As this, the most secure election in the history of this country by chris krebs, lifelong republican charged with securing the vote. The Washington Post reporting over the weekend only 27 republicans have acknowledged the fact of the Election Result, indisputed fact. Post writes that the results of the survey demonstrate the fear most republicans have of the outgoing president and his grip on the party, despite his new status as just the third elected president to lose reelection in the past 80 years. More than 70 of republican lawmakers did not acknowledge the post questions as of friday evening. Thats about 220 republicans in all. The 220 elected officials will have blood on their hands if any harm comes to the local and statewide Office Holders now receiving Death Threats from Trump Supporters who believe Donald Trumps lies. Two of the gop officials under the most brutal assault by trump and his voters, georgia Secretary Of State, brad raffensperger, and Georgia Election official Gabriel Sterling. They held a News Conference today to recertify joe bidens win in their state. They both offered strident rebukes of the Disinformation War Being waged by donald trump, including striking back against a video that trumps attorneys tried to offer as evidence of fraud. What they alleged were secret suitcases filled with ballots counted without supervision, and you guessed it, there were no secret suitcases. Watch. The secret suitcases, Magic Ballots were actually ballots packed into those Absentee Ballot Carriers by workers in plain view of the monitors and the press. And whats really frustrating is the president s attorneys had the same videotape. They saw the exact same thing as the rest of us could see and chose to mislead State Senators and the public about what was on that video. I know there are people convinced the election was fraught with problems, but the evidence, the actual evidence, the facts tell us a different story. Those officials speaking out today against a tidal wave of disinformation main lined into citizens of their state over the weekend by donald trump. From New York Times, quote, before President Trump arrived on saturday to rally for two Republican Senate candidates, the president made no attempt to disguise his central priority as it relates to georgia. Overturning his loss in the state. He began the day with a Telephone Call with governor brian kemp, ostensibly to offer condolences about death in a car accident close to mr. Kemps family. In truth, mr. Trump used the call to urge mr. Kemp, a republican, to call the State Legislature into session so the republican majorities could appoint new electors who would subvert the will of the states voters when the Electoral College meets december 14th. Pressure on kemp which he roundly and repeatedly rebuffed comes as mr. Trump super tuesday a stews and brews in the west wring. Ris rage and detached from Reality Refusal to concede defeat evoke images of a besieged overlord in some distant land. The gop war on the American Election result is where we start with some of our favorite reporters and friends. Former missouri senator Claire Mccaskill is back, and peter baker, New York Times chief white house correspondent. And sam stein, politics editor at the daily beast. Lucky for us, all msnbc contributors. Claire, i want to start with you. When i read peters reporting and the other great reporting in all the papers this weekend, especially the Washington Post count, putting numbers and names to all of the republicans, Green Lighting and enabling Donald Trumps war against this result, Donald Trumps war against republican and local Election Officials, secretaries of state and governors, it is clear they have made a choice not to protect the integrity of the vote and therefore not to protect our democracy. What are the lasting effects of that . It strikes me that at this point trump is as peter writes about to fade into oblivion. The republicans that enable this still today, 4 00 on monday, they should have to somehow come to terms with what theyre doing now, no . Well, heres the bottom line. Heres the dirty little secret. Their default language has been the president has a right to pursue Legal Recourse to ensure that every vote was legal and that illegal votes are not counted. Okay, that might have been fine the week after the election. This legal team, aka the Clown Card Incompetence has lost close to 50 cases in a month in court. Im not sure thats ever happened before in the history of a planet that a legal team lost 50 cases in a month because they have no evidence. Now only one truth remains, this isnt about Legal Recourse at this point, the president is encouraging ilLegal Recourse. He is asking elected officials to break the law. And republicans still stand silent. So what theyre doing is saying were all in for one goal and one goal only and that is this president wants to convince millions of americans that we dont have fair and free elections. And that is disgusting. It is disgusting and it is dangerous. Sam stein, if youre an american who believes what donald trump says and you think the election was stolen, you might be inspired to do something heinous like this. This is Trump Supporters outside the home of