Intro

Pressure and litigation appear to have been the pillars of President Trump’s response to his general election loss.

His team filed a litany of court cases in battleground states. In some, such as Georgia and Michigan, the president and his allies took an even more bullish approach, attempting to use their influence to bear down on election officials.

As preparations for the transfer of power finally get underway, we take a look at how the Trump campaign’s attempts to overturn the election played out.

Guest: Jim Rutenberg, a writer-at-large for The New York Times and The Times Magazine, walks us through the Trump campaign’s strategy in key states.

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Background reading:

• The Trump administration’s authorization of the transition process is a strong sign that the president’s last-ditch bid to overturn the results of the election is coming to an end. But he has yet to concede the election.
• In a chaotic effort to overturn the election results, the president and his campaign lawyers have spent weeks claiming without convincing proof that rampant fraud corrupted vote tallies in many battleground states.
• These efforts heavily targeted cities with large Black populations.

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