Facing backlash, GOP confronts president’s effect on the party
WASHINGTON >> When a distraught constituent accosted her Tuesday night in the nation’s capital, Rep. Nancy Mace confronted an impossible task that sprang from President Donald Trump’s false promises: getting them to understand why she and other Republicans in Congress could not overturn the results of the election.
Driven by Trump’s fictitious claims that the election had been stolen from him — and that lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence could clinch him another four years during Congress’ official electoral count — the voter had come from Mace’s home state of South Carolina to witness it. Now the voter, shaking and in tears, demanded to know why Mace refused to join the effort.
Mace tried to explain that it was not Congress’ role to subvert the results of an election — and that to do so would defy the Constitution.
“It didn’t matter what I said,” Mace said. “They didn’t believe it.”
Similar scenes played out in Washington this past week before and after a violent mob urged on by Trump stormed the Capitol.
The confrontations — and the mayhem that unfolded Wednesday — have brought Republicans face to face with the consequences of their yearslong alliance with Trump, providing human evidence of the downside of his deep influence on their party’s base.
It helps explain the searing anger that has prompted many Republicans to belatedly turn against Trump after
years of enabling him. But it also reflects the conundrum in which the Republican Party finds itself, beholden to voters who have internalized the president’s falsehoods and been emboldened by his divisive talk.
“Their hearts, minds and wallets were taken advantage of,” Mace said. “Millions of people across the country who were lied to. These individuals, these hardworking Americans truly believe that the Congress can overturn the Electoral College.”
Many Republican members of Congress stoked that belief last week
when they objected to President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in battleground states and backed the challenges in votes that illustrated their party’s rift.
Mace said she hoped “the American people’s eyes might be open” after Wednesday’s violence and that lawmakers would be more aggressive in calling out falsehoods and dangerous language.
“I’ve been more vocal than ever in the last 24 hours,” Mace said. “But now is not the time to sit idly by and allow this to continue. It’s got to stop, and enough is enough.”