USA TODAY International Edition
Our View: Trump cries fraud, but where’s the proof?
Two days after the election, President Donald Trump stood in the White House claiming that he was cheated out of victory.
“It’s a corrupt system,” he told the nation. “We have so much evidence.”
A week later, it’s reasonable for Americans to ask: Where is it?
The increasingly obvious answer is that the evidence does not exist. There is no proof of any widespread voter fraud, and surely not enough to overturn the results in a single state, much less the three or more states Trump would need to reverse the outcome.
If you don’t believe us, listen to Republican strategist Karl Rove, whose column in The Wall Street Journal carried the headline: “This election result won’t be overturned.”
The president’s dogged refusal to concede and his refusal to allow transition processes for President- elect Joe Biden, as required by law, is tarnishing America’s image as the world’s leading democracy.
Statewide recounts rarely change more than a few hundred votes. And the Trump campaign’s “evidence” of voting fraud or irregularities has been very thin gruel.
On Tuesday, a Pennsylvania judge pressed Trump campaign lawyer Jonathan Goldstein for proof about fraudulent votes: “I am asking you a specific question, and I am looking for a specific answer. Are you claiming that there is any fraud in connection with these 592 undisputed ballots?”
“To my knowledge at present, no,” Goldstein replied.
Lawsuits get tossed out
The scene has been repeated in courts across the states Trump is contesting. Another judge in Pennsylvania was asked to halt vote counting because GOP observers weren’t allowed to view the process. But, in fact, they were allowed to watch.
“Then what’s your problem?” U. S. District Court Judge Paul Diamond asked, before dismissing the request.
Likewise, lawsuits in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada have failed.
Trump allies claimed that 10,000 people voted illegally in Nevada. But the complaint filed only documented one case.
And in perhaps the strongest legal action by Republicans, where they’re contesting a Pennsylvania court decision allowing late- arriving ballots to be counted, the votes at issue are almost certainly far too small to make a difference, considering that Biden is leading by more than 50,000 votes.
The president and his allies promote other claims that fall apart even with cursory examination.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S. C., and Attorney General William Barr each cited a federal postal worker who claims that supervisors tampered with ballots. But the worker subsequently recanted in a sworn statement to investigators. ( He has since recanted his recantation.)
Another witness, one that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani hailed as crucial to proving voter fraud in Pennsylvania, turned out to be a convicted sex offender and a perennial candidate in New Jersey elections.
In fact, the entire thread of Trump’s case for keeping the presidency makes zero sense. Why would Democrats conjure up a scheme that helped their presidential candidate but cost them seats in the House of Representatives and potentially ruined any chance of controlling the Senate?
In reality, the balloting was remarkably smooth given the constraints of record turnout in the middle of a pandemic. International observers gave it high marks. No state election officials reported voter fraud. Nearly 80% of Americans — including half of Republicans — recognize Biden as the winner.
A legislative scheme
What’s left for the embattled incumbent? Trump’s legal team has discussed a scheme to file lawsuits aimed at blocking or delaying states from certifying their votes — a move that would require evidence the lawyers have been unable to produce. Then, so the theory goes, Trump would persuade Republican- led state legislatures in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to appoint alternative electors loyal to Trump. Democratic governors in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin would likely send opposing electors who reflect the true voting outcome. Chaos would ensue, with a potential congressional deadlock over the outcome and the dispute going before the Supreme Court.
The scenario appears far- fetched, but even the effort to subvert the will of the people is corrosive to America’s long tradition of peaceful transfers of power.
Some of the latest reporting suggests that Trump will grudgingly exit office Jan. 20, even as he continues to insist that the election was stolen and talks about running again in 2024. There are hints of sensible softening within Republican ranks of support. GOP Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and James Lankford of Oklahoma said this week that they favor initiating the transition processes for Biden and his team, including intelligence briefings so far denied by the Trump administration.
Trump was a sore winner when he prevailed in 2016, falsely alleging that Hillary Clinton benefited from millions of fraudulent voters, and he’s proving a sore loser in 2020.
Republican leaders have a responsibility to make clear that if he doesn’t have the evidence to show that voting irregularities or fraud cost him the election — and so far, he doesn’t — the nation needs to get on with the historic business of self- government and move gracefully from one leader to the next.