michigan Secretary Of State, joslyn benson. I think we have the video. She said they were armed. Lets listen. Stop the steal. Stop the steal. You have to start listening. Theyre chanting stop the steal, sam stein, something they chanted at saturdays rally. I guess thats the new lock her up. She says she and her son were sitting down to watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas when this mob gathered outside her home. Where are we, sam stein . Well, so theres two sort of threads of thought here. One is that this will burn itself out, you need to let trump and his followers get this out of their system. The other thought is that this is scary stuff not just because of the long term implications that this has for our democratic process, democracy at large, also because all it takes is one sociopath to turn protests like that into something much more drastic. We already know there was a plot to kidnap the michigan governor. We have seen trump fans target members of the media with pipe bombs. We have had multiple cases of trump fans threatening violence. You can see a future in which that gets even further escalated if the president keeps going on this path. And i guess the only thing i would quibble with is theres no sense that i can pick up that trump is going to fade into oblivion which makes this even more scary. In fact, what i can ascertain through our reporting is that it is the opposite, he is actively plotting a proactive run for the white house in 2024 with events he may time around the joe biden inauguration. His fundraising apparatus isnt slowing down, if anything, it is picking up steam. The solicitations he is putting out, his campaign is putting out sometimes six times a day raised 250 million in the past month. He is building even more comprehensive email lists through selling of things like calendars and christmas invitations so he is building the infrastructure to make sure that he can remain a fixture on our political scene, and if he continues to practice his politics of grievance, continues to argue he was unfairly denied a second term, if his people believe it, then you can see this not as the end result but kindling for something even worse. I take sam steins correction there. I think oblivion is a fantasy, not a reality. Peter baker, your great piece also includes this. While he will leave office in 46 days, the last few weeks may only foreshadow what he will be like after he departs. He will try to shape the conversation from his estate in florida and Relentless Campaign could undercut his successor, President Elect joe biden. Many republicans would like to move on, he appears intent on forcing them to remain in tlald in his neat for vindication and vilification even after his term expires. Take that with your description of him, others called him a mad king, he is this deposed despite and sounds out of his freaking mind, peter, but based on your reporting in that piece. If you tie together what claire said about the republicans basically being paralyzed by his bullying, what sam says, he is not fading into oblivion anytime soon, take the portrait you painted, what does that leave the Incoming Administration to contend with . Well, i think you see a President Elect biden trying to basically ignore it almost, trying to focus on putting his administration, focus on a need to distribute the vaccine, once he comes into office, focus on what he will do during his presidency, rather than reacting every day to President Trump. I think thats meant to sort of signal were going to move on, he may not go into oblivion, but we can try to ignore him as best we can. The problem for President Elect biden and the problem for even republicans who would like to move on is as you point out, President Trump doesnt plan to let them simply ignore him, he will have a big bull horn in a way no defeated president has had really in american history, maybe with the possible exception of Teddy Roosevelt who came back and ran four years later. Hard to think of anybody that has the sort of ability to command the public stage the way President Trump does. Will he be able to do it quite the same way without benefit of the white house as his stage . No. But he has ways of getting past the filter of speaking directly to his supporters through his twitter account, through sympathetic media, may start his own Media Company of some sort. He will not simply disappear. I think thats a big challenge both for the incoming president and i think the Republican Party that would like to develop the next generation of leadership, all of whom are frozen to some extent while they wait to see what he ends up doing and saying about 2024. Peter, let me followup. I think theres a category of his antics, stupid human tricks, dumb stuff he does. No one would Pay Attention. This is a war on the Election Result and the reason this is something as your write wrote, we cannot avert our gaze now. Now is when he is most dangerous not just to the President Elect or people who have been his critics, but to everyone that voted. He is trying to eradicate the entire 2020 Election Result and republicans are standing by if not applauding then looking the other way when armed mobs end up outside the homes of