State Trump Again Doubt Election Process
Trump Again Sows Doubt About Election as G.O.P. Scrambles to Clinch Voters
President Trump declined for a second mean solar day to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost the election, while Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, implicitly rebuffed him, promising an "orderly transition."
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WASHINGTON — President Trump declined for a second straight day to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost the election, repeating baseless assertions that the voting would be a "big scam," even every bit leading Republicans scrambled to clinch the public that their party would respect the Constitution.
"We want to make certain that the election is honest, and I'g not sure that it can exist," Mr. Trump told reporters on Thursday before leaving the White House for North Carolina.
The president doubled down on his stance merely hours later on prominent Republicans made it clear that they were committed to the orderly transfer of power, without directly rebuking him. "The winner of the November tertiary election volition be inaugurated on January 20th," Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, wrote on Twitter early Thursday. "There volition exist an orderly transition just as in that location has been every iv years since 1792."
Democrats were far less restrained, comparison Mr. Trump's comments to those of an authoritarian leader and alarm Americans to have his stance seriously.
"You are not in Due north Korea; yous are non in Turkey; you are not in Russia, Mr. President, and past the way, you are not in Saudi arabia," Business firm Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. "You are in the U.s.a.. It is a republic, then why don't yous just endeavor for a moment to honor your oath of function to the Constitution of the United States?"
Chris Edelson, an American University professor who has studied the expansion of presidential power during national emergencies, said Mr. Trump'due south comments represented a unique threat to a central pillar of republic. "It's impossible to underscore how absolutely extraordinary this state of affairs is — there are actually no precedents in our country," he said. "This is a president who has threatened to jail his political opponents. Now he is suggesting he would not respect the results of an election. These are serious warning signs."
Douglas Brinkley, the presidential historian, said, "This may be the near dissentious affair he has e'er done to American democracy."
Over the by 4 years, establishment Republicans take tried to adjust to Mr. Trump's disruptions, either ignoring his comments or dismissing them every bit a temporary news-cycle diversion rather than a threat to the autonomous process. Republicans appeared on Th to be trying to reassure the public about the electoral system while withholding personal criticism of the president, a balancing deed that shows their political codependence — one that has led One thousand.O.P. lawmakers, with few exceptions, to faithfully execute his wishes.
Other Republicans, including Senators Susan Collins and Marco Rubio and Representative Liz Cheney, followed Mr. McConnell on Thursday and issued statements conveying an implicit criticism of the president's stance. "America's leaders swear an adjuration to the Constitution,'' Ms. Cheney wrote on Twitter. "We will uphold that oath.''
Mr. Trump's comments follow a serial of battleground state polls that show him trailing one-time Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic challenger. The president's standing has not recovered since the offset of the coronavirus pandemic, despite his repeated efforts to focus voters' attention on other issues, from the economy to social unrest to the new Supreme Courtroom vacancy.
Mr. Trump initially sparked alarm on Wed when, asked about a peaceful transition, he said that "we're going to have to see what happens" — remarks that intensified the growing partisan controversy over the legitimacy of the elections. Mr. Trump, as he has many times earlier, questioned the integrity of the voting system, and he repeated that skepticism Thursday, maxim: "We have to be very careful with the ballots. The ballots — y'all know, that'southward a whole big scam."
There is no evidence that mailing ballots to voters increases fraud in the voting process, though there have been scattered instances of the Post's failing to deliver ballots among other post that did not achieve its destination.
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At the Capitol on Thursday, Republican senators and members of the House could non avoid questions from reporters about the president's sentiment, merely party members elsewhere exhibited footling appetite for engaging in a word near them. Just four of the 168 Republican National Committee members responded to emailed questions about Mr. Trump'southward remarks, and merely i of the state's 26 Republican governors — Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas — agreed to address the issue when contacted through their printing offices.
"Our common commitment to republic and the rule of law," Mr. Hutchinson wrote, "is not dependent upon the actions of whatever i individual."
Republican congressional aides scrambled to reply to Mr. Trump's remarks on Wed night, settling on an informal strategy that affirmed broad ramble principles and trod lightly around Mr. Trump, the almost powerful and popular member of their party. They as well attempted to throw the question dorsum at Democrats by seizing on Hillary Clinton's recent remark, which stopped brusque of Mr. Trump's comment, that Democrats "should not concede the ballot" until all legal options had been exhausted.
Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate facing the near challenging re-election fight of her career — in a land that is becoming more favorable to Democrats — was the rare Republican to refer directly to Mr. Trump every bit she questioned his actions.
"I don't know what his thinking was, simply we have always had a peaceful transition between administrations," Ms. Collins said. "The peaceful transfer of power is a fundamental tenet of our commonwealth, and I am confident that we will see information technology occur one time over again."
Ben Ginsberg, a longtime Republican elections lawyer who retired last calendar month, said Republican senators — even those who take sought to distance themselves from Mr. Trump — are limited in how much they can criticize a president who remains overwhelmingly popular with the political party's base.
His leverage over the rank and file is even greater equally he prepares to announce a Supreme Court nominee about all of them volition support, Mr. Ginsberg said.
"The president's comments virtually the peaceful transfer of power, combined with his demand for the ninth justice to carry out his ballot plans, puts Republican senators on the horns of a dilemma," Mr. Ginsberg said.
Democrats, seemingly powerless to stop the court nomination, accused Republicans of enabling Mr. Trump in the interest of short-term political gain.
Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon said his Republican colleagues had an obligation to denounce whatever suggestion that Mr. Trump would not participate in a peaceful transfer of power.
"Anyone elected who takes an oath to the Constitution has the responsibility to reply and say this is unacceptable," Mr. Merkley said in an interview. "This is the mode authoritarian dictators operate. They have bear witness elections and they say, 'I win, and I will brand sure the results testify I win.'"
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump merged the two story lines involving the courtroom and the legitimacy of the ballot. He said he expected voting disputes to be decided by the Supreme Court and urged a swift confirmation for a successor to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Ii leading Republican senators, Ted Cruz of Texas and Lindsey Graham of Southward Carolina, accept echoed the president's call for a swift activeness on his nominee, citing the courtroom'southward potential part in deciding the outcome.
"People wonder about the peaceful transfer of power," Mr. Graham said on Fox News on Thursday. "I can assure yous, information technology will exist peaceful."
"I promise you every bit a Republican, if the Supreme Court decides that Joe Biden wins, I will take the upshot," Mr. Graham added. "The court volition decide, and if Republicans lose, we'll accept the result."
Paradigm
Mr. Trump, for his part, does not seem to mind all the criticism — and appears intent on sowing doubt nigh the legitimacy of an election he is in danger of losing. At the land level, some Republicans were endorsing his position.
"There is a lot of concern with how the voting process is being managed," said Deborah Billado, the chairwoman of the Vermont Republican Party. "The country was hurled into this mail-in ballot process when everyone knows the integrity of the checklists are in question. Many people do not trust what'southward happening."
And Richard Porter, a Republican National Committee member from Chicago, said the question put to Mr. Trump about an orderly transition had been unfair.
"These questions to the president regarding his willingness to exit office are all trolling him — premised on and suggestive of the notion that he's a bad, bad guy," Mr. Porter said. "Of course he will respect the actual results — it'south a ridiculous question. He'south but jerking your chain."
Mr. Trump has given no indication that his remarks were in jest.
Erstwhile Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who has been helping Vice President Mike Pence set up for the upcoming debates, struck a defiant notation, writing on Twitter: "Smart candidates never concede anything before an election. They focus on what it takes to win."
Senator Rick Scott of Florida announced that he had introduced legislation that would require every state to count and written report its final results "within 24 hours after polls shut on Election Twenty-four hour period." The federal authorities has no part in overseeing elections; they are conducted and certified past local officials, who bide by a variety of rules about how and when ballots must be returned in society to be counted in a presidential ballot.
Still, the debate exposed a split in the political party that the flurry of Thou.O.P. statements — and attacks on Democrats — could not obscure, and Mr. Trump's comments caused deep uneasiness among some stalwarts of the besieged Republican institution.
"This isn't the typical Trump outrage that comes and goes," said Brendan Cadet, a quondam acme adviser to House Speaker Paul Ryan, who stepped downwardly in 2019. "Senators are stating their principle here because information technology's obvious to everyone that he is, in fact, planning to dispute the results if he loses, no matter how lopsided. Calling him names isn't going to stop him, but they are trying to save themselves some problem subsequently by making clear they're non going to flirt with crazy conspiracies that make a mockery of our democracy."
Nicholas Fandos and Michael Crowley contributed reporting.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/us/politics/trump-republicans-election-transition.html
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