Violent threats lead to extra security as states prepare to seal Biden win
The Michigan Statehouse was forced to close, while Arizona increased security at its state capitol building on the day the Electoral College will affirm Biden’s victory.
Multiple states have had to take extra security precautions on Monday, as the Electoral College is set to meet and officially cement President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election.
Michigan’s Statehouse office buildings will be closed.
“All House offices have been closed tomorow [sic] because credible threats have been made as Michigan’s electors to the Electoral College will meet at the Capitol,” Michigan State Rep. Kevin Hertel (D) tweeted Sunday night.
Meanwhile, Arizona’s state Capitol is increasing security, according to a report from the Arizona Republic.
The increased security measures come as Donald Trump and the Republican Party have been lying about the results of the election, baselessly claiming fraud as they try to overturn Trump’s landslide loss to Biden in an anti-democratic coup attempt.
Trump’s lies have riled up his most fervent base, which has held protests across the country where armed supporters show up to try to coerce state officials to acquiesce to their demands.
In Michigan, armed protesters stood outside the home of the secretary of state to demand she overturn the results. And the Arizona Republican Party has used violent rhetoric to demand that its supporters join the movement to steal the election.
Trump has not condemned this behavior, but rather has continued to fan the flames as he tweets lie after lie about how he didn’t actually lose as he and his allies have failed at ever level to overturn the results.
Dozens of courts — including the Supreme Court — threw out lawsuits seeking to nullify absentee ballots to steal the election.
And GOP-controlled legislatures have also rejected Trump’s demands to ignore the voters in their states and simply install Electoral College electors for Trump.
Monday will be the final blow, when the Electoral College casts its ballots, giving Biden 306 votes to Trump’s 232. It’s a mirror opposite to the 2016 results, when Trump lost the popular vote by millions of ballots, but secured 306 Electoral College votes.
Still, Trump is still refusing to concede, and Republican lawmakers are not pushing him to give up.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise — one of 126 GOP lawmakers who signed a brief urging the Supreme Court to take up a now-failed lawsuit from Texas’ attorney general — still would not say Biden is the president-elect, even after the Supreme Court rejected Texas’ suit.
“Let the legal process play out,” Scalise said Sunday on Fox News — after the Supreme Court had already announced it would not hear Texas’ lawsuit, which sought to throw out the results in four states Biden won.
Trump is now hoping that he can get Congress to refuse to accept the Electoral College’s vote when the new Congress meets on Jan. 6. However, Politico reported that the effort is also going to fail.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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