WASHINGTON — Home Republicans on Friday gave a standing ovation to the highest Democrat within the chamber, Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), when he talked about that Republican Donald Trump had received the presidential election in November.
However all of them promptly sat down and went silent when Jeffries mentioned why he appreciated their applause: as a result of his get together isn’t the one which’s dwelling to election deniers.
“Two months in the past, the American folks elected Donald Trump because the forty seventh president of america of America,” Jeffries mentioned, talking on the dais within the Home chamber.
Loud cheers and whistles crammed the room, as GOP lawmakers jumped to their toes and celebrated Trump’s victory.
“Thanks for that very beneficiant applause,” Jeffries mentioned with a smile. “It’s OK. There aren’t any election deniers on our aspect of the aisle.”
GOP lawmakers weren’t celebrating anymore. Now Democrats stood up and cheered even louder as Jeffries continued.
“One ought to love America once you win and once you lose,” mentioned the minority chief. “That’s the patriotic factor to do, and that’s the America that Home Democrats will battle onerous to protect as a result of we love this nation.”
Right here’s a C-SPAN clip from the awkward second:
There are dozens of election deniers in Congress. 4 years in the past, 147 Republicans voted to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election, fueling a lie that it was stolen from Trump. They lied to the general public in plain sight, and simply hours after an rebel on the Capitol that was pushed by the identical lie they had been spreading.
It’s simple to normalize a few of these folks now. However none of it’s regular. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), who was simply reelected to his Home speaker publish Friday, was the architect of the authorized technique to throw out the outcomes of the 2020 vote.
And Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who made information Friday for being one of many few Republicans to waver earlier than backing Johnson for speaker, in 2021 urged Trump’s White Home to impose martial regulation to forestall the peaceable switch of energy.
Norman was later requested if he had any regrets about doing that. He mentioned he had one: that he misspelled “martial regulation” in his textual content message to then-White Home chief of workers Mark Meadows.
“Our LAST HOPE is invoking Marshall Legislation!! PLEASE URGE TO PRESIDENT TO DO SO!!” Norman had texted Meadows on the time.
It’s not clear what number of election deniers there will probably be within the new Congress. As of January 2023, there have been greater than 170 newly elected and returning Republicans who had denied or forged doubts on Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential win in 2020.
