The president of the United States on Wednesday evening declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the 2020 election — ratcheting up previous rhetoric baselessly casting doubt on the legitimacy of what polls suggest is a likely defeat.
In response, congressional Republicans have assured there will be a transfer of power, but they have mostly refused to rebuke Trump personally. And increasingly, they’ve suggested this is a “both sides” issue.
In a series of tweets Thursday morning, Republicans from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) to Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) to the third-ranking House Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), promised a peaceful transfer of power and emphasized its importance in our constitutional republic. But in each of their statements, Trump was basically Voldemort. There was no suggestion that they were responding directly to Trump or that he actually said something wrong. Continue reading.