Mike Lee, election denier, has no business being on the Senate Judiciary Committee
This post was originally published on this site
Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee spent the whole of the Kentanji Brown Jackson confirmation hearings playing law professor. Just look at the filibusters he subjected her to on both days of her hearings.
Lee, who lectured Jackson on Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 58, and the separation of powers (“Congress is accountable to the people at regular intervals,” he mansplained to her) seemed to take a very different view of the separation of powers, the sanctity of the Constitution, and the vote after the 2020 election. According to text messages sent to Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and seen by CNN, Lee was spending his all his time trying to overturn the will of the voters to keep and toss the election.
It’s not an exaggeration to say he was spending all his time on this: Beginning from Nov. 7, the day after Joe Biden was declared the winner, he texted Meadows a statement signed by a bunch of conservative group leaders to urge Trump to “exhaust every legal and constitutional remedy” in challenging the results. In multiple texts that day, he volunteered his “unequivocal support for you to exhaust every legal and constitutional remedy at your disposal to restore Americans faith in our elections.”
RELATED STORY: New texts expose pro-Trump lawmakers’ push to overturn election before ‘sh*tshow’ at Capitol
Apparently Lee—Sen. Constitutional Law Professor—is also Mr. Gullible, because his steady diet of Breitbart News, the Washington Examiner, and Byron York had him supposedly convinced of fraud! “This fight is about the fundamental fairness and integrity of our election system,” he told Meadows. “The nation is depending upon your continued resolve. Stay strong and keep fighting Mr. President.”
Lee was also a big Sidney Powell booster, having arranged a meeting for her to brief Republican senators early on—Nov. 9—and urging Meadows to get her on board. “You have in us a group of ready and loyal advocates who will go to bat for him, but I fear this could prove short-lived unless you hire the right legal team and set them loose immediately,” Lee wrote to Meadows while pushing Powell. “I’ve found her to be a straight shooter,” he said.
At least until Nov. 19 and that press conference—the Rudy Giuliani melting one where Powell, Giuliani, and Jenna Ellis went all conspiracy theory about voter fraud and Dominion and shit. “I’m worried about the Powell press conference,” Lee texted Meadows. “The potential defamation liability for the president is significant here,” he said. Which might be the one redeeming bit for Lee’s intellect in this text dump. “Unless Powell can immediately substantiate what she said today, the president should probably disassociate himself and refute any claims that can’t be substantiated,” he advised. And look what happened.
From November through Jan. 6, this is what Lee was doing: trying to overturn the election. He said so himself! On Jan. 4, 2021, Lee texted Meadows, hurt that Trump lashed out at him for not being sufficiently committed to overthrowing the election. “I’ve been spending 14 hours a day for the last week trying to unravel this for him,” Lee whined. He went on: “I’ve been calling state legislators for hours today, and am going to spend hours doing the same tomorrow.”
“We need something from state legislatures to make this legitimate and to have any hope of winning. Even if they can’t convene, it might be enough if a majority of them are willing to sign a statement indicating how they would vote.” Lee was all in on having the states overturn the election. On Nov. 23, 2020, he was insisting that “Something is not right in a few states,” pushing for recounts “in PA, WI, GA, and MI.” On Dec. 8, he texted: “If a very small handful of states were to have their legislatures appoint alternative slates of delegates, there could be a path.”
On Jan. 3, he was still at it: “Everything changes, of course, if the swing states submit competing slates of electors pursuant to state law.” Here he was lamenting his “grave concerns with the way my friend Ted is going about this effort,” presumably speaking about Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, adding if the states didn’t come up with competing elections, “this could help people like Ted and Josh to the detriment of DJT.” Add in Sen. Josh Hawley to people on his shit list.
Here’s what he was thinking there: not 2020 and relitigating that one, but 2024. “I don’t think the president is grasping the distinction between what we can do and what he would like us to do,” as in object to the count as Cruz and Hawley were planning. “Nor do I think he’s grasping the distinction between what certain members are saying that sound like they could help him, but would really hurt him. He’s got a very real opportunity for a win in 2024. That opportunity could be harmed in multiple ways this effort.”
Lee is arguing that would be fine for partisan state legislatures to decide that they were going to ignore the results of the election, throw out the vote, and appoint electors that would vote for Trump. That was his “Constitutional” argument. “I know only that this will end badly for the president unless we have the Constitution on our side,” he texted in the lecture delivered to Meadows on Jan. 3. “And unless these states submit new slates of Trump electors pursuant to state law, we do not.”
That’s Lee’s judicial philosophy and interpretation of the Constitution. If you want to steal an election, it’s legal if you have the states do it. To be clear, Lee was involved, deeply involved, in the plot for Trump to steal the election. Beyond that, Lee wanted to make sure that Trump wasn’t closing off his opportunity to run again and win in 2024. Even as Trump was trying to steal this election.
Mike Lee—not to mention Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley—has no business being on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He has no business determining who is qualified to serve on the federal judiciary. He has no business being in the Senate, come to that, but his months-long collusion with the White House disqualifies him from ever, ever questioning any nominee again.
RELATED STORIES