‘Difficult to imagine a more undemocratic action’: Romney accuses Trump of placing ‘overt pressure’ on election officials

Mitt Romney, who was the first Republican senator to call Joe Biden “president-elect,” pounced on President Donald Trump, accusing him of pressuring electoral officials into “subverting the will” of the American people.

The Utah Republican came out swinging at Trump on Thursday, arguing that the president, “having failed to make even a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before any court of law,” has resorted to mobster tactics.

The President has now resorted to overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election. It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President

Romney’s no-holds-barred criticism of Trump is the harshest rebuke yet to come from a senior Republican.

A former presidential candidate and a staunch critic of Trump, Romney has not been alone in taking shots at the GOP leader.

Earlier the same day, Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who squared off with the president in the past, released a statement downplaying the legal challenges mounted by Trump’s campaign lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

“Based on what I’ve read in their filings, when Trump campaign lawyers have stood before courts under oath, they have repeatedly refused to actually allege grand fraud – because there are legal consequences of lying to judges,” Sasse said. Taking a swipe at Giuliani, Sasse accused the former federal prosecutor of “eroding” public trust with “wild” press conferences where he has alleged widespread election fraud.

“So no, obviously Rudy and his buddies should not pressure electors to ignore their certification obligations under the statute. We are a nation of laws, not tweets,” the senator went on.

Sasse apparently referred to a fiery press conference Giuliani and Sidney Powell – best known for representing Trump’s former aide General Michael Flynn – gave on Thursday, citing alleged instances of voter fraud and arguing that, if not for rampant electoral violations in several Democratic strongholds, Trump would have had the election in the bag.

While Republicans seem to be increasingly split on Trump’s election fraud claims, one of the president’s most vocal supporters in the mainstream media, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, appeared to cast doubt on some of the election irregularities allegations, which Powell claimed were caused by rigged software.  At the press conference, Powell claimed that Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic software were involved in erasing Trump votes and “injecting” votes for Biden, alleging that they processed voting data in Germany and Spain and that the firms were linked to Venezuela, Cuba and China.

Carlson said that when he invited Powell to the show, asking her for evidence, she refused to produce any. “She’s never sent us any evidence despite requests, polite requests, not a page. When we kept pressing she got angry and told us to stop contacting her.”

Carlson’s take on the election drama did not sit well with many Trump supporters on social media, however, accusing him of using the Powell segment to “discredit the entire Trump case.”

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