On Trump administration efforts to subvert the election, prevent the peaceful transition of power
The vote is the foundation of our democratic republic and our modern Constitution. Baseless allegations of “fraud” and “illegal votes,” with false implications that they throw the outcome of the presidential election into doubt, undermine this foundation. Such allegations are an attack on the rule of law and the principles enshrined in the Twelfth Article of Faith. We wish these accusations only came from the fringes of the Republican Party, but they are being echoed by the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, the Senate Majority Leader, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General of the United States, the senior US Senator from Utah, and the Attorney General of Utah, among others. The Republican political appointee at the Government Services Agency, charged with initiating the peaceful transition of power, is refusing to fulfill her constitutional duty.
Joe Biden is the President-Elect. That is reality. President-Elect Biden has received the most votes of any candidate in history and is on track to receive a larger Electoral College victory than in two of the last five previous presidential elections, one the same size as four years ago, and a percentage of the popular vote larger than President Ronald Reagan’s in 1980. The election is not close; it does not come down to a few hundred votes in one state, but margins in the tens of thousands in many states. He has been given a mandate by the American people to tackle the pandemic, to rescue the economy, to address climate change, and to unify us.
Every additional day senior Republican officials refuse to acknowledge this reality, they harm our democracy. They are attempting to thwart the peaceful transition of power, either to stoke their own political ambitions or to flatter the ego of the incumbent president.
On January 20th, Joe Biden will take the oath of office and become the 46th president of the United States. He has been congratulated as the President-Elect by former President George W. Bush and Senator Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. It is time for all patriots to set partisan differences aside and prepare for an orderly, peaceful, and seamless transition of power.
