Republicans reject Trump’s latest attack on elections

Republicans are escalating their attacks on elections after the recent results out of California, but as The Hill reported, they are notably rejecting President Donald Trump's latest baseless accusations of fraud.

Major primaries were held in California last week, and as has become common with the state's elections, the final results took several days to arrive as the ballots were counted, prompting a new round of vague accusations about corruption or wrongdoing in the process from the GOP. Republicans were particularly stung after their Los Angeles mayoral candidate, ex-reality TV star Spencer Pratt, was shut out of the general election after coming in third in the state's all-party primary. Incumbent Democrat Karen Bass will now face a challenge from within her own party from Nithya Raman.

Spurred on by Pratt's loss and the lengthy counting process, Republicans have renewed their attacks on California's electoral system, and elections as a whole, despite the fact that conservative gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton still appears poised to make the general. As The Hill reported Tuesday morning, there was particular rancor over Pratt's 8-point lead over Raman evaporating as votes were counted, which could amount to the typical "red mirage" phenomenon, in which mail-in votes counted later in the process heavily favor Democrats.

The report also noted that Republicans have stopped short of embracing Trump's own attacks on California, in which he has rehashed his longstanding and baseless allegations that elections in the U.S. are being rigged against Republicans. In attacking the results from California, the GOP is instead alleging "incompetence" in the mail-in vote counting process, rather than "conspiracy."

“I’m not going to defend any of California’s election process. I think it’s crazy that it takes that long to count votes, I really do,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said.

When pressed about the possibility of Democrats cheating in California, however, he stopped short,

"Cheating is something, obviously, you have to prove," Thune added. "I would characterize a lot of the way California does things, including elections, as incompetence. I think that’s on full display on a lot of levels in California."

House Speaker Mike Johnson took a similar stance.

“They are counting votes weeks after the election,” Johnson said. “I’m not saying it’s rigged. I’m saying it stinks to high heaven, and everybody knows that.”

GOP strategist Brian Darling told The Hill that a similar dynamic is bound to return in November if votes take a long time to be counted.

"If we have a bunch of elections where votes are being counted a week and two weeks after the election’s closed out, I think that’s going to be a problem,” he explained. “If you have a repeat of what’s happening in the LA mayor’s race, if that happens nationwide, it’s going to feed into the idea that our elections are broken."

Ross K. Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University, also told the outlet that Trump is likely to accuse Democrats of cheating if they win the House, no matter how the vote counting goes.

“I think it’s predictable, and I think the strength of his reaction will be in direct proportion to the Democratic win because he’s going to see his program evaporating in a Congress where Democrats are in the majority, at least in one House,” Baker said. “You absolutely can count on it... I just think you’re going to see a tidal wave of litigation and investigations by the Justice Department and accusations of voter fraud."

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