Lamborn joined Lauren Boebert in protesting the Electoral College results Jan. 6. Image courtesy Doug Lamborn.
After Wednesday’s jaw-dropping scene at the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Doug Lamborn returned to work into the early hours of Thursday to formally object to the 2020 presidential election results.
Newly elected Third District Rep. Lauren Boebert joined Lamborn, who serves the Fifth District that includes Chaffee County, as the two Coloradans who said no to Joe Biden’s win. All told, 147 Republicans objected to the Electoral College certification – eight senators and 139 House members.
In what is typically a matter of procedure and ceremony, Wednesday’s joint session and the scene surrounding the Capitol went off the rails for several hours as pro-Trump rioters stormed the building and forced lawmakers to take cover.
Newly-elected Congressional representative Lauren Boebert (R and Qanon believer) poses with CO militia members. Courtesy Colorado Times Recorder.
By the end of Wednesday night, well into Thursday morning, many GOP members had backed off their challenge to the electoral college numbers, which eventually passed at 306-232 in Biden’s favor.
Fourth District Rep. Ken Buck, typically one of the most conservative members of Congress, stood aside from his Colorado Republican cohorts.
In a Jan. 5 opinion piece in The Washington Post, he wrote: “The Republican members who plan to reject certain electors read into the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act a provision that simply does not exist. The 12th Amendment is simple and clear: It calls on Congress to perform the ceremonial role of counting electors. There is no allowance for rejecting electors — no matter how much we may disagree with the result or wish the election process had been better.”
Buck’s rhetoric heated up substantially on Wednesday. “This is not a protest,” he tweeted. “This is anarchy.”
However, on Thursday morning on Colorado Public Radio’s Colorado Matters, Buck used lighter words in describing the rioters as “a group of knuckleheads who got fired up at a peaceful protest… But it is not a coup.”
He said Trump didn’t specifically order the chaos at the Capitol, although he said Trump shared the blame with many factions, including “people on public radio.”
While Lamborn and Boebert did not change their votes, they joined the Twitter storm from politicians who overwhelmingly condemned the scene at the Capitol.
“I support peaceful protests and the rule of law,” Boebert said, “and denounce all acts of violence.”
“The mob will not control our government,” Lamborn said. “Today is supposed to be a day of constitutional debate, not violence. This is not who we are as Americans.”
Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper joined in with similar comments denouncing the attack, while Rep. Diana DeGette, representing the First District, dug in a bit deeper.
“Make no mistake,” she tweeted. “This was not a protest, it was an attempted coup… I never thought I’d see such anarchy spurred by our own president.”
Key Republicans broke from Trump on Wednesday, with senators from both sides of the aisle delivering swift condemnations of the day’s events, or at the least, exasperation.
“Count me out,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. “Enough is enough. I tried to be helpful.”
Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also played an unfamiliar hand. “If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral,” he said earlier in the day.
Prior to Wednesday, Lamborn had announced his intent to object to the Electoral College certification, continuing to claim there were “serious irregularities and improprieties marring the 2020 general election.
“My constituents deserve to know that the 2020 election was free of fraud, which is why on January 6th, I will object to certifying the Electoral College votes of Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Michigan,” he said in a release.
These people are awful.
I remember Lamborn from what seems to be his one and only appearance in BV during the last 4 years. I was not impressed then, and I’m not impressed now. It doesn’t surprise me at all that he continues to be a Trump bootlicker until the very end, but at least he’s consistent.
That picture of Boebert posing with two members of “Meal Team Six” is pretty funny. Be careful out there, heroes – you wouldn’t want to drop dead of a coronary on the Capitol steps like a couple of your pals in DC did yesterday.