Something you may have picked up on over the last week is that, while Donald Trump is desperately trying to invalidate the results of the 2020 presidential election on allegations of rampant voter fraud, his quest to do so has been stymied by the inconvenient fact that said voter fraud never happened. Election officials in every state told the New York Times that any claims to the contrary are fiction. CNN investigated a viral claim that dead people voted in the election and found that it was bullsh-t. The head of the Republican National Committee has simultaneously claimed to have evidence of fraud while being unable to actually produce any. At this point, a different president and his allies would probably give up, take the loss, and salvage their last remaining crumb of dignity. Instead, Trump is acting as though the election he lost never happened and is carrying on as though he‘s going to have a second term. Meanwhile, his most reliable sycophants are going along with it so as not to upset his delicate constitution. And at least one of them is now offering cash “reward[s]” for people who find evidence of voter fraud that never occurred.

On Tuesday, Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick announced that he will pay up to $1 million to “incentivize, encourage and reward” people for reports of voter fraud in Texas, with the money coming out of his campaign fund. Patrick has said that anyone who turns over information that leads to a conviction will get at least $25,000. “I support President Trump’s efforts to identify voter fraud in the presidential election and his commitment to making sure that every legal vote is counted and every illegal vote is disqualified,” Patrick said in a statement. “The delays in counting mail-in ballots in other states raises more questions about voter fraud and potential mistakes.” This is hilarious not just because it sure sounds as though one of the most powerful people in Texas is effectively trying to bribe his own constituents, but also because Republicans scored big wins in the state that would presumably be invalidated should any real accounts of voter fraud arise. Per the Texas Tribue:

Texas Republicans managed to stave off Democratic gains, particularly in down-ballot congressional and state legislative races where Democrats hoped to shrink the ruling party’s margin. President Donald Trump carried Texas by nearly 6 percentage points, according to Decision Desk HQ. Patrick, in an October interview with The Mark Davis Show, claimed that Democrats were trying to “steal the election.” “If the president loses Pennsylvania or North Carolina, Mark, or Florida, they’ll lose it because they stole it,” he said, without evidence.

Trump’s campaign has filed a barrage of legal challenges in key states—including Georgia and Wisconsin—in an attempt to close the widening gap between the president and Joe Biden, who was declared president-elect on Saturday. Those lawsuits, however, have so far failed to pan out. Judges tossed out cases in Nevada and Michigan because the Trump campaign failed to prove allegations of fraud, NPR reported.

“These people want to delegitimize votes in order to appeal to their Trumpian base,” Abhi Rahman, a spokesperson for the Texas Democratic Party, told the Tribune. “We know that there’s a lot of work to do here in Texas and Dan Patrick is in our sights in 2022.”

Meanwhile, in other parts of Crazy Town: 

— The 10 Moments When Trump Lost the 2020 Election
— Trump’s Plans to Barricade Himself in the Oval Office
— Joe Biden’s Campaign Manager Told the Political Future—And Was Right
— Republicans Are Standing by Trump, Even as the World Moves On
— A Vigil With Donald Trump’s Ghosts
— Kayleigh McEnany: White House Press Secretary and Donald Trump’s Election Cheerleader
— Cover Story: AOC’s Next Four Years
— From the Archive: Presidential Club Rules and Why Trump Will Be Left Out of the Fraternity

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