statewide Office Holders who had anything to do with certifying the result. And i guess my question, peter, is at what point does your coverage of him have to make choices and all of the coverage over the weekend of call to brian kemp which was under this ruse of being a sympathy call, it was really to ask him to appoint electorates to overturn the georgia vote. How much of this is he getting away with because people arent paying as much attention as when he was not a lame duck. Do you Pay Attention when it is flailing out there and isnt going to result in change in the election, yet it is important, it is important to talk about. This is a president that spent four years shattering norms, Crossing Boundaries we thought existed in washington. His supporters like that. He promised to do that, promised to be a disruptive force. The institutions of our government, our democracy, this has been a stressful period, big stress test. Nothing bigger stress test than were seeing now, legitimacy of the election called into question. Polls show many supporters believe something crooked happened because he said so, even though as you point out close to 50 court cases have been dropped or dismissed because theres no evidence of what he is saying. The mere fact he says it is enough to create doubt and create crisis of faith on the part of some americans in their own system, and thats important and we have to Pay Attention to that. I think thats very important. Theres a Lasting Legacy that goes beyond even himself and joe biden, if people lose faith in the democracy, then where are we at, if they dont think elections are free and fair, we are like our countries around the world. This is where President Obama writing about, talking about truth decay is spot on. How does anyone, a democratic president or republican president , lead a country when half of it doesnt agree on a set of facts. And it is rearing its ugly head, it is not going to go away if we stop covering trumps stupid human tricks. You have an antivaccinationxxe testifying in the senate. You have them defying State Officials in new york state. It is happening all over the country, defiance of the truth which in their minds maybe is the defiance of the left or the elite. I think it makes the country ungovernable. Yeah. And by the way, the right making a hero of a guy who literally tried to rundown a member of law enforcement, the man went up over his hood as he hit him and struck him with his car. This is the same group of people that supposedly is all about supporting law enforcement. It is so nonsensical. And this area, this fact youre talking about, and it is a fact that we have lost a firm grip on what the facts are and what truth is, that is where i place the most blame on my former republican colleagues. And for this simple reason. The way you fix this is by people of both parties saying enough. Enough. You could isolate donald trump, make him less relevant in terms of him destroying the norm of a free and Fair Election if people of both parties of goodwill had the courage to say thats just not what the facts are. Those arent secret suitcases of ballots, they were opened in front of everyone including the news media. What are you doing. The fact theyre so afraid of his base on a political basis is more damaging to the future of this country than frankly the antics of donald trump. Sam stein, im going to ask you to end with what do we do, but i guess the first thing i want you to speak to is how at this moment when rudy, the depiction of rudy on snl with flat lens is indiscernable of rudy in a courtroom. How does that take down a once if not noble Political Party. This is not trump at his best, this is trump at his most absurd, debased, and Mitch Mcconnell, rob portman, richard bur, people when i worked in republican politics, you may disagree with what they believed in but they were adults and they saw the sun come up in the morning, saw The Sun Go Down at night, theyre living in fact free trump landia. Thats number one. And number two, what does the solution look like, where does it start . Glad you saved the rudy Flat Lens Question for me. I am a little more dignified for that question than a former elected official. I think the problem here is i think to simplify a little too much is Incentive Structures, what is the Incentive Structure for a sitting republican lawmaker to in essence tell the truth or do the right thing, protect democracy. Usually we wouldnt have these questions because Incentive Structures were so obvious, but in a day where you have a huge amount of disinformation and misinformation flying about, where you have someone who as demagogue as he is, is talented whipping up a fervent base, donald trump, you have created perverse Incentive Structures. In which normally, sane, rational republicans dont feel it is in their Self Interest to do that. And honestly, if i had the answer how you could convince them it was in their Self Interest, i probably wouldnt be on the show. I would be doing something different. So yeah, it is a complicated situation. I will say one other thing. Scary to think what would have happened if a few elected republican officials didnt have the integrity they did. If you had a Secretary Of S