Joe Scarborough Praises Mitch McConnell for Ignoring Trump Blowback in Supporting ‘Critically Important’ Electoral Bill

 

Morning Joe gave Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell credit for endorsing a new bill designed to prevent a repeat of the election subversion of January 6th.

McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) both announced support for the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, an amendment to the Electoral Count Act of 1887, to firmly establish that the vice president has only a ceremonial role in Congress’ certification of electoral votes. The bill also makes it more difficult for members of Congress to raise objections to a state’s electors, and it coincides with a similar bill that passed in the House a week ago.

McConnell’s support for the bill lies within the context that Donald Trump ordered Vice President Mike Pence to reject the 2020 election results in January 2021, and the former president’s supporters violently attacked the U.S. Capitol after Pence refused to do it. As Morning Joe focused on this, Mika Brzezinski noted that McConnell’s support “gives the legislation a major boost, but will put the Republican leader at odds with Trump.”

“I really don’t think he cares,” Joe Scarborough said, to which Brzezinski agreed, “of course not.”

Scarborough called the bill a “critically important piece of legislation to pass” to clarify the election certification process.

Also I like the fact even in less — let’s just say less serious times — it stops members of either party for political purposes questioning the outcome of the election, and it seems every few elections, you’ll have a couple of Democrats or a couple of Republicans who want to make a point to their fervent base who question the outcome of the elections…It has been an irritant for quite some time, and by raising the threshold for these questions to be raised and debated, I think it makes the entire process cleaner, better, more serious.

Jonathan Lemire noted that Trump’s allies in Congress won’t go along with this, but the bill has bipartisan support, and “people I talked to say McConnell doesn’t care at all what Trump thinks.”

Watch above via MSNBC.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!

Tags: