[ad_1]
A large number of influential Republicans are promoting the president’s conspiracy theory that the election is being faked. Donald Trump could in the future position himself as a kind of counter-president to the “illegitimate” Joe Biden.
Top Republicans in Congress have followed their president in his desperate attempt to simply deny impending electoral defeat.
It was a disturbing appearance by the US president, who appeared in the media Thursday night at the White House and claimed within a quarter of an hour that he had won the election “easily.” But now a large-scale fraud is taking place to rob him of victory. The electoral system is corrupt, said Donald Trump. Several American television stations stopped broadcasting prematurely and told their viewers that the president’s allegations were unfounded and that there was no evidence. This weakening of confidence in the electoral system and thus in the functioning of American democracy by the White House itself is unprecedented.
The criticism has even come from within the ranks of the Republicans. Above all, however, it is the exponents, who are already distant towards Trump, who spoke out accordingly. Sen. Mitt Romney, for example, who was the only Republican to vote for impeachment in January, wrote on Twitter that counting every vote often takes a long time. Any wrongdoing would be resolved in court, and democracy and the constitution could be trusted. The governor of the democratic state of Maryland, Larry Hogan, said there was no excuse for Trump’s appearance. No choice and no person are more important than democracy.
Cancel the election?
Of Trump’s circle of confidants, however, only former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie rejected his claims. On Wednesday, he had already called the hasty victory declaration a bad decision. Now he told ABC broadcaster that there was no evidence of tampering. “Show us the evidence,” Christie said. So far, the president has only stoked an explosive mood.
However, other loyal Trump supporters supported the conspiracy theories. House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Fox News that Trump won the election. He later wrote on Twitter that “legal” votes should be protected. On Trump loyalist Fox News, host Sean Hannity claimed that Republican election watchers were being kicked out of the beleaguered state of Pennsylvania to rig the count. In fact, only one court had ruled that the guards at both camps had to stay twenty feet from the vote counters due to the pandemic. An appeals court approved a Republican complaint on Thursday, allowing less distance surveillance.
The Republican minority leader in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, is convinced that the president will win the election.
Still, Senator Lindsey Graham, a loyal Trump ally and at least the chairman of the important judicial committee, claimed that the Philadelphia election was “twisted like snakes.” Therefore, all options should be on the table, including that the Republican-dominated member state legislature does not send voter-designated electors to the electoral body. Such torpedoing the will of the electorate had already been speculated in recent weeks. There is no legal basis for this.
Hannity asked Texas Senator Ted Cruz if the Pennsylvania Legislature could overrule the election result and order a retry. Cruz did not reject that, even if it was heavy artillery. He also claimed without evidence that egregious violations of the law had been seen in numerous democratically governed cities. It’s worse in Philadelphia.
Messianically worshiped by the base
Republican Senator Ted Cruz wants to know about serious legal violations in Philadelphia.
As terrifying as Trump’s behavior may be, it corresponds exactly to fears of a narrow election result, as he had declared for months that vote-by-mail was prone to fraud and that they were trying to contest him for victory. The question was always how the Republicans would react then. Now the party is in a dilemma. Trump’s defeat is virtually certain, but the president won seven million more votes than four years ago. As a result, Republicans also fared much better than expected in the Congressional elections. While Trumpism would likely have been blamed after a clear setback, the opposite is now true.
In the past, elected presidents like George Bush, Jimmy Carter, or Gerald Ford generally quickly faded into the background, also because the fight for a candidate for the next election begins immediately. But President Trump is likely to remain an important figure in the party for a long time. Republicans know that only Trump can fill sports arenas with enthusiastic supporters. He is messianically worshiped by the rank and file and enjoys an approval rate of over 90 percent. He also has a Twitter account with 90 million followers and an extensive database of contacts from two electoral campaigns. This is a treasure the party can hardly do without.
The fact that Trump is now supported by a section of the party establishment and claims that he actually won makes breaking away from him even more difficult, even for those who are flirting with a presidential candidacy and therefore expect Trump to stand. check out soon. It is even conceivable that he acts as a kind of counter-president arguing that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president, or at least an opposition leader, a role that does not exist in America.
Trump junior calls for a “total war”
At the very least, Trump is likely to have a say in choosing a Republican leader in the upcoming presidential election. His son Donald Trump junior, who is currently spreading election conspiracy theories on his Twitter channel like no other, is the subject of a prominent exchange.
Is Donald Trump junior preparing the ground for his own candidacy in 2024 with aggressive slogans?
He wrote that his father had to go to “all out war” to expose the fraud. Trump Junior criticized the Republican establishment and lamented the lack of support. That will only facilitate the primaries for the bid for 2024, he wrote Thursday night.
The weak leadership structure of the US parties and the pre-election grassroots system make it almost impossible for the Republican establishment to lead this process. If Trump can maintain his nimbus and remain active despite his age, he may well be able to make one of his closest confidants the new standard-bearer, or even start over himself.
