Mitch McConnell Says Overturning Election Would Push Democracy Into A ‘Death Spiral’
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday rebuked Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the Electoral College results, The Hill reported.
“If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral. We’d never see the whole nation accept the election again,” he said in the upper chamber.
The comment came at the opening of the upper chamber’s first debate that is expected to end with Congress certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. The Hill wrote that at least 14 Republican senators are expected to challenge the electoral results. However, objections require a majority in both chambers to be successful, which the publication suggested is not likely to happen.
McConnell continued to say he believes in protecting American “constitutional order,” which he said requires a respect for the “limits of our own power.”
“It would be unfair and wrong to disenfranchise American voters and overrule the courts and states on this extraordinary thin basis. … I will vote to respect the people’s decision and defend our system of government as we know it.”
According to The Hill, McConnell’s comments are his strongest rebuke yet of Trump’s allegations of election fraud. His remarks come in the wake of the Georgia Senate runoffs — both of which Democrats won, per The Associated Press. As The Inquisitr documented, progressive commentator Sam Seder previously hinted that the U.S. leader’s opposition to McConnell’s coronavirus aid legislation was a signal to his voters to turn on the Senate majority leader.
McConnell pointed to the head of state’s claims of widespread election fraud and suggested there was no evidence of misconduct “anywhere near the massive scale” required to alter the outcome of the referendum.
“Nor can public doubt alone justify a radical break when the doubt itself was incited without any evidence.”
McConnell also criticized the purported shift of each party toward their own separate sets of facts and realities. According to the 78-year-old politician, the country’s parties are currently drifting apart with only their mistrust for national institutions and anger toward each other in common.
The Kentucky senator’s remarks echoed those of former Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, who claimed in a Washington Post op-ed that American politics is in a “partisan death spiral” driven by the two-party system. Amash’s critique came along with an announcement of his departure from the GOP.
Like McConnell, Amash has also critical of Trump’s claims of electoral interference, which he likened to a hoax.
