Former Florida AG Pam Bondi displays a court order granting the Trump campaign more access to vote counting operations in Philadelphia on Nov. 5. Photo: Matt Slocum/AP
President Trump may be leaving the White House on Jan. 20, but his legal challenges and refusal to concede could become far more normal in U.S. politics.
Why it matters: GOP support for his tactics has been far broader than immediately after the election.
The big picture: Lawmakers in battleground states are providing pedestals for the airing of baseless legal grievances, AP reports.
- Arizona: The chairperson of the Arizona GOP asked a court to overturn Biden’s win. Republicans held a meeting where Trump's lawyers were permitted to claim the state's vote counts were fraudulent without providing evidence.
- Michigan: Lawmakers allowed Rudy Giuliani to testify at a now-infamous legislative hearing last week. One Republican member of the state's board of election canvassers abstained from certifying the final vote.
- Pennsylvania: 64 lawmakers asked Congress to decline to accept the state's electors.
Candidates are embracing Trumpian tactics, Axios' Ursula Perano reports.
- House candidate Sean Parnell (R-Pa.) has declined to concede in his race against incumbent Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.) and has joined a petition in Commonwealth Court against the Pennsylvania general assembly arguing the state's mail-in ballots were illegitimate, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.
- GOP gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp in Washington state has refused to concede after the election despite a shellacking from incumbent Gov. Jay Inslee (D).
- Multiple other candidates insisted their losses were the result of widespread fraud. None have provided credible evidence.
The bottom line: Federal election security officials have repeatedly said this election was safe and free of widespread fraud.
Go deeper: The elected Republicans who acknowledge Biden won