Will GOP enable Trump’s treasonous behavior or protect our democracy?
As President Donald Trump tries to subvert our nation’s electoral system, conservative Republicans must decide whether they want to enable his treasonous behavior or stand up for the country’s democracy.
Trump’s hourlong conversation Saturday with Georgia’s secretary of state should shock the conscience of any American. The president, who lost Georgia by 11,779 votes, pressed Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” and Trump suggested legal consequences if Raffensperger didn’t comply. It was election tampering.
This after two recounts in Georgia affirmed the state’s results and an audit of more than 15,000 random voter signatures didn’t find a single fraudulent absentee ballot. Across the country, Trump has lost nearly 60 court cases seeking to overturn the election and has failed to demonstrate any of the widespread voter fraud he has claimed.
Meanwhile, he has tried unsuccessfully to pressure Republican officials in swing states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin and Georgia, to block the results. Even after Electoral College members cast their votes.
Joe Biden’s win over Trump was decisive, 306-232. There is no doubt that Biden won the election. And Trump lost.
Yet on Saturday, with Congress scheduled to affirm the election results on Wednesday, Trump tried again to alter the outcome in a key state — to subvert the will of the electorate. His recorded conversation Saturday was stunning proof of how far he is willing to go.
It’s shameful behavior, unprecedented in the history of a country that prides itself on a peaceful transfer of power. Trump will not succeed, but his lies about the election outcome will have a corrosive effect for years to come on public confidence in our democracy and election system.
Sadly, he’s not alone. For Congress’ largely ceremonial count of the electoral votes on Wednesday, in a session presided over by Vice President Mike Pence, at least 12 Repub
lican senators and 140 GOP members of the House vow to try to block official certification of the Biden victory.
It will be a futile, yet enormously damaging, protest rife with ugly partisanship that demonstrates disdain for our country’s democratic traditions and a willingness to foment chaos for political gain.
The president has called for mass demonstrations in the capital to protest his defeat. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, after losing a lawsuit trying to give Pence authority to throw out the votes of Democratic electors, suggested “violence in the streets” might be the only option to block a Biden presidency. He later walked back the comment.
Fortunately, some members of the GOP have spoken up in opposition to such destructive tactics. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has discouraged the insurrection. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking Republican in the House, called the move “exceptionally dangerous.” Sen. Susan Collins of Maine warned that the effort “undermines the public’s faith in the integrity of our elections.”
There’s no longer a way to finesse this. The time has passed for stroking Trump’s ego and sidling up to him for political support. Republicans must choose whether they want their party to be one of insurrection or a participant in a democracy that has endured for more than two centuries.