President Donald Trump has shown no indication of any willingness to concede the election anytime soon, and rather than repudiate this anti-democratic nonsense, many top Republicans have gone right along with Trump’s attacks on democracy. Trump has not produced any meaningfully conclusive evidence whatsoever for his claims that widespread fraud plagued the recent election, and authorities from the Department of Homeland Security to local election officials of both major political parties around the country have confirmed that there’s no meanngful hint of systematic fraud. On CNN’s State of the Union over the weekend, Gov. Larry Hogan, a Maryland Republican, shredded Trump’s behavior.
Hogan said as follows:
‘I have confidence that on January 20th, the president-elect is going to be sworn in, but I’m not sure I can say that I’m confident that the president is going to do the right thing. I thought the pressuring of the legislators to try to somehow change the outcome with electors was completely outrageous. We used to go supervise elections around the world, and we were the most respected country with respect to elections, and now we’re beginning to look like we’re a banana republic. It’s time for them to stop the nonsense. It just gets more bizarre every single day, and frankly, I’m embarrassed that more people in the party aren’t speaking up.’
Check out Hogan’s comments below:
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan says he is "embarrassed that more people in the party aren't speaking up" regarding President Trumps' refusal to concede https://t.co/2wEl0kWIoX #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/ht8v9oi0O5
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 22, 2020
Recently, top Trump allies have floated the prospect of getting Republican state legislators to dedicate their state’s electoral votes to Trump, no matter who won the popular vote in their respective states. Carrying out this scheme would constitute an authoritarian, dictatorial overthrow of the election results — but recently, President Trump himself hosted two top legislators from Michigan at the White House under dubious circumstances. After the meeting, these legislative leaders, including the state House Speaker and the state Senate Majority Leader, re-affirmed their commitment to the legitimate electoral process, but other presidential outreach turned out more politically advantageous for the Trump team. After Trump reached out, two Republican members of the Wayne County, Michigan canvassing board sought to rescind their votes in favor of certifying county results, but there’s no way by which they could actually do so.
Trump is keeping up the pace of his frenzied fraud claims. On Saturday, he claimed that the election had “hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes cast, enough to easily flip the Election,” which is just total make-believe.
Sorry Liz, can’t accept the results of an election with hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes cast, enough to easily flip the Election. You’re just unhappy that I’m bringing the troops back home where they belong! https://t.co/elZ9X3wrAz
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2020