Trump supporters are calling for Walmart’s boycott policy

It is the United States of America. It’s 2020. And with that being the case, it is not surprising that a tweet accidentally sent leads to accusations of offending millions. There have also been allegations of forced labor and calls for a boycott of the world’s largest valuable retailer. Yes, that escalated rapidly.

So the incident is also a small political picture of morality, in which one can read something about the state of American democracy the day before the new year. Unfortunately.

so what happened

It all started with a message from Republican Senator Josh Hawley on the short message service Twitter. In it, a Missouri man announced resistance to the official reading of the results of the presidential election to Congress on January 6. Democrat Joe Biden won the vote against Trump.

Then Walmart’s official Twitter account replies to Hawley’s message. A little rude, he says, “Do it. Have a two-hour debate.” Added “#SchlechtVerlierer” as a hashtag. This message will be deleted after a short time. Walmart apologizes: “The tweet was mistakenly posted by a member of our social media team who wanted to publish this comment on his personal account.”

So it would have been good. But: USA, 2020. And so it continues.

Senator Hawley has now begun attacking Walmart. Also on Twitter.

The company “insulted 75 million Americans”. It means all Trump voters – most of whom have certainly not heard the tweet being mistakenly rejected. And because the USA and 2020, that’s not enough for him: Hawley accuses the company of using slave labor. Besides, he was paying low wages. In fact, like other major retailers in the US, Walmart pays much more than the statutory minimum wage. Whether this is sufficient can be discussed in a mixed manner.

But: USA, 2020. So:

The accident spreads quickly on social networks. Supporters of the US president in particular, who seem to believe his unfounded claims about election fraud, are furious. Many users misuse Walmart and use the keyword “#boycottwalmart” to avoid doing business with the company. OK

Hawley’s work is legally questionable

what’s left? Hope for 2021. Although he fears Trump will refuse to admit defeat next year as well. Without proof, he claims to have been defeated by widespread scams. Courts, including the US Supreme Court, have dismissed more than 50 lawsuits from the Trump camp so far.

However, Trump will not be able to prevent the presidential election results of individual states from being formally counted and announced at the US Congress session on January 6. Only then is the official who won the election. Namely, Joe Biden. By several million votes.

Despite this, there have long been plans among Trump Republicans in the House to challenge the reading. According to the law, in order to compel both chambers to deliberate on the election result, there must be objections from at least one deputy and one senator. With the participation of Hawley, which was heavily criticized by Republicans, this requirement will be met. This measure, completely without evidence of electoral fraud and perhaps also at least constitutionally worthy of criticism, is likely to only delay reading the election results. The tweet that was sent in error appears to be related to this. Sent on the penultimate day of 2020. In Divided States of America.

With materials from dpa.