GOP operative: Trump voters will turn on congressional Republicans if they publicly concede election

Mitch McConnell.
(Image credit: Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Republican lawmakers are publicly supporting President Trump's election legal efforts as part of a "transactional" move, The Washington Examiner reports.

In private, writes the Examiner, many Republicans concede President-elect Joe Biden won the election and are skeptical that the Trump campaign's claims of widespread voter fraud will amount to anything. But there's reportedly also a sense that if they don't stand by the president now, more vulnerable lawmakers could face repercussions down the line at the voting booth. GOP operative and former Trump adviser Brian Lanza told the Examiner that if congressional Republicans "inject themselves before the conversation ends," Trump's base "is going to turn its" back on them.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.