Jean-Jacques Cornish

Is Donald Trump backing out of the US Presidential election?

It was just a matter of time.

President Donald Trump must have been deadly serious about wanting to postpone the U.S. election on November 3. 

After all, he tweeted about it.

This is the first concrete indication he has given us that he fears he cannot beat Joe Biden.

If it were not delaying the poll, then it would have been – could still be – a health scare.

Donald Trump cannot lose the election.

The more we learn about the  sort of person the voters put in the White House, the more we know is that he simply cannot lose.

The latest debacle came as I completed the book by his niece “Too Much And Never Enough”.

Mary Trump says she wrote it to stop her uncle ruining her country.

She says analysts make the mistake of calling Donald Trump a narcissist.

She holds that he was driven to full on sociopathy by a monstrous father.

It explains his total estrangement from the truth that we witness daily.

So, it was no surprise that within hours of saying delay the election he made a complete u-turn and said “I want an election.”

He was driven to the surprise rejection of his notion by ,many congressional Republicans, including members of House and Senate leadership.

Mitch McConnel, the Republican leader in the Senate pointed out that the president is not empowered to change the election date.

The Civil War, Great Depression and two world wars has not caused Congress to delay the poll.

The vote will take place on November 7, McConnell insists.

“I think we’ve had elections every November since about 1788, and I expect that will be the case again this year,” says Majority Whip Senator John Thune, a member of Republican leadership. 

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and Trump ally, told CNN when asked about the President’s call to delay the election: “I don’t think that’s a particularly good idea.”

Trump’s call for a delay is based on a lie that postal votes, which will be necessary because of the COVID 19 restrictions, will lead to massive fraud.

There is absolutely no evidence to support this.

Another lie from the President is hardly surprising, but the fact that he is seeking at this stage to delegitimize the election is very worrying indeed.

It looks like he is planning to reject an unfavorable result

Again, no surprise to those, like Mary Trump, who know what he is capable of.

She saved her best punches for the epilogue calling her uncle “a petty, pathetic little man—ignorant, incapable, out of his depth, and lost in his own delusional spin.”

Explaining what she calls his pathological dishonesty she says “the lies may become true in his mind as soon as he utters them, but they’re still lies. It’s just another way for him to see what he can get away with. And so far, he’s gotten away with everything.”

Describing the cruelty meted out to her father Freddy by Trump and his father Fred, Mary believes it explains the callous disregard he shows for the suffering of COVID 19 victims and their families.

“While thousands of Americans die alone, Donald touts stock market gains. As my father lay dying alone, Donald went to the movies. If he can in any way profit from your death, he’ll facilitate it, and then he’ll ignore the fact that you died. 

“The simple fact is that Donald is fundamentally incapable of acknowledging the suffering of others.”

Which brings us to the real American mystery: How did he fool the electorate last time around, and could he possibly manage it again? 

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Jean-Jacques Cornish is a journalist and broadcaster who has been involved in the media all his adult life.

Starting as a reporter on his hometown newspaper, he moved briefly to then Rhodesia before returning to South Africa to become a parliamentary correspondent with the South African Press Association. He was sent to London as Sapa’s London editor and also served as special correspondent to the United Nations. He joined the then Argus group in London as political correspondent.

Returning to South Africa after 12 years abroad, he was assistant editor on the Pretoria News for a decade before becoming editor of the Star and SA Times for five years.

Since 1999 he’s been an independent journalist writing and broadcasting – mainly about Africa – for Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape
Talk, Radio France International, PressTV, Radio Live New Zealand, Business Day, Mail & Guardian, the BBC, Agence France Press,
Business in Africa, Leadership, India Today, the South African Institute for International Affairs and the Institute for Security Studies.

He has hosted current affairs talk shows on Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape Talk. He appears as an African affairs pundit on SABC Africa and CNBC Africa.
He lectured in contemporary studies to journalism students at the Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Pretoria.

He speaks on African affairs to corporate and other audiences.
He has been officially invited as a journalist to more than 30 countries. He was the winner of the 2007 SADC award for radio journalism.

He’s been a member of the EISA team observing elections in Somaliland, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Egypt and Tunsiai.

In October 2009 he headed a group of 39 African journalists to the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Peoples’ Republic of China.

In January 2010 he joined a rescue and paramedical team to earthquake struck Haiti.

He is immediate past president of the Alliance Francaise of Pretoria.

Jean-Jacques is a director of Giant Media. The company was given access to Nelson Mandela in his retirement years until 2009.
He is co-producer of the hour-long documentary Mandela at 90 that was broadcast on BBC in January 2009.