December 5, 2020

The Washington Post Asked Every Congressional Republican if Biden Won. Damn, This Is Depressing.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

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This week, my colleague Kevin Drum asked the question on everyone’s mind: “How long will it be until Donald Trump goes away?” Trump, Kevin had thought, “was a blip, not a harbinger of things to come.” But Kevin’s optimism is slipping. Trump’s aggressive post-election fundraising campaign, he worries, “suggests pretty strongly that Trump plans to stay very, very active.”

Whatever this torrent of cash reveals about Trump’s next moves, and his plans for the next four years, one thing is sure: He has GOP support. Over a month after the election, Trump retains an iron grip on congressional Republicans, who remain unwilling or unable to say publicly what we all know: Joe Biden will be the president on January 20, 2021. On Saturday, the Washington Post published the results of a survey asking every Republican in the House and Senate if they believed Biden won, among other questions. The numbers are predictably depressing.

Just 25 respondents acknowledged Trump’s defeat, while two said Trump won outright. The vast bulk of them—222 Republicans, or 90 percent—wouldn’t say. Of that, more than 70 percent simply didn’t respond—content, for now, to allow Trump to continue his reckless attempt to subvert the election in court, while spreading outrageous lies about a widespread voter fraud conspiracy.

Read the full Washington Post report here.

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