Thursday, December 10, 2020

'Christian' group Family Research Council supports fraudulent lawsuit aimed at stealing the presidency from Biden

The Family Research Council approves of attempts to steal the presidential election from Biden.

It shouldn't be unbelievable that the Family Research Council has come out supporting what's been called a "long shot" and a "seditious" attempt by Donald Trump and his supporters to overturn the election which he lost to Joe Biden. 

First a little background.

 Since losing to Biden, Trump and his allies have falsely contended that he actually won by a landslide but because of a massive conspiracy of fraud, Biden turned out to be the victor. They have filed lawsuit after lawsuit across the country attempting to overturn the election on hearsay and discredited, refuted claims. They've lost over 50 cases. Politifact said these losses can be attributed to them not being able to prove widespread fraud, errors, and jurisdictional problems.

But now enters Texas attorney general Ken Paxton with a lawsuit which is not only a sham, but has dangerous repercussions. 

According to Raw Story:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing four battleground states — Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — whose election results handed the White House to President-elect Joe Biden. In the suit, he claims that pandemic-era changes to election procedures in those states violated federal law, and asks the U.S. Supreme Court to block the states from voting in the Electoral College. 

 . . . In a filing to the high court Tuesday, Paxton claims the four battleground states broke the law by instituting pandemic-related changes to election policies, whether “through executive fiat or friendly lawsuits, thereby weakening ballot integrity.” Paxton claimed that these changes allowed for voter fraud to occur — a conclusion experts and election officials have rejected — and said the court should push back a Dec. 14 deadline by which states must appoint their presidential electors.

Paxton's claims of fraud are the same ones which were practically laughed out of court in several of the over 50 cases I mentioned earlier.  The courts found that the claims simply were not proven. 

Still, the lawsuit is asking the Supreme Court to nullify the results of those four battleground states, thereby removing 62 electoral college points from Biden and then allowing the House of Representatives in those states - all GOP majority - to vote for the presidential candidate.

 

In other words, stealing the election for Trump. 

In addition, 17 states, all voting for Trump in the election, and over 100 members of the House of Representatives, all Republicans, have signed on to this lawsuit.

But them, the lawsuit itself, and Paxton have been widely slammed by the legal community, the media, and others elected officials. Many have predicted that SCOTUS won't even waste time considering it. Others have called the lawsuit "undemocratic and seditious,"  a joke, and "a dangerous violation of federalism."

On his blog, law professor at the University of California Irvine Richard Hansen was especially brutal as he broke down the reasons why the lawsuit will fail:

 . . .this is a press release masquerading as a lawsuit. Texas doesn’t have standing to raise these claims as it has no say over how other states choose electors; it could raise these issues in other cases and does not need to go straight to the Supreme Court; it waited too late to sue; the remedy Texas suggests of disenfranchising tens of millions of voters after the fact is unconstitutional; there’s no reason to believe the voting conducted in any of the states was done unconstitutionally; it’s too late for the Supreme Court to grant a remedy even if the claims were meritorious (they are not). What utter garbage. Dangerous garbage, but garbage.

Now the main point. 

In spite of all of the criticism, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins posted a piece on the organization's webpage praising Paxton's lawsuit and trivializing the concern over it. I would guess that this has less to do with them doing the right thing and more with them doing the best thing to stay in Trump's good graces:

If Joe Biden wins the presidency because state officials ignored their own laws, it won't just be Donald Trump who's lost -- it'll be the people of Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and so many others who've lost their right to be represented. Those voters deserve to be heard. And thanks to 18 state attorneys general, they might finally get the chance. Like the 40 other lawsuits challenging the November 3rd results, the media doesn't give this one a chance. But unlike the 40 other lawsuits, the press has decided to lift its blackout and comment. Could they be worried about the Texas case? Their over-the-top reaction certainly makes it seem that way. In outlets all across the country, reporters are frantically trying to dismiss the states' argument, calling it "laughable," "utter garbage," "far-fetched," and "doomed."

 But is it? Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), who's leading the effort to get House Republicans on board, doesn't think so. If there's fraud (and pages of court filings say there was) and a coordinated effort to rewrite local election laws, then any state that Trump won has a legitimate beef. Texas, Indiana, Louisiana, Kansas -- you name it -- they'll have been deprived of representation. And that's what's at the heart of the case that President Trump calls "the big one." . 

 . . .The bottom line is that by ignoring Article II and the 14th Amendment, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are disenfranchising the voters of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia. Every one of these states has skin in the game. As Mike said, "Look, it's a national election. All of our votes, at some stage, get lumped in together. And you're diluting the lawful votes of persons who had constitutional systems in place when you allow this to go unchecked elsewhere in the country."

As with so many other times when commenting about political  issues, FRC and Perkins are deliberately omitting crucial details.

A genuine concern is that this garbage lawsuit (called so by those who know more about legal matters than Perkins) has been seen as a wasteful attempt by Paxton to get in Trump's good graces so he can be in line for potential pardon. According to the Texas Tribune, Paxton has been under indictment since 2015 for felony securities fraud. In addition, eight of his deputies played whistleblower, alleging that he used his office to do favors for a political donor. And according to Raw Story, at the time he was preparing this nonsensical lawsuit, the FBI subpoenaed him.

Another concern comes from the fact that the allegations of fraud in the lawsuit have already been discredited several times in a court of law. Many have rightfully labeled this lawsuit as a "coup" and a nakedly dishonest attempt to steal the presidency from Biden and give it to Trump. 

 Basically, no matter how much shucking and jiving used by Perkins, this lawsuit is simply an attempt to cheat and to wreck a legal and safe election by a group of people  angry that their candidate lost. And in the case of Trump, it's an attempt by overblown bully jackass (who shouldn't be elected to clean toilets, much less the presidency) to get his way even though he lost fair and square.

It's amazing how quickly Perkins and FRC went from giving Trump "mulligans" for his bad behavior to actually encouraging his bad behavior. People in my  church have always said "if you let the devil ride, he'll want to drive." 

Obviously Perkins and FRC already had the keys custom made for Trump.

No comments: