We have now witnessed the President of the United States, more than 100 Republican members of the House of Representatives, and 14 Republican Senators attempt an unsuccessful coup d'etat against American democracy. We also heard the president commit election fraud. This cannot be dismissed as political theater; there is too much at stake.
This shameful attack on our democracy included: attempting to disenfranchise more than 80 million Americans who voted for President-elect Biden; overturning the Electoral College, which cast 306 votes for Biden (it takes 270 to elect a president); and usurping the judiciary, which more than 80 times rejected Trump's claims of fraud for lack of evidence, including the Supreme Court twice refusing to hear his appeals. The president and his seditious cabal knew all of this.
In the recording of his conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger, President Trump clearly told the secretary to "find 11,780 votes" that would put him in the lead over President-elect Biden in Georgia. He also threatened the secretary with criminal charges unless he found the votes to overturn the election results ("you know, that's a criminal...offense...That's a big risk for you ..."). The Republican secretary, to his credit, said: "We don't agree that you have won."