TAPPER: It's not just the president issuing the threats. The New York Times asked Kim Ward, the Republican majority leader of the Pennsylvania senate, if she would have signed a letter supporting Trump's claim that there was fraud in the election process. And she told them, "If I would say to you,oh, I don't want to do it, I'd get my house bombed tonight." I mean Gloria, this is where the Republican party is now. If you cross the president, you actually fear for your life.

BORGER: Well, it's disgraceful, it's outrageous, and what you're seeing is a litmus test that is being established by the president. It is the Trump -- I call it the “Trump Rigged-Election Caucus,” and these are the people who are going to sign on to that because -- not because they believe it was a rigged election, but because they believe that their political careers would be over, as Nia is saying.

And so if you take a step back and you look at this, the president is clearly losing legally, he's trying to undermine the Constitution, but politically what he's doing -- and he may win at it, Jake -- what he's doing is trying to gather his troops to fight the next war. And whether that is in undermining every other Republican who doesn't agree with him, keeping his base so maybe he can run in 2024, or if he can't be the king, then let him be the king maker. Because he has to be the center of attention, he has to be all powerful. So right now, he's making a list, he's taking names and he's checking it twice.

HENDERSON: Kissing Donald Trump's ring in a very public way. It's the same thing going on in this lawsuit out of Texas. They want to be on Fox news, they want to be on Rush Limbaugh, and listen, they want to win re-election. They want to be in good standing with this president, get a phone call from this president, anything like that.

That is what they have been doing for these last many years as Donald Trump has been in office. I think they initially thought that if they showed loyalty to this president, he would, you know, at some point leave the scene and maybe they could run for president. That base would then come to them. That doesn't look like it's happening. It looks like Donald Trump wants to maintain his power, possibly run for re-election and keep that base for himself or maybe for one of his children. So the calculus here doesn't seem like it will work out long term for these folks who feel like they want to inherit Donald Trump's base and maybe ride it to the White House.

BORGER: By calling these lawmakers, by trying to influence these lawmakers to change the outcome of a free and fair election in their state is illegal. It's election tampering. I don't care if you're doing it on a phone from the Oval Office or you're doing it on a phone from your basement. What the president is doing is wrong, and he should be held accountable for it. Making challenges in court is one thing. Of course, he is completely allowed to do that if he wants to. I mean, he doesn't have a case anywhere, obviously, but at a certain point, what he is doing is telling elected officials to say the election that got you elected was illegal because it didn't elect me, too.

TAPPER: It is a clownish, and it will be a failed attempt at a coup, a non-violent coup, but it is absolutely disgraceful. And that here's really no other word for it other than that.