The results are not in doubt. The 2020 presidential election results are not remotely close between the two candidates in the popular vote. Biden leads Trump by nearly 6 million votes. While the electoral college of electors do not vote until December 14, there is no question about the winner of electoral votes. Before all of the states have certified Joe Biden has won 306 to Donald Trump’s 232 electoral votes, a substantial victory for Biden. And, what was President Trump’s reaction to this news? “I WON THE ELECTION!” he lied on Twitter as he has done over and over since Joe Biden was declared the winner. The undisputed fact is that voters gave Mr. Biden the highest margin of victory in a two-person race against a sitting president since Franklin D Roosevelt in 1932.

The refusal of Donald J Trump to concede the election does not come as a surprise based upon his consistent dishonesty. He has the dishonor of being the only candidate in modern history to fail to concede after losing an election. His refusal is consistent with his initial bid for the presidency marked by lies through the following four years and divisive conduct. He has demonstrated a total lack of any bounds of decency or expected presidential behavior while in office. His actions  since so decisively losing the election have been disgraceful and damaging to democracy.

Trump and his cronies claim widespread voter fraud conspiracy. But, they have totally failed to produce any evidence, other than talk, of their claims of massive voter fraud in the election. Trump has wildly claimed that “hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes” have been discovered – “enough to flip at least four states” and “more than enough to win the election.” Try as they might , neither he or his lawyers have produced any credible evidence to support their claims. They have filed dozens of lawsuits around the country making these baseless claims and every court has tossed their cases out for lack of evidence. When called upon by the courts to produce the evidence to support these claims, they just can’t do so. Not one court has found any proof of these wild claims and  all have dismissed their claims out of hand. However, that didn’t stop Trump and his legal team from filing nearly two dozen legal challenges in Pennsylvania all of which were also dismissed as groundless.

When these efforts have proven unsuccessful, Trump turned to a brazen and thoroughly dishonest attempt to steal Biden’s legitimate election. He decided to try to pressure the state electors of the electoral college to violate their duty of following the popular vote  by ignoring the outcome and  instead vote for the loser: Donald Trump. Trump called upon the state legislators to do this saying: “have the courage to do what has to be done,” and adding: “the world is watching!!!” He had two of Michigan’s Republican legislature leaders come to the White House to meet with him in an effort to talk them into this dishonest scheme, but they declined his demands. This disgraceful effort is equivalent to the loser of an important lawsuit, after the judge announces the verdict, to somehow pressure the judge into ignoring the evidence and change their vote in the loser’s favor. These schemes are are likely illegal and are equivalent to attempted bribery.  So far he has been unsuccessful.

Trump’s efforts have been an unprecedented attempt by a sitting president to maintain his grasp on power and wrongly deny his opponent their victory. His actions are not only unworthy of a president of the  United States, likely illegal, but are seriously harmful as well. Like a petulant spoiled child who did not Get their way, Trump has refused to concede the election or acknowledge Biden’s victory in any fashion. Worse, he has refused to share information with the Biden transition team regarding the pandemic in spite of the fact the threat is growing worse daily. He is sacrificing the health of Americans for his own ego centered pride.  Trump ignores this crises and is totally focused on his efforts to evade the popular vote for his opponent. Trump by his words and example, has already persuaded millions of people to disregard the danger of the coronavirus and has made not wearing masks a point of pride for his supporters. By blocking Biden’s team from accessing sensitive government information, complicated operations like the distribution of a vaccine are likely to be delayed or made more cumbersome.

He has refused to share national security information with Biden and his transition team even though national leaders say it puts the country at risk. He wastes the courts time with groundless lawsuits. He undermines his supporters confidence in the Democratic system with groundless and false claims. In fact, he falsely claims success in his phoney fraud litigation in order to raise money which he claims supports these groundless cases. What he doesn’t tell contributors that the truth is 60% of the funds raised are used not for that purpose, but instead applied to pay his campaign debts.

The spineless politicians seeking political favor have worsened the situation. One of the countries leading political hypocrites, Sen. Lindsey Graham, said on Fox News “Don’t accept the media’s declaration. Don’t concede, Mr. President. Fight hard.” Other GOP leaders had either refused to urge Trump to concede and cooperate in the transition or have echoed Sen. Graham when they fully know Trump has lost the election.

While the concession from Trump to Biden  is merely a courtesy, the Constitution does make one thing clear. On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden will officially start his presidency. Whatever Trump says, or refuses to say, simply doesn’t matter. When the clock strikes noon, Trump will return to being a civilian just like the rest of us. However, I can picture a situation where the national military has to be called  to drag him out of the White House kicking and screaming “I Won. I Won.” What a national embarrassment.