The Republicans’ willingness to entertain Trump’s tantrums means that, unlike most Americans, 82% of Trump voters say they think Biden’s victory is illegitimate and that Trump should refuse to concede and should do all he can to stay in power.
[But, running counter to this,] now that the Electoral College has cast the votes that elect Joe Biden to the presidency, [at least one] Republican senator is acknowledging Biden’s win. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told other Republican senators not to object to the certification of the Electoral College votes on January 6. Doing so would force the rest of the Senate to vote against Trump, infuriating Trump voters, and McConnell hopes to avoid such a vote. Still, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) have indicated they might be willing to join House Republicans in challenging the votes.
Tomorrow, the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which Johnson chairs, will hold an oversight hearing on what he says are the irregularities in the 2020 election. Courtrooms, where lawyers bear penalties for lying, have turned up no irregularities. The Senate hearing will have much more latitude, and its first witness is Republican operative Kenneth W. Starr, so it is almost certainly going to consist of rumors and assumptions rather than any evidence to which the witnesses could swear under oath.
Joe Biden continues to move forward with his administration, naming former rival Pete Buttigieg for Secretary of Transportation. Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, emerged as a surprisingly popular presidential candidate in 2020, and afterward turned out to be an astonishingly good voice for Democratic policies on the Fox News Channel. (Seriously. Go watch clips.)
But critics note that his experience in public office is limited to his mayorship, and his nomination would throw him at the head of a department of 55,000 employees in service to a president who has vowed extensive infrastructure development—for real, this time. Since he is obviously hungry for national elected office, nerdy about infrastructure, and good in front of the cameras, it’s not clear this is a bad idea. It might be a good way to boost a low-profile department that often goes unappreciated.
Buttigieg ran his presidential campaign on a platform of climate action, and his nomination has already drawn praise from the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the League of Conservation Voters. If confirmed, he will be the nation’s first openly gay Cabinet member.
Tonight, just in time to disrupt the news cycle before Biden was set to address the nation, [and after the Electoral College formally elected Biden president] Trump announced that Attorney General William Barr is stepping down on December 23. Barr was a true loyalist, but the two men have been at odds since Barr refused to sign on to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. On December 1, Barr told the Associated Press that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 election, thus undercutting the president’s arguments.
Also, the timing of the resignation itself might well reflect that Trump is planning some controversial pardons and Barr didn’t want to be associated with them.