It’s extraordinary how a lie about voter fraud has caused so much chaos and fallout.
By Stephen Collinson
White House Reporter
CNN
Last week, the star witness at a January 6 select committee hearing warned that Donald Trump remained a “clear and present danger” to American democracy. The Texas Republican Party just showed why, underscoring the critical need for the House investigation into the 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Members of the Lone Star State’s GOP adopted a resolution over the weekend rejecting the certified results of the 2020 presidential election and called Joe Biden “acting President.” The move captured the enduring power of Trump’s election fraud lies and how they have become the new dogma of vast swathes of the party, which have given up democracy because it did not deliver their desired result in 2020.
The Texas GOP’s action is hardly isolated. Pro-Trump candidates all over the country are running on the false premise that the last presidential election was stolen. Some could end up administering the next one in 2024. GOP state legislatures have passed laws designed to make it harder to vote and easier to influence results. And by attacking the January 6 committee, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives are whitewashing the history of Trump’s assault on “one-person, one vote” and hoping to ride his falsehoods back to power.
It’s extraordinary how a lie about voter fraud coined by a President so desperate to cling onto power that he would stop at nothing, even an insurrection, has caused so much chaos and fallout. So whether the House committee ends up prodding the Justice Department into investigating Trump and his acolytes for possible criminal offenses or not, its work is not just about what happened 17 months ago. It is critical in laying a foundation of truth under future US elections, which are already under attack from the ex-President’s loyalists in places like Texas.