SAY WHAT? Trump and the GOP’s Split Personality

Editor’s Note: Say What? is the segment of Liberty Nation Radio where we unveil some of the most wacky, astonishing, and damnable things uttered by politicians and the chattering class.

Tim Donner: So Joe Biden was declared president-elect by the Electoral College with an almost exact reversal of the 2016 result, Biden 306, Trump 232. And so it is reported that Biden, who was pretty much a laugh line throughout the election campaign, became president on the strength of more than 81 million votes, 12 million more than the ultimate rockstar Barack Obama received at the height of his popularity in 2008. And as he staggered through his victory speech, this next president of ours became a laugh line once more.

Joe Biden: And once again, I think the American (cough) America ... the rule of law, more Americans voted this year (cough) than ever voted in the history of the United States … votes counted (cough) than Pence received when they won in 2016, (big cough) excuse me ... or dispute the results margin four years ago (cough) … and yet I thanked them and I'm convinced we can work together for the good of the nation (cough) … you know, this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed (cough) … We, the people voted to unite to heal. I will be president for all Americans (cough) ...

Tim: For four years, the syndicate of political, corporate, and media power pounded us every single day with what an embarrassment Donald Trump is to the nation. What exactly would you call that, which you just heard? Feeling good about having this man in charge of the nuclear codes?

But with the Electoral College declaring Biden as president this week, it has brought out a smorgasbord of responses from elected representatives of the Republican Party. Some remained defiant while others are prone to go along to get along after an election which has been, and will surely continue to be, clouded by dispute, with the great bulk of Trump voters discounting the legitimacy of the outcome. We've narrowed it down to what we'll call the five faces of the GOP. We'll start with the institutional response from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), evidently seeking to curry favor with the incoming administration.

Senator Mitch McConnell: The Electoral College has spoken. So today I want to congratulate President-Elect Joe Biden. I also want to congratulate the vice president-elect, our colleague from California, Senator Harris. Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time.

Tim: But as McConnell seems to fully accept the outcome with his institutional response, his colleague, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), engaged in an ugly exchange with Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) on gaslighting the Hunter Biden laptop corruption story, which was so effectively censored by the elite media in the run-up to the election.

Sen. Ron Johnson: Fifty people associated with the intelligence community after our Hunter Biden investigation and the revelations of the Hunter Biden computer said, 'Oh, this is, you know, this is Russian disinformation.' Now we find out, no, it's a real investigation by the Justice Department. So it's, it's just galling. And I just have to point out that the purveyors of Russian disinformation -- Hillary Clinton's campaign, the DNC [Democratic National Committee], the Steele dossier -- the ranking member Peters accusing Senator [Chuck] Grassley and I of disseminating Russian disinformation. That's where the disinformation is coming. That's the false information, the lies, the false allegations.

Sen. Gary Peters: I can't sit by here and listen to this. Mr. Chairman, I’ve got to respond to that. I mean, you're saying I'm putting out, well, I had nothing to do with this report.

Sen. Johnson: You, you lied repeatedly. You lied repeatedly in the press. And I was spreading  ... this Russian disinformation. And that was an outright lie. And I told you to stop lying and you continue to do it.

Tim: Well, the work of Democrats with the invaluable assistance of the Trump-deranged media succeeded in burying the Biden corruption story until the election was already over.

From Johnson's defiant response, we move to yet another senator, this time one who suffered a decisive defeat himself in the 2012 presidential election, and who has since been a leading never-Trumper, apparently bitter that Trump accomplished what he never could: Mitt Romney.

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT): The biggest, I guess, concern that I have is that people here genuinely believed that somehow this election was stolen. And there's not evidence of that. The president was saying it was stolen even before Election Day happened. He said, if he loses it would be fraud. Well, no one knows that. I thought I was going to win, too, when I ran for president in 2012. I didn't, but I didn't go out and say fraud, what's going on now ... I'm afraid it's terribly dispiriting to people all over the globe.

Tim: But then there are those who continue to fight the reported result of the election, led by a Trump elector in Wisconsin, Bill Feehan, who is declaring as a so-called alternative elector in fighting the certified result in his state.

Bill Feehan: There's fraud in every presidential election. Question is, does it rise to a level where it changes the outcome of the election? And here in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin elections commission repeatedly ignored state law by issuing 215,000 ballots with no identification … the Electoral College will meet on Jan. 6, a joint session of Congress. So that, that hasn't happened yet.

Tim: Indeed, that last step of formalizing the election of the president must be performed by Congress after the new year and before the scheduled presidential inauguration on Jan. 20.

But from those Republicans still fighting to overturn the result, we move to those in the GOP upset by Trump's refusal to accept defeat, including one retiring Congressman Paul Mitchell, who's gone so far as to quit the GOP.

Representative Paul Mitchell: It became clear to me that I could no longer be associated with the Republican Party. That leadership does not stand up and say the process, the election is over. It's over today. And then I saw the president tweet out that it’s not over until Jan. 20, somehow he's going to continue to combat this. The people have voted. I voted for Donald Trump. I supported the administration policies, 95, 96% of the time, the last two terms, but this party has to stand up for democracy first, for our Constitution ... I've had enough.

Tim: So there you go. The five faces of the GOP post-election 2020: the institutionalist, the blame-placer, the Trump-hater, the fighter, and the quitter -- Republicans trying to regroup after a stunning defeat, which most of them don't believe was real.

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Read more from Tim Donner.