San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
GOP quiet on Trump’s fraud claims
Expert: Officeholders ‘reluctant’ with Biden, as president says he has options
As President Donald Trump and his GOP allies continue to lob false claims of voter fraud in an election that handed the White House to President-elect Joe Biden, many Republicans who emerged victorious in the same cycle are united in their response to Trump’s refusal to concede.
They’re staying silent. Asked about the president’s allegations, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican whose district stretches from San Antonio to Austin and covers a swath of the Hill Country, declined to comment.
“You can reach out tomy comms team,” Roy said, a reference to his communications team. “I’ve got to roll.”
Trish DeBerry, a Republican who won an open seat on the Bexar County Commissioners Court in a traditionally GOP precinct, also declined to comment. So did Tony Gonzales, who defeated his Democratic opponent in Congressional District 23.
Republican state Rep. Steve Allison, who won reelection in House District 121, did not return calls requesting comment, nor did Republican state Rep. Lyle Larson, who was re-elected in District 122.
In a call with reporters Thursday, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, touted his own re-election win this month before saying he did not consider Biden the president-elect.
“He is not president-elect until the votes are certified,” Cornyn said. “So the answer to that is no, and I don’t knowwhat basis you or anybody else would claim that he’s president-elect before the votes are certified and these contests resolved.”
Cornyn added that he saw “no evidence” of widespread voter fraud: “I’mjust saying the process needs to play itself out.”
Many Republican officeholders are declining to acknowledge the reality of Biden’s win out of deference to Trump, said Cal Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University.
“It’s a fascinating thing,” Jillson said. “Most Republicans realize that Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States and he will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, but they’re reluctant to say that because President Trump is adamant that he still has cards to play and a possible route to reelection.”
Since Biden was declared the winner Nov. 7, Trump regularly has unleashed a barrage of tweets alleging “an open and shut case of voter fraud,” calling the election a “HOAX” and touting “a very clear andviablepathtovictory.” His personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and campaign lawyers Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis held a rambling news conference in which they said Trump “won by a landslide,” and theyput forth false conspiracy theories about rampant malfeasance funded by “communist money.”
Among the many wild, unfounded claims, Powell argued that the voting systems used in many states, including thosemade by Dominion Voting Systems, deployed software “created in Venezuela at the direction of Hugo Chávez to make sure he never lost an election.” ButwhileTrumpandhis allies insist that such votes should be thrown out in states that Biden won, Dominion’s products are also certified for use in states that Trump won, such as Florida.
At the same time, Trump has leveled his unfounded allegations of voter fraud only in states Biden won and only in the presidential race, ignoring the many congressional and legislative races on the same Nov. 3 ballot — many of which his fellowRepublicanswon.
The president’s efforts to overturn
election results are extending beyond social media and even the courts, where he has failed repeatedly after state and federal judges tossed numerous lawsuits for lack of evidence. Now, Trump is pressuring Republican officials in Michigan, Georgiaandother states he lost to overturn the will of the voters.
Trump has floated the idea that legislatures could ignore the popular vote and send their own proTrumpdelegations tothe Electoral College next month. Electors will meet Dec. 14 to cast their votes, a process that is, constitutionally, what determines the next president.
Trumpalso reachedoutpersonally to an election official in Michigan who initially refused to certify votes in Wayne County, which includes Detroit. MonicaPalmer and her Republican counterpart on the Wayne County canvass board eventually agreed to certify the votes after a public outcry that their actionswould disenfranchise
Black voters in Detroit, where Biden won nearly 95 percent of the vote.
On Wednesday, after speaking to Trump, Palmer and her GOP counterpart sought unsuccessfully to “rescind” their certification votes.
On Friday at the White House, Trump hosted a group of Republican legislators from Michigan, where Biden leads by about 157,000 votes, in an apparent attempt to subvert the Electoral College process. After the meeting, the officials signaled that they wouldn’t interfere with the certification of the election.
Trump suffered another blow Friday when Georgia’s top election official, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, certified Biden’s victory in the state by more than 12,000 votes, saying that “numbersdon’t lie.” Thecertification now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp, also a Republican, for his signature.
Trump has insisted that Kemp “flip” the result, tweeting at the governor Thursday: “Republicans must get tough!”
The president’s mounting assault on the election results has influenced public opinion — at least among Republican voters. Last week, aMonmouthUniversity poll found that 77 percent of Trump’s supporters believed the election was stolen from the president.
Among them is John Austin, chairman of the Bexar County Republican Party. Last week, Austin echoed Trump’s unfounded claims of “widespread fraud.”
“We’re just hoping that he wins because he’s our guy,” Austin said. “Wewant himto win. I just feel like a lot of fishy things happened and are still happening.”
Despite Trump’s grip on Republican voters, most GOP officeholders don’t actually believe the president’s
claims of voter fraud, Jillson said. He predicted that more elected Republicans will begin to contradict the president next month, after the electoral votes are settled.
At least one local GOP officeholder already has done so: outgoing County Commissioner Kevin Wolff.
Wolff, who did not run for reelection and will be replaced by DeBerry, said Trump might be clinging to power because he’s afraid of criminal prosecution once he is out of office.
“If I’m being completely honest, I see this as one of two things, and maybe a combination,” Wolff said. “One is sore loser. Two, does our current president think he’s in trouble once he’s out of office and not protected by office? If he thinks that, then maybe that’s what’s driving this.”
Wolff rejected the president’s claims of widespread voter fraud, saying they “undermine our democratic philosophies and our republic governmental system.” But he also suggested that Democrats would entertain the same sort of allegations “if the shoewere onthe other foot.”
“I think the Democrats would be just as silent as the Republicans are being now,” Wolff said, “because of what I’ve seen happen in my 15 years in office, is the divide between the right and the left has gotten much wider and much deeper, which means that the power bases are to the extremes. So if you’re in the game, if you’re in office, then it’s very dangerous for you politically to speak out against your team.”
He added, “Both sides are the bad guy right now. If the shoewere on the other foot, you’d have the same type of arguments.”
Jillson called that suggestion “nonsense.”
“Because 2016 is our example,” Jillson said. “Hillary Clinton did not do this. She won the popular vote by 3 million and lost in the Electoral College, and she didn’t say, ‘ Who are these electors and whydo theyget todecide?’ It’s just not true that both sides would do this.”
Jillson said he was confident that Trump’s maneuvering to overturn the election results would not succeed. But he called the president’s actions — and the silence of his Republican allies — “damaging” nonetheless.
“These are institutions and processes that we have depended on for 242 years and we need to continue to rely on going forward,” he said. “Donald Trump doesn’t have the power to break American democracy. But his supporters do. His supporters and elected officials — (Sen.) MitchMcConnell and others, and his supporters, the people who voted for him — their conduct can really challenge democracy.”