Texas congressman Louie Gohmert suggested that “street violence” may be the only remaining option to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president after a federal judge rejected his action to force Vice President Mike Pence to annul the election.
Judge Jeremy Kernodle, appointed by Trump from Gohmert’s hometown Tyler, dismissed the lawsuit on Friday, ruling that he and other plaintiffs – including the Republican Party president in Arizona and the list of defeated Republican voters in that state – did not have legitimacy.
Late on Friday at Newsmax, Gohmert said he had sought redress in court “so that you didn’t have to have riots and violence” on the streets.
“The bottom line is that the court is saying, ‘We are not going to touch this, you have no medicine,'” said Gohmert. “Basically, in effect, the decision would be that you have to go out on the streets and be as violent as the antifa and the BLM.”
It is not the first time that Gohmert – a former state court judge who has just won his ninth term in Congress – has expressed admiration for the use of violence to overturn an election.
In a “Million MAGA March” in November near the White House, he urged Trump supporters to consider the “revolution” as the Egyptian uprising seven years ago and the American colonies’ revolt against England.
“They rose up all over Egypt, and as a result of the increase in the number of people in history, anywhere, they changed the country. If they can do it there, think about what we can do here, ”he told thousands of fans.
Congress meets on Wednesday to certify the results of the electoral college. Biden defeated President Trump by a decisive margin of 306-232 and also surpassed him by 7 million votes nationwide.
By law, the vice president chairs this joint meeting, but in a fully ceremonial capacity.
Gohmert and his colleagues wanted the court to let Pence reject Biden’s victories in a handful of states, nullifying tens of millions of votes and replacing the electorate’s will with his own desire to give Trump a second term.
Kernodle decided that the Gohmert lawsuit revolved around a series of hypothetical claims “too uncertain to sustain legitimacy”.
“The plaintiffs assume what the vice president will do on January 6, what electoral votes the vice president will count or reject from the contested states, whether a deputy and a senator will object under section 15 of the electoral counting law, as each member of the House and the Senate will vote on such objections, and how each state delegation in the House would potentially vote under the Twelfth Amendment in the absence of a majority of electoral votes, ”wrote the judge in the 13-page decision.
The judge also concluded that, as a lone deputy, Gohmert cannot sue on the basis of alleged damage to the House as a whole, even if he could prove such damage.
Gohmert promised to appeal to the US Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans.
The process challenges the Electoral Counting Act of 1887, which defines the vice president’s role in announcing the results as purely ceremonial. Members of the House and Senate may object to the slates of voters in any state, forcing a debate, but the vice president has no say in the matter; it just announces the results.
Gohmert insisted in court that the law violates the 12th Amendment, which provides for separate votes from the electoral college for president and vice president.
The jurists vehemently rejected his argument that vice presidents have real authority in the process, calling it far-fetched and noting that generations of vice presidents have not realized any overarching power to choose the commander in chief.
Pence himself took a stand against Gohmert in court, asking Kernodle to reject the lawsuit. A 14-page Justice Department lawsuit argued that the action should be directed to Congress, not Pence: “It is the function prescribed for the Senate and House of Representatives in the Electoral Counting Law that claimants are opposed to, not any actions that Vice President Pence took over. “
Four members of the Texas House pledged to oppose the polling station count on Wednesday, citing unproven fraud allegations: Gohmert and Reps. Brian Babin of Woodville, Lance Gooden of Terrell and Ronny Jackson of Lubbock.
Republican Party House members say 140 or more of their colleagues will object, although with Democrats firmly in the majority, they have no chance to undo Trump’s defeat.
Congress will be forced to debate and vote on the results if at least one senator also objects. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley plans to do this. Elected Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who will take the oath on Sunday, could also challenge Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Even in the Senate, such objections are condemned with McConnell and the rest of the Republican Party leadership is opposed to the maneuver.