Ex-AG Holder urges GOP to speak against Trump efforts to ‘subvert’ election results

Former Attorney General Eric Holder urged GOP officials to speak out against President Trump’s efforts to subvert election results in an open letter published Friday.

“This is a period of maximum danger for our democracy,” Holder wrote. “Tampering with county officials and inviting state legislators to the White House to discuss a plot to reverse the results of a free and fair election is the behavior of a foreign autocrat, not an American president.”

Holder’s letter comes as Michigan state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R) and state House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R) were set to meet with Trump at the White House. 

Trump is widely expected at the meeting to press for the Michigan lawmakers to invalidate the results of the election in the state. President-elect Joe Biden is ahead of Trump in the state by more than 150,000 votes. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Friday said it would not be an advocacy meeting. 

The president has refused to concede the election and argues fraud led to his defeat, but his legal team’s arguments have found little to no success in the courts.

GOP officials have generally given Trump cover, though there have been more criticisms of his arguments since a press conference Thursday led by Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Fox News’s Tucker Carlson was among the voices noting that Giuliani and other lawyers had failed to provide actual evidence for their theories.

Holder called on Republican officials “who care more about the oath they took to defend the Constitution than catering to the whims of the outgoing president” to speak on behalf of American democratic values.