President Donald Trump is effectively sabotaging the Republican Party on his way out of office, obsessed with overturning his election loss and nursing pangs of betrayal from allies whom he had expected to bend the instruments of democracy to his will.
Trump has created a divide in his party as fundamental and impassioned as any during his four years as president, with lawmakers forced to choose between certifying the results of an election decided by their constituents or appeasing the president in an all-but-certain-to-fail crusade to keep him in power by subverting the vote.
As Republican lawmakers took sides before Wednesday's joint session of Congress to certify the electoral college results, some on Monday voiced rare criticism of Trump for his attempt to pressure Georgia elections officials to change vote totals there on a Saturday phone call, a recording of which was published by The Washington Post.
Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 House Republican, said the call was "deeply troubling" and urged all Americans to listen to the hour-long conversation, while Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., condemned it as "a new low in this whole futile and sorry episode." One of Trump's most loyal defenders, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said it was "not a helpful call."
Trump signaled that he had little patience for defections by members of what he dubbed the "Surrender Caucus." After Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., announced that he was not joining the band of GOP lawmakers objecting to the electoral college results, Trump criticized Cotton on Twitter and warned that voters would "NEVER FORGET!"
Trump is trying to mobilize a show of strength that could intimidate lawmakers who certify the result, exhorting his supporters to travel to Washington for mass protests Wednesday. He is planning to speak to the crowd on the White House Ellipse about midday Wednesday, two officials familiar with the planning said.
Trump in recent days has criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for having "NO FIGHT," publicly recruited a primary challenger to the Senate's No. 2 Republican, John Thune of South Dakota, and called on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, to resign.
Thirteen senators and more than 100 House members are planning to object to the electoral college results in Wednesday's proceedings, but Trump is befuddled as to why many more Republicans are not falling in line with him, advisers said.
Fueling the president's indignation is his belief that he is the true victor, because that is what the advisers in his ear continue to tell him, according to one of Trump's closest advisers, who like some others interviewed for this report spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.
"He incontrovertibly thinks he won - and he thinks he won big - and the people around him don't disabuse him of that because they don't want to get crosswise, and because they told him he was going to win, so they can have it both ways," this adviser said. "It's not about his inability to move on. It's about his inability to even diagnose what happened. He won't yet conduct the autopsy, if you will."
