Deroy Murdock: Hypocritical Democrats pillory GOP for following their example
There are two problems with Left’s war against these Republicans and, by extension, Trump’s 74 million supporters
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}If Democratic politicians’ hypocrisy were an energy source, Americans could let their lights burn around the clock and never see a bill.
Democrats are roasting Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri for objecting to the Electoral College votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania due to serious questions about ballot-box irregularities.
Democrats have reported these two lawmakers to the Senate Ethics Committee for their Jan. 6 legislative intervention, which, unfortunately, coincided with the U.S. Capitol riot.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Some Democrats aim to expel congressional Republicans who challenged Electoral College votes at last month’s certification ceremony. Democrats likely convinced corporate Cancelistas to terminate PAC donations to as many as eight Republican senators and 138 GOP House members who opposed electors from one to six states.
Harvard students, too many of whom resemble Mao’s Red Guards, demand that university officials yank diplomas from alumni Cruz and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Can you imagine telling your supporters that the only way you could possibly lose is if an American election were rigged and stolen from you?" Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, a House impeachment manager, asked Wednesday during former President Donald J. Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.
"Ask yourself whether you have ever seen anyone at any level of government make the same claim about their own election, but that is exactly what President Trump did," Castro continued. "He truly made his base believe that the only way he could lose was if the election were rigged."
Notwithstanding Castro's comments, and those of his fellow impeachment managers, the Senate on Saturday afternoon acquitted President Trump for the second time. The single article of impeachment received 57 ayes and 43 nays – 10 votes shy of the 67 needed for conviction.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}There are two massive problems with the Left’s war against these Republicans and, by extension, Trump’s 74 million supporters:
•First, these GOP lawmakers’ actions were perfectly legal. Article II, Section I, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution and the Electoral Count Act of 1887, 3 U.S. Code § 15, both governed their objections to states’ electors.
The House’s and Senate’s respective debates on the GOP’s skepticism about the Grand Canyon State’s electors – offered by Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona with 60 House colleagues and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas plus eight senators – was disrupted in mid-speech by spectacularly counterproductive, moronic rioters.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}After order was restored some seven hours later, deliberations resumed. The Gosar-Cruz bid ultimately failed in the House, 121 yeas to 303 nays. It likewise sank in the Senate, six ayes to 93 nays.
GOP Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and 80 House Republicans objected to the Keystone State’s electors. Hawley joined their challenge. Their effort eventually lost in the House, 138 yeas to 282 nays. The Senate voted similarly, seven ayes to 92 nays.
Scores of House Republicans also objected to electors from Georgia (the Peach State’s Jody Hice and 75 GOP challengers), Michigan (Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene and 70 colleagues), Nevada (Alabama’s Mo Brooks and 55 more), and Wisconsin (Texas’ Louis Gohmert and 71 others). Since no senator cooperated with any of these objections, they went unheard.
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All of this legislative activity obeyed the Constitution and federal law.
"To litigate questions of election integrity within this system is not incitement," President Trump’s defense attorney Michael van der Veen said Friday afternoon, during the Senate’s impeachment trial. "It is the democratic system working as the founders and lawmakers have designed."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}•Second, Democrats repeatedly have resisted electors, starting four years ago. When Democrats do this, it epitomizes public service. When Republicans do this, it’s Kristallnacht. Indeed, President Joe "Unity" Biden compared Cruz and Hawley to Nazi Minister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment Dr. Joseph Goebbels.
As the Congressional Record confirms, during the Jan. 6, 2017 quadrennial joint-session/certification ceremony, seven House Democrats challenged electors in 10 states. Among these objectors: this week’s lead impeachment manager, Maryland’s Jamie Raskin.
"I have an objection because 10 of the 29 electoral votes cast by Florida were cast by electors not lawfully certified," Raskin complained.
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Democrats understandably balked at electors from Michigan and Wisconsin, which Trump won by 0.3% and 1.0%, respectively.
Whatever these Democrats believed went wrong could have been decisive. However, Democrats also opposed electors from Alabama (where Trump outran Hillary by 28.3%), West Virginia (42.2%), and Wyoming (47.6%). This was recreational obstructionism.
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No senator joined the fun. So, House Democrats’ objections went nowhere.
"You will remember," van der Veen said, "it was [then-Vice President] Joe Biden who had to gavel them down."
On Jan. 4, 2013, and Jan. 9, 2009, Republicans raised no objections whatsoever to Obama’s Electoral College votes.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But on Jan. 6, 2005, Democrats were back at it. Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio objected to George W. Bush’s Electoral College votes from her state. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California concurred. As on Jan. 6, 2021, the House and Senate parted to debate this challenge separately.
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Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., praised the 31 Democrat objectors for "speaking up for their aggrieved constituents" during "their only opportunity to have this debate while the country is listening."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Nonetheless, House Democrats’ challenge fizzled, 31 yeas to 267 nays.
"The fight for electoral justice," Sen. Boxer argued, was "worth a couple of hours to shine some light on these issues."
Boxer’s objection bellyflopped – her one aye to 74 nays.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}On Jan. 6, 2001, 13 House Democrats, including five current incumbents, focused their fire on Florida’s electors for G.W. Bush.
"Mr. Vice President, I rise to object to the fraudulent 25 Florida electorial [sic] votes," said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. "The objection is in writing, and I do not care that it is not signed by a member of the Senate."
Vice President Albert Gore dryly replied: "The chair will advise that the rules do care, and the signature of a senator is required."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}No senator stepped forward, and House Democrats’ challenge stalled.
Electoral votes went unchallenged back to Jan. 6, 1969, when Edmund Muskie, D-Maine, and six other senators joined James O’Hara, D-Mich., and 37 House members.
They objected to "faithless elector" Dr. Lloyd W. Bailey’s bid to support American Independent candidate George Wallace for president, even though Bailey’s state of North Carolina backed Richard Milhous Nixon, and Bailey was for Nixon before he was against him. Democrats and Republicans argued both sides of this debate.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Senate voted 33 ayes to 58 nays against the Muskie-O’Hara objection. The House challenge also failed, 170 yeas to 228 nays.
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Unlike today’s unfairly excoriated Republicans, Democrats faced zero repercussions when they exercised over and over again their constitutionally protected and statutorily permitted power to object to Electoral College votes.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Democrats should abandon their congenital hypocrisy and recognize their Republican colleagues’ right to behave like Democrats.