There is no evidence – none – of widespread voter fraud that cost Donald Trump reelection.
But that’s not what he says, and his entire political party is now following him like the autocratic leaders he admires around the world.
Even while the last Republican president George W. Bush congratulated President-Elect Joe Biden today, the new Trump party refuses to acknowledge reality.
And that puts the entire Republic at risk.
It’s clear to anyone who has followed Trump closely that his strategy is to destabilize democracy enough that he can claim he was defrauded out of reelection.
Moving forward, Trump can then claim the whole system is broken while he attempts to rebrand himself as he faces nearly a half billion dollar in business loans that are due in the next several years.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer, said Trump would fight the result of the election even after Biden’s inauguration in January — and possibly forn a “Trump network” or media company, which was the goal of the first election bid.
“Donald Trump cannot accept the fact that he lost. To him, it is like calling him a loser, which is the worst thing in the world that you can call him,” Cohen said.
“He will fight this not just until January when he is now required to leave and go wherever he has to go, but he will do things post leaving that will make things very difficult for the Biden administration.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s closest advisers continue to brief him on possible “legal remedies,” according to a White House official.
That path has been encouraged most strongly by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has been circulating pro-Trump conspiracy propaganda all year.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have notably declined to weigh in since Biden was declared the winner — neither bolstering Trump’s claims nor pressuring him publicly to concede.
“Don’t accept the media’s declaration,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Fox News today. “Don’t concede, Mr. President. Fight hard.”
Graham suggested there is no much voter fraud that if Trump concedes Republicans will never win another election.
It is over the top dishonest, but Graham’s allegiance to Trump is well known.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), also on Fox News, agreed that it was premature to call the presidential contest for Biden.
Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota lashed out at Democrats and the news media today making wild accusations about “computer glitches” and reports of “dead people voting in Pennsylvania” as examples of widespread fraud.
“When you break the process on which we elect our leaders, you will break America forever,” Noem said, even though voting went smoothly and it is Trump’s refusal to concede that flouts the normal process.
Like Republicans, Russian President Vladimir Putin, an authoritarian leader who Trump admires, has not issued a statement regarding Biden’s victory.
“Putin is a good soldier and does not wag his tail before his enemies,” a prominent pro-Kremlin analyst, Sergei A. Markov, said.
Putin is preparing for a deeply adversarial relationship with America’s next president.
Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Republican and a friend of Trump’s, said that his party’s reluctance to acknowledge Biden’s victory was a result of the president’s behavior.
Christie urged Republicans to embrace the message he had delivered to Trump: “If your basis for not conceding is that there was voter fraud, then show us. Show us. Because if you can’t show us, we can’t do this. We can’t back you blindly without evidence.”
