Idaho Republicans must put an end to Trump’s dangerous attack on our elections

Congress should quickly and emphatically certify the Electoral College results on Wednesday, and we call on Idaho’s Rep. Mike Simpson and Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch to do the right thing and do what’s best for the country.

Unfortunately, Rep. Russ Fulcher has already done the wrong thing, choosing President Trump over the country by announcing Monday that he’ll be objecting to the certification.

Trump’s insistence that he really won the election and that hundreds of thousands of votes for President-elect Joe Biden are fraudulent has been proved false in court dozens of times. The president’s baseless claims of voter fraud don’t become true just because he and his Republican accomplices keep repeating them.

With horribly named “stop the steal” rallies planned Wednesday across the country, including in Boise, such claims of impropriety only serve to pour gasoline on a fire fueled by conspiracy theories, disinformation and outright lies. It’s Trump and his defenders who are trying to do the stealing.

Nearly 60 court cases involving Trump’s claims have been dismissed. His own Attorney General William Barr said the election results were accurate, and acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said the election was “the most secure election in U.S. history.” Chris Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a lifelong Republican who was later fired by Trump, said: “America, we have confidence in the security of your vote, you should, too.”

Dozens of courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have rejected Trump’s claims.

In a leaked recording of a phone call with the Republican Secretary of State of Georgia Brad Raffensperger, Trump repeats debunked conspiracy theory after another, to which Raffensperger and attorney Ryan Germany have to continually respond, “No, that is not true,” “the data you have is wrong,” “it’s just not accurate.”

They continually respond to debunked theories with the facts, explanations and results of their investigations. Still, Trump persists, with the fallback position, “I won Georgia. There’s no way I lost Georgia. There’s no way.”

Shortly after the election, when Trump refused to accept defeat, we admonished Idaho’s congressional delegation to accept the results of the election and condemn the president’s outlandish claims about the election.

At the time, on Nov. 6, this editorial board argued, “Sowing the seeds of doubt about the legitimacy of one of the most vital tenets of our democracy deserves more than just a milquetoast response.”

Unfortunately, Crapo and Risch offered weak responses, and Simpson and Fulcher went a step further by signing on to a thrown-out Texas lawsuit challenging how other states conducted their elections.

We are about to find out what we shall reap from those seeds that have been sowed.

An unhinged president refusing to accept the results of the election is ginning up his supporters with wild conspiracy theories like your crazy uncle sharing misinformation memes on Facebook.

Untold millions of people are falling for the con game, including Rep. Fulcher.

In a video recorded statement released Monday, Fulcher cited, among other things, “mass balloting practices.”

It’s worth noting that Fulcher won his Republican primary in May with a “mass balloting practice.” Should we now challenge his primary victory? Or should we encourage the state of Pennsylvania to sue to try to stop Idaho’s primary election?

To be clear, the only reason there are still “doubts” and “concerns” about the election results is that Trump continues to feed them.

It’s way past time for Republican legislators like Crapo, who is up for reelection in two years, Risch and Simpson to stand up and say, “enough is enough.” The voters have done their duty, the states have done their duty, the Electoral College has done its duty and the court system has done its duty.

Now it’s time for Congress to do its duty and certify the results and finally, once and for all, put an end to Trump’s dangerous attack on our country’s free, fair and legitimate elections.

This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 3:19 PM.