House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) attacked Republicans’ efforts to pass election integrity bills, panning such legislation as a “legislative continuation” of January 6.
Speaking to CBS Host Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation, Pelosi accused Republicans of trying to “undermine our democracy” and “the integrity of our elections” with election laws introduced in various states since the 2020 election. The Speaker referred to practices Republicans want to overturn or limit as the “essence of a democracy.”
Brennan asked Pelosi if she would seat individuals whose elections are not certified in their states. “I think that the order of things is very appropriate. There’s nothing more important for us to do than protect our Constitution and our democracy. What the Republicans are doing across the country is really a legislative continuation of what they did on January 6, which is to undermine our democracy, to undermine the integrity of our elections, to undermine the voting power, which is the essence of a democracy,” Pelosi replied.
Further pressing to know how Pelosi would respond if a federal election were disputed at the state level, the California Democrat answered: “Well, it isn’t a question of how we will handle something a year from now. What is important right now is how we protect and defend the Constitution and the voting rights.”
Democrats currently have two voting bills they want passed in Congress.
The first is the Freedom to Vote Act, a compromise version of the progressive For the People Act. Unlike the For the People Act, the current bill has the support of Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and other moderate Democrats.
The Freedom to Vote Act would, in essence, federalize elections by imposing “national standards.” Measures in the legislation, as summarized by FiveThirtyEight.com, include:
• Prohibit states from requiring an excuse to vote absentee….
• Prohibit states from requiring absentee ballots to be notarized or have witness signatures….
• Require states to allow people to register to vote online….
• Restore the right to vote to people who have been convicted of a felony but are no longer in prison (including those on parole and probation)….
• Require states that mandate voter IDs to accept a broad and uniform range of both photo and non-photo IDs….
• Allow states to choose whether to implement public funding for House campaigns by matching every dollar a candidate raises from small donors with $6 from the government….
• Allow election officials to sue if they are undeservedly removed from office.
Congressional Democrats also want to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would restore and strengthen parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, certain portions of which were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court decisions of Shelby County v. Holder and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee.
One of the most prominent aspects of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is a requirement that states pre-clear certain changes to their voting laws with the federal government.
Since January 6 occurred, the phrase “insurrection” has been a favorite of Democrats. Some variation of calling Republicans, conservatives and Trump supporters “authoritarians” and “insurrectionists” is a useful rhetorical device for the left.
It’s useful to Democrats because it provides them with the perfect justification to completely bar their political opposition from public discourse and the reins of government. After all, if they’re “insurrectionists” who seek to “destroy democracy,” it only makes sense to censor them and jail them.
The House’s January 6 Committee will potentially use the investigation into the supposed “insurrection” to promote legislation to bar President Trump from ever holding office again. Going hand-in-hand with the “insurrectionist rhetoric, Democrats hope to base such legislation on the 14th Amendment, which states:
“No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”
But Trump isn’t the only target. Such a law would not only be weaponized against the 45h president, but against his conservatives in general.
Pelosi’s recent remarks make clear just how broadly she’s willing to apply such a mechanism. Now, anyone who tries to safeguard elections with reform bills is also an insurrectionist, just as guilty as though they had been at the Capitol along the QAnon Shaman on January 6.
If Pelosi and her party get their way, no legislator in this country will be able to advocate for election integrity without having the FBI show up at his door.
