By Dan Spalding
InkFreeNews

Almost every lame-duck president in US history has spent their final months in the White House focused on passing last-minute legislation to round out their policy legacy. Some probably begin thinking about their future presidential library or retirement plans. Or a book.

Not Donald Trump.

America’s 45th Commander in Chief is doing what he’s done best. Cause chaos, create more divisions and spend much of his time on Twitter and the golf links.

His attacks on the Radical Left, Nancy Pelosi, The Deep State and many blue states has been commonplace and appreciated by many of his supporters.

But with a sense of desperation and desire to not be viewed as a loser, Trump has begun attacking Republican state leaders in some of the swing states that he lost in November. Beyond the lack of logic and despite numerous recounts and certifications and court rulings (all of which he lost), he stepped up his attacks on Republicans on Sunday after Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger grew a spine and told Trump that his data was inaccurate in a phone call Saturday.

On Sunday, Trump attacked the Secretary of State for a lack of cooperation.

In turn, Raffensperger apparently released a bombshell recording of their heated, hour-long conversation in which Trump is heard urging them to find 11,780 votes that would make him the winner and then made vague threats against the state official.

In the audio, Trump literally sounds like a mafia boss leaning on somebody and trying to extort some cooperation, which could be viewed as criminal.

A few Republicans pushed back and distanced themselves from the nonsense. But not many.

Rep. Liz Cheney, of Wyoming, (No. 3 in GOP leadership) was uncommonly critical. “I think it was deeply troubling,” Cheney told CNN of the call. “I think it was deeply troubling, and I think everybody should listen to the full hour of it.”

Top Democrats were quick to blast Trump over the recording and concerns trickled down to the local level on Monday.

Kosciusko County Democratic Chairman Brian Smith offered the following thoughts on social media: “If I called up Ann Torpy, the Kosciusko Clerk who oversees our elections, and told her to “find 16,764 votes” to elect Travis J. McConnell, I’d be sitting in prison right now, as I should be. Nobody is above the law. The President should be prosecuted for these Russian style tactics,” Smith wrote.

You may ask yourself: Dan, why are you posting your weekly column today instead of on Saturday? Well, part of it is the holiday weekend got in the way. But mostly, because what happened this weekend and what will happen in the next few days has the potential for plenty of fireworks, the kind we’ve never seen before.

On Monday night, Trump will try to rally the base in Georgia in hopes of turning out the vote in two crucial Senate runoffs set for Tuesday that will determine which party will control the Senate. He’s berated Raffensperger and the Republican governor and so I’m guessing they will not be joining Trump on stage.

More intriguing might be whether he brings up the so-called “rigged” election and how he explains why the same election rules this time around won’t be more of the same. Will it turn off Republican voters? If it does and the two Democratic candidates win, it would be a huge gift for Pres.-Elect Joe Biden, and Trump could easily be blamed for it. That alone would be an ugly legacy.

But wait, there’s more. He still has more than two weeks remaining in office, and Congress is set to vote on certifying the Electoral College results Wednesday and he’s doing his best to gum up that process, too.

The uprising of Republican members of Congress who say they will not support certification (including Indiana Sen. Mike Braun) was growing over the weekend, but the audiotape may well change that.

Indiana-born Vice President Mike Pence is set to preside Wednesday over a special joint session of Congress to certify the electoral results and is scheduled to leave the country on vacation as soon as it’s over.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, of Illinois, tweeted Sunday that the recording of Trump demanding that Raffensperger “find” more votes for him was “appalling.”

“To every member of Congress considering objecting to the election results, you cannot – in light of this – do so with a clean conscience.  #RestoreOurGOP.”

It’s hard to “go to bat” for somebody who just stuck a knife in your back.

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Dan Spalding is the editor at InkFreeNews.com.
He covers city government and politics and always welcomes your input.
He can be reached at [email protected] or at (574) 855-7612.