Two things became clear in the United States this week. The first is that Joe Biden will take over on January 20despite Donald Trump’s desperate attempts to stop him, and that sometimes borders on the illegal.
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The second is that the fable of electoral fraud that the US president has built up over these six weeks has not only broken the country, it will continue to dominate political discourse for years to come.
As expected, the Electoral College confirmed the results of the elections on 3 November this Monday. Biden received 306 votes for this body, compared to 232 for Trump.
A result identical to that of four years ago and that was thene cataloged by the current president as “a sweep”.
While voting in the electoral college is usually a procedure, it gained relevance on this occasion given the president’s attack on an archaic electoral system that does not select the winner directly and lends itself to obscure maneuvers.
In fact, Trump tried until the last minute to reach out to Republican authorities in states he lost to either avoid certification of the results or simply give him the Electoral College votes. That, although the country’s judges, including the Supreme Court, have fallen for lack of merit and evidence, nearly 60 lawsuits have been filed by their attorneys and of the various voices that only confirmed Biden’s triumph.
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US President-elect Joe Biden.
Chip Somodevilla. AFP
But Monday’s decision by the College put an end to that odyssey. Barring a coup or some other extra-constitutional exit, there’s nothing to stop Biden from taking office next month. In any case, none with options to thrive.
The last lace on Trump’s chest was nailed by Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, who formally acknowledged Biden’s victory in a speech before Congress.
McConnell, a firm ally of Trump until now, went even further on Tuesday during a phone call with members of his party asking them to suspend all attempts to block the former vice president’s January 6 victory. when the legislator needs to verify the vote. of the Electoral College.
While the laws provide for this possibility, in practice it has no chance because it requires the support of both houses of Congress. Since the Democrats are in control of the House of Representatives, the adventure would only last a few hours while she is defeated in this community.
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McConnell also knows they don’t even have enough Republican votes in the Senate to try and believes the party would be broken if it chose between loyalty to Trump and the popular will. Some of them have already indicated that they will not join an alternative that has no future.
Mitch McConnell, Republican Senate Leader.
Biden, who remained on the sidelines throughout this process, broke his silence after the college vote to pass on his billing account. “In this battle for America’s soul, democracy triumphed. The people voted. Trust in our institutions remained. The integrity of our choices remains intact … In this country, politicians are not taking over. The people give it to them. It’s time to move on, unite and heal, ”said the president-elect.
In addition, the last remaining world leaders who recognized Biden – Vladimir Putin (Russia), Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico) and Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil) – finally accepted reality within hours of the expected decision.
Despite this, the problem is far from gone. Trump said this week that he intends to continue pushing for the alleged fraud. And not only until January 20, but from then on as a platform for a possible candidacy for the 2024 elections.
At least that is what other developments of the week suggest. According to various sources, the president is pushing for the appointment of a special prosecutor in the closing days of his administration to investigate alleged fraud and election irregularities.
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That, they say, would be why he fired the current prosecutor, William Barr, and plans to replace him with another official who is following his orders and ordering the investigation.
Biden, as soon as he takes the reins of the White House, he’s going to replace that officer. But given the nature of the special prosecutor, his investigation cannot be interrupted unless there is good reason.
Given what is already known about the allegations made by Trump and his allies, that investigation is likely to end without pain or glory. Barr himself – very loyal to Trump – has already insisted that there is no evidence of fraud. And the same condemned the nearly 100 conservative and liberal judges who analyzed the demands of his campaign.
US President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr.
Rather, it’s something akin to what Trump attempted after the 2016 election when he called in another fraud to declare his defeat by over 3 million national votes. To get to the bottom of it, he appointed a special commission that spent more than a year without being able to document a single irregularity. The commission was in fact dissolved without even drawing up an official report.
But the announcement alone served to keep that myth alive among his followers. In the current case, Biden would have to reign under the shadow of that investigation for many months, if not years, so ultimately the conclusion is the same. And in Congress, if the Republicans retain control of the Senate, it will be very similar. “This election has been stolen from him in many ways,” said Sen. Rand Paul, while Rick Scott, The Florida lawmaker insisted that the majority in his state think the elections were just as fraudulent as Nicolás Maduro’s in Venezuela.
And it was futile, for example, the testimony at that same event by Chris Krebs, the former head of the Agency for Cybersecurity and Electoral Infrastructure (a Republican appointed to that position by Trump), who was fired by the president after indicating elections they had been the most transparent in all history.
“This disinformation campaign has to stop. This is an America I don’t recognize. Democracy in general is vulnerable. And if any party is committed to undermining the process, we risk losing it, ”said Krebs.
But everything indicates that they will not stop. Republicans are being intimidated by Trump and a crowd of supporters who have been lied to and have now lost all ability to distinguish fact from fiction. Time will help cure this madness, but it will be difficult as long as the party remains in the grip of a leader who cares little about the country and lives only for his personal glory, ” said David Ignatius, Harvard professor and columnist for The Washington Post.
In addition, there are some who would benefit from keeping Biden in line, as his goal is to regain control of Congress in the 2022 elections and the White House within four years.
But what they don’t seem to understand Ignatius says, that what is at stake is the survival of American democracy.
SERGIO GÓMEZ MASERI
EL TIEMPO correspondent
WASHINGTON
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