Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Falls Short in Last-ditch Effort to Stop Trump's Election

WASHINGTON — Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee made a last-ditch effort Friday to prevent the election of President-elect Donald Trump, but the Electoral College results were formally certified, and Trump will be inaugurated Jan. 20.Jackson Lee, D-Houston, coordinated a group of several House members, who lodged a series of protests against the certification of individual states' Electoral College results. But they needed at least one Senate supporter for the request to be viable. Without that, Vice President Joe Biden quickly overruled each objection.The objections were centered around complaints about the voting and elector ratification process in several states. The small coalition of House Democrats argued that "voter suppression" played a role in the results because of voter ID laws and reduced voting locations. They also contend that some electors were not qualified to serve.“The highest act of public service and the highest act of civic participation is to vote for a president of the United States of America,” Jackson Lee said after the certification, explaining the decision to protest the results. “If, in that voting, you have glaring matters that speak to the failure of the electoral system, then it should be challenged. And we had several.”At one point early in the certification process, Biden repeatedly slammed his gavel as freshman Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., continued to try to explain her reasons for protesting the result, eventually declaring: “It is over.” The Republicans in the chamber, who spent much of the rest of the time rolling their eyes at the protest, leaped up in a standing ovation.Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., rose to ask one final time if a single senator would join in the objections. None answered the call.Jackson Lee said her office led the research on the issues, and then she helped to distribute the information to other members who were interested in participating. She directed questions about why no senators signed on to the senators, but she said several were intrigued by the protest.“As we always know, the Senate is the deliberative body, and so the House researches quickly and the Senate wanted to deliberate more,” she said. “I can only respect that because I look forward to working with them on curing some of the ailments that are going to continue in 2017 that will not go away.”Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the deputy GOP leader in the Senate, called the protest "kind of embarrassing," arguing that the reason no senators signed on was because they did not take it seriously.After the process was completed, Biden headed straight to the group of House Democrats to hug and make up with them after shutting down their revolt. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., took a photo of Jackson Lee arm-in-arm with Biden and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on the House floor with Jackson Lee’s cell phone.  Continue reading...