Even Karl Rove says Donald Trump lost and lawsuits won't change that

Karl Rove, the mastermind behind George W. Bush’s presidential bids, wrote an op-ed in the conservative Wall Street Journal on Wednesday saying no amount of lawsuits or recounts from Donald Trump will change the fact that President-elect Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

“The president’s efforts are unlikely to move a single state from Mr. Biden’s column, and certainly they’re not enough to change the final outcome,” Rove, who advised Trump’s campaign, wrote.

Rove is one of just a few GOP voices that have publicly acknowledged the reality before the Republican Party — that Trump lost and the nation needs to move forward.

Trump has been lying about massive voter fraud, and filing lawsuits left and right to try to delay the inevitable, which is that Biden is on pace to win 306 Electoral College votes — the same number Trump garnered in 2016 when he called his own victory a “landslide,” and far more than the 270 needed to win the race.

In his op-ed, Rove pointed out that recounts — like the ones Trump is seeking in Wisconsin and Georgia — rarely change the outcome of a race. Rove wrote that just three statewide races have been changed by recounts in the past 50 years.

“The candidates in these races were separated, respectively, by 355, 261, and 215 votes after Election Day,” Rove said. “These margins aren’t much like today’s. Mr. Biden led Wednesday in Wisconsin by 20,540 votes, Pennsylvania by 49,064, Michigan by 146,123, Arizona by 12,614, Nevada by 36,870 and Georgia by 14,108.”

Ultimately, Rove urged Trump to “do his part to unite the country by leading a peaceful transition and letting grievances go.”

Trump’s refusal to concede could have real-world consequences for the country.

He’s currently blocking the federal government from cooperating with Biden’s transition, which is preventing Biden from receiving funds and access to government employees to help fill thousands of critical roles within the executive branch.

Experts warn that blockade endangers national security, pointing to a report from the 9/11 Commission that found the delay in transition during the contested 2000 election may have played a role in the deadly terrorist attack.

Currently, Trump’s refusal to allow the government to cooperate in the transition is keeping Biden from receiving classified briefings.

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said if Biden doesn’t start receiving those briefings by Friday, he will get involved.

“There is no loss from him getting the briefings and to be able to do that,” Lankford said in an interview with a local Oklahoma radio station.

Lankford added, “This needs to occur so that regardless of the outcome of the election, whichever way that it goes, people can be ready for that actual task.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.