“The last throes of Donald Trump’s presidency have turned ugly — even dangerous. Death threats are on the rise. Local and state election officials are being hounded into hiding. A Trump campaign lawyer is declaring publicly that a federal official who defended the integrity of the election should be ‘drawn and quartered’ or simply shot,” the AP reports.

“Neutral public servants, Democrats and a growing number of Republicans who won’t do what Trump wants are being caught in a menacing postelection undertow stirred by Trump’s grievances about the election he lost.”

This is quite the lede from the Washington Post:

“Escalating his attack on democracy from within the White House, President Trump on Wednesday distributed an astonishing 46-minute video rant filled with baseless allegations of voter fraud and outright falsehoods in which he declared the nation’s election system ‘under coordinated assault and siege’ and argued that it was ‘statistically impossible’ for him to have lost to President-elect Joe Biden.”

“Standing behind the presidential lectern in the Diplomatic Reception Room and flanked by the flags of his office and of the country whose Constitution he swore an oath to uphold, Trump tried to leverage the power of the presidency to subvert the vote and overturn the election results.”

Sources tell the Daily Beast that Vice President Mike Pence sees President Trump’s legal challenges to the election as doomed and has recoiled at the president’s attacks on Republican governors.

Said a senior administration official: “The vice president doesn’t want to go down with this ship and believes much of the legal work has been unhelpful.”

Ivanka Trump sat for a deposition Tuesday with investigators from the Washington, DC, attorney general’s office as part of its lawsuit alleging the misuse of inaugural funds, CNN reports.

“As the father of six children and the grandfather of seven, no. My children and grandchildren are much better behaved.”

— Chris Wallace, quoted by Poynter, on whether moderating the first presidential debate was like parenting.

“Congressional Republicans were slow to embrace Donald Trump’s White House campaign in 2016. But the ousted president will have plenty of support on Capitol Hill should he run again in 2024,” Politico reports.

“Trump is even getting cheered on publicly by some of the very Republicans who could seek higher office in the future. Even in defeat, Trump’s hold on the party remains strong.”