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Sen. Shaheen Calls Out Colleagues Questioning Biden’s Victory As Possible Traitors

My column in the Hill addresses how Democrats are increasingly adopting the rhetoric and tactics of Donald Trump. There is a sense of immunity — or Trumpunity — being exercised by former critics in using language once denounced in Trump. An example is  Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. The Senator went on CNN where Trump was regularly (and correctly) chastised for calling opponents “traitors” and “enemies of the people.” Now however Shaheen is declaring that any members of Congress who continue to question the victory of Joe Biden “are bordering on sedition and treason.”

It is an increasingly heard charge from political and media figures who are insisting that questioning the election results constitutes an attack on democracy. Of course, it was not an attack on Democracy for Hillary Clinton to insist that Biden challenge any Trump victory. It was not treason when Democrats sought to block the elector votes of Ohio in 2004.  They were defending democracy.  However, when a challenge was filed before the United States Supreme Court, Pennsylvania Attorney General Jeff Rosen declared the very petition to be a “seditious act.”

As I have said before, filing in courts and raising objections in Congress is operating within the court and constitutional systems. Sedition is trying to overthrow such legal systems. Filing court challenges is the antithesis of sedition; it is relying on the rule of law.

Yet, Shaheen declared on CNN “These senators and members of Congress who have refused to acknowledge that we had a free and fair election in which Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by over 7 million votes, are bordering on sedition and treason.”

Shaneen and her colleagues denounced Trump for calling people traitors and sought to protect officials who denounced his use of the label “enemies of the people” against reporters. Just two years ago, Trump was called a Stalin for using such labels by Democrats.

Polls show that over 70 percent of Republicans and many independents and Democrats believe that this election was flawed or even rigged. Are they all traitors?

We have a constitutional system that allows for such concerns to be raised in the courts and in Congress. That is part of our rule of law. It is designed to allow people to work within the system. It is the very thing that combats sedition. While we often disagree with courts or Congress, we yield to the ultimate decisions as the result of a system that we all support.

Questioning an election is not treason, but seeking to punish those who question an election can be tyranny. This is the exercise of free speech and the use of the constitutional process. For a member of Congress to denounce colleagues as traitors for raising objections is the worst form of demagoguery. This is different from unhinged commentators calling questioning the election as akin to “Holocaust denial.” This is a member of Congress calling out colleagues who are voicing widespread views of the election. Weeks ago, I stated that that viewed Biden as the President-elect. However, my accepting the results does not mean that others are traitors who still question them.

Indeed, I have repeatedly stated that I believe Biden failed in his first test as the president-elect by not telling his campaign to stand down in seeking to prevent judicial review of election results. Over 70 million people voted for Trump and the most unifying act for Biden would have been to welcome such review to assure voters that the results were true and correct.  Instead, within 24 hours of the election being called, the media and an array of legal analysts declared no evidence of voter fraud to change the outcome. Biden supporters and groups like the Lincoln Project then unleashed a campaign to harass lawyers and their clients to force them to drop challenges.  The result was precisely as I feared and expressed after the election. It only fueled the suspicion of millions that the Democrats stole the election and were trying to intimidate anyone who tried to look at the actual evidence.  This effort has included not only efforts to disbar Trump attorneys but calls for members not to be seated in the House if they continued to question Biden’s victory. It did not have to be this way. Biden could have helped unify the country by encouraging a full review of all balloting and tabulations, including the requested discovery of the Trump campaign.

Instead, Democrats have threatened lawyers, sought to bar colleagues from Congress, and denounced filing in court as an act of sedition. It almost “borders on tyranny” but obviously that is not possible. After all, they are not Trump.

194 thoughts on “Sen. Shaheen Calls Out Colleagues Questioning Biden’s Victory As Possible Traitors”

  1. Gee, I almost remember the good ole days when Turley would …BUT…BUT…BUT…Hillary, recently it’s BUT…BUT…BUT…Hunter. Now it’s any little thing out there. And the results will be the same, nothing will come out of it. Anything Turley can divert, distract, from the observable reality of Trump’s incompetency is good enough for the alternative universe of Trump supporters.

