Pressure Mounts On Trump To Accept Reality And Against Republicans Who Remain Silent

The pressure continues to mount on Trump to accept reality and on Republicans who remain silent. Trump’s own attorney general delivered a devastating blow to his lies by confirming there was no widespread election fraud, Trump’s own vice president will officially acknowledge Arizona’s election results today, and a Republican Georgia election official called out Trump for inciting violence with his baseless claims. But instead of accepting the obvious truth, Trump has only doubled down.

Trump’s own attorney general, after spending his entire tenure looking after Trump’s personal interests, “dealt the most credible blow to Donald Trump’s lies about a stolen election” by admitting there was no evidence of fraud that would change the outcome of the election.

CNN: “Attorney General William Barr just dealt the most credible blow to Donald Trump’s lies about a stolen election, precisely because he previously often came across more as the President’s personal lawyer than a neutral arbiter of justice. Trump has suffered repeated and embarrassing defeats in court. … Barr’s admission Tuesday that his Justice Department has looked for significant voter fraud but has found none that would change the result is sure to be treated as a betrayal by a President who demands sworn fealty from subordinates.”

Instead of accepting reality, the Trump campaign doubled down on its lies and added Trump’s DOJ to the list of officials they don’t want us to believe.

Politico: “Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, senior legal adviser to the campaign, hit back at Barr only minutes after the AP reported his remarks. The two claimed that the Justice Department had not sufficiently investigated allegations of election irregularities and had failed to interview witnesses who claimed to see illegal behavior. Trump’s legal team has peddled eyebrow-raising conspiracy theories about the election, in spite of election officials in states across the country affirming the vote was fair.”

A top Republican Georgia election official called out Trump and Georgia’s Republican senators for failing to condemn threats of violence and called on him to stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence by pushing baseless claims.

New York Times: “In one of the most striking rebukes to President Trump since he launched his baseless attacks on the American electoral process, a top-ranking Georgia election official lashed out at the president on Tuesday for failing to condemn threats of violence against people overseeing the voting system in his state. ‘It has to stop,’ Gabriel Sterling, a Republican and Georgia’s voting system implementation manager, said at an afternoon news conference at the state Capitol, his voice shaking with emotion. ‘Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language.’ .… Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia,’ Mr. Sterling said. He added that the president needed to ‘step up and say,’ ‘Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed. And it’s not right.’”

New York Times: “Mr. Sterling also called on the state’s two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, to condemn the rhetoric that he said was getting dangerously out of hand.”

Senator Johnson was called out by the former Brown County Republican Party chairman for privately knowing Biden won a free and fair election, but refusing to admit it publicly because it would be “political suicide.” 

Former Brown County Republican Party Chairman: “The TL;DR of the call was this: Senator Johnson knows that Joe Biden won a free and fair election. He is refusing to admit it publicly and stoking conspiracies that undermine our democracy solely because it would be ‘political suicide’ to oppose Trump. I find this unconscionable.”

Trump and his allies can’t escape reality. Pence will officially acknowledge Arizona’s election results when he swears in Senator-elect Mark Kelly today.

NBC News’s Vaughn Hillyard: “Vice President Pence’s official daily schedule has him listed to swear in Senator-elect Mark Kelly of Arizona into the U.S. Senate. This would be another official action by the Trump Admin acknowledging the election results (AZ certified on Monday) despite Trump’s protests.”