Today’s crop of Democratic politicians are some of the most hypocritical folks in creation.
They threw huge hissy fits about President-elect Donald Trump and folks on the right questioning the 2020 election, but then of course, they also threw all kinds of fits about the 2016 election, even blaming the Russians. They tried to hatch schemes to suborn electors so that the electoral vote wouldn’t go to Trump. Some Democrats objected to the count on Jan. 6, 2017; Seventy Democrats ended up boycotting the inaugural, and leftists rioted through the D.C. streets on Jan. 20, 2017.
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But then came the 2020 election–and questioning elections was “election denialism.”
Now they’re at it again, according to a new report from Axios, with more than a dozen Democratic politicians planning on skipping the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, and more are debating over whether to attend.
Why it matters:Not every Democrat skipping the ceremony will do so to protest Trump — but a formal boycott is materializing as a first act of resistance against the incoming president.
- For many Democrats, the scars of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol remain fresh in the mind, marking Trump as a threat to democracy.
- “For somebody who he said he’s going to lock me up, I don’t see the excitement in going to see his inauguration,” former Jan. 6 committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told Axios.
Democrats are still pushing the “scars” of Jan. 6 and Trump being a “threat to democracy.” No, guys, the threat to democracy is from the folks who swap out the candidate the people voted for in the primary for the presidential spot because they think it increases their chances in the election. Then karma is them losing anyway, despite all the machinations. The threat to democracy is infecting our institutions with politics, and using lawfare against your political opponent.
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There are some Democrats not going for other reasons, such as Martin Luther King Jr. Day or they generally don’t go to inaugurations. But apart from Thompson, Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) said that as a “Latina,” she didn’t feel going, with Trump’s supporters being there for the ceremony. Sigh. Can we talk about delusional? Has she seen how well Trump did with Latinos? At what point do they stop with this nonsense?
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said she would be attending MLK Jr. Day events instead because “why risk any chaos that might be up here?” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said that “civil rights organizations were trying to set up alternatives” and that the inauguration “seems like the worst place to spend Martin Luther King Day [sic].”
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) said they will not be attending because of Jan. 6.
It didn’t sound particularly substantial–13 not attending, as I said, not all in response to Trump, 20 thinking about it, and 44 attending. It sounds like a typical Democratic effort — long on fit-tossing, short on substance.
Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s son, had a great response to this effort.
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He said:
Apparently a large group of Democrat legislators plan to boycott my father’s inauguration, which is great as it will make room for a lot more actual patriots to attend. They have my complete and total endorsement to stay at home.