In supporting the Texas lawsuit to overturn the outcome of 2020 election, unanimously rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court Friday, many observers believe that President Donald Trump, 126 House Republicans,18 state attorneys general, Georgia Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, as well as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz have violated their oath of office to uphold the Constitution and defend democracy. Even now, after all 50 states have validated their Electoral College votes, officially confirming the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, most Republican legislators refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Some GOP lawmakers are expected to continue to challenge the election outcome in Congress on Jan. 6, when the Electoral College votes are officially counted.
U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-New Jersey, has called on House Democratic leaders to refuse to seat any members-elect who supported Trump’s efforts to invalidate the 2020 presidential election outcome. Pascrell cites Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies from service any individuals who seek to attack American democracy.
More than 1,500 attorneys across the U.S. have also signed a letter calling for the American Bar Association to investigate the conduct of the Trump campaign’s legal team to reverse the election results, including its leader, former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, past president of the National Lawyers Guild and author. Here, she examines the Trump regime and Republican Party’s continuing effort to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and the threat they pose to U.S. democracy.
MARJORIE COHN: Trump has mounted a massive campaign to basically steal the election. He and his supporters have filed some 46 lawsuits, virtually all of them lost. There is no evidence of fraud at all. In fact, even his trusty aide, William Barr, the attorney general — who has done everything Trump wanted saluted and marched to Trump’s agenda — had to admit there was no massive voter fraud. And in fact, Bill Barr resigned. But goaded by Trump, Republican legislators in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, all tried to aid and abet his stealing of the election in Pennsylvania. They asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to stop certification of the state — actually the U.S. Supreme Court. They lost. Republican Senate candidates in Georgia told the Republican secretary of state he should withdraw the certification. And even though he had been a Trump supporter, he said, No. The Republican party in Arizona demanded that the election not be certified and challenged Twitter followers to say they were willing to die to prevent certification.
Nevertheless, they certified the Biden electors by Dec. 8, which was the Safe Harbor Day. Also the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is under investigation himself for fraud, sued Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin — four key battleground states. And they were supported by 17 Republican attorneys general in 17 states and (126) Republican Congress members, more than half of the Republican Congress members. And they alleged that the elections were conducted so improperly that the Supreme Court should disenfranchise 10.4 million voters and let state legislators choose the electors. And Texas was alleging that these four states used the pandemic as an excuse to unlawfully change the election rules. And they also alleged in this lawsuit before the Supreme Court that Biden’s chance of victory was less than “one in a quadrillion.”
SCOTT HARRIS: Congressman Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey, a Democrat, has called on House Democratic leaders to refuse to seat those 126 Republican House members who supported Trump’s efforts to invalidate the 2020 presidential election outcome. Pascrell cites Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which “disqualifies from service, any individuals who seek to attack American democracy as well as Congress has power to exclude members by majority vote.” Is this a viable plan of accountability for these Republicans who want to overthrow our democracy?
MARGE COHN: Well, I would be in favor of it, but Nancy Pelosi, I think that hell would freeze over before she would do it. She is, you know, she’s so cautious and so traditional and so conservative. I can’t see her doing it, but really it is an act of sedition. You know, 126 members of Congress and 70 percent of Republicans think that Joe Biden’s election was illegitimate, according to a Quinnipiac poll and that is very, very disturbing.
Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut gave a speech on the Senate floor on Friday. And, he basically said — this is how the Washington Post reported it — that the “Republican party has morphed into a malignant and profoundly dangerous threat to the country and the long-term prospects for our democratic stability.” And, Murphy told the Washington Post, “I have a very clear sense of the danger this all poses to the Republic if this becomes at all normalized more broadly than it already is, they will steal an election two years from now or four years from now. And I’m not sure how we keep our democracy together.”
And I think that he has a point. Also, Trump may well mobilize his paramilitary thugs to create some real serious violence. People are talking about civil war. Trump has a tremendous hold over these paramilitaries who are armed with assault weapons. And, you know, we may not have seen the last of that. And Trump has a very tight control of the Republican party. We’ll see how long that lasts, but we really have our work cut out for us, Scott.
For more information, visit Marjorie Cohn’s website at marjoriecohn.com.
