The Biden-Harris problem

Nothing raises the political stakes like an insurrection. As the House of Representatives’ January 6th committee publicises yet more details of Donald Trump’s scheme to steal the 2020 election, Republicans are doubling down against democracy. New Mexico’s Supreme Court last week had to compel conservatives in rural Otero County to certify an election they had refused to because, conned by one of Mr Trump’s conspiracy theories, they mistrusted vote-counting machines. In Nevada, Republicans elected as their candidate for secretary of state, the office that certifies elections, a man who says he would not have recognised Joe Biden’s victory in the state. And on June 19th Texas’s state Republican Party declared Mr Trump the rightful president, Mr Biden an impostor, and vowed to abolish the 1965 Voting Rights Act that enfranchised black Americans in the South. Mr Trump, maddened by the hearings, is said to be considering announcing his next presidential run within weeks.