No Democrat has ever challenged the legality of a Republican winning the presidency, as President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory was officially confirmed by a joint session of Congress on January 6. This was for the first moment since 1988.
Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., presided over the program, where 312 political votes were certified in favor of Trump and Vice President-elect J. D. Vance in a conference that lasted about 30 days. Texas’s 40 political vote, which were certified in chronological order, finally moved Trump and Vance over the 270-vote level to 289.
The lack of Democrat-led play in the documentation of the vote of a Republican president broke the group’s decades-long history of denying the benefits of primaries, as they had done in 2000, 2004, and 2016. The next day Democrats did not contest a GOP presidential victory’s outcome was in 1988 when George H. W. Bush’s victory was certified.
Prior to the documentation, Harris released a film saying,” Now, I will do my constitutional obligation as Vice President to confirm the results of the 2024 vote. This work is a spiritual obligation — one I will defend guided by love of country, commitment to our Constitution, and unwavering belief in the British people”.
Democrats have made false assertions about Republicans winning elections in the past, some of which were motivated by their fury over losing the popular vote while the Electoral College, which does not have an impact on presidential elections.
In the 2001 certification, Democrats claimed that President George W. Bush had been” selected, not elected” by the U. S. Supreme Court after the Bush v. Gore decision. Multiple Democrats presented difficulties to the counting of Florida’s political votes, including former Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., who said that there was “overwhelming proof of official misconduct, intentional fraud, and an attempt to suppress voting attendance”.
Former Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, claimed there were “millions of Americans who have been disenfranchised by Florida’s false voting count”, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Florida’s political seats were “fraudulent”.
Although no lawmakers joined the Democrat House members in 2001 ( at that time federal law mandated that a least one senator and one official thing for a problem to be considered ), by the 2005 certification, past Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and former Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, joined forces to fully object to Ohio’s electoral votes, despite the fact that Bush won the state by over 100, 000 seats.
Former Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said that” the democratic process was thwarted”, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N. Y., claimed that voting rights were” stolen”, and Waters issued an objection as well. Ultimately, 31 House members and Boxer voted to reject the will of Ohio’s voters.
In 2017, when the electors from nine states faced opposition and Democrats like Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., advanced wild conspiracy theories about” the confirmed and illegal activities engaged by the government of Russia,” was perhaps the biggest show of force from Democrats attempting to thwart elections.
One of the biggest lies of the Russia collusion hoax was that many Democrats made the false claim that Russia had altered the outcome of the election. At the time, Barbara Lee contested Michigan’s electoral votes, making the claim that “people are horrified by the overwhelming evidence of Russian interference in our elections.” She also pointed to” the malfunction of 87 voting machines”.
Last week, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N. Y., boasted in his speaker election speech that Democrats believe in election outcomes, but on numerous occasions he attempted to deny the results of the 2016 election, saying of Trump, “history will never accept you as a legitimate president”.
In other social media posts, Jeffries claimed,” The more we learn about the 2016 election the more ILLEGITIMATE it becomes. America deserves to know whether we have a FAKE President in the Oval Office# RussianInterference”. Additionally, he also wrote in 2018 that” LIE ( more than any administration in the history of the Republic )” was important. CHEAT ( 2016 election/Russian interference ). STEAL ( one or two Supreme Court seats )”.
What remains unanswered, however, is how many Democrats will boycott Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, as so many of them did in 2017 because they denied the results of the election.
At that time, more than 60 Democrats skipped the inauguration in protest of Trump’s win, including election deniers Hastings, Waters, Nadler, and Barbara Lee, led by former Rep. John Lewis.
Breccan F. Thies is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered issues of culture and education for Breitbart News and the Washington Examiner. He is a Publius Fellow at the 2022 Claremont Institute and holds a degree from the University of Virginia. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.
