On Saturday, Montana Sen. Steve Daines was one of 11 Republicans who announced their plans to object to the Electoral College results during Wednesday’s bicameral session of Congress. Twenty four hours later, the largest newspaper in his state absolutely eviscerated that decision.
“We believe this entire episode to be one of the saddest in our country’s political history,” wrote the Billings Gazette editorial board in an editorial published Sunday. “How unfortunate that you decided to play a leading role – in support of the insupportable. … This action, Senator, is political garbage disguised as statesmanship. It is beneath your office and should be beneath you.”
Which is, well, tough. And while it won’t change Daines’ mind – editorial boards have increasingly limited power to persuade either a politician or the public – it’s worth examining why the Gazette is so disappointed in Daines.
The key point of the editorial is that Daines (and the other Republican senators – including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz – who plan to object to the results) are basing their opposition to the Electoral College count not on hard evidence but on, as Paul Simon would say, “hints and allegations.”
As the Gazette editorial board wrote:
“The President and a few of his allies repeating endlessly his contentions of fraud with no evidence to back it up does not itself constitute evidence of anything. Now, the senators involved are using the ‘allegations’ in place of evidence.”
And indeed, in the joint statement put out by Daines, Cruz and the other senators, they never actually say that there are facts or proof that the election was anything but above-board.
There’s this (bolding is mine): “The 2020 election, however, featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities.”
And this: “By any measure, the allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any in our lifetimes.”
And this: “On January 6, it is incumbent on Congress to vote on whether to certify the 2020 election results. That vote is the lone constitutional power remaining to consider and force resolution of the multiple allegations of serious voter fraud.”
The thing is: You can allege anything. But at some point, you have to provide some (any?) proof to back up the allegations. Especially when what is being alleged is so serious.
And for Daines and the rest, the cupboard is decidedly bare when it comes to proof. Of the 60 lawsuits President Donald Trump and his legal team have filed about alleged irregularities in the 2020 election, they have won just one, according to The New York Times. Allegations of Trump votes being thrown away, dead people voting, non-citizens voting, Republican poll watchers being removed from voting places and other claims of fraud have all been repeatedly debunked not just by the media but also, in many cases, by Republican election officials in the states. (Georgia and Arizona, to name two.)
The plain fact is this: There’s no “there” there. These allegations of some sort of major conspiracy to overturn the election are the product of Trump’s imagination, a conservative media ecosystem that is more than willing to air these falsehoods in the never-ending chase for higher ratings and the members of Congress willing to play along.
Unfortunately, we’ve come to expect that behavior from the President and his enablers. And even among many Republican elected officials in Washington.
But as the Billings Gazette notes, this isn’t enabling without danger. When you support the President’s debunked claims of election fraud, you actively undermine our political system for the sake of earning yourself some pats on the back from the GOP base.
“This is so beyond the pale that it cannot be normalized or tacitly accepted by ignoring it,” the editorial board concludes. Yes, yes it is.