House Republicans have faced what amounts to a choice between standing for or against democracy: whether to sign onto Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s delusional lawsuit to overturn the presidential election.
A large majority of them failed the test. More House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Friday signed an amicus brief supporting Paxton, just hours before the Supreme Court unceremoniously rejected the suit. This is a disheartening signal about what these members of Congress might do on Jan. 6, when at least some Republicans probably will object to the counting of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral votes.
McCarthy and the other extremists and toadies who have signed their names to President Donald Trump’s antidemocratic plot may think their complicity is costless, because the Supreme Court was bound to reject the Paxton lawsuit, as it did on Friday, and there are enough Democrats on Capitol Hill to foil any GOP mischief during the electoral vote counting. They are wrong. Their recklessness raises the once-unthinkable possibility that a Congress controlled by one party might one day flip a presidential election to its candidate in defiance of the voters’ will, citing claims of mass fraud just as bogus as the ones Republicans have hyped up this year.
Some Republicans described the Paxton lawsuit honestly, including two senior Texas lawmakers. “I frankly struggle to understand the legal theory of it,” said Sen. John Cornyn. “I’m not convinced.”
“I’m not supporting it,” said Rep. Kay Granger. “It’s a distraction.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
A pair of outgoing Republican legislators were more frank. “This stuff is preposterous,” Rep. Denver Riggleman of Virginia told Forbes. Rep. Paul Mitchell of Michigan tweeted, “I will not be signing on to this amicus brief. Apparently I have failed the Trump won ‘loyalty tests’ thoroughly.”
Meanwhile, Utah Republican Gov. Gary Herbert and incoming governor Spencer Cox, also a Republican, criticized Utah’s attorney general for bringing their state into the Paxton lawsuit. And Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, called it “madness” to propose that lawmakers should select the next president, which is the goal of the Paxton lawsuit and of the Republicans who intend to disrupt the Jan. 6 electoral vote counting. “Of course the president has the right to challenge results in court, to have recounts,” Romney said. “But this effort to subvert the vote of the people is dangerous and destructive of the cause of democracy.”
Republicans who have sat by silently or encouraged Trump’s false allegations of massive voter fraud have another chance on Monday to put themselves on the right side of history. That is when the electoral college will cast its votes, making President-elect Biden’s victory official. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., and even staunch Trump sycophants such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have all pointed to Monday as the crucial day. Will they, at long last, acknowledge the will of the people? Or is the Republican Party destined to pledge itself to Trump, rather than democracy?