Texas Republicans should declare independence from Trump
Texas Republicans need to face facts: Joe Biden is going to become the next president.
It’s been two and a half weeks since Biden was declared the winner, and few of the state’s Republicans leaders have acknowledged this outcome even though Biden won 306 electoral votes and this week saw his vote tally exceed 80 million, a record.
Granted, no one would expect a ferocious partisan such as U.S. Sen Ted Cruz to send the former vice president a congratulatory fruit basket. And U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, given his position as Senate majority whip, is unlikely to publicly break with outgoing President Donald Trump even as the latter continues to make baseless claims about voter fraud and insist that he won.
But really, what are they waiting for?
“Obviously, the outcome is becoming increasingly clear,” Cornyn said on Monday, after being collared by reporters outside an Austin food bank.
That was an understatement, on his part.
Trump’s team has been dealt dozens of setbacks in court and in the key swing states that Biden won, as state and local officials of both parties defended the integrity of their electoral processes — which are being questioned only by the president and his most loyal supporters.
And on Monday afternoon, Emily Murphy, the head of the General Services Administration, finally wrote Biden to explain that her office is ready to begin the formal transition process.
While she said she reached the decision independently, Trump seemed to step on that message in a subsequent tweet.
“Our case STRONGLY continues, we will keep up the good fight, and I believe we will prevail!” Trump tweeted. “Nevertheless, in the best interest of our Country, I am recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with
regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same.”
This wasn’t a concession, but it’s probably as close as we can expect from a president who has sought to define himself as a winner throughout his career in politics, business and entertainment.
Meantime, Biden has been calmly going about his business as presidentelect, this week announcing his picks of several seasoned public servants for Cabinet posts. And the number of Republicans who have publicly recognized the reality at hand is growing each day.
“Since it seems apparent that Joe Biden will be the president- elect, my hope is that President Trump will take pride in his considerable accomplishments, put the country first and have a prompt and orderly transition to help the new administration succeed,” said retiring U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican.
“I congratulate President- elect Biden and Vice President- elect Kamala Harris on their victory,” said U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania.
There is a certain value in such statements, given that Trump’s false assertions about rampant voter fraud are leaving many of his supporters with the impression that this election was stolen from them — and, as a result, leaving Americans on both sides of the aisle with qualms about how we can move forward as a nation.
To continue to support Trump, and the hapless legal challenges still being essayed by his small and fractious legal team, is to take a certain amount of reputational risk. Trey Trainor, the chairman of the Federal Election Commission, recently learned as much after jumping into the fray on behalf of attorney Sidney Powell, who was briefly working to advance the president’s erroneous claims about “rigging” and such.
“Having practiced law for almost 2 decades as a member of the State Bar of Texas, I’ve never known fellow TX lawyer @SidneyPowell1 to be anything but forthright and honest in every case she’s ever taken on,” Trainor tweeted Nov. 16.
“If she says there is rampant voter fraud in #Election2020, I believe her.”
Within days, the Trump campaign issued a statement disavowing any formal association with Powell, whose conspiratorial claims had even crossed some kind of line by their standards.
A better approach is the one modeled by U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, a Republican from Fort Worth who serves as ranking member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and won a 13th term in Congress earlier this month.
In an interview with CNN last week, Granger said that she has “great concerns” about the president’s obstinate attitude, and hoped that he would be realistic.
“I think that it’s time to move on,” Granger told CNN last week. “I think it’s time for him to really realize and be very clear about what’s going on.”
Was that so hard? It doesn’t seem like it.
Granger has not been the recipient of a mean tweet from Trump, and is now free to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday without being heckled by any self-righteous constituents — or pestered by her own conscience.
It’s time for other Texas Republicans to avail themselves of the blessings of liberty, and declare their independence from Trump as he approaches his post-presidency.