Donald Trump’s refusal to say he’d accept the results of the election has created an emergency for Republicans, and they’re having a little trouble finding a unified response. Some, especially incumbents in tight races, are distancing themselves. Others, like party leaders Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, are refusing to comment. And still others are insisting there’s nothing to see here:
“All he’s saying is, ‘Look, I’m not going to forgo my right to a recount in a close election,’ ” [RNC Chair Reince] Priebus said. “We accept the results as long as we’re not talking about a few votes where it actually matters. I know him. I know where his head’s at. . . . I promise you, that’s all this is.”
I don’t think that’s a promise you can make, Reince. This is not someone whose behavior you’ve had a whole lot of luck predicting or influencing to this point, so why would it be any different when he’s branded as a giant loser in front of the entire world? Rudy Giuliani has seemed a lot more in tune with Trump in recent weeks than has Priebus, and he ...
… argued that any Republican would be “stupid” to accept the integrity of results before they are known.
“Suppose she wins Pennsylvania by 50 votes,” Giuliani said. He speculated, without evidence, that Democrats would “steal a lot more than 50 votes in Philadelphia. I guarantee you of that. And I’ll tell you how they will do it — they’ll bus people in who will vote dead people’s names four, five, six times . . . or have people in Philadelphia paid to vote three, four and five times.”
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That’s a giant red herring, of course, because if anyone wins Pennsylvania by 50 votes, there will be a recount. And because, if current polling is anywhere near accurate, Pennsylvania’s electoral votes will not be the difference between winning and losing the presidential race. No, it’s another attempt to sow doubt, to keep Trump supporters ready to feel cheated by lying, cheating black people.
Even if Trump was saying what Priebus claims he’s saying, it would be a gross violation of political norms. But he’s not. This is all about Donald Trump’s fragile ego and his inability to accept that he might be beaten by a woman on the strength of votes, by people whose votes he doesn’t consider to be fully valid. And it’s going to be ugly, especially if Republicans like Priebus and Ryan and McConnell are too afraid to say there’s something wrong with Trump’s position ahead of time. Priebus needs to stop denying the reality everyone can see and deal with the candidate he has, not the candidate he’d like to pretend he has.