Paul Mitchell, a Michigan Congressman, has announced that he is leaving the Republican Party in response to the Trump-led fight against the election outcome in the aftermath of Election Day. President Donald Trump and his allies, including top Republicans, have pushed the idea that the election was rigged against the president, but there’s simply no legitimate evidence for the kind of widespread election fraud that Trump and his allies have alleged unfolded. In a letter to Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Mitchell said that he fears “long-term harm to our democracy” from the attacks on the election outcome.
Breaking: Michigan Republican Rep. Paul Mitchell told CNN that his disgust and disappointment with Trump's efforts to overturn the election results have led him to request that the clerk of the House change his party affiliation to "independent." https://t.co/HQZW2g0Htp
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 14, 2020
Mitchell wrote, in part, as follows:
‘If Republican leaders collectively sit back and tolerate unfounded conspiracy theories and “stop the steal” rallies without speaking out for our electoral process, which the Department of Homeland Security said was “the most secure in American history,” our nation will be damaged. I have spoken out clearly and forcefully in opposition to these messages. However, with the leadership of the Republican Party and our Republican Conference in the House actively participating in at least some of those efforts, I fear long-term harm to our democracy.’
Respect for the electoral process is a fundamental component of the democratic system in the United States. Nevertheless, among many other examples of the president’s fight against the election outcome, the Trump campaign has sought the invalidation of hundreds of thousands of ballots in Wisconsin on the basis of the argument that election officials mishandled procedures for the election. A lawsuit that the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected on Monday didn’t even allege that voters had committed fraud, The New York Times observed — Wisconsin voters who cast many of the targeted ballots followed instructions from authorities, but the Trump campaign sought to push them out of the process via invalidating their votes anyway.
The Trump campaign has certainly slung plenty of outright fraud allegations around the country, but authorities like the Department of Homeland Security and Attorney General Bill Barr have confirmed that there’s simply no evidence of election outcome-altering fraud.
Mitchell suggested that top Republicans have tied themselves to the fraud conspiracy theories out of “raw political considerations.” He wrote:
‘I believe that raw political considerations, not constitutional or voting integrity concerns, motivate many in party leadership to support the “stop the steal” efforts, which is extremely disappointing to me. As elected members of Congress, we take an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” not to preserve and protect the political interests of any individual, be it the president or anyone else, to the detriment of our cherished nation.’
Read his full letter at this link.
