How long can Republicans keep helping Trump delegitimize the election?

Over the past 48 hours, half a dozen Republican senators have said they think Biden should start receiving intelligence briefings that president-elects usually have by now. That includes one of Trump’s most vocal conspiracy-theory-elevating senators on voter fraud, Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). “I think so,” he told reporters when asked whether Biden should have briefings. It’s an implicit acknowledgement that Biden did win and will be president soon and needs to prepare.

Two moderate Republican governors, Larry Hogan of Maryland and Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, have criticized Trump for not accepting the results.

At least two former pillars of the Republican Party, John Bolton and Karl Rove, have written op-eds urging Trump to concede. Bolton warned Republican leaders “will rue the day they stood silent.”

Georgia’s secretary of state, a loyal Republican, pushed back on Georgia Republican senators’ attempts to claim fraud in the state and that he step down for it. He’s authorizing a hand recount of ballots that he expects will confirm a Biden win in his state, The Post reports.

Those are cracks that suggest more could be coming. But, given how willing the party has been to follow Trump this far down the road of undermining a legitimate election, we’re still skeptical that party leaders would publicly accept election results before the president does.

Still, there are timelines to be aware of that could make it even harder for Republicans to stick by Trump.

In the next few days, states still counting ballots are expected to finish. That could mean Biden wins Arizona and Georgia and gets 306 electoral votes to Trump’s expected 232, literally the inverse of the 2016 election, which Republicans had no trouble agreeing with right away.

In the next few weeks, all states will certify their results, a process done after local election officials carefully canvass them to check for errors and the state’s top election official signs off on them. That certification is the step in the American electoral process that makes the results official.

In mid-December, electors will meet and vote on the results. Could there be electors who change their vote against which candidate won their state? Yes. But states can punish them for it, and it would be extraordinary for 40 electors, which Trump will probably need, to revolt to help him win.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has suggested that this December’s electoral college vote could be the moment he accepts that Biden won.

But there’s one more date looming in the minds of Republicans who have not yet publicly accepted the results: The Jan. 5 Senate runoffs in Georgia. They will determine which party controls the majority in the Senate and thus whether Democrats have a governing majority in Washington next year.

Deny a presidential election to try to win two Senate seats. It’s a remarkably cynical and arguably dangerous consideration that some Republican leaders appear to be making right now. That explains why there are cracks in the party on how much longer to keep doing this.

This post has been updated with the latest senators to support intelligence briefings for Biden.

Source: WP