    1. The preponderance of circumstantial evidence supporting election fraud can be ignored but that won’t make it go away. It is so much easier to enjoy the forest without looking objectively at the rot in the trees.

  2. Republicans are decades behind the Democrats on how to create a power structure that can withstand legal challenges. They’re still trying to function within the legal framework. Treason and Sedition don’t mean the same thing to Republicans and Democrats. Republicans believe it’s about the state, before party. Democrats believe it’s about the party, first. So Sheehan is speaking her party’s truth: Republicans and their conservative base are enemies of the state of the Democratic party.

    This article describes the Republicans old-timey, constitutional definition of treason and domestic enemies. That doesn’t work however in this form of a Democratic republic.
    https://m.theepochtimes.com/russia-collusion-wasnt-about-donald-trump-it-was-designed-to-protect-hillary-clinton_3621529.html

    1. Yet somehow the party that puts state first is actively trying to install an unelected president and throw out tens of millions of legal votes.

  3. A rare miss for Turley in that when Trump calls them enemies of the People…it’s because they are.

  4. Turley’s Column Today Is A What About

    The Professor forgets that Donald Trump continued promoting Birther Conspiracies long after they had been totally debunked.

    And now the courts have totally debunked Trump’s election claims. Which Turley should thoroughly grasp as a law professor. But instead Turley deploys cynical What Abouts as a form of analysis.

    Are What Abouts acceptable arguments from a ‘Constitutional Scholar’?

  5. I am going to guess that the reason the 1st amendment does not protect a person from yelling FIRE! in a crowded theater is because of the potential for panic, stampede and resultant injury or death.

    So how is this different from a president yelling FRAUD! during an election and people threatening others because of that call to action? We have the texas case where a repairman was thrown to the ground at gunpoint because of a call to action by the trump acolytes. We have people showing up at numerous elected officials houses with guns and other noisemakers threatening verbally.

    I fail to see the difference between the two. Our president has been yelling FRAUD for a year. None of significance has been found. Followers of this imbecile have made threats and in some cases hurt people.

    Yes, if you yell FRAUD during an election with zero evidence, that is a seditious act where the sole purpose is to overturn a legitimate election.

        1. If you say so it must be true despite what has been demonstrated. I guess everything else that has been presented and documented is a lie or at least you think so.

          I don’t even know why you commented with such a lame answer.

  6. As a citizen of NH I can attest that Shaheen is both from the most politically powerful family here, and a fruitcake. She’s just a typical horrid politician, an empty head on a tired old body.

    1. Smith doesn’t live in New Hampshire. He’s just our regular troll. He’s the same commentor as Publious below.

    1. The sheer audacity, the gall, to stand on be recognized as a habitual liar, by the sentient, reasoning rational people, and for the media to to publish and propagate these lies over and over thiking the peopel will be forced to believe them, still thinking people will believe them be the weight and insistence, boggles the mind. The Democrats need go to an Insane Asylum!

  9. “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”

    It’s like these morons don’t even know what’s in the Constitution. Morons elected by morons – the blind leading the blind.

  10. Is Turley really surprised that over 70% of Republicans believe Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was rigged? Polls also show 47% of Republicans believed Trump’s claim that he won the 2016 popular vote. 42% of Republicans believed Trump’s claim that Obama wasn’t born in the US.

    JT’s reaction to polls showing so many Republicans believe Trump’s false claims? He condemns Biden for not publicly endorsing Trump & his attorneys’ nonstop efforts to overturn election results. JT laughingly ridicules Biden for not allowing a judicial review of election results. Trump & his attorneys have systematically attacked Republican governors & state officials, Homeland Security Cyber Security experts, Trump-appointed federal judges & Supreme Court justices for the crime of assuring voters that 2020 election results were true & correct.

    After losing more than 50 judicial reviews, Trump & his attorneys continue to say he won in a landslide & there’s no way Biden received 81 million votes. Republican governors & state officials are now receiving death threats for certifying Biden as their state’s winner. Turley’s reaction? He attacks Senator Shaheen & the Lincoln Project. I’m beginning to see a pattern here.

