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While President Donald Trump continues his fruitless efforts to stay in office past January 20, spreading increasingly absurd voter fraud conspiracies day by day, a few of his more ardent fans are beginning to publicly signal that he needs to accept reality.
Last Saturday, the same day that the 2020 race was officially called for Joe Biden by all the news networks, vocal Trump cheerleader Hugh Hewitt began gently preparing his political idol for the inconvenient truth, in a Washington Post column entitled: “On to Georgia. And for Trump, it may be on to 2024.”
As the vote counts in Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania continued to break Biden’s way since then, Trump refused to concede. Then, on Wednesday, the dam within Trump’s circle cracked a bit more.
Yesterday afternoon, GOP political adviser Karl Rove threw more cold water on Trump’s second term delusions with a blunt Wall Street Journal op-ed, where he declared what it obvious to everyone except the president and his campaign: “This Election Results Won’t Be Overturned.”
Just hours later, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, owned by pro-Trump booster Sheldon Adelson, who sunk more than $75 million into Trump’s re-election campaign, published an unsigned editorial, speaking forthrightly to the president, saying he “seeks to delay the inevitable.”
Then, on Wednesday night, the first notable doubts within the Fox News fold appeared, as longtime Trump champion Geraldo Rivera posted a sympathetic, but unmistakable valedictory tweet addressed to “my honored friend” Trump.
“You came so close,” Rivera noted, striking a consoling tone. “Time coming soon to say goodbye with grace & dignity.”
Dear @realDonaldTrump-my honored friend-you fought an incredible battle vs all odds and the curse of insidious disease. You battled the back stabbers & our enemies & remade the world in peace & prosperity. You came so close.
Time coming soon to say goodbye with grace & dignity— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) November 12, 2020
Trump, however, seems not to have picked up on all these not-so-subtle messages from conservative allies. On Thursday, he was still tweeting out absurdly false conspiracy theories on Twitter in all-caps.
“REPORT: DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE. DATA ANALYSIS FINDS 221,000 PENNSYLVANIA VOTES SWITCHED FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BIDEN. 941,000 TRUMP VOTES DELETED. STATES USING DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS SWITCHED 435,000 VOTES FROM TRUMP TO BIDEN.” @ChanelRion @OANN
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2020
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