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Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert has suggested that “street violence” may be the only option left to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president, after a federal judge dismissed his lawsuit to force deputy. President Mike Pence to cancel the election.
Trump-appointed Judge Jeremy Kernodle of Gohmert’s hometown of Tyler dismissed the lawsuit Friday night, ruling that he and other plaintiffs – including the Arizona GOP chairperson and the list of defeated Republican voters from this state – lacked status.
On Friday night on Newsmax, Gohmert said he had sought redress in court “so you don’t have to have riots and violence” on the streets.
“At the end of the day, the court says, ‘We’re not going to touch this, you have no cure,'” Gohmert said. “Basically, in fact, the decision would be that you have to take to the streets and be as violent as the antifa and the BLM.”
This is not the first time that Gohmert – a former trial court judge who just won his ninth term in Congress – has expressed admiration for the use of violence to overthrow an election.
During a “Million MAGA March” in November near the White House, he urged Trump supporters to consider a “revolution” like the Egyptian uprising seven years ago and the American colonial revolt against England.
“They rose up all over Egypt, and as a result of the rise of more people in history, never anywhere, they transformed the country…. If they can do it there, think about what we can do here, ”he told thousands of enthusiastic supporters.
Congress meets Wednesday to certify the results of the electoral college. Biden beat President Trump by a decisive margin of 306-232 and also passed him by 7 million votes nationwide.
By law, the vice-president chairs this joint meeting, but in a completely ceremonial capacity.
Gohmert and his fellow plaintiffs wanted the court to let Pence reject Biden’s victories in a handful of states, overturning tens of millions of ballots and replacing the will of the electorate with their own desire to give Trump a second mandate.
Kernodle ruled that Gohmert’s trial rested on a series of hypothetical allegations “far too uncertain to warrant standing.”
“The claimants presume what the vice president will do on January 6, what electoral votes the vice president will count or reject in contested states, whether a representative and a senator will oppose under section 15 of the the electoral tally, how each member of the House and the Senate will vote on such objections, and how each state delegation to the House would potentially vote under the Twelfth Amendment in the absence of a majority vote, “wrote the judge in the 13-page decision.
The judge also concluded that as a lone congressman Gohmert cannot sue on the basis of alleged harm to the House as a whole, even if he could prove such harm.
Gohmert has promised to appeal to the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
The lawsuit challenges the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which defines the role of the vice president in announcing the results as purely ceremonial. Members of the House and Senate can oppose voters’ lists in any state, forcing debate, but the vice-president has no say in the matter; it only announces the results.
Gohmert insisted in court that the law violates the 12th Amendment, which provides for separate electoral college votes for the president and vice-president.
Legal scholars have categorically rejected his argument that vice presidents have real authority in the process, calling it far-fetched and noting that generations of vice presidents have failed to notice such power of choice from the commander-in-chief.
Pence himself sided with Gohmert in court, asking Kernodle to dismiss the lawsuit. A 14-page filing by the Justice Department argued that the trial should target Congress, not Pence: “This is the role prescribed for the Senate and House of Representatives in the Electoral Tally Act to which the Complainants oppose, not actions which Vice President Pence has taken.
Four members of the Texas House have pledged to oppose the electoral college count on Wednesday, citing unproven fraud allegations: Gohmert and Reps Brian Babin of Woodville, Lance Gooden of Terrell and Ronny Jackson of Lubbock.
Members of the GOP House say 140 or more of their colleagues will oppose, although with Democrats firmly in the majority, they have no chance of reversing Trump’s defeat.
Congress will have to debate and vote on the results if at least one senator also objects. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley plans to do so. Alabama-elect Tommy Tuberville, who will be sworn in on Sunday, could also challenge Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Even in the Senate, such objections are doomed with McConnell and the rest of the GOP leadership opposing the move.
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