The Handwriting Is On the Wall – Updated
Republican political guru and mastermind Karl Rove’s latest in the Wall Street Journal plainly says what many Republicans don’t want to believe: this election result won’t be overturned:
“… the president should do his part to unite the country by leading a peaceful transition and letting grievances go.”
Ben Wittes, editor at Lawfare, concurred with this piece, How Hard Is It to Overturn an American Election?
“The president’s gambit starts with his refusal to concede an election that is significantly less close than the one he won four years ago and which he declared a “landslide.” …
“… yes, the president is allowed to sulk. He is allowed to be the sorest of sore losers. He is allowed to once again display before the entire world the complete triumph of ego over patriotism, of self-interestedness over public-spiritedness, within his heart. There is, actually, nothing to do about it if he wants to play it this way; there is no way to stop him. And in and of itself, it’s not even a particularly grave problem. It is certainly sad that the United States has a president who so completely fails the basic tests of honor and decency. It would be lovely to see him just once rise to some occasion, any occasion. But it’s hardly a surprise that he can’t or he won’t or he doesn’t want to. He is, after all, Donald Trump.”
At Fox News, conservative pastor Robert Jeffress wrote, Biden is president-elect — how should Christians react?
“For millions of Christians across our nation, this is a bitter pill to swallow. … Many of you may be asking: What is God doing in this outcome? Why would He allow this to happen? … The fact that God has established authorities means that by obeying the government, we obey God.
“Here is our chance to show that Christians are not hypocrites. We serve a God who remains on His throne, sovereignly reigning over every square inch of this vast universe. We serve a God who loves us and will never leave or forsake us. And now we have the chance to show the consistency and constancy/ of our Christian witness to this world.”
We’ve been at this dance for over a week as conservative grassroots supporters hang onto false narratives and hopes that the election was stolen and that President Trump still has a chance to end up victorious. No, this election was not stolen or rigged by Democrats. It was decided by a record number of voters who turned out for their chosen candidate.
At this point President-Elect Joe Biden, a moderate Democrat, is ahead by more than five million votes and 3.3 percentage points. It was a decisive victory.
It is far past time for Mr. Trump to accept the outcome and allow the peaceful transfer of government to take place just as it does every four years in America.
Republicans can run it out in the courts — that is their right — but this election is over. Let’s look at the numbers. As counting ballots winds down, Joe Biden leads by:
-Wisconsin – 20,540 votes
-Pennsylvania – 49,064 votes
-Michigan – 146,123 votes
-Arizona – 12,614 votes
-Nevada – 36,870 votes
-Georgia – 14,108 votes
The following states flipped from Republican in 2016 to Democratic in 2020:
-Georgia flipped 200,000 votes
-Michigan flipped 150,000 votes
-Pennsylvania flipped over 100,000 votes
-Arizona flipped over 100,000 votes
Take a look at this Ipsos/Reuters poll asking Americans who had won the election:
-79% of Americans believe Biden won
-13% think it’s not yet decided
-5% don’t know
-3% believe Trump won
A second look at those numbers: 79% think Biden won and 3% think Trump won.
Questioning this election is coming directly from Donald Trump which is why leadership is so important. He readily accepted the results four years ago when he was declared the winner. Joe Biden could very well end up winning by the same amount of electoral votes that Donald Trump did in 2016 against Hillary Clinton. Biden has more popular votes than Trump did in 2016.
At this point Republicans need to talk with the President but most are fearful of him. Four have spoken publicly – Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney and Ben Sasse. Earlier this week former Republican U.S. Representatives called for a recognition of the election results and move forward (USA Today, 31 former GOP House members urge Donald Trump to accept Joe Biden election win) that included former Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock:
Thirty-one former Republican members of the U.S. House on Monday called on President Donald Trump to accept results of the 2020 election – and recognize that Democratic nominee Joe Biden won – as the vast majority of current Republican lawmakers side with the president’s refusal to concede.
In a joint statement, the group of former Republican U.S. representatives said they believe statements from Trump, who has leveled baseless claims about voter fraud, are efforts to “undermine the legitimacy of the election and are unacceptable.”
“Every vote should be counted and the final outcome accepted by the participants because public confidence in the outcome of our elections is a bedrock of our democracy,” the statement reads. “Going forward it is our hope the nation will, regardless of party or persuasion, recognize that President-Elect Joe Biden has won this election.”
Biden surpassed 270 electoral votes on Saturday to claim victory in the most bitterly fought presidential election in recent history. It came after media outlets called Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes to the former vice president after four days of counting absentee ballots put Biden ahead, erasing a lead Trump initially boasted about on election night that included mainly votes cast on Election Day.
I would like to take a moment to thank Rep. Comstock for publicly standing up. That’s called leadership.
It’s time for a wrap on this chapter in history. The handwriting, as the saying goes, is on the wall. This election is over.
Update x1: Trump ally Sheldon Adelson let it be known Thursday that he “is advising Trump that he did indeed lose the 2020 presidential race and that he should start cooperating with Joe Biden’s transition team” (Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Review-Journal twice endorsed Trump. Now it’s advising him to admit he lost):
“President Donald Trump seeks to delay the inevitable,” reads the headline of the editorial, which appeared in print Thursday and published online Wednesday night. “It is too fitting that the Trump presidency concludes amid a babel of bluster and bravado,” the unbylined authors, representing the viewpoint of the paper’s management, wrote. “But the president does a disservice to his more rabid supporters by insisting that he would have won the Nov. 3 election absent voter fraud. That’s simply false.”
Update x2: On Thursday Arizona was called for Biden, and on Friday Georgia was projected for Biden, bringing his total to 306 electoral votes, the same amount Trump won in his self-proclaimed landslide in 2016. While Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in 2016, Biden leads by over 5 million votes, winning both the popular and electoral vote.
