The following is an editorial from the Mankato Free Press.
It would be comic were it not so serious.
The votes are in, they have been counted, and Joe Biden is the president-elect. But President Donald Trump continues to issue baseless claims of fraud and stiff-arm the transition process, and his enablers in the Republican Party are going along with it.
Tuesday alone provided these bizarre spectacles:
• The election board in Michigan’s largest county briefly refused on party lines to certify the votes in Black-majority Detroit while approving the votes in white suburbs. It reversed itself a couple hours later amid the predictable outcry.
• South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, already accused by Georgia’s secretary of state of pressuring him to invalidate legitimate votes, said he has called the secretary of states in other swing states as well.
• Trump fired Christopher Krebs as head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security. Krebs’ sin: Refuting Trump’s lies that the election was riddled with fraud.
• In Williamsport, Pennsylvania — best known as the home of the Little League World Series — Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani made an embarrassing appearance in federal court in which he was unable to answer or even understand the judge’s questions. Veteran appellate attorneys listening to the hearing used such technical terms as “insane” to describe Giuliani’s arguments.
Giuliani was the nation’s most celebrated prosecutor during his mob-busting tenure as U.S. attorney in New York, and it is sad to see him descend to inanity. But if he is playing the buffoon, he is at least well-paid; he is reportedly charging the Trump campaign $20,000 a day. Money for nothing, indeed.
• Also in Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court brushed aside another Trump case. As of Wednesday afternoon, the campaign was 1-for-27 in its legal actions. Most were quickly dismissed by judges or withdrawn by Trump’s attorneys when it came time to back up their sweeping claims of fraud.
Trump can’t produce evidence of fraud because Krebs is right: There. Was. No. Fraud.
Joe Biden is going to be inaugurated as president on Jan. 20. But Trump, Graham and the rest of the Republican Party would rather trash the nation’s cherished tradition of calm and graceful transitions of power than accept that reality. It is both shameful and destructive.
Republished with permission.
WANT TO ADD YOUR VOICE?
If you’re interested in joining the discussion, add your voice to the Comment section below — or consider writing a letter or a longer-form Community Voices commentary. (For more information about Community Voices, see our Submission Guidelines.)
