126053103_web1_PM-Update

Times Leader P.M. Update: Tuesday, Nov. 24

Mysterious shiny monolith found in otherworldly Utah desert

Could anyone have doubted that Donald Trump would go out like this? 
				Having lost the election decisively &mdash; by 74 votes in the Electoral College, and by 6 million and counting overall &mdash; he has availed himself of every imaginable scheme to undermine the vote&rsquo;s legitimacy and obscure what was plainly a fair and square victory for his opponent, President-elect Joe Biden.
				How does anyone know the outcome was fair? State election officials in both parties from coast to coast have said so. Federal prosecutors have said so. Voting-machine vendors and testing labs have said so. The Election Assistance Commission has said so. Along with the rest of the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council, the president&rsquo;s own Homeland Security Department has called this election &ldquo;the most secure in American history.&rdquo;
				Even Trump&rsquo;s lawyers have implicitly conceded the fact. Despite filing more than two dozen lawsuits, they&rsquo;ve been unable to produce a shred of evidence for their invented and often contradictory claims about electoral misconduct. In several cases, they&rsquo;ve affirmed in court that they had no such proof. As Sen. Ben Sasse, one of the few Republicans to oppose this charade, put it: &ldquo;When Trump campaign lawyers have stood before courts under oath, they have repeatedly refused to actually allege grand fraud &mdash; because there are legal consequences for lying to judges.&rdquo;
				With these efforts flailing, Trump has resorted to more eccentric tactics. In Pennsylvania, his team asked a judge to effectively invalidate the election and let the state&rsquo;s Republican legislators decide among themselves who should be president. The judge, a Republican member of the Federalist Society, dismissed the suit. In Michigan, Trump has insinuated himself into the otherwise routine process of certifying results, and even invited two of the state&rsquo;s lawmakers to the White House to press his case, as though the entire edifice of American democracy should rest on the outcome of chats between the president and a handful of state officials.
				As this circus rolls on, Trump&rsquo;s legal team continues to allege that he was the victim of a wayward vote-counting algorithm, improbable ballot-tampering schemes and vast global conspiracies orchestrated by Venezuela and the Clinton Foundation. Despite a complete absence of proof for these claims, this effort is working in at least one sense, thanks in no small part to partisan media outlets that amplify them: More than three-quarters of Trump&rsquo;s supporters now think Biden won due to fraud.
				You might be tempted to dismiss all this as an egotist&rsquo;s desperate final gambit to save face. But Trump&rsquo;s refusal to yield is imposing real costs. 
				With a few notable exceptions, congressional Republicans have been complicit in all this, either through their silence or active encouragement. Enough. Over the years I&rsquo;ve worked with many Republicans in Washington, and we&rsquo;ve had our differences over lots of issues, from taxes to climate change, and that&rsquo;s healthy. But this isn&rsquo;t a policy issue &mdash; it&rsquo;s a question of patriotism. I know them to be patriots &mdash; and now they must step up and show it.
				In recent days, the dam has begun to crack, with more Republicans beginning to speak out. But it&rsquo;s past time for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to say what&rsquo;s been obvious for weeks: Trump lost and Biden will soon take office.
				Leadership is about facing reality and dealing with it. That&rsquo;s the job. Trump has never understood that, as the pandemic has made painfully and tragically clear. But if McConnell and McCarthy and other elected Republicans don&rsquo;t face up to it, they will do lasting damage to the fabric of our democracy &mdash; and go down in history as enabling a demagogue who would do anything to hold onto power, the Constitution be damned.
				You should never run for office unless you are prepared to give a concession speech. I&rsquo;ve done it. It&rsquo;s not fun or easy but it is the very essence of democracy, and without it, the country would crumble. But we shouldn&rsquo;t expect this president to concede anything, ever &mdash; no matter the cost to the country. So let him rage against reality &mdash; it&rsquo;s all he&rsquo;s ever done. But it&rsquo;s time for the Republican leadership to send a clear and unmistakable message to the rest of their party, and especially to the more than 70 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump: The election is over and partisanship must give way to patriotism.

Their view: Trump lost. Republican leaders need to say so