GOP leaders: Stop condoning Trump’s election results denial

Tennessee’s top Republicans are giving President Donald Trump license to perpetuate falsehoods by falling in line with him and not recognizing Joe Biden as the president-elect

In the 2020 presidential election, the projected winner is President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, but Tennessee GOP elected officials have closed ranks to refuse to recognize the former vice president as the victor.

Gov. Bill Lee, Sen. Lamar Alexander, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Sen.-elect Bill Hagerty, 24 of 27 Republican state senators, among others, are defending President Donald Trump’s challenge to the election results.

On the state Senate letter, the three non-signatories were Sens. Brian Kelsey, R-germantown, Todd Gardenhire, RChattanooga, and Richard Briggs, RKnoxville.

Trump’s campaign has sent an array of frenzied emails since Nov. 3 claiming, without proof, voter fraud, cheating by “the Left” and a threat to democracy. Trump has tweeted the same rhetoric as he seeks to delegitimize American democratic institutions to keep hold on power.

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Tennessee’s top Republicans are giving Trump license to perpetuate falsehoods by falling in line with him.

In fact, one Trump campaign email with the subject line “voter fraud” offers no proof and only has links to levels of donations supporters can make to his legal defense fund.

Power is in the balance. The presidency and the House, with a slimmer majority than before, are going to be in Democratic hands in January. The Senate is still a tossup and two runoff elections in Georgia that same month will determine whether there is one-party government or divided government.

The Republican leaders are not contesting down-ballot races, only the presidential election.

Tennessee politicians may be worried about losing support from Trump and the

61% of Tennessee voters who cast ballots for the 45th president’s re-election.

Tennessee has a long history of independent politicians, skeptical of federal power, who put nation over party.

The Trump campaign’s inconsistent message of stopping the count in some states and continuing to count votes in others is an act of desperation.

And Tennessee leaders are giving him a pass.

That is not a good look.

They should work to improve and better fund elections and make voting more accessible to citizens.

In 2019, Blackburn blocked consideration of three election security bills in the U.S. Senate that might have instilled more confidence in the electoral system among all Americans.

She said then, in response to a request for comment from The Tennessean: “As I said on the Senate floor, we are all for election security and no one wants to have foreign interference in our nation’s electoral process. The bills offered would federalize the electoral process and are continually presented as a political stunt.”

The unwillingness by top Republican elected officials to recognize Biden’s victory is a political stunt.

Moreover, they are feeding into the

mistrust, the conspiracy theories and the polarization wounding America’s democratic traditions today.

Opinion and Engagement Director David Plazas wrote this editorial on behalf of USA TODAY Network Tennessee editors.

Call him at (615) 259-8063, email him at dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet to him at @davidplazas.

GEORGE WALKER IV/USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE Gov. Bill Lee, from bottom left, leads a prayer with President Donald Trump, U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Lamar Alexander and first responders at Jefferson Avenue Church of Christ in Cookeville on March 6.

HENRY TAYLOR/USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on his arrival at Berry Field Air National Guard Base in Nashville on March 6.