Category: US House

Rep. Louie Gohmert Backpedals On ‘Be Violent’ Comments After Election Lawsuit Loss

The Texas lawmaker compares his philosophy to Martin Luther King’s, even as he rails to overthrow the democratic election.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) issued a statement Saturday backpedaling on his controversial comments indicating that street violence is the only recourse in the wake of his lawsuit loss to overturn the results of the democratic presidential election.

Gohmert made the remarks about violence Friday on the far-right news channel Newsmax. He spoke after U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle shot down his court case that argued Vice President Mike Pence has the power to unilaterally reappoint Donald Trump as president by selectively choosing the electoral votes he’ll recognize, and replacing the others with votes for Trump.

The judge ruled Gohmert had no standing to sue. Continue reading.

All 10 living former defense secretaries: Involving the military in election disputes would cross into dangerous territory

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Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Mark Esper, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, James Mattis, Leon Panetta, William Perry and Donald Rumsfeld are the 10 living former U.S. secretaries of defense.

As former secretaries of defense, we hold a common view of the solemn obligations of the U.S. armed forces and the Defense Department. Each of us swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We did not swear it to an individual or a party.

American elections and the peaceful transfers of power that result are hallmarks of our democracy. With one singular and tragic exception that cost the lives of more Americans than all of our other wars combined, the United States has had an unbroken record of such transitions since 1789, including in times of partisan strife, war, epidemics and economic depression. This year should be no exception.

Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived. Continue reading.

Ex-GOP Speaker Ryan denounces effort to challenge Electoral College results

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Former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Sunday blasted Congressional Republicans’ efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

“Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden’s victory strike at the foundation of our republic. It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans,” Ryan said in a statement.

“The Trump campaign had ample opportunity to challenge election results, and those efforts failed from lack of evidence,” the statement continues. “The legal process was exhausted, and the results were decisively confirmed. The Department of Justice, too, found no basis for overturning the result. If states wish to reform their processes for future elections, that is their prerogative. But Joe Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate.” Continue reading.

Who is on Team Trump Coup?

UPDATED January 7, 2021, to show who actually voted to overthrow the 2020 election.

Here’s a list of individuals elected to Congress, who swore an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, who are now throwing their word aside to swear fealty to Donald Trump.

  • U.S. Vice President
    • Mike Pence — on January 6, Vice President Pence said he had no power to overturn the votes of the American people during the Electoral College vote certification
  • U.S. Senators
    1. Marsha Blackburn (R, Tennessee) — after Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, decided not to contest
    2. Mike Braun (R, Indiana) — after Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, decided not to contest
    3. Ted Cruz (R, Texas)
    4. Steve Daines (R, Montana) — after Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, decided not to contest
    5. Bill Hagerty (R, Tennessee) — after Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, decided not to contest
    6. Josh Hawley (R, Missouri) — even during the Trump rioters’ storming of the Capitol, Sen. Hawley was fundraising, and when the Senate debate was restarted, he will continue objecting to legally-cast electoral votes.
    7. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R, Mississippi)
    8. Ron Johnson (R, Wisconsin) — after Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, decided not to contest
    9. John Kennedy (R, Louisiana)
    10. James Lankford (R, Oklahoma) — after Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, decided not to contest
    11. Kelly Loeffler (R, Georgia) — after Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, Sen. Loeffler decided not to contest
    12. Cynthia Lummis (R, Wyoming) — after Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, decided not to contest
    13. Roger Marshall (R, Kansas)
    14. Rick Scott (R, Florida)
    15. Tommy Tuberville (R, Alabama)
Continue reading “Who is on Team Trump Coup?”

Fox News host rips ‘outrageous’ GOP Electoral College plot: ‘It’s a very dangerous precedent’

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Fox News host Jedidiah Bila on Sunday criticized Republicans who want to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory by officially objecting to the results of the Electoral College.

“I actually find it really outrageous,” Bila explained to Fox News host Howard Kurtz. “And the reason is that if you look at what’s gone on here, I think the media has actually been pretty fair, particularly the news divisions.”

