Former GOP senator: Republicans cannot let Trump’s ‘reckless’ post-election claims stand

Former Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) is calling on fellow Republicans to bat down President Trump’s unfounded claims that the presidential election was “rigged” and he, not Joe Biden, is the rightful winner.

“While the president has the right to legitimate legal challenges, responsible citizens cannot let the reckless actions by him and his legal team stand. Republicans have an obligation when the subject is of such importance to challenge demagoguery and patently false statements,” Corker said Friday morning on Twitter.

Corker, as Foreign Relations Committee chairman, often commented on transitions of power in foreign countries, but now he finds himself in the unusual position of intervening in the messy aftermath of a domestic election. 

Corker made his statement after Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and other members of his legal team claimed at a news conference Thursday that they have evidence of a “massive fraud” that tilted the results of the election.

Giuliani’s message, however, was undermined by his own statement to a federal judge presiding over a lawsuit challenging the results in Pennsylvania that “this is not a fraud case.”

Giuliani on Thursday pointed to an allegation from a poll worker in Detroit who claims to have witnessed other poll workers attempt to influence voters, although the case in which she submitted a sworn statement was thrown out.

He suggested allegations of voter fraud around the country stem from actions organized “from a centralized place” and implicated “big cities controlled by Democrats” that “have a long history of corruption.”

“I know crimes, I can smell them. You don’t have to smell this one, I can prove it to you, 18 different ways. I can prove to you that he won Pennsylvania by 300,000 votes,” Giuliani said, referring to Trump.

Christopher Krebs, the administration’s top cybersecurity official who was fired by Trump this week, called the press conference “the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history. And possibly the craziest.”

Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill have defended Trump’s right to have his day in court, but they have stopped well short of endorsing his claims of widespread fraud and say the president needs to back up the explosive allegations with evidence.

Corker’s former home-state colleague, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), issued a statement Friday morning observing Biden as “a very good chance” of being president. He also called for the White House to provide Biden with resources for the transition, something the administration has blocked.