CNN's Jake Tapper isn't reassured by 'cowardly' GOP's private assurances Trump will leave

Jake Tapper
(Image credit: Screenshot/CNN/YouTube)

President Trump's allies "know he's lost," Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman report in Politico on Wednesday. "They know there's no lawsuit they'll win, or recount that will get him the tens of thousands of votes he needs in the multiple states he needs to get closer to a second term. Trump's aides are looking for the exits, trying to find new jobs. Republicans are readjusting to the reality of a Joe Biden presidency. Yes, plenty of people are pretending otherwise, but it's mostly performance art." But they're keeping it quiet.

Even as the Trump team files new lawsuits, "his advisers privately acknowledged that President-elect Joe Biden's official victory is less a question of 'if' than 'when,'" The Washington Post reports. One adviser who speaks regularly to Trump told the Post, "He wants to sow discontent in the public that the election was illegitimate, so he can say he didn't lose." A campaign-adjacent former Trump aide told Politico, "It's all noise."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.