THE MORNING AFTER THE president of the world’s most prominent democracy refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the election in November, the response from fellow Republicans was pretty much no response at all.
GOP lawmakers over the past few years have settled on a standard response when asked about a provocative, insulting or outright false statement President Donald Trump had made: I haven’t seen it, Republicans on Capitol Hill would tell inquiring reporters. Some would say they wished Trump wouldn’t tweet but would not themselves engage in a back-and-forth over the president’s most recent comments.
On Thursday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement saying that “the winner of the November 3rd election will be inaugurated on January 20th. There will be an orderly transition just as there has been every four years since 1792.” But he did not address Trump’s remarks that mail-in voting, which has expanded during the pandemic, was rife with fraud.
