Lincoln Project Co-Founder Calls Republicans Casting Doubt on Election Results a 'Disgrace'

Steve Schmidt, co-founder of the anti-President Donald Trump group The Lincoln Project, said Monday "there is no evidence" of widespread electoral fraud and Republicans continuing those claims are a "disgrace" to the Constitution and their own elected offices.

Schmidt, a longtime GOP political strategist, reacted to Fox News cutting away from White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany railing against unfounded claims of "illegal voting" in a Monday press conference. Appearing on an MSNBC panel after McEnany's "no credibility" claim of rampant voter fraud, Schmidt said the Trump administration is conducting their "last outrage." The conservative Lincoln Project co-founder said "it's all coming to an end" for Trump as his team fails to find legitimate examples of widespread voter fraud in any state.

"The American people have rendered their verdict and they threw Donald Trump out on his ass," Schmidt said. "We ought to stop saying that 'if there is evidence,' there is no evidence [of voter fraud]! This is a fantasy. We're watching a conspiracy theory being woven in real-time."

"Watching Kayleigh McEnany talk about honesty and transparency is an obscenity. She is a serial liar, has no credibility and is part of a regime that has done terrible damage to America. [Fox News'] Neil Cavuto knows the answer: there is no widespread electoral fraud, it does not exist. And we have enough information available right now...to understand that."

During the McEnany press conference earlier Monday, the White House spokeswoman laid out Trump's reason for continuing to cast doubt on the election results which show Joe Biden as the President-elect.

"We want to protect the franchise of the American people, we want an honest, accurate, lawful count. We want maximum sunlight, we want maximum transparency, we want every illegal vote to be counted and want every illegal vote-" McEnany said, as Cavuto cut off the live feed of her remarks on Fox News.

"I can't in good countenance continuing to show this ... explosive charge," Cavuto told viewers.

Schmidt, who previously worked for former Republican President George W. Bush and late Senator John McCain, said Trump's final insult as president will be to disrupt "the peaceful transition of power that follows an American election." He said Trump's inability to "look in the mirror and say 'we lost,'" digs at the heart of America's democratic process.

"The hours of their ability to do damage are coming to a fast end," Schmidt said of the nearing election deadlines for canvassing and certification, which begin in about two weeks. Several of the MSNBC panelists concurred that the raw math in the number of votes being disputed by Republicans does not allow Trump to come close to winning in any state. Election officials in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia have all rebuked Trump team fraud claims, with Pennsylvania's secretary of state saying late mail-in ballots aren't "making or breaking" the election for either candidate.

Schmidt, who co-founded The Lincoln Project alongside George Conway, Jennifer Horn and Rick Wilson, among others, repeatedly urged Republicans in Congress to immediately cease their insult to the historically sacred U.S. election process.

"To see senior leaders elected to federal office in this Congress, who took an oath of office to the Constitution of the United States, playing games with this is a disgrace for the ages," Schmidt said. "Under that Capitol dome, we have members of Congress refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of an election result. Who are complicit in the fabulism coming out of this White House. And we think it's OK for them to play politics? For how long?"

Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign and The Lincoln Project for additional remarks Monday evening but did not receive a response before publication.