To the Editor:
It’s time for the GOP to move on from Donald Trump. Actually, it’s long overdue. With less than three years to go until the 2024 presidential election, it’s time for the GOP to get back to the party of Lincoln. 

Abraham Lincoln demonstrated an enduring faith in the importance of free elections and democratic political institutions. The last presidential election was Nov. 3, 2020, yet Donald Trump is still spreading a web of lies, the biggest lie being that the election was stolen due to massive voter fraud.

On the contrary, the 2020 election was the most scrutinized election in history. Subsequent audits have found no massive voter fraud.

In fact, as a result of the election audit in Maricopa County, Arizona, it was found that President Biden actually won by more votes than originally counted. And that was a GOP-sponsored audit. Yet the former president and his allies still insist without evidence that widespread voter fraud led to a stolen election.

A new reporting project from the Associated Press shows that is false, finding fewer than 475 potential irregularities out of a sample size of more than 25 million votes cast in the 2020 presidential election.  That is .0019 percent. Massive voter fraud? Hardly.

The truth is that, during this challenging coronavirus pandemic, many states made it easier for people to submit absentee ballots, so they wouldn’t have to stand in long voter lines during COVID. Several states accepted absentee ballots as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 3, 2020. Some states counted absentee ballots early, but the majority of states counted absentee ballots late.

On election night, Nov. 3, 2020, many of the battleground states still needed to count those absentee ballots, and some showed Trump led at the time. Trump knew this and that is why he wanted to stop the count on election night.

When all of the absentee ballots were finally counted days later, the result was that Joe Biden had defeated Trump by over 7 million popular votes. The Electoral College vote count was Biden 306, Trump 232. That would be considered a sound margin of defeat in most election defeats.

Yet, Donald Trump is still peddling the “Big Lie.”

Donald Trump is nothing more than a conman, who operates on a big stage. He knows how to manipulate people and bend them to his will. The former, twice-impeached president values power over principle and places his own self-interests before those of this country. 

What does Donald Trump hate the most? That would be losers and being called a loser. He can’t accept the fact that he lost the election. His ego is bruised.

By not accepting the fact that he lost, it only makes him look like a sore loser, and his whining about it for a grown man to display is really embarrassing for the rest of us to witness. But, make no mistake.  Donald Trump lost. “Bigly.”

The violent Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, which Trump incited in a failed attempt to overthrow the result of a free and fair election, should have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, and the Republican Party should have moved on from Trump. But, a few days later, Republican congressmen and women came crawling cowardly back to kiss the ring of Trump.

There were exceptions, most notably Liz Cheney, who has the guts to tell the truth and stand up to Trump.  As a result of her courage, what did the GOP do? Liz Cheney lost her post in House Republican leadership and was thrown out of the Wyoming Republican Party.

We need more Republicans like Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and Anthony Gonzalez, to name a few, who have the courage to stand up to Trump and stand for the truth, to protect our democracy, Constitution, and the rule of law. If not, this country will be heading for more trouble and further division. 

By continuing to support Donald Trump, the majority of the Republican Party has become a party that embraces and enables lies. This cannot continue. It’s time for the GOP to move on from Donald Trump.  In fact, it’s long overdue.

Grant Miller

Guilderland