It is only a matter of time before the states certify their election results and President Trump’s legal team is forced to throw in the towel. They may give up semi-voluntarily but not readily, and they will almost certainly blame their loss on the courts or the deep state — anything but the one thing that guaranteed Trump’s legal failure: his lack of evidence.
The damage will be long-lasting. Millions of the president’s supporters will spend the next four years convinced they were robbed, and they will take their frustration out on not only the Democrats but the Republicans who they believe worked against Trump during his legal quest. Already, pro-Trump attorneys Lin Wood and Sidney Powell are encouraging Republican voters not to support Georgia Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in the critical runoff elections because they have not publicly commented on Trump’s case in the state. Many voters will listen, and the GOP will suffer as a consequence.
Trump surely will be similarly vindictive when he leaves office. He has already denounced Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, who called on Trump to concede after his campaign lost yet another lawsuit in Pennsylvania this weekend, and he will almost certainly do the same to any Republican who dares to question his election fearmongering. And because of the hold he still has on the Republican base, few GOP officials will challenge him openly. This means we could very well spend the next several years talking about Trump’s stolen election instead of the policies that actually won over voters.
This was always how it was going to be. Trump made it clear from the get-go that he would accept the results of the presidential election only if those results were “fair,” meaning only if they resulted in his reelection.
More to the point: This is always who Trump has been. He has never once cared about proving Democrats wrong. Instead, he has chosen to confirm their worst fears and try to overturn the results of the presidential election by repeatedly filing lawsuits in the hope that the suits will make their way to the Supreme Court or House of Representatives. He would rather subvert the democratic process than admit he lost to a candidate who barely campaigned.
Trump has certainly never cared about the Republican Party’s longevity more than his own. If he did, he would not have allowed Wood and Powell (or Rudy Giuliani for that matter) anywhere near his case, and he would come out in full force for Loeffler and Perdue. Instead, he directed Giuliani and attorney Jenna Ellis to release a statement distancing themselves from Powell while he spent his afternoon at the golf course.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is pouring millions of dollars into Georgia, and the important conversation about election integrity and voter fraud is being trampled upon by absurd accusations of bribery, Venezuelan influence, and voting software algorithms. Trump is not only losing his own election battle; he’s losing the long-term battle for political power, and he doesn’t seem to care.