“This has gone through the courts,” she continued. “Sixty cases have been brought to the courts, oftentimes widespread voter fraud has not even been alleged in court because there simply isn’t evidence to support that. If you look at the evidence that has been shown, it does not support that.” Continue reading.

GOP Rep. Gohmert Openly Calls For Violence In The Streets After Losing In Court

At this point, Republicans might as well just open fire on Fort Sumter and be done with it. That’s the only way they could show more evidence of their “patriotism” and love for the Constitution. The only question is: Who’s going to be first? The whole right-of-center portion of the American political spectrum has fallen into a system where the selective pressure is all about being the most outrageous, the most extreme, the most willing to trample all the meaning of the American system into the mud while waving the symbols of that system overhead. It’s not a race to the bottom, because there is no bottom. But there is a point of no return, and Republicans have gone way, way past that point.

On Saturday, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz set out to prove just that when he arranged a whole legion of Republican senators who intend to “reject the electors” from certain states. “Certain,” in this case, means those states that didn’t vote for Donald Trump. But Cruz’s play to regain some of that sweet Traitor Energy that’s been going to Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley isn’t even the slimiest play of the day.

Because after losing in court, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert is flat out calling for people to commit violence to overthrow democracy. Continue reading.

George Conway only needed 11 words to sum up Pence’s embrace of GOP scheme to overturn the election

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More Republicans embraced the scheme by far-right supporters of Donald Trump to ignore the results of the 2020 election.

Trump lost the Electoral College and popular vote to President-elect Joe Biden, but some Republicans have joined the president in refusing to accept the fact that voter reject the GOP presidential ticket.

On Saturday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and ten additional GOP senators received harsh criticism after announcing they would go along with the effort to reject the will of the voters. Continue reading.

Judge dismisses Gohmert lawsuit seeking to stymie Biden electoral college count

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A federal judge in Texas has dismissed a long-shot lawsuit by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) that sought to overturn the presidential election, saying neither the congressman nor his allies have legal standing to pursue the case.

The judge’s Friday night ruling tosses out what many election law experts considered a far-fetched theory to challenge the formal mechanism by which President-elect Joe Biden will be affirmed as the winner of the race for president.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle issued an order dismissing the case because, he found, neither Gohmert nor his fellow plaintiffs have a sufficient legal stake in the process to justify the lawsuit. Kernodle was nominated to the federal bench by President Trump. Continue reading.

Pence seeks rejection of lawsuit that aimed to expand his power to overturn the election

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Vice President Pence asked a judge late Thursday to reject a lawsuit that aims to expand his power to use a congressional ceremony to overturn the presidential election, arguing that he is not the right person to sue over the issue.

The filing will come as a disappointment to supporters of President Trump, who hoped that Pence would attempt to reject some of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college votes and recognize votes for Trump instead when Congress meets next week to certify the November election.

The filing came in response to a lawsuit from Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) and a number of Republicans in Arizona, who argued that an 1887 law that governs how Congress certifies presidential elections is unconstitutional. The suit argues that the Constitution gives the vice president, in his role as president of the Senate, sole discretion to determine whether electors put forward by the states are valid. Continue reading.

‘Covid can kill’: Lawmakers issue fresh warnings about virus after death of Rep.-elect Luke Letlow

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Rep.-elect Luke Letlow’s coronavirus death this week has been met with shock and grief from fellow lawmakers, offering another stark example of the lethality of a pandemic that has killed more than 340,000 Americans.

Letlow, 41, died Tuesday at a hospital in Shreveport, La., succumbing to the virus just days before he was to be sworn in Sunday after winning a runoff vote this month for Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District. The Republican was set to succeed his former boss, Rep. Ralph Abraham (R-La.), who did not run again after three terms.

Letlow, whose office announced that he had tested positive on Dec. 18, is the highest-ranking U.S. politician to die of the coronavirus. Continue reading.