Gohmert suggests ‘street violence’ after judge rejects offer to force VP Pence to overturn Biden’s victory

Updated at 8 pm with decision of the appeals court against Gohmert.

East 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 lawsuit to force the vice president Mike Pence to annul the election.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle, appointed by President Donald Trump of Gohmert’s hometown, Tyler, rejected the lawsuit on Friday, ruling that he and other plaintiffs – including the Republican Party president in Arizona and the list of Republican voters defeated in that state – have no legitimacy. At the end of Saturday, a federal appeals court upheld the decision.

Last Friday at Newsmax, Gohmert said he had sought redress in court “so that you don’t need riots and street violence”.

“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.

On Saturday afternoon, Gohmert insisted that “violence is not the answer” and was not advocating otherwise.

“I did not encourage and unequivocally do not advocate violence,” he said in a written statement that said he was only “recognizing what is to come when the institutions created by an autonomous people to resolve disputes peacefully hide from their responsibilities”.

Congress meets on Wednesday to certify the results of the Electoral College. Biden defeated President Donald 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 12th 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 appealed to the US Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, which confirmed the lower court’s decision on Saturday.

The lawsuit sought to challenge the 1887 Electoral Counting Law, 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. “

Five members of the Texas House pledged to contest the Electoral College count on Wednesday, citing unproven allegations of fraud: Gohmert and Reps. Brian Babin of Woodville, Lance Gooden of Terrell, Randy Weber of Friendswood and the newly elected Ronny Jackson of Lubbock, who will take the oath on Sunday.

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.

Senator Ted Cruz and 10 other Republican senators announced on Saturday that they will oppose Biden’s victory when Congress meets on Wednesday to review the Electoral College result, demanding a 10-day delay to allow an “audit” emergency results in battle states where Trump disputes the result.

Even in the Senate, such objections are condemned, with McConnell and the rest of the Republican Party leadership strongly opposed.