Mike Rogers joins Trump’s war on constitutional democracy

Weird that Democrats would rig the 2024 Senate election in Michigan but forget to rig the presidential one:

But as he aims to return to Washington, in a Senate race considered key to control of that chamber, Mr. Rogers has become an election skeptic. Minutes after the president’s recent speech filled with outlandish accusations about voting fraud — including a debunked claim about Michigan ballots — Mr. Rogers weighed in, suggesting that further scrutiny of the election was warranted.

“I am thankful for President Trump’s commitment to transparency,” Mr. Rogers said on his social media accounts. “The news coming out of the White House tonight is deeply troubling — especially that of a voter fraud scheme right here in Michigan.”

Mr. Rogers has also suggested that voting irregularities sank his Senate bid two years ago — based on an unproven claim about late-arriving Detroit ballots that Mr. Trump has amplified and that echoed accusations made by election deniers in 2020.

Mr. Rogers’s pivot on voting issues reflects the journey of a politician who built a national reputation as a mainstream Republican more than a decade ago, in the pre-Trump era, and is attempting a second act in a political arena remade by a president who demands absolute fealty from his fellow Republicans.

“Now he’s toeing the MAGA line,” said former Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican who served with Mr. Rogers in the House and calls him a friend. “I don’t want to speculate on his motives for talking about the 2020 election, but that election is over. The 2024 election is over.”

Again, I don’t think the concerns about the Democrats running a socialist-identified candidate in a purple state are entirely unfounded. But it’s also true that Republicans are running a generic Trump mini-me in a purple state in a context where Trump is less popular than hair lice.