Hurting democracy
Trump’s obsession with his election defeat has caused him to largely abandon his duty.
More than six weeks after ballot counts confirmed his election loss and a full week after the Electoral College certified those results, President Trump’s stubborn refusal to concede is turning into something more dangerous for the American people.
Reports over the weekend by the New York Times, CNN and the Wall Street Journal said that Trump oversaw a meeting on Friday in which the possibility of imposing martial law and using the military to force an election do- over, a seditious proposal that retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn had floated during an appearance on a conservative news channel, was discussed.
Trump denied such a discussion took place, a disavowal that would be easier to accept if the president hadn’t already personally pressured state officials to take the unprecedented action of overturning an election that has been confirmed through the legal process at every step.
Trump’s obsession with his election defeat has caused him to largely abandon his duty of serving the nation as president, recklessly ignoring a devastating spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths and downplaying a dangerous cyberattack on the federal government and American industry that Trump’s own senior officials say almost certainly came from Russia.
This is no time for America to be without competent and engaged leadership. If the president refuses to do it, members of his Republican Party must repudiate the unproven claims of widespread voting fraud, uphold their constitutional duties in seeing that the results of the election are enforced and work to assure that the transition to President- elect Joe Biden’s administration goes quickly and smoothly.
This is not about party or politics but about protecting the American people from a deadly pandemic and a foreign attack on the computer infrastructure that supports our daily lives through government and industry.
To that end, there are encouraging signs from some top Trump administration officials that the president’s worst impulses will not be indulged.
Outgoing Attorney General William Barr told the Associated Press on Monday that he saw “no reason” to appoint a special counsel to look at possible election fraud or for the ongoing tax investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter.
In a direct contradiction to the wild claims of Trump and his attorneys, Barr had earlier said that investigations by the Department of Justice had uncovered no evidence of widespread voting fraud.
He said on Monday that the investigation into Hunter Biden’s financial dealings was “being handled responsibly and professionally.” Appointing a special counsel would have pushed the probe into the political realm where Trump and attorney Rudy Giuliani have tried to implicate President- elect Biden.
That Barr, who was appointed by Trump and has a solid history as a conservative Republican and as a Trump loyalist, has made the decisions should be a signal to others about the shallowness of the president’s claims.
In the same way, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement to a conservative radio show host last week that “we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians” who were behind the vast cyberattack on the United States should also carry considerable weight as the incoming administration and Congress decide how to respond.
Trump’s almost immediate rebuttal — he sent a tweet saying, “Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because Lamestream is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of ... discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!)” — was highly irresponsible and sadly only too familiar.
Even worse, Trump downplayed the severity of the massive cybersecurity breach by saying “everything is well under control” even as experts said it “will take years to overcome.”
It is good to see Pompeo, another Trump appointee who is seen as staunchly loyal to the president, providing the American people with the truth even though it pits him against his boss.
It also is promising to see Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urging his colleagues to avoid a senseless challenge to the Electoral College results when Congress receives them on Jan. 6.
His motives may be more political than pure, and there is no doubt he waited too long to pour water on Trump’s out- of-bounds claims, but at least McConnell is refusing to engage in another shameless scheme to overturn a legal election and the will of the people.
Trump is trying to undermine our democracy in ways no other president has ever done. It is time for real leaders to step up, affirm the Constitution and protect the country.