Veteran Republican strategist joins Democrats as Trump’s false election claims threaten to tear GOP apart

A veteran Republican political strategist has announced he is joining the Democrats as president Donald Trump's continuing false election claims threaten to tear the GOP apart.

Steve Schmidt, who spent 29 years in the GOP before identifying as an independent in 2018, said he is moving to the Democrats because they stand "for the ideas and ideals of American liberty".

His comments came as a small but determined group of Trump loyalists in Congress vowed to challenge Monday night's electoral college vote, despite colleagues warning that their behaviour is damaging the party, the country and its position in the world.

A number of top Republicans, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell among them, used the vote to signal that it is the end of the line for the defeated incumbent.

But Mr Trump refuses to admit defeat, citing a series of so far baseless allegations of voter fraud at the 2020 election. He is vowing to press ahead with legal challenges to results in key battleground states.

Mr Schmidt, founder of the Republican anti-Trump group, the Lincoln Project, said the president's refusal to throw in the towel after the EC meeting was pivotal in his decision to join the Democrats.

“I spent 29 years as a Republican, I’ve spent two and a half as an independent, and later this afternoon I will register as a member of the Democratic Party,” he told MSNBC last night.

“Because in America today, it’s only the Democratic Party — which is the oldest political party in the world — that stands for the ideas and ideals of American liberty,” he added.

Mr Schmidt hit out at the 126 Republican House representatives and 18 attorneys general who tacitly backed the president's false voter fraud claims by supporting a baseless lawsuit filed by Texas in November,  which sought to overturn results in the key battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The lawsuit was thrown out by the Supreme Court last week, but the number of GOP figures backing it highlights the president's continued influence over the party.

“What happened in the month of November premeditatedly, deliberately, faith and belief in American democracy was poisoned by president Trump," Mr Schmidt said of the desperate legal bid.

"With 126 members of the House of Representatives and 18 Republicans attorney generals signing an amicus brief to a garbage lawsuit that is, in essence, a declaration of repudiation of American democracy.”  

He added: “Do not look at their signing onto that amicus brief as some type of legal action. It was not.  

"It was a political declaration. And the political declaration was one in where they turn their backs on the tradition of American democracy. We should understand what we’re looking at.”  

Mr Schmidt announced he was joining the Democrats as Mo Brooks, representative for Alabam's 5th congressional district, declared that the president "won the electoral college".

He is among a group of Trump loyalists who plan to challenge the EC's vote when the new Congress convenes on 6 January to ratify the decision.  

Despite calls from Mr McConnell and Maryland governor Larry Hogan -  and others -  for the GOP to move on from the election result, a majority of congressional lawmakers remain silent on Mr Biden's win.

Analysts say some of those who refuse to publicly denounce the president are only doing so out of fear of retribution by Mr Trump, who increased his vote share at the election by some 11 million ballots. 

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Tuesdayy the president has no intention of giving up the fight.

"The president is still involved in ongoing litigation related to the election,” she said.