Cathy McMorris Rodgers joins plot to nullify Biden-Harris victory; Dan Newhouse declines

Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers revealed yes­ter­day that she is align­ing her­self with the fac­tion of the Repub­li­can Par­ty that is seek­ing to throw out the results of the 2020 Unit­ed States pres­i­den­tial elec­tion and uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly, ille­gal­ly keep Don­ald Trump in pow­er through the inverse of a coup d’état.

The Spokane-based Repub­li­can, who rep­re­sents the 5th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict (East­ern Wash­ing­ton) will be joined by mil­i­tant right wing U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Russ Fulcher of Ida­ho in the doomed effort to keep Trump’s pres­i­den­cy going.

The Spokesman-Review notes:

The Inland North­west law­mak­ers rep­re­sent one side of a dra­mat­ic rift in the GOP as rough­ly half of con­gres­sion­al Repub­li­cans ques­tion the legit­i­ma­cy of November’s vote, ampli­fy­ing Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s base­less claim that the elec­tion was rigged.

The Trump cam­paign has repeat­ed­ly failed to prove its alle­ga­tions of wide­spread vot­er fraud, with Trump-appoint­ed judges, Repub­li­can elec­tion offi­cials and for­mer Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bill Barr all say­ing no such evi­dence exists.

McMor­ris Rodgers will have the dis­tinc­tion of being the only Repub­li­can from Wash­ing­ton State to par­tic­i­pate in the plot, as the state’s oth­er two Repub­li­cans have announced they will not be object­ing to the elec­tion results.

Oth­er Repub­li­cans, includ­ing Wash­ing­ton Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Dan New­house and Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, have said they will vote to cer­ti­fy the elec­tion results. New­house and Her­rera Beut­ler joined eleven oth­er GOP law­mak­ers Tues­day in a let­ter argu­ing that only states have the author­i­ty to appoint elec­tors, while cit­ing unspec­i­fied “abus­es” and say­ing, “Peo­ple can­not trust a sys­tem that refus­es to guar­an­tee that only legal votes are cast.”

“Dis­en­fran­chis­ing vot­ers to sat­is­fy the whims of Pres­i­dent Trump betrays the Con­sti­tu­tion. No evi­dence exists to jus­ti­fy an objec­tion to the elec­toral count. Pres­i­dent-elect Biden and Vice Pres­i­dent-elect Har­ris won. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers knows that. This mark of dis­hon­or will last through the ages,” said Wash­ing­ton State Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee in response.

Last month, McMor­ris Rodgers belat­ed­ly acknowl­edged that Joe Biden and Kamala Har­ris had won the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion in a not very gra­cious statement.

The state­ment read:

I want to thank Pres­i­dent Trump for four years of strong lead­er­ship for our coun­try. Even this week, we are see­ing the results of his vision with the approval and dis­tri­b­u­tion of a COVID-19 vac­cine far more quick­ly than experts said was pos­si­ble. I also want to con­grat­u­late for­mer U.S. Sen­a­tor and Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden on his elec­tion as Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States.

While we may dis­agree, par­tic­u­lar­ly on issues like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, my goal is to find com­mon ground when pos­si­ble to get results for peo­ple in East­ern Wash­ing­ton. I will also be com­mit­ted to hold­ing the Biden admin­is­tra­tion account­able to pro­tect life and free speech, fight for free­dom, and to ensure we renew, rebuild, and restore the Amer­i­can Dream. It takes each one of us doing our part to build a more per­fect union.

McMor­ris Rodgers appears to be one of those Repub­li­cans who is join­ing in the plot to over­turn the elec­tion not because she real­ly believes in the con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries espoused by so many of Trump’s rabid fol­low­ers, but because she has cal­cu­lat­ed that it’s just good pol­i­tics to be in the good graces of the Trump cult.

Along with New­house, McMor­ris Rodgers par­tic­i­pat­ed in Ken Pax­ton’s failed law­suit ask­ing the Unit­ed States Supreme Court to toss out the elec­toral votes of Penn­syl­va­nia, Wis­con­sin, Michi­gan, and Geor­gia. This ill-fat­ed move earned the duo strong rebukes from Wash­ing­ton State’s edi­to­r­i­al boards.

“Through their poor deci­sions, McMor­ris Rodgers and New­house helped attack the oth­er states for elec­tion prac­tices Wash­ing­ton has proud­ly pio­neered,” The Seat­tle Times wrote. “Even though this anti-demo­c­ra­t­ic attack failed, vot­ers should hold New­house and McMor­ris Rodgers account­able for tak­ing part.”

“Infamy will stick to two Wash­ing­ton state rep­re­sen­ta­tives for back­ing Trump law­suit,” The News Tri­bune of Taco­ma declared. “Worse than throw­ing red meat to con­spir­a­cy mon­gers, two Wash­ing­ton mem­bers of Con­gress attempt­ed to debil­i­tate our democ­ra­cy, a fact that’s been signed and sealed for posterity.”

“It is obvi­ous that both New­house and McMor­ris Rodgers still have work to do to restore cred­i­bil­i­ty to a sys­tem they bad­ly dam­aged,” con­curred the Tri-City Her­ald.

An Ore­gon native, McMor­ris Rodgers began her polit­i­cal career in the Wash­ing­ton State House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in 1994. She was cho­sen as the House Minor­i­ty Leader in 2001, and was Speak­er Frank Chop­p’s coun­ter­part until she left the Leg­is­la­ture to take over for George Nether­cutt, who vacat­ed his seat in 2004 to unsuc­cess­ful­ly chal­lenge Wash­ing­ton’s senior U.S. Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Murray.

McMor­ris Rodgers became House Repub­li­can Con­fer­ence Chair in 2013, one of the cau­cus’ most pow­er­ful posi­tions. She relin­quished the role in 2019, fol­low­ing House Repub­li­cans’ pum­mel­ing in the 2018 midterm elec­tions, and was suc­ceed­ed by Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Dick Cheney’s daughter.

Though McMor­ris Rodgers has always been able to win reelec­tion, she is a polar­iz­ing fig­ure in East­ern Wash­ing­ton. Her Demo­c­ra­t­ic con­stituents have an extreme­ly low opin­ion of her; many own signs or decals that read “Dump Cathy!”

A fun­da­men­tal­ist theo­con, McMor­ris Rodgers has an extreme­ly right wing vot­ing record and is, accord­ing to Pro­gres­sivePunch, the most right wing mem­ber of Wash­ing­ton State’s con­gres­sion­al del­e­ga­tion, with a com­pos­ite score of 4.03%. (Dan New­house has a score of 6.03%, which isn’t much bet­ter. For con­text, Prami­la Jaya­pal’s score is 99.18%. Jaya­pal rep­re­sents the 7th District.)

McMor­ris Rodgers’ most suc­cess­ful Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger to date has been for­mer State Sen­a­tor Major­i­ty Leader Lisa Brown, who held McMor­ris Rodgers to 55% of the vote in 2018. McMor­ris Rodgers had pre­vi­ous­ly won sev­er­al cam­paigns by mar­gins of greater than twen­ty points. Brown now runs the Depart­ment of Com­merce as one of Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee’s agency directors.