IN AN ordinary time, none of these comments from Republican officials would be noteworthy. “I expect Joe Biden to be the next president of the United States,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday. President Trump has every right to challenge the results in court, said Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, but “Joe Biden is the president-elect.” In Michigan, state Sen. Ruth Johnson said that “I don’t believe that enough votes are in question in Michigan to change the outcome, so I think we need to move forward.” In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said, “People are just going to have to accept the results. . . . I’m a Republican. I believe in fair and secure elections.”
Unfortunately, the Republican Party’s national leadership now stands squarely against fair and secure elections — or accepting results, for that matter. Both Georgia GOP senators competing in runoff elections Jan. 5 called for Mr. Raffensperger’s resignation, while offering absolutely no evidence of misconduct. Mr. Trump called him a “RINO” (Republican in Name Only) — because he competently oversaw an election that Mr. Trump lost. Mr. Trump also threatened Mr. DeWine on Monday, suggesting he would stymie the governor’s 2022 reelection.
Republican so-called leaders in Congress continue to quail before this bullying, indulging Mr. Trump’s toxic lies about a stolen election. Privately they speak of the president as though he were a petulant toddler who can’t face the hard truth all at once; or they argue that so many voters are suspicious of the results that Mr. Trump should have time to challenge them, unsuccessfully, in court. But why are so many people suspicious in the first place? Because Mr. Trump has been sowing doubt about the nation’s democratic institutions since before the election, and his enablers excuse and amplify his lies. As Mr. Trump has lost case after case in court since Election Day, his claims that the vote was rigged have only gotten more brazen. Continue reading.