A YouTube video in which the president of the Republican Party of Arizona describes her legal effort to reverse the results of the 2020 elections as a “friendly process” is now being used to undermine her case.
The GOP far-fetched move by Kelli Ward and Rep. Louie Gohmert
Louis (Louie) Buller GohmertPence asks the judge to reject the Republican MP’s candidacy to overturn the election results. The Wall Street Journal editorial board overturns Trump’s ’embarrassing Electoral College upheaval’. Here are the Republicans planning to challenge the results of the Electoral College MORE (R-Texas) intends to allow Vice President Pence to bypass federal electoral law by presiding over a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. Instead of fulfilling its statutory duty to finalize the elected president Joe Biden
Joe BidenBidens honors frontline workers in NYE speech: “We owe them, we owe them, we owe them” Hotel Trump in DC raises room rates for Biden’s grand openingPence’s victory, Pence would be free to effectively grant himself and President Trump
Donald Trump Trump hotel in DC raises room rates for the inauguration of Biden Republican Party Legislator criticizes Trump and colleagues for ‘trying to discredit’ the election Video shows long lines on the last day of early voting in Georgia MORE a second term.
Election law experts say the process does not begin – and it is possible that Ward’s YouTube video could help accelerate his demise.
Courts are limited by the Constitution to decide only real legal disputes, or what the writers called “cases or controversies”. Therefore, Ward’s suggestion that Republican party plaintiffs share Pence’s same goal of nullifying Biden’s victory may help to persuade a judge to bring the case.
“We love the vice president Mike Pence
The editorial board of Michael (Mike) Richard Pence Wall Street Journal overturns Trump’s ’embarrassing Electoral College mess’. Political celebrity moments in 2020 Georgia voters flood polls ahead of crucial Senate contests MORE“Said Ward in Tuesday’s video on YouTube.” We love him. And this is known in Democratic circles as ‘friendly action’ ”.
“What we all want here is electoral integrity, including Vice President Pence,” she added. “And we want to give him the tools he needs to be able to do that.”
Neither Ward nor his lawyers responded to a request for comment.
In a legal petition filed on Friday, lawyers for Ward, Gohmert and other Republican plaintiffs downplayed the importance of the comments, noting that Ward is only one of several plaintiffs in the case and suggesting that “the ‘friendly’ remark” could have been a reference to “personal relationships”.
Ward’s YouTube video was first brought to the court’s attention in a report Thursday night by Timothy Dowling, a Texas lawyer who seeks to intervene against Republican plaintiffs. Dowling cited Ward’s comments in detail in a lawsuit against U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle, a Trump nominee who is presiding over the case in Texas federal court.
“Em. Ward’s video is a partisan admission of what is obvious: there is no real case or controversy here,” wrote Dowling. President of the United States after January 20, 2021. ”
“This case is a false dispute,” added Dowling, “and this court must refuse the plaintiffs’ invitation to swim in these political waters where it does not have adequate jurisdiction over this alleged false controversy.”
Usually, the vice president’s role in chairing the January 6 meeting is largely ceremonial, governed by a federal law of 1887 known as the Electoral Counting Act. But the Republican lawsuit seeks to invalidate the law, arguing that it imposes an unconstitutional restriction on the vice president’s authority to choose between competing claims for victory when state election results are contested.
Republicans in several major battlefield states contested Biden’s victory and offered alternative “lists” of pro-Trump voters to be counted on Wednesday, but experts say these efforts have no legal weight.
Pence, meanwhile, told the court on Thursday that he was not the appropriate defendant in the lawsuit. As vice president, Pence said, his legal interests are not “sufficiently adverse to plaintiffs” to clear the constitutional requirement that there be a “case or controversy” before a court evaluates.
“The vice president – the only defendant in this case – is ironically the same person whose power they seek to promote,” wrote a Justice Department attorney representing Pence. “A process to establish that the vice president has discretionary power over counting, brought against the vice president, is a walking legal contradiction.”
Separately, a Colorado Biden voter asked the judge for permission to join the lawsuit as a defendant, citing concerns that Pence and the Justice Department would not adequately represent the interests of Biden voters. The judge has not yet said whether additional parties will be allowed.
The decision on the case is expected within a few days.