More crazy with every day.

[I]nstead of softening or coming to terms with his defeat, a reclusive Trump has been escalating his dark and corrosive efforts to undercut American democracy. As his legal options fizzle and some aides seek to convince him to come to grips with reality, Trump has only entrenched deeper into debunked conspiracy theories.

…

Trump’s aims seem scattershot. He has told some allies that he knows he lost. But he has also admitted to at least one interlocutor that he is delaying the transition process — and aggressively trying to sow doubt in the election — as retribution for Democrats who questioned the legitimacy of his own election in 2016.

Instead of searching for new votes, Trump now appears focused on convincing Republican legislators in closely-contested states to intervene during the Electoral College — an extraordinary gambit demonstrating Trump’s willingness to set fire to [d]emocratic norms in the hopes of grasping to power. On Friday, Trump will meet with Republican state lawmakers from Michigan at the White House, though it’s unclear his overtures will be successful. Trump has also considered getting in touch with Republican legislators in other states as their certification deadlines near, hoping to delay or prevent Biden’s win, people familiar with the matter said.

In private conversations, Trump has dismissed concerns his efforts could undermine the very system of democracy he is claiming to be protecting through his efforts, suggesting he is concerned more for his own future prospects. The President, one source said, “doesn’t see” how damaging his efforts could be for the country and for democracy itself.

Of course he doesn’t see it, and he wouldn’t care if he did see it. The two are much the same thing. Everything is about him, and only about him, and he is all that matters. He’s an abnormal, broken, poisonous human being.

And despite growing horror among some on his team at the antics of his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani — whose sweaty news conference Thursday at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee drew a mix of mock[ery] and exasperation from other Trump associates — Trump is enthusiastically encouraging the former New York City mayor to proceed in his false and outlandish attempts to discredit the election.

Former NYC mayor and former top prosecutor, turned clown with hair dye running down his face.

Trump’s focus on contesting the election has consumed any remnants of actual governing. He did not appear at a briefing with his coronavirus task force on Thursday, and has not appeared interested in the raging pandemic. He’s scheduled to deliver remarks on lowering prescription drug prices on Friday afternoon at the White House and participate in an early morning session of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit. But organizers of this weekend’s G20 summit have yet to hear from the White House whether Trump will participate, as every US president has since the annual summits began in 2008.

They should probably hope he doesn’t. If he does he’ll only babble about voter fraud.

[F]ew in the GOP are speaking out against Trump’s attempt to steal the election.

A wide swath of House Republicans say that they believe Trump should take the battle as far as he can, with some embracing a long-shot strategy for states to delay certifying their results to help Trump win the Electoral College — and essentially ignore the will of voters in key battleground states and subvert the democratic process.

Asked if his state should delay certifying the election, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar said: “I believe it should.” Gosar also said the “state has the ability” to name its own electors to the Electoral College if the results aren’t certified as part of the “system set up by our founders.” And when asked if he would support the state legislature naming its own electors, Gosar said: “I do.”

We’re slow-walking off a cliff.