Opinion | These Republicans knew the ‘big lie’ was absurd. What does that say about the rest of their party?

Even so, it was not until Dec. 1 that Mr. Barr finally announced publicly what he had known for weeks, telling an Associated Press reporter, “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.” It took Mr. McConnell even longer to denounce Mr. Trump’s lies. One can only wonder, if Mr. Barr and Mr. McConnell had spoken out sooner, whether the “big lie” might have struggled to deepen and fester among Republicans the way it has.