Professor: Recount wouldn’t change result

Alejandra Yañez | THE RIDER

A UTRGV professor says the demand for a vote recount by President Donald Trump is “utterly pointless” given the lead former Vice President Joe Biden holds in the election to become the next U.S. president.

Democrat Biden is the apparent winner of the presidential race with 76,193,905 votes over incumbent Republican Trump’s 71,350,307 as of 8:32 p.m. today, according to the Associated Press.

Biden has earned 290 electoral votes, compared to Trump’s 214, the news organization reported.

North Carolina and Alaska were leaning toward Trump, with 99% and 58% of the votes in, respectively, and Georgia was leaning toward Biden with 99% of the results in.

“The outcome was anticipated, so there’s nothing unexpected about Biden’s victory,” said UTRGV political science Associate Professor Daniel Chomsky. “It was delayed unnecessarily, given that the evidence of his victory was absolutely apparent well beforehand. It’s striking though that even in this moment, when his victory is readily apparent, that the charges and insinuations on the election are still in doubt, given that the insinuation is not based on any credible evidence.”

Chomsky said it is striking to him that the Republican Party is refusing to acknowledge the loss.

“As a result, we’re in a situation where we have a newly elected president and the Republican Party is acting as if it hasn’t happened,” he said. “And it’s a pretty difficult moment, things are going on, the coronavirus is rampaging out of control and we have no leadership in Washington. So, it’s a scary moment.”

Asked if he believes that a recount will be necessary, Chomsky replied, “The Trump administration is preparing to have a recount, but it seems to me utterly pointless. The margin substantially is not at all close.”

He said even the states that appear to be contested are not actually that close.

“There are a large number of states where Biden is ahead, or the winner, if you contested it in any one of those states it would not throw the election over to Trump and most of the states aren’t even that close,” Chomsky said. “So Pennsylvania was expected to be, and in some sense turned out to be, the key to putting Biden over the top. Biden’s gonna win by tens of thousands of votes. There is no plausible recount that will change that result.”

He said a recount would be pointless given the amount that Biden won by.

“We’re going through this process because Trump himself is unwilling to admit his defeat and the Republican Party is unwilling to compel him to recognize it,” Chomsky said. “And so because of that situation we’re gonna go through this utterly pointless time-consuming process before we get to the inevitable results.”

Asked for his thoughts on Kamala Harris becoming the first female vice president in U.S. history, he replied that it was long past due.

Chomsky said ultimately “women and minorities still will face all types of obstacles in life and the simple fact of [a female vice president] isn’t gonna change that.”

Chomsky was asked what he believes Trump will do during his last months in office.

“Apparently he’s gonna make groundless accusations,” he said. “He’s gonna spend a lot of time doing that. Spend a lot of time playing golf. What he isn’t going to do is anything constructive towards addressing our crisis at the moment [COVID-19] or seeking to preserve the legitimacy of the American institution. In fact he’s gonna do the reverse.

“His entire public life has been trying to destroy the institution of government to promote his own cause and he will continue to do that until people stop listening to him. He will use every opportunity to destroy the institution so that he can claim that he is still president and so that he can continue to claim the loyalty of his supporters and to continue to influence the politics in the Republican Party and in the nation.”

Asked what he anticipates will be Biden’s approach to fighting COVID-19, Chomsky replied, “Biden is essentially a conservative. He’s not going to do much about anything but with regard to the coronavirus he has some gestures towards policy that might make a difference on the margin.”

He said Biden will encourage responsible behavior, wearing masks and may take steps to increase the flow of necessary [COVID-19]equipment across the nation.

“These are somewhat constructive gestures, I don’t think they’re going to mean a whole lot,” he said. “The one thing he will try to do but it’s not clear he’ll be able to do, ’cause he’ll need support from the Senate, which will likely remain in the Republicans’ hands, is to provide a further stimulus program that will protect people who’ve seen catastrophic economic outcome as a result of the loss of economic activity.”