To the editor:

At the 11th hour, Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell and even Lindsay Graham finally spoke the truth. Courts found no proof of election fraud and Biden won the election fair and square. Why would they do that, after spending four weeks playing along with Donald Trump and Rudy Guiliani’s insistence that there was a conspiracy to commit voter fraud?

The reprehensible debacle at the Capitol seemed to be the last straw for those who recognized that lending credence to the lies circulating on extremist websites, social media and by Trump’s cable news allies is a dangerous political gambit. White House officials and some Republicans are abandoning ship, but not Elise Stefanik, who voted against certifying the election.

Diehard Trump loyalists keep right on seeding lies. They claim that they don’t condone the violence (but they support a president who welcomes it) or that the agitators don’t really represent Trump supporters. But if they were speaking truthfully, 127 Republicans wouldn’t have carried on with their stunt to delay the election certification for the purpose of coddling hoodwinked Trump voters. Although key Republicans called on their colleagues to have the courage to admit that election fraud was a lie, some insisted on political theater anyway.

If a politician repeatedly told me things that later proved to be false, that would be the last straw in my continuing to trust them. So I don’t understand the emotional compulsion that drives people to continue to trust Trump and Stefanik now that some of Trump’s closest allies have exposed the ruse of pretending there was voter fraud. Only blind cultist devotion, or those denying the facts to save face, can explain why anyone would persist in their allegiance to either Trump or Stefanik at this point (especially now that Trump has condemned the very people who he encouraged to demonstrate).

Martha Hodges 

Massena