The Guardian
‘Traitors and patriots’: Republican push to keep Trump in power seems doomed
* Senators decline to defend electoral college ploy on TV * Democrats and GOP leaders to block gambit aimed at party base * Robert Reich: Seven ways 2020 left America exposedAll 12 Republican senators who have pledged not to ratify the electoral college results on Wednesday, and thereby refuse to confirm Joe Biden’s resounding victory over Donald Trump in the presidential election, declined to defend their move on television, a CNN host said on Sunday.“It all recalls what Ulysses S Grant once wrote in 1861,” Jake Tapper said to camera on his show, State of the Union, before quoting a letter the union general wrote at the outset of a civil war he won before becoming president himself: ‘There are [but] two parties now: traitors and patriots.’“How would you describe the parties today?” Tapper asked.The attempt to overturn Trump’s defeat seems doomed to fail, essentially a piece of political theatre mounted by party grandees eager to court supporters loyal to the president before, in some cases, mounting their own runs for the White House.Nonetheless on Saturday Ted Cruz of Texas and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin led a slate of 11 senators and senators-elect in calling for “an emergency 10-day audit” of results in states in which the president continues to claim mass electoral fraud, despite failing to provide evidence and repeatedly losing in court.The senators followed Josh Hawley of Missouri – like Cruz thought likely to run for president in 2024 – in pledging to object to the electoral college result. A majority of Republicans in the House are also expected to object, after staging a rare Saturday night call with Trump and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in order to plan their move.Democrats control the House and senior Republicans in the Senate also stand opposed to the attempt to disenfranchise millions of voters – many of them African Americans in key swing states – thereby seemingly guaranteeing that attempt will fail. Nonetheless, on Saturday Vice-President Mike Pence, who will preside over the ratification process, welcomed the move by the group led by Cruz.A spokesman for Biden, Michael Gwin, said: “This stunt won’t change the fact that President-elect Biden will be sworn in on 20 January, and these baseless claims have already been examined and dismissed by Trump’s own attorney general, dozens of courts, and election officials from both parties.”Republicans opposed to Trump were forthright. Mitt Romney, the 2012 presidential nominee now a senator from Utah, said: “The egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our democratic republic.“…More Americans participated in this election than ever before, and they made their choice. President Trump’s lawyers made their case before scores of courts; in every instance, they failed. The justice department found no evidence of irregularity sufficient to overturn the election. The Presidential Voter Fraud Commission disbanded without finding such evidence.“Adding to this ill-conceived endeavour by some in Congress is the president’s call for his supporters to come to the Capitol on the day when this matter is to be debated and decided. This has the predictable potential to lead to disruption, and worse.”Encouraged by Trump, far-right groups including the “western chauvinist” Proud Boys are expected to gather in Washington on Wednesday.Romney was echoed by Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania, a battleground state. Hawley responded with a statement which decried “shameless personal attacks”.Georgia, another state in which Trump refuses to accept defeat, goes to the polls in vital Senate runoffs on Tuesday.Stacey Abrams, a former gubernatorial candidate in Georgia who now promotes voting rights, told ABC’s This Week: “It’s always dangerous to undermine the integrity of elections without evidence.”Abrams lost her 2018 gubernatorial race to Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate who also ran the election as secretary of state. Alleging improprieties, Abrams refused to concede. Asked about Republican charges that Trump’s objection to the presidential result is no different, she said: “Well, it’s not simply different circumstances. It’s apples and bowling balls.“I pointed out that there were a series of actions taken that impeded the ability of voters to cast their ballots. And in almost every one of those circumstances, the courts agreed, as did the state legislature.”By contrast, she added, “President Trump has lost every single one of his challenges in the state of Georgia and he has no evidence.”Shortly before the turn of the year, after Hawley announced his move, Ben Sasse of Nebraska – another senator thought to nurse presidential ambitions – issued a stinging rebuke, saying: “Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government.”“We have a deep cancer in American politics,” he added. “Both Republicans and Democrats are growing more distrustful of the basic processes and procedures that we follow.”The senators who came out for Trump on Saturday made the same point, pointing to public polling. The argument was in bad faith – blame for such distrust weighs heaviest by far on the White House. But on Sunday, CNN also played remarks by Hawley from January, during Trump’s impeachment.“The consequences to the republic of overturning an election because you don’t like the result,” he said then, “and because you believe that that election was somehow corrupted, when in fact, the evidence shows that it was not … that’s an interesting approach. I think it’s crazy, frankly.”