Biden beat Trump. Republicans must concede the election and accept peaceful transition
No one would ever mistake Shannon Grove, Melissa Melendez or Doug LaMalfa for political geniuses.
These Republicans — two serving in the California State Legislature and one serving in Congress — are members of a party that has become mostly irrelevant in the Golden State.
Yet at a moment when California voters just demonstrated a hint of sympathy for conservative arguments by rejecting several progressive ballot measures in the 2020 election, these Republican leaders have decided to lead their party deeper into the fever swamps of absurdity.
In the wake of Joseph R. Biden’s decisive victory over President Donald Trump, these California Republicans have taken to Twitter to push divisive lies about the 2020 election.
“I believe @realDonaldTrump will be president foe the next four years,” tweeted Grove, the leader of California’s Senate Republicans, on Sunday. “#EXPOSETHECORRUPTION.”
She misspelled the word “for” as “foe.”
Melendez, an assemblywoman who recently won election to the state Senate, issued a series of tweets in which she embraced baseless claims that Biden, rather than Trump, may have lost the election.
“This is not over,” tweeted Melendez after Fox News called Michigan for Biden on Nov. 6.
LaMalfa called on the Justice Department to investigate the election in a tweet labeled by Twitter as possibly “misleading about an election or other civic process.”
Denial is the first stage of grief. So, it’s understandable that Trump and some of his supporters are struggling to accept defeat. People who supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 can certainly relate to the shock and disbelief of realizing your candidate lost.
Trump lost to a man he had derided as “the worst candidate in history.” Yet Biden beat Trump by over 4 million votes and, so far, has won 290 electoral college votes. Biden won the key battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. He even appears to have triumphed in traditionally Republican states like Arizona and Georgia.
These states went for Trump in 2016. In 2020, they chose Biden. As a result, Joe Biden is the president-elect — and Kamala D. Harris is the vice president-elect — of the United States.
With over 75 million Americans casting ballots in his favor, Biden has received more votes than any presidential candidate in history.
Nothing will change this. The people have spoken. The choice is clear. Republicans must now work toward a peaceful transition of power.
True to form, however, Trump is refusing to handle his defeat with dignity or grace. Instead, he has wrapped himself in false claims of voter fraud, casting himself as a victim. Exploiting the anger and credulity of his supporters, Trump has whipped up a new conspiracy theory to rival the QAnon quackery.
The American people fired Donald Trump. Yet the soon-to-be-former president — along with supplicants like Grove, Melendez and LaMalfa — is attempting to fire up his base by creating a fantasy world in which Trump will somehow cling to power against the will of the people.
This is dishonest, disgraceful and dangerous. Democrats have often accused Trump of acting like a wannabe authoritarian, and the president’s refusal to accept the election results only proves their point. The clear and simple truth is that American voters decided that four years of Trump was enough. Conspiracy-tinged tantrums won’t change the outcome.
Biden has made it clear he wants to unite the nation and heal political divisions. Whether you voted for Biden or Trump, we must all accept the results of the election and move forward.
Republicans like Grove, Melendez and LaMalfa must admit reality, stop spreading divisive lies and respect the will of the voters. If they insist on following Trump off of the deep end, they’ll lose their final shreds of dignity and credibility.
This story was originally published November 9, 2020 at 10:40 AM with the headline "Biden beat Trump. Republicans must concede the election and accept peaceful transition."