If Louie Gohmert is right, we might have had Presidents Al Gore and Hillary Clinton [View all]

[dalton99a]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/29/opinions/louie-gohmert-meritless-lawsuit-honig/index.html

If Louie Gohmert is right, we might have had Presidents Al Gore and Hillary Clinton
Opinion by Elie Honig
Updated 11:12 AM ET, Tue December 29, 2020

(CNN) Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert's federal lawsuit seeking to empower Vice President Mike Pence in his "discretion" to unilaterally reject certain Electoral College votes -- specifically and conveniently, the ones that went for President-elect Joe Biden from key swing states -- is dead on arrival and accomplishes nothing beyond giving false hope to the last and most reality-resistant of the election deniers.

Here's the easiest way to understand why Gohmert's lawsuit is so ridiculous. If Gohmert was right -- if the vice president could, at his own whim, simply discard certain electoral votes while accepting others, then on January 6, 2017, Vice President Joe Biden could have decided to install President Hillary Clinton, rather than Donald Trump. And on January 6, 2001, Vice President Al Gore could have named himself the winner of the 2000 election. Vice President Dan Quayle could have declared from the lectern to Congress on January 6, 1993, that President George H.W. Bush had actually defeated challenger Bill Clinton in the 1992 election. Vice President Walter Mondale could have done the same for Jimmy Carter in January 1981. You can see the absurdity here.

Gohmert's lawsuit simply ignores -- defies, really -- the Constitution and federal law. The vice president's role in counting electoral votes (in his constitutional capacity as the presiding officer of the Senate) is entirely ceremonial, limited by law to "open[ing]" and "reading" the results of the states' electoral ballots.

The law does permit Congress -- not the vice president -- to raise "objections" to the electoral count. And while some in Congress might exploit this procedure next week to put on a show, ultimately it won't change a thing about Biden's win in the 2020 presidential election.