The Republican Party is singing a whole different tune about Donald Trump and his conclusion that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, the Big Lie that led to an attempt to overturn the results of a democratic election. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made clear the reasons behind that change in tune when he told reporters that Trump’s “political clout” had “diminished” by this point, leaving Republicans room to walk away from the twice-impeached ex-president who lost the popular vote twice and tried to stage a coup.
—Electoral Count Act reforms to stop Trump’s next coup attempt
—Increased NLRB funding to fight union-busting
—Increased merger filing fees to fight corporate monopolies
The omnibus spending bill has many flaws, but it does include some critical provisions.
Keep up the fight.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) December 20, 2022
With the passing of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill by the Senate, a bill which included the Electoral Count Act, most Republicans have made it known that they no longer support the nonsense spread by Trump and that they’re ready to leave him behind. The act clarifies that a vice president has no authority to change or challenge the results of an election, a claim Trump made many times while pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence to reinstall him into power.
According to The Hill, Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) said that:
‘The Electoral Count Act, that statute needed to be fixed and clarified…a couple years ago there were a lot of questions raised about it. There wasn’t any question in my mind about what it said but since there are [questions], I think it’s important to nail that down.’
Apparently the rightwing is upset that the Senate made some changes to the Electoral Count Act based on my recommendations.https://t.co/PcSzpSRNC6
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) December 22, 2022
On his Truth Social account, Trump has endlessly beat the same old dead horse about a stolen election, asking why the law needed to be “changed” if the vice president truly had no power to change an election in the first place, when what it really was is just clarified. There was never a provision that allowed a vice president to change a result.
‘What I don’t like are the lies and “disinformation” put out by the Democrats and RINOs. They said the vice president has “absolutely no choice,” it was carved in “steel,” but if he has no choice, why are they changing the law saying he has no choice?’
Senate Democrats and @POTUS are making historic progress for the American people.
And today, we passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the Electoral Count Act and more.
We will keep working. pic.twitter.com/SNZRmNwg22
— Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) December 22, 2022
Republicans who never really signed on to the Trump lie spoke out in favor of the act publicly, while others were surprise backers of the legislation. One member of the GOP who wasn’t such a surprise in backing the bill was the notable Trump detractor, Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), who said that logic should prevail in the decision to pass the Electoral Count Act.
‘Let’s do something which he’s not fond of doing, which is taking that to the next logical conclusion. On that basis, that means that Kamala Harris would be able to choose the next president. Does he really think that’s the right way to go?’
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) says reforms to the Electoral Count Act in the omnibus spending bill are “gonna stop the kind of stuff we saw on January 6th, where a sitting president tried to … become dictator of this country, quite honestly.” pic.twitter.com/SiklEzimLO
— The Recount (@therecount) December 21, 2022
