Former Republican and current MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace spitballed about the prospect of Barack Obama enlisting Republicans Chris Christie and Ben Ginsberg to lead a “democracy commission” – or perhaps just a “democracy hotline” to address the rise of anti-democratic Republican candidates.
Former President Donald Trump’s half-baked efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his refusal to accept defeat have placed many Republican candidates in the position of either acknowledging the reality he truly lost the election and risking losing the support of the de facto GOP leader, or go along with his delusion in the hopes of receiving his endorsement.
Many candidates have chosen the latter. That includes the Republican gubernatorial nominees this year in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. All four states went for Joe Biden and collectively pushed him over the top in the electoral count.
Additionally, a fringe theory called the independent state legislature doctrine has gained steam among some conservatives. It stipulates that a state legislature has total control over elections within the state, and that its actions cannot be overridden by executive or judicial action. Under this theory, a state legislature does not have to abide by the results of the state’s popular vote count in a presidential election. Rather, it can recognize any candidate’s slate of electors as it sees fit.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on the matter in Moore v. Harper this term.
Wallace addressed the election denialism among some prominent Republican candidates.
“They’re not all running to win,” she said. “They are running to sow discord in America. And it will change everything. We will wake up the morning after election day–we might not even call it that anymore in two years. We might not call it election day. We might call it election week, because what we are watching – and because it’s so slow, it’s so slow –we don’t cover it as a five-alarm fire, but it is.”
Wallace suggested that one potential remedy would be for Obama to tap Christie and Ginsberg.
“Do you think it requires, you know, a democracy commission?” she asked former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO). “Should President Obama ask Chris Christie and Ben Ginsberg to sort of man a democracy hotline the way people used to man other crises? I mean, what should we do?”
“Well, it doesn’t take a commission,” McCaskill replied “It just takes Republicans that have some character and integrity standing up to these people who have decided that cheating is ok if it lets you win. And what they’re doing is cheating. They are actually committing a fraud on the American people.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
For more latest Politics News Click Here