Republicans can’t handle defeat
The Washington Post has reported: ‘‘AttorneyGeneral William Barr told the Associated Press on Tuesday that he has ‘not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election’, undercutting claims that United States President Donald Trump and his allies have made – without evidence – of widespread and significant voting irregularities.’’
Barr also batted down the incoherent and utterly false assertion from Trump’s lawyers that, as he put it during an interview with the Associated Press, ‘‘machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results’’. Clearly, the US attorney-general has come a longway from his efforts to foment the false assertion that voting by mail was inherently vulnerable to fraud. Although somemay feel tempted to praise Barr for acknowledging reality, the critical issue iswhy he so enthusiastically joined Trump’s attempt before November 3 to delegitimise the US election. Moreover, why has he not admonished Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Trump for seeming to put pressure on state election officials to refuse to certify valid results? And why did he appoint a special counsel into the origins of the Russia probe – an outrageously partisan and likely illegalmove that guarantees the investigation will continue into the incoming Biden administration?
Barr apparently needs reminding that, without hope of cover from the president, his hyperpoliticisation of the Justice Department, such as spinning the Mueller report, intervening in the Michael Flynn case, might come under scrutiny in the next administration. A voice of sanity – once more from outside Washington DC – reminds us just how irresponsible congressional Republicans have been by remaining silent about Trump’s efforts to undermine the election.
Georgia voting official Gabe Sterling, a Republican, denounced the president’s behaviour.
Sterling rightly slammed Trump and Republican senators for allowing this circus to take place, resulting in threats of violence against local officials. Republicans may want to delude themselves that their silence does no harm but Sterling effectively explainedwhy this is utterly false.
No valid legal claims remain. Barr confirms there is nothing there. Yet Republicans in Congress, petrified of Trump and his redhatted brigades, hide under their desks – orworse, play along with Trump’s lie that there is some doubt in the outcome.
The result could be deadly. As Ronald Brownstein stated, House minority leader Kevin Mccarthy and Senate majority leader Mitch Mcconnell, both Republicans, are ‘‘abetting Trump’s baseless conspiracy claims with full warning that could be the eventual outcome. It is not like they have not been warned through the proliferation of death threats [against] local election officials.’’
Republicans in the Senate and House – not to mention the lawyers filing baseless lawsuits on Trump’s behalf – must be held accountable.
At the least, the media should cease repeating the claims of voter fraud, which only amplifies justifications for the kind of conduct Sterling denounced.
When Republicans appear for questions from the media, this should be the first and – until they respond – only topic. The incoming attorney-general should order a full review of post-election shenanigans and make recommendations to prevent even the appearance of pressure on local officials and to automatically trigger the presidential transition process when a winner becomes clear.
And Democrats in the Senate need to confront their Republican colleagues on the floor and in hearings. Why are they indulging anti-democratic conspiracies? Why are they not responding to calls to denounce the subversion of the election? Sterling is right: Enough.
Jennifer Rubin is awashington Post columnist
Republicans in Congress ... play along with Trump’s lie.