Congressional Record/Volume 167/Issue 4/Senate/Counting of Electoral Ballots/Arizona Objection Debate/Carper Speech
Mr. Carper. Mr. President, “free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious, but calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”
Those aren’t my words. Those are the words of a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, rejecting President Trump’s legal challenges to the Pennsylvania election—a judge who, I might add, was a longtime member of the conservative Federalist Society and was nominated to the bench by President Trump.
Mr. President, the 2020 presidential election was hard-fought, but the American people spoke clearly and decisively: 81.2 million votes for Joe Biden, 74.2 million votes for Donald Trump, 51.3 percent of the vote for Joe Biden, 46.8 percent of the vote for Donald Trump, 306 electoral college votes for Joe Biden, 232 electoral college votes for Donald Trump.
Accepting the outcome of an election can be difficult when our political party doesn’t win, but calling an election unfair does not make it so.
More than 60 Federal and State courts, involving more than 90 judges, many of whom were nominated by Republican Presidents, including President Trump, are all in agreement. No evidence of widespread fraud, wrongdoing, or other irregularities have been uncovered during the 2020 election.
Unfortunately, some of our colleagues today ask us to do the same thing Donald Trump asked of the secretary of state of Georgia: to overturn the results of the 2020 election without specific allegations and without proof. Our colleagues are asking us not to abide by the will of the people but to bend to the will of one man, Donald Trump.
In 1787, delegates from 13 States convened in Philadelphia to debate the future of our country. Our Founders disagreed on many things, but they did agree that they didn’t want a King, and they set up an intricate system of checks and balances to ensure that we would never have an all-powerful King. That system of checks and balances is being pushed to a dangerous limit here today, but it will prevail.
Here are just some of the claims Donald Trump and his legal team have made and that our colleagues lend credence to today: that Venezuela, Cuba, and China rigged our country’s voting machines in favor of Joe Biden; that dead people voted in this election and they only voted for Joe Biden; and that poll watchers and election observers—who risked their lives during this pandemic to uphold the integrity of our elections—stuffed ballot boxes with Biden votes and shredded Trump votes. Not one—let me repeat—not one of these things is true. There is no evidence to back up these ridiculous claims.
Many of these absurd claims from Donald Trump and his legal team are nothing more than conspiracy theories circulating online. This misinformation and dangerous rhetoric from the President and his allies, including calls for violence, have polluted our discourse and imperiled our peaceful transition of power. And when our colleagues show indifference or outright support for these unsubstantiated claims and conspiracy theories, they lead our nation and our Constitution down a dangerous path. We all swore an oath to support and defend our Constitution—not our political party, and certainly not any individual candidate.
Colleagues, for the safety of our citizens and our Republic, we must lead by example and turn the temperature down. It was a hard-fought campaign, but the campaign is over, the votes have been counted, the count has been certified in all 50 States, and in 2 weeks, on January 20th, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn-in as President and Vice-President of the United States.
We have serious and urgent challenges that will require working with our new President and Vice President and with one another, including making sure hundreds of millions of Americans can be vaccinated, getting our kids back to school, and getting their parents back to work, just to name a few.
It is time to stop trying to overturn the will of the people and get back to working on their behalf.
President Lincoln observed at the end of the Gettysburg Address that ours is a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Even in the midst of a Civil War, President Lincoln put his unwavering faith in “the people” to chart our Nation’s course. We would be wise to remember Lincoln’s words in this moment. We are not a government of Trump, by Trump, and for Trump. We are a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. And the people have spoken. Our only job today is to listen to them.