Sen. Murphy: Josh Hawley Is ‘Engaged in the Attempted Overthrow of Democracy’
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that his colleague Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is attempting to overthrow democracy by announcing he will object to the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college win in the Senate on January 6.
Mitchell said, “Your Republican colleague Josh Hawley of Missouri announcing today he’s going to object to the Electoral College vote certification on January 6. It’s unlikely to change the result, it’s not going to happen, but it’s going to cause delay, lengthy debate, both Houses in Joint Session. It’s a complicated process that sets off.”
Murphy said, “Let’s be clear, Josh Hawley and anyone who supports his effort are engaged in the attempted overthrow of democracy. There is no evidence that there was any fraud. Senator Hawley apparently believes that if a Democrat wins the presidential race, it must be illegitimate by definition, even absent any actual evidence of misbehavior.”
He continued, “While you’re right that Senator Hawley’s efforts here are not going to change the results of the election, Joe Biden is still going to be president, there won’t be enough votes to overturn the Electoral College, what he is doing and those who support him are doing is breeding in the American public and certainly amongst the hardcore Trump supporters this belief that the election itself was illegitimate and any time a Democrat wins, it must be illegitimate. That is ultimately going to potentially end in the overthrow of democracy. At some point, there will be a successful attempt by Republicans at the state level or national level to throw out a legitimate election just because a Democrat won. We don’t do this in this country, right? We put our country before our party and our personal beliefs. Senator Hawley’s efforts are not going to change the result of the election, but they pose a grave threat to American democracy, maybe not this year, but two years from now, four years from now, absolutely.”
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Dem Sen. Shaheen: Josh Hawley Bordering on ‘Sedition or Treason’
Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that her colleague Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) was bordering on “sedition or treason” by announcing he will object to the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college win in the Senate.
Mitchell said, “I want to ask you about your colleague Josh Hawley who has said, and maybe others will now join him, that he’s going to challenge the Biden vote count in the Electoral College and that may lead to not only delays but lengthy debate, automatically it goes into debate. What is your response to what Senator Hawley is doing?”
Shaheen said, “I think it’s outrageous. More than that, it borders on sedition or treason.”
She continued, “You know, I’ve been in a number of countries during elections and developing countries which are striving to try and bring democracy to their countries. I was in Georgia with the current chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jim Risch, back in 2012. I remember Senator Risch and I going to see President Saakashvili, who had lost that election, going to his presidential home and working to persuade him he needed to leave office peacefully because that’s the foundation of democracy, the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next. And the fact that we’ve got somebody who took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, which calls for peaceful transition of power, that’s one of the basic tenets to our democracy, former attorney general, who should know better, that he is standing up and doing that, is just an effort to undermine our democracy that is unacceptable.”
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Rep. Kinzinger: ‘The Base Is Starting to Turn’ on Trump
Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said Wednesday on CNN’s “New Day” that President Donald Trump’s base was starting to turn on him.
Kinzinger said, “I think we have to step back and understand, you know, people that feel very disaffected, Donald Trump spoke to them, but here is the problem is up until the election, you know, it’s an election, it’s just a competition of ideas, but after an election, it has turned into an undermining of the democracy. That’s the differentiation between, you know, people that say, ‘Well, Adam, you know, was supportive of the president in the past.’ The difference here is what it’s doing to undermine our democracy and the fact, then, that people that work hard for their money, hard-working taxpayers are giving their money to this, because they are convinced because the president is telling them this that they can win, and they can’t. I mean, the scam in Congress with January 6th all these members of Congress that are, you know, posting crazy things so they can get a ton of followers and retweets and raise money, I think we have to calling it out finally because if we don’t people are just going to believe it.”
Anchor Alisyn Camerota said, “From where you sit are you seeing Republicans distance themselves now from President Trump? I mean, for instance, voting to override the veto, or are you seeing them still cater to his demands, such as Mitch McConnell larding up this bill with President Trump’s demands? Which is it?”
Kinzinger said, “I think they’re privately distancing more. We’ve talked about this a lot, I wish more would speak out, but I think they’re starting to. I tell you, the base is starting to turn. I get texts every day, and granted, people that are mad at me that aren’t my friends probably aren’t going to text me, but a lot of people that I thought would be upset with me kind of calling this out that are texting saying, ‘Do you know what, you’re right, it’s time, and nobody else is saying it.’ You know, if the president says the election is stolen and nobody rebuts him, you’re generally going to believe him. So I do think it’s starting to turn. I think he will be a player in the Republican Party for sure. I just don’t think he’s going to be around as a player for as long as people are predicting right now.”
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