The United States of America began as the first democratic experiment, the first country to insist that the people should choose their own representatives in government. American Soldiers have fought and died both to defend democracy at home and abroad. As it turns out, foreign enemies aren’t what is trying to kill democracy in America anymore. It’s the president.
Romney says on @CNNSitRoom that Trump’s claims of a rigged and stolen election “strikes at the very foundation of democracy here and around the world” and “Russia and China have to be just laughing – smiling from ear to ear.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 3, 2020
Senator Mitt Romney, one of the few Republicans to speak out publicly about President Donald Trump’s attempts to thwart democracy, told Wolf Blitzer on CNN that “Russia and China have to be laughing, smiling from ear to ear” watching an American president undermine his followers’ faith in the democratic system over false claims of election fraud.
‘The attorney general has said there’s no there there. The courts have all looked at the evidence and said there’s no evidence there. Now, of course, there will be circumstances where one or two, or a handful, maybe even 100 ballots were incorrectly sent in or counted, and those things get adjusted and get fixed. But the idea of widespread fraud is simply not been shown to us.’
Most Republicans Say They Doubt the Election. How Many Really Mean It? – if I read this right @BrendanNyhan, 1/4 of Republicans still ardently believe Trump won and that he will be inaugurated January 20th? https://t.co/qimuWL7qMw
— Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) November 30, 2020
Sen. Romney said that, despite Trump’s “kraken” of evidence that he claims to have, his legal team has been unable to prove it in court. Trump’s Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security have said that no evidence of voter fraud exists. Yet Trump will push this conspiracy theory for years and milk it for all it’s worth.
‘If that evidence does exist, please show it to us. At this stage, we don’t see it. So, for the president or anyone else to go out and allege widespread fraud and say the election is rigged, and the election was stolen, that obviously strikes at the very foundation of democracy here, and around the world for that matter. People watch America. If we can’t have a free and fair election, how can they have it in other nations of the world?’
Trump's plan is Putin's: Never concede & treat Biden like an illegitimate leader. Dictators like Putin don't like having their illegitimacy pointed out. Now he'll have the former US president saying it about Biden. https://t.co/fPQ4od7gvA
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) November 28, 2020
While some of Trump’s conspiracy theories have been laughable, his attacks on the confidence of Americans on the democratic experiment are anything but. Lonna Atkeson, political scientist at the University of New Mexico, told The New York Times that:
‘It’s one thing to think that you don’t trust the guys in Washington because they’re not your party. But it’s a whole other thing if you think, ‘Well, gee, they didn’t even get there legitimately.”‘
I finally watched his tiny desk concert. We should take his threats to democracy seriously. Is there a uhaul on the grounds yet? WH press corps- have you all seen moving trucks? I’m blocks away but I’m not Sarah Palin. I can’t see Russia from my house. https://t.co/fCp598KK31
— @tiffanydcross (@TiffanyDCross) November 27, 2020
