“Congress tallies states’ votes amid GOP insurgency.” Insurgency: That’s how impartial NBC News headlines its coverage of today’s congressional showdown over Electoral College votes and the legitimacy of the 2020 election. The hearings are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
The article upbraids Republicans for daring to exercise their constitutional rights, characterizing the vote count as a” typically routine quadrennial process that has been turned on its head over President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud.”
Interestingly, a search for the network’s equally withering attacks on Democrats for objecting the certification of Electoral College votes in 2005 comes up empty. Yet object the Dems did, and the language is astonishingly similar to what Republicans are alleging. Have a look. A transcript follows:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
BARACK OBAMA: I was not in this body four years ago but what I observed as a voter, as a citizen of Illinois, four years ago were troubling evidence of the fact that not every vote was being counted.
UNKNOWN MALE: Senator from New York.
HILLARY CLINTON: Mr. President, this is obviously a difficult debate for many reasons, but I commend the Senator from California for joining with members of the House, most particularly Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones in raising the objection because it does permit us to air some of these issues.
BARBARA BOXER: Why did a computing error in Franklin County initially award 4,258 extra votes to George Bush when only 638 people had actually voted? Thankfully they fixed it, but how many other votes did the computers get it wrong?
OBAMA: Too many voters have cast votes on machines that jam or malfunction or suck the votes without a trace.
CLINTON: As we look at our election system I think it’s fair to say that there are many legitimate questions about its accuracy, about its integrity, and they’re not confined to the state of Ohio.
BOXER: Because of these and many other examples all documented in the press, I’m joining with Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones to cast a light of truth on a flawed system.
OBAMA: There is no reason, at a time when we have enormous battles taking place ideologically all across the globe, at a time when we’re trying to make certain that we encourage democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places throughout the world, that we have the legitimacy of our elections challenged, rightly or wrongly, by people who are not certain as to whether our processes are fair and just.
STEPHANIE TUBBS JONES: Ohio is the objection. I’m from Ohio, I’m raising this objection. But, I anticipate you will also hear from some of my colleagues from other states who had similar situations. It’s easy to say, well, it happened in Ohio, it happened in Michigan, it happened in Arizona, so let’s not worry about it, because it happened everywhere.
CLINTON: So I would hope that this body and thanks to the objection of my friend from California this debate which started today will continue.
TUBBS JONES: But there are other things that are being presented that people are showing, that I witnessed myself, that would say — that say to me that this — the irregularities in Ohio deserve a hearing in the House of Representatives.
CLINTON: I would be standing here saying this no matter what the outcome of the election because I still think the best rule in politics is the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Cross posted at the Mental Recession
