For the record:

• The Electoral College voted.
• The U.S. Supreme Court ruled twice.
• Efforts to overturn election results were rejected by 59 courts. Republican Trump-appointed judges stated the lawsuits failed to present any proof of fraud.
• U.S. Attorney General William Barr declared the election free of widespread fraud. He resigned before being fired.
• Elected and appointed Republican election officials certified election results as legal, fair and correct.
• Trump fired Republican election cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs for stating it was “the most secure election in American history.”

President-elect Joe Biden received the most votes of any candidate in U.S. history, 81 million, 7 million more than Donald Trump, who received the second most votes in history.

Yet, every Republican I know tells me the election was stolen.

Dedicated, law-abiding, Republican public servants are both incensed and terrified.

Republican Georgia State Sen. Chuck Hufstetler told CNN he and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger served together in the state Legislature and were each one of “five legislators who got a 100% from Faith and Freedom, a very conservative group. … We also believe in following the rule of law, and the oath to our state and our country.”

Forbes reports Georgia and other state election officials are being politically and physically threatened in the wake of fabricated accusations of widespread voter fraud.

Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu endorsed Trump but acknowledged Biden’s victory more than a month ago, according to the Concord Monitor. He told CNN, “As a governor, I have loyalty to the citizens of New Hampshire.”

Former Republican strategist and co-founder of the Lincoln Project, Steve Schmidt, told CNN‘s Michel Martin, “American Democracy was poisoned deliberately.” Schmidt said Trump “… assaulted America’s most vital institutions relentlessly.”

Kyle Clark of Denver’s 9News said, “The whole evidence-free effort to overturn the election has been so amateurish and so roundly unsuccessful, it’s tempting to forget we witnessed an attempt to invalidate an American presidential election because the sitting president was mad that he lost.”

Trump is perpetrating the fraud. Timothy O’Brien, author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being Trump,” told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Trump “turned election fraud-making into a grift. He’s raised over $200 million (since the election). Trump is going to use it for his own purposes.”

“The ethos of Donald Trump and his children is to figure out how easy it is hook suckers and part them from their money … by propagandizing and lying,” O’Brien said.

Wouldn’t be the first time: Trump University, Trump Foundation, Trump casinos, Trump Steaks, the list is long.

Schmidt said, “Trumpism wasn’t repudiated in one election.”

My Republican friends tell me Democrats have been out to get Trump since Day 1. I’m active in Democratic politics, and while everyone disses Trump, the strategy was always to win with better ideas.

The most successful anti-Trump group I know is the Republican group specifically organized to bring him down. The Lincoln Project gets kudos for their efforts to redirect 4% of the 2016 Trump vote for the Democratic nominee.

Schmidt told CNN, “We oppose Trumpism. It’s rooted in autocratic ideology, with fascist markers that are … an amalgam of extremist groups: conspiracy theorist groups, militia groups, white nationalist groups, nationalist groups, proto-fascist groups like the Proud Boys.

“We have to bring the forces Trump let loose to submission. … We have to beat them at the ballot box, or we will loose the country.”

Schmidt said, “We’re going to fight for American democracy.”

I’m glad some Republicans are fighting for the country.

CNN reports the president hasn’t had a security briefing since early October. The Wall Street Journal reports a Russian hack affecting Homeland Security and several other agencies. It’s apparently been going on for months. We are suffering the greatest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world.

Sununu said it best when he told CNN, “We gotta move on. … We’ve got … a big job to do. … Congress has to get to it.” Sununu told Meet the Press, “I don’t think any of them deserve their jobs. … None of them can stand up and say … ‘I lead on the biggest health crisis we’ve ever faced.’ They fell down and let politics get in the way. Shame on them.”

Shame on Trump and his sycophants who are risking our democracy for vanity and power, and grifting the public in a pandemic.

Susan Knopf’s column “For The Record” publishes Fridays in the Summit Daily News. Knopf lives in Silverthorne. She is a certified ski instructor and an award-winning journalist. Contact her at sdnknopf@gmail.com.

Susan Knopf’s column “For the Record” publishes biweekly on Fridays in the Summit Daily News. Knopf lives in Silverthorne. She is a certified ski instructor and an award-winning journalist. Contact her at sdnknopf@gmail.com.