This week has been pretty bad in the sense that we can see, yet again, how so many Republicans are perfectly willing to go along with their deranged cult leader’s unhinged delusions. I personally think Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave elected Republicans permission, with his speech on Monday, to continue living in MAGA Fantasyland, where Donald Trump has some sort of reasonable case to subvert the election results (Trump does not). So, in the days that have passed, it’s been a situation where a couple of GOP party elders and only a handful of elected Republicans are trying to talk some sense into Trump and his lunatic death-cult. Karl Rove wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed where he was basically telling Trump to concede with grace and welcome the transition. A few Republicans governors are also gently trying to tell Trump to concede:
Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday that the country needs to consider Joe Biden the President-elect — joining a growing list of Republican allies to President Donald Trump who say the 2020 race is over.
“I think that we need to consider the former vice president as the President-elect. Joe Biden is the President-elect,” DeWine told CNN’s John Berman on “New Day.” DeWine, who endorsed Trump for a second term, said that the President and his campaign have “every right” to bring legal challenges contesting the election results, and that the courts “are the best place, frankly, to adjudicate facts.” He said he doesn’t know the merits of the Trump campaign’s case, but said it appears Biden will be the next in office.
“Look, I’m worried about this virus, I’m not looking at what the merits of the case are. It would appear that Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States,” he said.
Trump conservative radio ally Hugh Hewitt wrote in The Washington Post that “Trump in 2020 won for everyone in the party but himself” and now “must look forward.” Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera tweeted Wednesday to Trump: “Time coming soon to say goodbye with grace & dignity.”
Two Republican governors who did not back the President’s reelection, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, also separately criticized Trump for stalling the presidential transition during the Covid-19 pandemic. DeWine on Thursday argued that the country now needs to move forward after the election and unify to combat a “common enemy” — the coronavirus pandemic.
Personally, I don’t know why there isn’t more of this coming from elected Republicans and people within the Trump administration as well. At this point, what’s the worst that can happen? A fascist loser will target you in a tweet? Sure, that’s probably a legit concern, but consider this – you might actually save your professional reputation if you just acknowledge the fact of Biden’s victory.
Meanwhile, Republican senators Lindsey Graham, Chuck Grassley, John Thune, Rob Portman and James Lankford have all gone on the record saying that Biden should now be receiving the presidential daily briefing, which still isn’t happening. It’s also insane to me that NO Republican is demanding that crybaby loser Trump doesn’t spend his final weeks in office pushing for a coronavirus stimulus bill, especially given the horrific covid numbers this month.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
I just don’t understand the hold Trump has over these people. Look, you had your “fun,” you acted like the results weren’t legitimate, but the fact is that the results are legitimate, and Trump’s lawsuits are being laughed out of court, and his lawyers are quickly abandoning him. So what’s the hold up? I understand the GA concern, but do we really think he’s going to hold rallies in Georgia anyway, after Georgia didn’t vote for him?
These elected officials know that Trump lost. So get over it and move on. They’re just becoming laughing stocks at this point.
Hogan is my governor and he’s been pretty pointed in his comments about Trump and the pandemic and now the election. He did vote for Reagan though in this election, so he’s still an ass.
They’ve shaped their entire party in his image because he is a narcissist and demanded it, or else. Now that he’s lost they’re stuck with his branding on their foreheads, at least for the foreseeable future, and they’re scrambling to avoid reaping what they’ve sown.
Republicans know that the majority of their voters are Trump cultists at this point. This is about holding on to power, plain and simple, and the Constitution and truth be damned. The GOP is full of hollow men and women without honor.
Yup, and the Republicans who do speak out against Trump (like Gov Charlie Baker in Mass.) are called “RINO”s.
a Maida, that is it in a nutshell! Especially Moscow Mitch, he knows that if he or any other RepubliCANT’S come out and tell him to step down, they will lose his base that have re-elected them. The great news is that time will pass and hopefully people will begin to see that their republican senators/governors/mayors are useless!!
As horrible as Trump is (oh let me count the ways), I hold my greatest contempt for the GOP for continuing to enable this crap. By waiting to sign off on the transfer, they are slowing down the covid response that Biden’s team will need to enact as soon as he takes office, they’re further hurting the millions of people suffering economically and no small thing: eroding our democracy even further. There is not enough karmic retribution for them.
And that’s exactly what they want to happen so they can blame it all on Biden for “not acting swiftly enough”.
Does Trump have nudes of these men en flagrante with animals or something? WHAT IS THE DEAL?? Trump is a grifter who lost. Move on and move up. I do not understand it at all.
They are deathly afraid of the bully. They don’t want to come to his notice because then he might attach a name to them : Crooked Hillary, Sleepy Joe, Little Mario, etc. Nothing is too cruel or rude. Politicians worry that the name will stick, and that their opponents will use it. So they keep their heads down, and hope to be invisible to the aging bully. Pitiful.
Yeah at this point it’s not about Trump. It’s about retaining the lunatics he got to vote Republican…and worrying they will shoot you if you step out of line!
what they don’t understand is that it’s not the loonies who will keep them in office or they WOULD’VE WON! they should be doubling down on how to win back the majority after all this mess. but they’re doing the opposite to such a point that i’ve seen republicans i know of late saying: the way these guys are acting, i’m likely to vote blue from now on!
I’ve asked this to many people.
What are these people afraid of? That an orange baby will call them names? They’ve been in politics for a while, this can not be the first time someone called them names.
The baby is having a tantrum. Swaddle him, put him to bed, and ignore him.
They’re afraid that once they start siding with the no-Trump repubs their whole house of cards will come tumbling down. They’ll sacrifice lives to cling to power.
Remember in 2015/2016 the DNC emails were hacked and the emails were leaked. At the same time the RNC’s emails were hacked but never leaked. My tinfoil theory is that these emails were given to Trump and he is holding this over their heads. That is why all the RepuThugs are afraid to say a thing to Trump.
is that man wearing a child’s mask in the top pic?? dear lord, his poor ears!!
I predict Trump and his followers will create a whole other party, whole other network, etc. Like super far right beyond Republicans.