Lincoln Project slams GOP leaders for silence after Donald Trump demands ‘termination’ of election laws, Constitution

Mitch McConnell and kevin McCarthy are no fans of the Jan. 6 commission. Image via AP.

It’s been more than a day since former President Donald Trump demanded the “termination” of “all rules” dictating election law, including those in the Constitution. Yet many high-ranking GOP officials, including incoming House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have remained mum on the matter.

Now the Lincoln Project, a group of frustrated Republicans fighting against the Trump wing of the party and political extremism, is calling them to task.

“Trump’s comments should have been immediately condemned by every Republican in the nation,” the group said in a statement Sunday afternoon. “Instead, lackeys like Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell again showed their weakness as leaders; too afraid to confront Trump for fear of his violent and furious base.”

In a series of Saturday morning posts to his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump again perpetuated his lie that the 2020 election was “rigged and stolen.” This time, he alluded to reporting by journalist Matt Taibbi of messages between Twitter and the Democratic Party on suppressing certain news stories labeled as “misinformation,” including ones about Hunter Biden’s stolen laptop.

“So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democratic Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGTHFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION?” he asked his nearly 4.7 million followers.

He continued: “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great “Founders” did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”

Trump’s call to disregard parts of the Constitution drew rebukes from both sides of the political aisle. Incoming House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Trump’s comments strange and extreme. He said Republicans must “work out their issues with the former President and decide whether they’re going to break from him and return to some semblance of reasonableness…”

Ohio Republican Rep. Mike Turner, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, and GOP Congressman Mike Lawler of New York expressed similar sentiments. Turner said he “vehemently” disagrees and “absolutely condemns” Trump’s remarks, while Lawler said it is time to stop focusing on the “grievances of prior elections.”

Conspicuously absent from the conversation were — and still are — McCarthy and McConnell, the latter of whom hasn’t been shy recently about criticizing Trump, including Trump’s decision to dine last week with noted antisemite Kanye West and White supremacist Nick Fuentes at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.

Trump’s latest comments are due condemnation too, the Lincoln Project said.

“After leading the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection against the peaceful transfer of power, Trump’s statement is another grim reminder of his desire to destroy the Constitution, overthrow the rule of law, and ignore our democratic traditions to attain absolute power. He does not care for the nation, only his pursuit of power and money for himself and his family,” the group said.

“Donald Trump and the MAGA movement must be defeated or the American experiment will come to a crashing end. Americans must join together, place their policy differences aside and confront the existential threat posed by Donald Trump and his anti-democracy supporters in 2024.”