to let him stay in their house to turning up dressed in full Ku Klux Klan regalia at the Conservative Political Action Conference where Vice President Mike Pence is speaking.

Reviews for Borat 2 — which have been mostly positive — began being published Wednesday morning, but word of the scandalous Giuliani scene quickly dominated social media.

Among the biggest outstanding questions: Did Giuliani know the age of the reporter he was speaking to? (Although she was playing a teenager in the film, Bakalova is 24 in real life, according to IMDb.) And why did Giuliani’s team agree to do an interview with an unverified news outlet in the first place? (Giuliani said in the radio interview that he thought the outlet was “legitimate.”)

Back in July, Giuliani spokeswoman Christianné Allen suggested in a series of tweets that they had “foiled Sacha Cohen’s attempted scam-interview, ultimately ending in a stupefied Cohen.”

Allen, apparently unaware of her boss’s bedroom activities caught on film, added in subsequent tweets: “Cohen barged onto the set screaming hysterically while wearing a multi-colored bikini with a mesh sash.

“Un-fooled and placid, Mayor Giuliani notified security to call the police. It was then, upon hearing the word police, Cohen turned from a screaming banshee into a fleeing hyena. I hear he was last seen running down the street in his bathrobe. Better luck next time, Sacha!”

In his radio interview on Wednesday, Giuliani reiterated that his team called the police on Cohen. The former mayor also portrayed himself as the victim. “Everybody in Hollywood hates me, you know, right?” he said. “I’m a devil in Hollywood. Nothing about me comes out in that period of time, nothing sensational about me in the movie. Now all of a sudden there’s all this sensational stuff about me in the movie. Don’t know if it was added, doctored, manipulated, whatever.

“I was fully clothed at all times.”

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm premieres Friday on Amazon Prime.

Watch the trailer:

Read more on Yahoo Entertainment:

• Sacha Baron Cohen’s ‘Borat’ Sequel Lands at Amazon Prime Video

• Giuliani’s daughter on Biden endorsement: 'Maybe I could be the other October surprise'

• 'Borat 2' is officially on the way after a summer of surprise Sacha Baron Cohen sightings

COVID-19 Cases Georgia vs Japan an Example of Hedonism, Gluttony, and Fattitude vs Altruism, Good Citizenship, and Social Responsibility

 Georgia is a shit hole state full of undesirable shit hole people whereas Japan is desirable place to live full of desirable people.

The population of Georgia is 10.5 million people. The population of Japan is 125 million people. 

As of day 220 Georgia had 342,482 COVID-19 cases while Japan had 81,055 cases. Georgia has been under counting COVID cases since the beginning. Given Georgia's record of sleaze I suspect that the actual number of cases in Georgia is over 500,000 and will exceed 2 million.

Below are some pictures of Japanese women and some nasty Southern sows. Fat slobs generally have no impulse control and they rarely consider the feelings or well being of other. Fat mothers feed their piglets the same slop they eat because they don't care about anything more than the hedonistic pleasure the derive from their hedonistic piggy kibble. 

 

Undercount of COVID deaths in Georgia means full effects ...

https://www.ajc.com/news/undercount-covid-deaths...

Georgia is now following new death-reporting guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC told states to count not just confirmed cases but also probable cases,...