If Joe Biden wins the presidency because state officials ignored their own laws, it won't just be Donald Trump who's lost -- it'll be the people of Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and so many others who've lost their right to be represented. Those voters deserve to be heard. And thanks to 18 state attorneys general, they might finally get the chance.
Like the 40 other lawsuits challenging the November 3rd results, the media doesn't give this one a chance. But unlike the 40 other lawsuits, the press has decided to lift its blackout and comment. Could they be worried about the Texas case? Their over-the-top reaction certainly makes it seem that way. In outlets all across the country, reporters are frantically trying to dismiss the states' argument, calling it "laughable," "utter garbage," "far-fetched," and "doomed." But is it? Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), who's leading the effort to get House Republicans on board, doesn't think so. If there's fraud (and pages of court filings say there was) and a coordinated effort to rewrite local election laws, then any state that Trump won has a legitimate beef. Texas, Indiana, Louisiana, Kansas -- you name it -- they'll have been deprived of representation. And that's what's at the heart of the case that President Trump calls "the big one."
"For [the media] to say it's a Hail Mary pass and a last-minute effort is sort of comical," Mike told listeners on "Washington Watch." "...[T]here was a lot of irregularity, fraud and hijinks all around the country. And it takes a while to digest all of that. An election fraud case, election irregularity case, is a notoriously difficult thing to litigate. It takes a Herculean effort to assemble the evidence, put it in a format that is presentable, and make the requisite arguments. It's, of course, even more complex when you're doing it in so many different jurisdictions simultaneously around the country in a national election." In other words, these states filed this as soon as they could.
What makes their case unique, Mike explains, is that -- because these states are suing other states (Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin), this goes straight to the Supreme Court. Texas believes the American people deserve to be heard on three major violations of the Constitution in each of these four states: 1) they made changes to voting rules and procedures through the courts and executive actions -- not their state legislatures, which is a breach of the Electors Clause; 2) there were even different voting rules for different counties within the states, which violates the Equal Protection Clause; and finally 3) the voting irregularities in those states taints the whole election.
The bottom line is that by ignoring Article II and the 14th Amendment, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are disenfranchising the voters of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia. Every one of these states has skin in the game. As Mike said, "Look, it's a national election. All of our votes, at some stage, get lumped in together. And you're diluting the lawful votes of persons who had constitutional systems in place when you allow this to go unchecked elsewhere in the country."
An overwhelming number of House Republicans agree. They're filing their own brief, insisting that they represent millions of Americans "who are deeply concerned with the integrity of our election system." Because, as Mike rightly pointed out, "This is about not just one election, but about the integrity of the system itself..." One of the things "that's presupposed in a constitutional republic," he said, "is you're going to have free and fair elections. This is sacrosanct in our system and in our nation. And if we lose that, if we lose the people's faith in that, we're in a very desperate time as a nation."
What most conservatives, including Mike, don't understand is: what are liberals so afraid of? (The truth, for one thing.) But on something this important, "Why wouldn't you want the highest court in the land to take a look at all of this? If you think there's nothing there, and there's no smoke and fire, then why all the outrage? Why all the objection to this? Just let it go through the process. We have to exhaust the legal remedy." Democrats, of course, are ready to move on. They want to coronate Joe Biden and make all of this go away. "But if they're allowed to do that, then this will be the future of every election in America," Mike shook his head. "I fear that. So if we don't litigate it, then we're in deep trouble."