    1. RacePace7, That Turley supposes that Trump was acting in good faith in contesting the election of Biden when in fact it is simply Trump’s latest scam to raise personal cash from his suckers tells you all you need to know. Turley is simply lying by not publicly acknowledging the fact that the Republicans’ belief that the election was stolen is not based upon solid evidence of WIDESPREAD voter fraud and/or Biden’s refusal to support such an effort to find such non-existent evidence. The truth is that those erroneous beliefs are the result of Trump’s incessant lying and Fox’s championing those lies. Turley works for Fox News. What do you expect? Turley is a sell out I am very sad to say.

      1. Turley acts as a political operative for Trump cult. Turley knows he has a audience of misinformed Trump supporters that WANT to believe the lies and outright propaganda. While seeing Turley using the Trump brand is sad to see and read, Turley knows a good thing when he sees it.

  11. Until Republicans learn how to fight the Dem’s will p*#* allover them time after time. The Republican’s allowed the mass mail in ballots go on without a fight to stop it now we have moron politicians making statements like this woman. Just about everything President Trump was accused of Biden and company has already committed.

    1. Mail in ballots have been used in this country for decades just fine, and a few states do only mail in ballots. Not allowing them is nothing more then voter suppression.

      1. No state does ONLY mail in voting… you lie. Sadly obvious you are a D who is willing to go along with this fraud!

        2. She’s intentionally confusing mail-in ballots and absentee ballots. They are two completely different processes for receiving a ballot and for voter verification. There’s a good reason why most EU countries do not permit *mail-in* voting. It’s as secure as internet IDs.

          Consider Georgia’s process for ensuring the authenticity of mail-in ballots. (They had some 1.3 million mail-in ballots.) They do *not* conduct a signature check against voter registrations — which is the minimum necessary to verify ballot authenticity.

          You might as well allow a young person to buy liquor, on the promise that: “Yes. I have an ID.”

      3. “Mail in ballots have been used in this country for decades just fine…”
        1) Mail in Ballots and Absentee Ballots by Request are not the same thing.
        2) There has always been problems with Mail in Ballots. For instance, the rejection rate in 2016 in some states was very close to the margin of victory. And 2020… good grief. What a debacle. It takes an absolute fool or a crook to pretend things went off without a hitch this year.
        3) Unrequested, Indescriminate Mass Mail Out Ballots are nothing more than voter suppression.

  12. Well said. They should not be allowed to have it both ways, but their cronies in the media will never call them on it. All the while, the right to free speech and thought remains under assault

  13. Democrats do not simply “borders on tyranny”. They are actively and knowingly moving towards it.

  14. The President of the US, and most of the Republican Party has engaged in a massive campaign to flat out lie to the American people about the election in order to create confusion weaken Biden. It is unprecedented and a direct threat to our democracy. This is what needs to be denounced. Flynn, who JT thinks is just a victim of the mean FBI, is openly calling the the military to overthrow the government. So according to JT: Filling dozens of meritless cases across the county in an attempt to confuse the public about our election, OK. The side on the receiving end of these lies not supporting meritless cases for the sake of “judicial review”, that is the problem.The courts are not an investigate organization, they rule on the evidence presented, and if the one side can not produce evidence then the case gets dismissed. As a lawyer JT knows that.

    Calling what is going on “sedition” is a bit much, but not that much. How about JT denouncing those who are out to trash the foundation of our country.

    Also, to point out the final BS cherry on this mess of a posting, Trump is gone far beyond normal legal methods when the tried to bully three state houses to throw out the certified votes and give him the election. What do we call it when someone tries to prevent the legally elected president from taking office and install one who was not elected?

      1. Turley is not silent, he actively supports the R effort to install Trump as an unelected president.

        1. Turley has been silent on Trump’s extra legal efforts strong arming state legislators. Fortunately, they had more nuts than most GOP senators – the Palace Eunuchs – and said – cue the wawa pedal – “I can’t go for that, ….. no can do.”

