“The conservative National Review minced no words in a Friday editorial that denounced President Donald Trump’s attempts to undermine the Nov. 3 election, calling the president’s actions a “bid for infamy.” The magazine focused special attention on the Thursday news conference at the Republican National Committee by Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Guiliani, and lawyer Sidney Powell. The two claimed a widespread voter fraud conspiracy, based on unproven allegations, which the National Review called “the most outlandish and irresponsible performance ever by a group of lawyers representing a president of the United States.” It dismissed the unproven theories of voter fraud and called their “lawyering worthy of the comments section of Breitbart News.’” “If there’s serious evidence for any of this, Giuliani and co. need to produce it immediately,” the magazine said. “Waving around affidavits at a press conference without allowing anyone to examine them doesn’t count. … This magazine has always taken voter fraud seriously, and we hope that any that occurred in this election is exposed and prosecuted. But it’s important to recognize that the broad contours of the 2020 presidential vote make sense.” National Review editors pointed out that “same-day ballots strongly favoring Republicans were counted first, and early votes strongly favoring Democrats were counted last.” Politics aside, “across the country, the basic picture is the same, without any notable anomalies — Trump excelled in rural areas, got wiped out in urban areas but often by slightly smaller margins than in 2016, and lost soundly in suburban counties, which proved decisive.” The magazine also urged Republicans to speak out against the Trump team’s “profoundly undemocratic gambit,” adding that the president was only making his loss to President-elect Joe Biden worse by putting on such a charade. “He’s turning a narrow election defeat into a bid for infamy,” the magazine said. The National Review has repeatedly criticized Trump’s policies as perversions of conservatism since the president’s term began, notably in a February 2016 issue with “Against Trump” featured prominently on its cover. The magazine’s latest editorial echoed one by the Washington Examiner, another conservative magazine, which urged the president on Friday to “move on” and concede. Read the full National Review editorial here.
