GOP leaders must urge acceptance, call out the lies
We knew he would do this.
We knew Donald Trump would put up a cage fight to stay in the White House, kicking, slinging, clinging — even frantically filing away at American electoral confidence like a prisoner trying to escape the iron bars of accountability.
Accountability came anyway. Joe Biden on Saturday was declared the next president. But Trump refused to concede, vowing to continue his baseless crusade in the courts Monday.
He started inventing irregularities and peddling conspiracy theories of a Democratic coup before the first ballot was cast, certainly long before results from battleground states began to shrivel his prospects.
Hours after polls closed, he illegitimately declared victory, proclaimed states’ handling of the election “a major fraud on this nation” and later urged on Twitter that officials “STOP THE
COUNT.”
His continued obstinance Saturday isn’t fleeting bluster or New York City fronting; it’s the desperate clawing of a man being rudely awakened from his megalomaniacal delusions.
It’s dangerous, and could provoke violence or a constitutional crisis, in a country that’s already a tinderbox of partisan division. Philadelphia police arrested two armed men Thursday night who were allegedly heading to the city’s convention center where ballot counting has been under withering criticism from Trump and his allies. On Friday, county elections officials in Phoenix were assigned security details.
This fight is what some voters love about Trump, so they’re joining in. They exaggerate minor hiccups, spread fears about widespread software glitches that were actually isolated human errors, and brazenly invent conspiracy theories about pro-Trump ballots sabotaged by Sharpies, stymied by corrupt counting operations and diluted by supposed dead Democrats voting.
There’s no evidence of any of this.
That hasn’t stopped Trump’s son from vowing to fight every court battle “to the death.” And when he took to Twitter Thursday demanding Republican senators join the mosh pit of misinformation, many obliged. Sen. Ted Cruz, no doubt weighing his own presidential prospects in 2024, leaped head first.
The human brain is famously bad at detecting deception, in part because we are wired to trust. We are not wired to watch on national television as a U.S. senator looks into the camera and attests to bald-faced lies.
A few Republicans pushed back to varying degrees, including Chris Christie, Marco Rubio and Mitt Romney. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey called Trump’s claims “disturbing,” Texas’ outgoing Rep. Will Hurd called them “dangerous & wrong” and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger declared “this is getting insane.”
Cruz, meanwhile, entered Sean Hannity’s alternative universe on Fox Thursday
night and branded Philadelphia’s count “lawless.”
Hannity pushed him to declare Pennsylvania’s election so fraudulent only a total “revote” would suffice. Cruz didn’t bite but happily parroted that Philly Democrats had stolen the election: “Every time they close the door and shut out the lights, they always find more Democrat votes.”
Of course they find more Democrat votes; Philly hasn’t backed a Republican for president since 1932. As for mail ballots, they’re benefiting Democrats in part because Trump discouraged his supporters from using them — perhaps to make it easier to discredit them now.
Trump voters watching at home must think there’s some kernel of truth to these accusations. Why else would Cruz argue so vehemently? For the same reason he’s defending the presidency of a man he once called a “pathological liar.” Politics.
Four years ago, Pennsylvania voters chose Trump. Neither he nor other Republicans blasted those votes as fraudulent. But as soon as his lead began to dwindle there this time around, Trump dismissed the entire state of Pennsylvania as “all part of a corrupt Democrat machine.” A Philadelphia Inquirer fact check quickly noted that vote counts are run by counties, many of which are controlled by Republicans.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, appearing deeply grateful to Trump’s help in securing his re- election, went on Hannity and offered a $500,000 donation to Trump’s legal defense. He called allegations of post- election wrongdoing
“earth-shattering,” and proclaimed that “Philadelphia elections are crooked as a snake.”
You’d think the vote count in the Keystone State was being run like a Watergate break-in rather than a bustling assembly line under the bright lights of a convention center, peopled by diligent workers in bright yellow safety vests. Cruz described votes being counted under a “shroud of darkness,” while slithering Democrats carried out their coup.
If revolution is afoot at the Philadelphia Convention Center, it’s not only being televised — it’s being livestreamed on YouTube. Tune in anytime.
As for the court fight, it isn’t about whether Trump representatives could observe, but how many could observe at one time and how far they should stand from the action — 20 feet or 6 feet.
Even Trump lawyers conceded in court that the campaign had been granted access, prompting U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond, a George W. Bush appointee, to ask: “I’m sorry, then what’s your problem?”
Trump’s allies also have alleged shenanigans in Nevada, another Democratled state, and in Detroit, where poll workers placed cardboard over windows.
Detroit City Attorney Lawrence Garcia told CNN that some, not all, windows were covered to stop members of the public from photographing confidential voter information.
It’s unclear what malfeasance Trump will allege in Arizona and Georgia, two Republican-led states where cries of sabotage are not so easily believed.
Then again, maybe there’s nothing some Trump loyalists won’t believe. Trump once boasted he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose a vote. Maybe he was right. His disastrously irresponsible handling of a global pandemic exacerbated its spread in America, where 235,000 people have died. Yet his base has stood by him.
Trump’s appeal is clear. But elections measure votes. Biden has been right to urge calm and patience as election workers have done their duty to deliver fair, accurate counts of legally cast ballots.
Republican officials must urge their voters to accept the results of this election and call out Trump’s nonsense. Such patriotism is likely beyond the capacity of Cruz, who sold out long ago for a few flakes of Trump’s good graces.
But U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, fresh from a 10-point victory over his well-funded Democratic challenger, surely can afford to push back against the president’s fabrications, his fear-mongering and his debilitating attack on Americans’ faith in the sanctity of their vote.
Of course, results as close as the ones in Georgia, Philadelphia and Wisconsin invite strict scrutiny — just as they did four years ago when they went in favor of Trump. Where the law provides, automatic recounts should be held. Glitches, errors and other irregularities should be promptly reported and if possible, corrected.
Trump has every right to demand an accurate count, but that insistence is night-and-day different from repeatedly shouting that the system is corrupt. Surely, Republican leaders can conjure enough love for this great country, enough hope for its unity, enough confidence in its democratic institutions, to stand up to a man who would sell them all for four more years of raw power and beautiful delusion.
Wake up, leaders. The real fraud in this country is not the American voters. It is the man trying to subvert their will for his own.