Florida’s GOP in Congress are a national embarrassment and danger to democracy
Having failed to convince voters that Donald Trump should get four more years, and having failed to get governors, legislatures or courts to over turn the election, Trump loyalists are pinning their hopes on Congress installing the losing candidate as the next president.
The show down is coming on Jan .6, when Congress meets in a joint session to count and formalize the electoral votes already certified by the states. Democrat Joe Biden got 306 electoral votes and Republican Donald Trump got 232.
It ought to be a low-drama event but it won’t be, thanks to Republicans like those representing Florida in the U.S. House. Most of them established their anti-democratic, pro-authoritarian bonafides by signing onto a lawsuit brought by Texas that unsuccessfully asked the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out 20 million votes in four states—Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia.
Alarger percentage of Florida’s GOP delegation joined the lawsuit— 80%— than signed on from the Texas GOP delegation— 64%.
(For the record, the 11 GOP congressmen from Florida who joined the Texas lawsuit were: Gus Bilirakis, Mario Diaz-Balart, Neal Dunn, Matt Gaetz, Bill Posey, John Rutherford, Ross Spano, Greg Steube, Michael Waltz, Dan Webster and Ted Yoho. Three Republicans who had sufficient patriotism to not join the lawsuit were: Vern Buchanan, Brian Ma stand Francis Rooney.)
The smart money would bet that most, if not all, of the Republicans who went along with the Texas lawsuit will also go along with the Jan. 6vote-theft gambit.
In that scenario, an objection to electoral votes would be lodged by both a senator anda representative during the Jan. 6 joint session. The two bodies would then meet in separate sessions. If the objection is upheld by a simple majority in both houses, the electoral votes aren’t counted. In otherwords, Biden could be denied the electoral vote she earned, throwing the election to Trump.
The scheme is highly unlikely to succeed, considering Democrats have a majority in the House and most Republican senators— so far, at least— have not shown an appetite for destroying democracy.
Nevertheless, a growing number of House members— including, natch, Florida’s Matt Gaetz— have stated their intention to object. One report put the number at more than 100 representatives. And on Saturday, about a dozen senators declared they’re joining what’s disparagingly being called the Sedition Caucus to over turn the election, despite Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’ s warnings against such a move.
We emailed some questions to Florida’ s 14 GOP representatives—including four newly elected Republicans—asking if they were willing to negate the votes of a state’s duly certified electors.
Only two of the 14answered— District6 Rep. Michael Waltz and District 8 Rep. Bill Posey.
Pose yr es ponded that he didn’ t want to “get into these hypothetical situations .”
Waltz wrote this: “I’m taking my responsibility very seriously to followthe law, to thoroughly understand constitutional issues, and listen to the outrage of nearly70 million Americans aswe approach January 6th.”
We should point out that if millions of Americans are outraged it isn’t because of the facts. Votes in contested states have been re counted. Some five dozen lawsuits contesting the election have been thrown out by judges, including judges appointed to the bench by Donald Trump.
No, the outrage is the product of a relentless and widespread campaign of mis information and disinformation waged by the GOP, including President Trump, designed to instill doubt in the outcome.
Waltz tried to draw parallels with previous objections, like those lodged by Democratic representatives after Trump’s election. In that instance, however, no Democratic senator would go along, and then-Vice President Joe Biden— serving as president of the Senate— gaveled down the objections.
This is different, and Waltz and his colleagues know it. The president himself is agitating for Congress to over turn the elections based on allegations that have been laughed out of courtrooms across the land.
So much for the rule of law.
The fact that Florida’ s Republican members of Congress wouldn’ t eager ly declare their intention to abideby the will of the voters on Jan .6 tells us almostneed to know about where their loyalties lie.
Theyare an unserious group and an embarrassment to a state with a rich history of embarrassing itself.
If they would go along with over turning electoral votes, would they also embrace the other ideas out thereto rescue Trump from defeat? Like new elections conducted by the military, as Trump confidant Michael Flynn has suggested. Orusing the Insurrection Act of 1807, as other Trump supporters have suggested.
We asked Florida’ s GOP representatives, and U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, about those scenarios. Our questions should have been softballs, and their answers should have been, “Military-run elections? Are you nuts?” Or, “Invoking the Insurrection Act is absurd. This is the United States, not some tin-pot dictatorship.”
Instead, they were silent. Even Waltz wouldn’t answer those questions.
Leading us to wonder just how far this state’ s Republican representatives in Congress are willing to go to keep Donald Trump in office.
Editorials are the opinion of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board and are written by one of its members or a designee. The editorial board consists of Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio, Jay Reddick, David Whitley and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Send emails to insight@orlandosentinel.com.