Criticism of McClain ‘not appropriate’
Certainly a key role of a local newspaper is to demand accountability of elected officials. That said, Jeff Payne’s editorial (“McClain vote against certification unacceptable start to Congressional tenure”) in the Jan. 11 Macomb Daily was not appropriate. Specifically, Payne asserted that Rep. McClain’s vote to challenge the Electoral College certification was “somewhere between an embarrassment and an outright display of malpractice.” To support this, Payne only offered comments made to an unidentified Macomb Daily reporter.
I urge readers to understand the context of this: Rep. McClain began her term of office just last week making it a very busy time. She likely was contacted by a reporter and, wanting to open with her constituents, granted an interview. She probably would’ve been better served to have asked for the questions in writing to avoid hatchet jobs such as this opinion piece, but provided the responses she could at hand.
I assume Rep. McClain’s objection was for the sole purpose of allowing a debate to occur on the issues, those listed above and the many others that emerged. This is neither “embarrassing” nor an indication of “malpractice” on her part, but rather allowing the full examination of issues to assure those that still have questions that every available mechanism was utilized to properly examine the results. Whenever legitimate requests for audits or reviews in the wake of the 2020 election have been requested those making the requests were immediately maligned with the charge that there was no evidence.
Exactly how is evidence to be obtained if there is no effective audit or investigation? Does Mr. Payne endorse a lack of signature verification? If so, how does he propose that ballot integrity be verified? Does Mr. Payne endorse actions like denying citizens transparency as occurred at the TCF Center? If not, then how can he credibly level such accusations as Rep. McClain when her vote simply enable consideration of these issues before the ballots were certified?
Her actions strike me as the fulfillment of democracy instead of media attempts, like Mr. Payne’s, to stifle it.
Greg Donahoe Warren