Are the rank-and-file GOP ready to raise the white flag?
More Republican senators are calling the election for Joe Biden, urging President Trump to work with the Democrat’s transition team.
North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer (shown) said on NBC’s Meet the Press that it was “past time” to begin the transition to a Joe Biden administration.
The Republican lawmaker stated that “I agree there has to be an end. I frankly do think it’s time — well, it was past time to start a transition or at least to cooperate with the transition. I would rather have a president that has more than one day to prepare should Joe Biden end up winning this. But in the meantime, again, he’s just exercising his legal options.”
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Anchor Chuck Todd said, “I just want to confirm, you believe the head of GSA tomorrow morning at this point ought to say the transition needs to begin, it looks like Joe Biden will be the apparent winner. Yes, there’s more to go through. This is what the head of GSA said. Yes, there’s still more to go through, but it looks like Joe Biden is the apparent winner. Let’s allow the transition process to begin. Should that be what happens tomorrow morning?”
“Yeah, it should happen tomorrow morning because it didn’t happen last Monday morning,” Cramer replied. “I think you have to begin that process, give the incoming administration all the time you need.”
Another Republican, U.S. Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, put out a statement on Saturday to “congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory.”
They are both dedicated public servants and I will be praying for them and for our country. Unsurprisingly, I have significant policy disagreements with the President-elect. However, as I have done throughout my career, I will seek to work across the aisle with him and his administration, especially on those areas where we may agree, such as continuing our efforts to combat COVID-19, breaking down barriers to expanding trade, supporting the men and women of our armed forces, and keeping guns out of the hands of violent criminals and the dangerously mentally ill.
The statement concluded, “To ensure that he is remembered for these outstanding accomplishments, and to help unify our country, President Trump should accept the outcome of the election and facilitate the presidential transition process.”
Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan, who has a long track record of being critical of President Trump, further derided the president over the weekend, sending the message that he should “stop golfing and concede.”
“If you had done your job, America’s governors wouldn’t have been forced to fend for themselves to find tests in the middle of a pandemic, as we successfully did in Maryland,” he also chided.
Other prominent Republicans who have joined the narrative that Joe Biden is the president-elect (that remains to be decided by the Electoral College in December) and that President Trump should simply concede despite evidence of voter fraud include Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, and Ben Sasse of Nebraska; Representatives Paul Mitchell and Fred Upton of Michigan, Francis Rooney of Florida, and Will Hurd of Texas; and Governors Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Phil Scott of Vermont, and Governor-elect Spencer Cox of Utah.
Even government officials whose roles are ostensibly apolitical are saying the president should start the transition process despite the ongoing election legal battles.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for example, said that President Trump’s refusal to work with the Biden transition team is hurting public health as coronavirus case numbers reportedly surge around the country. Asked on CNN’s State of the Union if he would like to start working with the Biden team, Fauci replied: “Of course, that’s obvious. Of course it would be better if we could start working with them.”
This decisive moment is highly revealing of who is truly on the side of liberty and truth and who has simply been masquerading under the banner of conservatism for political expediency.
In spite of the myriad Republicans who are calling it quits, the president’s legal team remains confident that he will prevail.
Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, put it squarely in a press conference last week:
This is a disgraceful thing that was done in this country. Probably not much more disgraceful than the things these people did in office, which you didn’t and don’t bother to cover and you conceal from the American people but we let this happen, we use largely a Venezuelan voting machine in essence to count our vote. We let this happen, we’re going to become Venezuela. We cannot let this happen to us. We cannot allow these crooks, because that’s what they are, to steal an election from the American people. They elected Donald Trump. They didn’t elect Joe Biden. Joe Biden is in the lead because of the fraudulent ballots, the illegal ballots, that were produced and that were allowed to be used, after the election was over. Give us an opportunity to prove it in court and we will.
For the sake of preserving the Republic, we must hope that Mr. Giuliani makes good on his promise.
