Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that his colleague Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is attempting to overthrow democracy by announcing he will object to the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college win in the Senate on January 6.
Mitchell said, “Your Republican colleague Josh Hawley of Missouri announcing today he’s going to object to the Electoral College vote certification on January 6. It’s unlikely to change the result, it’s not going to happen, but it’s going to cause delay, lengthy debate, both Houses in Joint Session. It’s a complicated process that sets off.”
Murphy said, “Let’s be clear, Josh Hawley and anyone who supports his effort are engaged in the attempted overthrow of democracy. There is no evidence that there was any fraud. Senator Hawley apparently believes that if a Democrat wins the presidential race, it must be illegitimate by definition, even absent any actual evidence of misbehavior.”
He continued, “While you’re right that Senator Hawley’s efforts here are not going to change the results of the election, Joe Biden is still going to be president, there won’t be enough votes to overturn the Electoral College, what he is doing and those who support him are doing is breeding in the American public and certainly amongst the hardcore Trump supporters this belief that the election itself was illegitimate and any time a Democrat wins, it must be illegitimate. That is ultimately going to potentially end in the overthrow of democracy. At some point, there will be a successful attempt by Republicans at the state level or national level to throw out a legitimate election just because a Democrat won. We don’t do this in this country, right? We put our country before our party and our personal beliefs. Senator Hawley’s efforts are not going to change the result of the election, but they pose a grave threat to American democracy, maybe not this year, but two years from now, four years from now, absolutely.”
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