![\"\"](\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Mitch_McConnell_portrait_2016.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI support strong state-led voting reforms. Last year’s bizarre pandemic procedures must not become the new norm.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale that would have tipped this entire election.<\/p>\n
\u201cNor can public doubt alone justify a radical break when that doubt was incited without evidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Constitution gives Congress a limited role. We cannot simply declare ourselves a national Board of Elections on steroids.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
\u201cThe voters, the courts, and the states have all spoken.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we overrule them all, it would damage our republic forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis election was not unusually close. Just in recent history, 1976, 2000, and 2004 were all closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Electoral College margin is almost identical to 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d never see the whole nation accept an election again.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery four years would bring a scramble for power at any cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Electoral College would soon cease to exist, leaving the citizens of entire states with no real say in choosing presidents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe effects would go even beyond elections themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cSelf-government requires a shared commitment to truth and shared respect for the ground rules of our system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot keep drifting apart into two separate tribes; with separate facts, and separate realities; with nothing in common except hostility toward each another and mistrust for the few national institutions that we still share.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time in the last 30 years that Democrats have lost a presidential race, they\u2019ve tried a challenge like this one \u2014 after 2000, 2004, and 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter 2004, a Senator joined and forced this same debate. Democrats like Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, and Hillary Clinton praised and applauded the stunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepublicans condemned those baseless efforts. And we just spent four years condemning Democrats\u2019 shameful attacks on the validity of President Trump\u2019s own election.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere can be no double standard. The media that is outraged today spent four years aiding and abetting Democrats\u2019 attacks on institutions after they lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we must not imitate and escalate what we repudiate.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur duty is to govern for the public good.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States Senate has a higher calling than an endless spiral of partisan vengeance.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
\u201cCongress will either overrule the voters, the states, and the courts for the first time ever\u2026 or honor the people\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will either guarantee Democrats\u2019 delegitimizing efforts after 2016 become a permanent new routine for both sides… or declare that our nation deserves better.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will either hasten down a poisonous path where only the winners of elections accept them… or show we can still muster the patriotic courage that our forebears showed, both in victory and in defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe framers built the Senate to stop short-term passions from boiling over and melting the foundations of our Republic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe protecting our constitutional order requires respecting limits on our own power.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be unfair and wrong to disenfranchise American voters and overrule the courts and the states on this thin basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I will not pretend such a vote would be a harmless protest gesture while relying on others to do the right thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will vote to respect the people\u2019s decision and defend our system of government as we know it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington, DC…U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today regarding the Electoral College challenge: \u201cWe are debating a step that has never been taken in American history: Whether Congress should overrule voters and overturn a presidential election. \u201cI have served 36 years in the Senate. This will be the most important […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Mitch_McConnell_portrait_2016.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}