On January 6th, Congress will meet to count and certify the electoral votes that were sent to DC last week by each state’s electoral college. What’s going to happen on January 6th? Maybe congress will agree to confirm Biden. That’s unlikely, however, as 126 members of Congress have already dissented in their Texas lawsuit.
As Donald Trump, Sidney Powell, and Michael Flynn met Friday for a meeting regarding how to handle the election process, mainstream media was a wreck.
Reports are flying out of DC that Trump will either declare martial law or that congressman will refuse to certify election results, either of which could prove for a bumpy ride on January 6th.
Donald Trump himself tweeted that he expects his voters to show up in DC on the sixth, and that it could get “wild.” Trump and Melania also posed for a picture underneath a Truman portrait. Truman notoriously won the 1948 Presidential election after the media erroneously declared Dewey the winner. The picture probably isn’t a coincidence.
On Monday, Madison Cawthorn, Congressman elect from North Carolina, who made a splash at this year’s Republican National Convention, announced that he would contest the election results.
There’s little talk of what will happen if congresspeople refuse to certify the electoral college results. It will be a bumpy ride, and a lot depends on the Georgia runoffs.
Assuming that Republicans stand their ground in the runoffs, everyday after January 6th could be mayhem for a long time. The process could look like this:
Some or all of the 126 members of congress who signed onto the refuse to certify the election, including Cawthorn. Trump invokes the Electoral Count Act, leaving congresspeople to challenge every single electoral vote and every state where Biden won, a process that could take weeks.
Under the Electoral Count Act, Mike Pence serves as presiding officer and can be expected to delay until January 18th. At that point, under ECA, the Senate picks the Vice President, and the House chooses the President. Pence is chosen as VP, but the House, while a Democrat majority, has a Republican majority via delegations. The state delegations elect the President, but the House as a whole, controlled by Democrats, would stall the vote.
Come January 20th, there could be no President at all. If that happens, the US Supreme Court could hear the case or refuse to hear it, more likely. If Democrats walk out and prevent a vote by lack of quorum, then Pence couldn’t be elected Vice President. In that case, depending on how far Trump and his team want to push the envelope, the Sergeant at Arms can be called to arrest senators and compel them to come back to the floor for a quorum.
Most likely, this is the process that will be employed by Trump’s team. All of the chatter about martial law really makes little sense unless it’s utilized in the hours and weeks after January 6th, when we expect things to “get wild.”
If Trump were to invoke martial law, again, that wouldn’t happen until after January 6th, and it would be in response to the chaos and riots that ensue after the process described above is employed. Doing so would certainly yield riots from both sides, with plenty of violence to follow. That’s where martial law comes in; if used at all, it would be to prevent further violence.
While Trump would never admit if martial law were discussed (it was discussed in Tuesday and Friday meetings according to Flynn as well as a US permanent delegate close to the situation), and it may not occur, martial law isn’t something to throw around casually.
Martial law would lead to lockdowns the likes of which Americans have never seen; today’s lockdowns would look like a walk in the park. During true martial law, people can’t leave their homes, civil rights are totally suspended, and any violations could land Americans in a war tribunal. It’s not fun; it’s not as if they get to wave their Trump flags and roast hot dogs in their backyards.
Whether or not martial law is ever declared, Trump himself, as well as those close to him and those in congress, have announced that January 6th is not going to be a smooth process. In fact, Biden’s transition team this week that all communication and cooperation from Trump’s team has ceased. The Biden transition is at a stand-still.
Reports and posts across social media show that conservatives will show up in Washington, DC in droves on the sixth. Conservatives, some with an ax to grind, are on the way. Meanwhile, liberals, some with an ax to grind, are also on the way. How many? It’s impossible to say.
Antifa and BLM are angry with the Biden team in addition to the Trump team; they’ve been totally ignored. Their presence will be angry no matter what, and now Trump has called conservatives to DC. When Trump once told the Proud Boys to “” now calling on the National to be present in DC on January 6th, readers can expect Proud Boys and associated right wing groups to be in attendance, too.
That disastrous mix of people has two weeks, from January 6th, until January 20th, if the above legal scenario is employed, to “protest” in the streets. If things “got wild,” it could get pretty ugly in DC. Protestors should be wary of bringing children or the elderly to this event.
As the saying goes, it just takes a spark to light a fire, and there are going to be millions of matches that day. Trump’s already set the stage for a blaze.
