Just Politics

[jbsliverer]

Schiff urges Americans not to forget role of GOP members of Congress in efforts to overturn election
BY JARED GANS - 12/24/22 1:28 PM ET

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3787565-schiff-urges-americans-not-to-forget-role-of-gop-members-of-congress-in-efforts-to-overturn-election/

Schiff said in an op-ed published Thursday in The New York Times that only “scant attention” is given to the number of GOP members of the House and Senate who voted to contest the results of multiple states in the election.

“Even after Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police put down the insurrection at great cost to themselves, the majority of Republicans in the House picked up right where they left off, still voting to overturn the results in important states,” he said.

After Congress reconvened to count the votes of the Electoral College following the attack, 147 Republican members of Congress — eight senators and 139 representatives — objected to the results in Arizona or Pennsylvania, both of which were key states that helped seal President Biden’s victory in the election.

“Even the Constitution cannot protect us if the people sworn to uphold it do not give meaning to their oath of office, if that oath is not informed by ideas of right and wrong, and if people are unwilling to accept the basic truth of things,” Schiff said. “None of it will be enough.”

Schiff’s op-ed came on the same day that the committee released its final report on the insurrection. The committee made four criminal referrals for former President Trump to the Justice Department (DOJ) earlier in the week.

The committee also referred multiple Republican representatives who refused to comply with its subpoenas to the House Ethics Committee. They include House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), Scott Perry (Pa.) and Andy Biggs (Ariz.).

Schiff said the country’s elected officials should be chosen based on their allegiance to the law and the Constitution and people should be guided by facts, “not factions.”

“It is our hope that this report will make a small contribution to that effort. Our country has never before faced the kind of threat we documented. May it never again,” he said.

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Schiff also outlined the next steps following the committee’s report in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times on Friday. He said the DOJ should hold itself to the standard it established at the start of its investigation into the attack as it determines what charges to pursue — a standard Schiff described simply as “follow the evidence wherever it leads.”

Among other reforms, he also called for Congress to pass legislation to clarify the House’s authority to enforce its subpoenas and that the vice president only has a ceremonial role in counting the votes of the Electoral College. Congress approved the Electoral Count Reform Act, which makes the latter clarification, as part of the omnibus government funding bill this week, sending the bill to Biden’s desk.

Schiff additionally called on the country to confront the “rising tide” of bigotry and racially motivated violent extremism.