American Democracy Perseveres Over Trump
State and federal courts dismissed numerous lawsuits filed by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in various states. Courts rendered scathing rulings on these lawsuits describing them as “strained legal arguments without merit,” “speculative accusations,” “unsupported by evidence,” and compared the claims to a “Frankenstein’s Monster.” Even Trump supporter Chris Christie called Trump’s legal team a “national embarrassment.”
Nevertheless, Trump continued to fight and pressure Republican officials in various states to invalidate hundreds of thousands of ballots cast by American citizens. Some Republican officials withstood Trump’s undue pressure and dismissed his verbal assaults, including Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Philadelphia’s Election Commissioner Al Schmidt, and Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. These Republican elected officials, among others, demonstrated strong moral character and fidelity to American democracy.
Sadly, most federal and state GOP officials were either silent or aided and abetted Trump’s demented agenda to thwart democracy in a bid to stay in power. Such efforts put a tremendous strain on our democracy. It is especially unsettling that elected officials supported such an effort. Citizens should remember which elected officials were advocates for our democracy and which were complicit in Trump’s political machinations.
Trump’s skullduggery continued on January 6, 2021. On that date, Congress convened to officially certify the votes cast by the electoral college. Soon after Congress began certifying the electoral college votes, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the capitol. Five people died during the assault. Additionally, many areas of the capital building were damaged and property was stolen from congressional offices. Just prior to the insurrection at the capital building, Trump held a rally with supporters. At the rally (and the previous weeks), Trump and his allies incited his supporters to fight to prevent Congress’s constitutional mandate to certify the election results.
As a result of his role in the insurrection, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump on January 13, 2020. Ten Republicans supported the effort. Trump is the only President to be impeached twice.
Updated January 13, 2020
