"What we are really dealing with here and uncovering more by the day is the massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba and likely China in the interference with our elections here in the United States."
--Sidney Powell, one of the president's lawyers, or former lawyers, or maybe lawyering on her own, or ... we can't figure it out.
When TV host Tucker Carlson and radio commentator Todd Starnes say somebody on the president's team has gone rogue, punchlines can't be far off. Todd Starnes said he wanted to get Sidney Powell on his program to discuss the "millions" of votes that were supposedly stolen in the last presidential election, but her people told him to stop asking questions. According to him. And his journalistic cred wouldn't allow it.
As far as Fox News' Tucker Carlson: "What Powell was describing would amount to the single greatest crime in American history. Millions of votes stolen in a day. Democracy destroyed . . . We invited Sidney Powell on the show. We would have given her the whole hour. We would have given her the entire week, actually . . . But she never sent us any evidence despite requests, polite requests. When we kept pressing she got angry and told us to stop contacting her."
NB: Tucker Carlson used to work for this column. (And they said this was a nowhere job.)
Even Rush Limbaugh, the Father Coughlin of our generation, said the president's lawyers, including a dripping Rudy Giuliani, haven't provided any tangible proof of big-time wrongdoing. On his radio program Tuesday, El-Rushbo said: "You announce massive bombshells, then you better have some bombshells."
Certainly the conspiracy theories won't go away, even now. But it appears as though the president is at least allowing a transition to begin.
Bret Stephens, a New York Times columnist and famous Never-Trumper conservative, says that Donald Trump will never concede. Because he's "congenitally, psychologically, morally, intellectually incapable" of it. But President Trump doesn't have to concede. He just has to allow his successor to prepare to take control of the free world's leading government.
This past week, that very thing began happening.
--Michigan certified its results. and a judge in Pennsylvania threw out a lawsuit by Trump's people to prevent certification in that state.
--The General Services Administration ascertained Monday that President-elect Joe Biden was the "apparent" winner. Close enough for government work.
--The president's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, sent out a memo to staffers Monday saying the administration would "comply with all actions needed to ensure the smooth transfer of power."
--Joe Biden told NBC News that the transition team is working on getting Presidential Daily Briefs now, and "we're already working out meeting with the covid team" in the White House.
--And, for the record, President Trump tweeted on Tuesday that he's directed his team to cooperate with the transition, even though he vows to keep up the legal fight.
It is important that the transition teams--incoming and outgoing--work together. And not just for appearances or tradition. The president-elect and his people need to be prepared for command once his left hand touches the Bible. The pandemic looms. Terrorism abroad looms. China, Iran and North Korea loom. A lot looms.
There's a reason there are a few months between an American election and a presidential transfer of power: so that the incoming administration can get up to speed. It's hard enough to get any speed running through a swamp in the first place. But it doesn't help if somebody's throwing obstacles in your way. Or pulling on you from behind.
A transfer is coming on Jan. 20. The current president can keep paying lawyers if he wants, but the country needs cooperation at the highest levels now.