(Deroy Murdock, Headline USA) The pro-Trump mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol Wednesday afternoon was un-American, destructive, and lethal.
An astonishing five people are deceased today who would be alive, absent the rioters’ anti-democratic trespassing, breaking and entering, vandalism, and more. (Editor’s note: Word broke on Friday that Brian D. Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who died of his injuries Thursday night, had become the fifth reported casualty.)
These evils aside, these savages are just plain stupid. These Olympic-class boneheads make every rank-and-file bonehead resemble Albert Einstein. These thugs’ incursion against America’s legislature was an act of breathtaking political self-sabotage.
Wednesday’s mayhem was as needlessly, bafflingly self-defeating as a pack of teachers-union organizers kicking down the Capitol’s doors while a Democrat Senate approved the School Choice Annihilation Act of 2021.
Just when these hoodlums smashed into the Capitol, Congress was debating GOP objections to Arizona’s electors for Joe Biden.
Grand Canyon State Republican Representative Andy Biggs showed a stack of voter registrations that were approved after their statutory deadline.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, offered his constitutional arguments against Arizona’s electoral lawlessness.
Left in peace, Republican objectors would have presented affidavits, documents, and other evidence of irregularities and illegalities in up to six states.
Even if this didn’t change Nov. 3’s outcome, Americans at least would have learned some of the gravely serious reasons why 39% of Americans believe “the election was rigged,” according to Reuters/Ipsos.
This view is shared by 67 percent of Republicans, 31 percent of independents, and even 17 percent of Democrats.
But nooooo!
These barbarians disrupted the very process which they demanded and rendered this noble cause as radioactive as plutonium.
Rather than rally lawmakers for election integrity, these savages repelled them.
After rattled legislators reconvened, GOP Sens. Steve Daines of Montana and James Lankford of Oklahoma turned against scrutinizing multi-state vote-fraud allegations.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., freshly defeated by far-left Democrat Raphael Warnock in Tuesday’s runoff election, abandoned her challenge to her state’s highly tainted Electoral College votes, among others.
“I cannot now, in good conscience, object to the certification of these electors,” she told colleagues.
“The violence, the lawlessness, and siege of the halls of Congress are abhorrent and stand as a direct attack on the very institution that my objection was intended to protect,” she continued.
Nice work, pro-Trump goons.
Here’s some free advice from a veteran commentator and activist: When politicians are busy doing exactly what you begged them to do, don’t send them fleeing for their lives in gas masks.
These deadly marauders have imperiled the fight for election integrity, humiliated millions of peaceful Trump supporters, and scarred the president’s scores of path-breaking accomplishments.
Most urgently, these bums have made it tougher for Republicans to oppose H.R. 1.
The 117th Congress’ first bill, mirrors the first in the 116th. The For the People Act should be called the Vote Fraud Decriminalization Act.
H.R. 1 would codify numerous dodgy-ballot-fueling measures that COVID-19 “required” last year.
While the new H.R. 1 awaits full text, it likely would mirror its previous namesake.
Among other things, 2019’s bill would have:
- broadened no-excuse absentee and mail-in ballots
- tampered with absentee-ballot submission deadlines
- abolished voter ID laws
- mandated that states allow 16-year-olds to register to vote
- ordered instant registration at the polls
- launched on-line registration
- complicated states’ efforts to update voter rolls
- required 15 days of early voting
If Republicans oppose this gambit to make voting less secure, Democrats now can respond: “This is just another conspiracy theory from the allies of those who attacked our Capitol.”
Grossly unfair? Yes.
Will Democrats say this? Is milk white?
But frustrating a potential fight against H.R.1—as Democrats control the Senate, House, and White House—is the least of the pro-Trump hooligans’ crimes.
These bastards broke the law and must pay for their offenses, especially those who were photographed dangling from a balcony over the Senate floor, sitting in the chair on the Senate dais, and grinning behind Nancy Pelosi’s desk.
The next thing they and their fellow insurrectionists should hear is: “You have the right to remain silent.”
Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News Contributor, a contributing editor with National Review Online, and a senior fellow with the London Center for Policy Research. Bucknell University’s Michael Malarkey contributed research to this opinion piece.
