Donald Trump’s extended refusal to accept the results of last week’s election is making other Republicans nervous, but as usual, no one has the nerve to tell him to get over it, even as Trump’s tantrum undermines democracy and national security. The current party line among Republican senators appears to be supporting Trump’s many lawsuits—which somehow manage to be both frivolous and deeply dangerous—while saying that President-elect Joe Biden should be formally treated as the president-elect and given access to national security briefings.
“I just think we ought to be cooperating,” Sen. Kevin Cramer told CNN. “I think you can cooperate with a transition—a peaceful transition—while also contesting in appropriate legal ways.” Cramer’s view of those “appropriate legal ways” is that “I think it's likely that we're going to find a whole bunch of fraud, and it wouldn't be enough to overturn the election.” Talk about walking a fine line, there!
Cramer is making the bet that if he calls for “a peaceful transition,” the media will treat him as a reasonable and responsible public figure even as he lies about the prevalence of fraud and backs Trump’s continuing legal challenges—challenges that are, let’s be clear, not “appropriate.”
According to Senate Majority Whip John Thune, Biden should get classified briefings because “I think that it probably makes sense to prepare for all contingencies.” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito is hoping Trump's legal challenges end “inside a week or so.” But on Wednesday, Thune got to the heart of Republican reticence to challenge Trump, saying “We need his voters.”
But that kind of hinting is about all these profiles in courage are willing to do. Trump, meanwhile, is bouncing from one self-serving fantasy to another without regard for how it will affect the nation—and while he fantasizes, he has pretty much quit doing the job of president, to the extent he ever did it.
Trump is, of course, watching lots of television and tweeting out lies in all caps, while, Maggie Haberman reports, he “has insisted to aides that he really defeated Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Nov. 3, but it is unclear whether he actually believes it.” Advisers have reportedly tried to tell him he lost and won’t be able to overturn the election, but Trump keeps coming up with new ideas for trying to do so, even as he also talks about running in 2024 (which means admitting he lost in 2020) or building his own right-wing media empire (which, ditto). But Trump keeps coming back to his attempts to at least undermine the results of the election if he can’t overturn it.
Georgia is supposed to certify its results on November 20, Michigan and Pennsylvania do so on November 23, Arizona on November 30, and Wisconsin on December 1. Trump looks set to keep trying to attack the results in several of those states, Senate Republicans have made clear they won’t oppose him doing so, and every one of those states has Republicans in positions that could allow them to attempt to overturn the will of the voters. Democracy is not out of the woods yet, in other words, despite President-elect Biden’s clear and convincing victory.