Capitol Hypocrisy
Democrats since the 2000 presidential election have done EXACTLY what Republican lawmakers were trying to do yesterday in Congress. After Republican victories in 2000, 2004 and 2016, for instance, Democrats in Congress used the formal counting of electoral votes as an opportunity to challenge election results.
During a press conference in Delaware, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), told reporters that Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) “should resign.” His calls for Hawley and Cruz’s resignations follow both senators leading separate challenges to Wednesday’s electoral college certification process,
Texas Democrats U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro and his brother Julián Castro, a former presidential candidate, tweeted that Cruz, also a former presidential candidate, should step down.
Maryland Democrats on Thursday called for the resignation of Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.). Harris was among dozens of legislators who opted to vote in support of challenges to the certifications of Electoral College votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania late Wednesday night, after a mob stormed the Capitol trying to prevent Congress from affirming the 2020 election results.
The Maryland Democratic Party released a statement on Twitter stating that Harris “sought to undermine the will of voters across Maryland and our nation,” and should immediately leave his post.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ………..
The Electoral Count Act of 1887, which sets the rules for Congress to count electoral votes, was enacted with the presumption that state procedures are trustworthy. The act instructs Congress to defer to state judgments when a state resolves controversies over the appointment of electors. Yesterday’s process is largely ceremonial. The State’s have already certified their elections – the process in Congress is just a rubber stamp. While Congress has the power to decline to count electoral votes, it has done so only in extreme situations in the aftermath of the Civil War — when, for instance, a state was deemed to lack a functioning government.
The act requires broad political consensus to decline to count electoral votes. It instructs that on Jan. 6 after a presidential election, the president of the Senate presides over a session of the two chambers. If a member of Congress wishes to object to counting a state’s electoral votes, a member of the House and a member of the Senate must sign a written objection. The chambers separate for up to two hours of debate. If majorities of both chambers agree to the objection, the objection stands. If not, the votes are counted. This is our defined process – to complain about it or ask for the resignation of congress men and women who participate in these objections is immoral, wrong and an inflammatory bigotry against our democracy!
Starting with George W. Bush’s victory in the 2000 presidential election, Democrats contested election results after every Republican win. In January 2001, Representative Alcee Hastings of Florida objected to counting his state’s electoral votes because of “overwhelming evidence of official misconduct, deliberate fraud, and an attempt to suppress voter turnout.” Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas referred to the “millions of Americans who have been disenfranchised by Florida’s inaccurate vote count.” Representative Maxine Waters of California characterized Florida’s electoral votes as “fraudulent.”
In January 2005, in the wake of Mr. Bush’s re-election, Democrats were more aggressive. Senator Barbara Boxer of California joined Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio to lodge a formal objection to Ohio’s electoral votes. The objection compelled Congress to spend two hours in debate, even though Mr. Bush won Ohio by more than 118,000 votes.
Representative Barbara Lee of California claimed that “the Democratic process was thwarted.” Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York said that the right to vote was “stolen.” Ms. Waters objected too, dedicating her objection to the documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, whose 2004 movie “Fahrenheit 9/11” painted a dark (and at times factually debatable) picture of the Bush presidency.
The motion failed, but not before 31 members of the House, and Ms. Boxer in the Senate, voted to reject Ohio’s electoral votes — effectively voting to undermine the election and the people of Ohio in the Electoral College.
“Stolen Jerry?” “Democracy Thwarted Barbara?” Really? Painful reminders of past Congressional folks doing the peoples bidding as allowed under our Democratic system yet when a Republican challenges election results the Democrats demand their Republican peers’ resignation.
Everyone agrees the violence and assault on the Capitol yesterday was unacceptable, but don’t you think both chambers should inform the American public of the process, the challenges allowed under the Constitution, and our state by state election procedures. Once the American people are more informed, and understand Trump had NO SHOT at an election reversal in Congress – NO ONE would show up to assault the Capitol Building. Everyone is to blame. Democrats, Republicans, Trump, the Media – EVERYONE!
