As Donald Trump pouts, tantrums, and fires perceived enemies, Republican lawmakers—with rare exceptions—continue to stand behind his public delusions of invisible voter fraud. The vast majority aren't even daring to refer to President-elect Joe Biden as president-elect, lest they be subject to Trump being Mad at them.
Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford will win no prizes for heroism on this score, but did promise that he would possibly step in, maybe, if this continued to drag on. Lankford told Tulsa radio station KRMG that he would pressure for Biden to begin receiving classified daily intelligence briefings if the Trump administration was on Friday still refusing to grant them. It's not clear what specifically Lankford would do, but we can probably consider this a formal notice from the senator of a future intent to have courage, possibly; everyone knows these things take a bit of paperwork and you cannot just have courage without giving your voters the proper pre-warnings.
So we're going to pin this to the wall and wait for tomorrow. Will Lankford follow through? We'll see.
Before anyone gets too excited about this future almost-break from collective Republican delusion, however, note that Lankford went to great lengths to couch his threat of principles in language that did not specifically go against Trump's claim of being the imaginary election winner. Lankford refused to directly acknowledge Biden as the election's winner, instead arguing that there would be no harm done in providing him the briefings while Trump worked though his Stages of Grief pamphlets, each one backed up with whatever lawsuits his crack (cough) legal team could throw, at his own pace.
"Joe Biden can continue to be able to function and say, 'I'm the president-elect,' and great if you want to say that, go do it, and to be able to do your preparation work. The President can say, 'Not so fast. I've got questions to answer.' Great, go ask them," CNN quotes Lankford as saying.
Lankford was joined today by Senate Majority Whip John Thune, who also said Biden ought to begin receiving the briefings because "it probably makes sense to prepare for all contingencies." Yes, he referred to seating the clear winner of a United States presidential election as only one possible "contingency."
Just to bring us back to reality here, Donald Trump's claims of fraud are clearly delusional. Legal motions filed on his behalf continue to be tossed back by judges who have repeatedly noted that the claims do not include any actual evidence of the things they are claiming. Trump is engaged in a full-throated effort to undermine the election through false propaganda—a clear attack on the nation's democracy, mounted from inside the White House.
Republican lawmakers, Lankford included, continue to abet him. Most of it is because they do not want to run afoul of Trump's voters, aka the Republican base, which has now become so pudding-brained after years of Fox News conspiracy-peddling that they will literally believe anything the network's loudest talkers shriek into their ears. But a good chunk of it also appears to be specifically self-serving cowardice: Republicans are waiting to see if Trump's threats of coup are successful.
If Trump looks like he can succeed, they will abet him. If Trump merely collapses into a muttering puddle of delusions and self-pity, they will scrub their past support for him and pretend none of this ever happened.