        2. Do you read what Turley writes? It doesn’t look that way. Try thinking. That might offer you a bit of help.

        3. Molly, I yield to no one in my utter contempt for Turley in joining Trump TV (aka Fox News). He has sacrificed his credibility despite his attempt not to burn his bridges with the Left by criticizing Trump’s actions and statements. Admittedly, there is a little bit of Trump in all of us that we must constantly be on guard not to fall prey to in our own occasional untoward statements as Turley rightly points out. I don’t begrudge Turley for pointing out these mistakes on the part of Democrats. And I don’t fault him for going after Hunter Biden. If he is guilty of violating the law, so be it, and that goes with Joe Biden as well. Prosecute all wrongdoers whomever they may be. I would be perfectly content with a President Harris- I would prefer it in fact. What I do resent is Turley’s validating the likes of Hannity and Carlson by appearing on their programs. As far as I am concerned, those two are hardly better than Alex Jones. Hannity hosts weekly radio talker Mark Levin, a 3rd rate Michael Savage. I’m sure Turley is all too aware of the hatred that emanates from Levin’s free speech. No SERIOUS academic should legitimate this cesspool of disinformation and bigotry by appearing with those two unless one is vehemently contenting their vile propaganda. I do not believe Turley will long be employed by Trump TV, but his reputation will never recover for willingly reinforcing Murdoch’s poisonous narratives. It is shameful, and it saddens me to see it.

      2. “Insurrection and treason Molly. By his silence, Turley is all in.”

        Sounds like you have syphilitic brain syndrome.

  15. LOL, in his latest election lawsuit, Lin Wood wrote that he was filing it “under plenty of perjury”:
    https://twitter.com/stphnfwlr/status/1340117113609052160

    Has he finally decided to be honest?

    Failure to proofread has its occasional amusing payoffs. I enjoyed his previous filing where he misspelled his own name.

    SMH that Turley gripes “I have repeatedly stated that I believe Biden failed in his first test as the president-elect by not telling his campaign to stand down in seeking to prevent judicial review of election results,” when Biden’s campaign hasn’t been party to any of these suits and has not attempted to prevent judicial review of election results.

    1. Details, details, details details.

      Mispelled critical words to complete falsehoods from our host. One is laughable, the other detestable and pitiful.

  16. You know what she used to do for a living? That’s right, high school teacher.

    What you keep not acknowledging is that our bourgeoisie and in particular professional-managerial bourgeoisie is chock-a-block with garbage people. The Democratic Party is the electoral vehicle of the garbage people and their voters are content with garbage people in public office.

    1. ? I thought you going to say she used to run a “University” scam or milk a charity she started.

  17. Turley, failing to call out regular and repeated Trump BS leaves you with zero standing to call out sober Democrats for one shot violations of your new found standards. GTF out of here with this crap.

    By the way, doubling down on your completely wrong call on taking the Loser’s fraud claims seriously – Dude, none of it has any proof behind it and your team is 1-60 in court – is hilarious. Enjoy your roll as an old favorite but now obsolete hack in the bottom of the tool bag.

    1. Nothing but ad hominem from you. Since this is Turley’s blogsite, he’s not going anywhere, so you should heed your own advice and “GTF out of here with this crap”…

      1. My criticism of Turley is specific and on point – actually 2 points. Maybe brush up on your Latin.

  18. If you claim there is dirt then show us the dirt. If you claim fraud in a election then show us the fraud. If you can’t show the dirt or fraud that you broadly allege then you are a dirty fraud yourself.

    1. There is no dirt. This post is just another in a long line to try to normalize the Rs attacks on democracy.

    2. The general public is used to seeing ‘the smoking gun’….here is the bullet that killed the victim and here is the gun the shot the bullet. I the case of potential voter fraud there is no traditional smoking gun. In the case of elections the fraud is not so apparent. In the case of this election the “evidence” is by witness testimony or affidavit which is given under oath. Even Jimmy Carter said that absentee and mail in balloting is ripe for fraud, and that was twenty years ago. I don’t think you can consider him anti-democratic. When Justice Alito ordered the mail in ballots that came in after the deadline to be set aside and the PA election officials ignored the order one can assume that there is something rotten in the state of PA. If the courts won’t allow an evidentiary hearing one can assume they don’t really want to get involved. Whether it was incompetence or fraud something smelled in the states of PA, WI, MI, and GA and I, as an independent, don’t like it. Just my opinion.

      1. Thanks for the anecdote Karen, but for significant fraud to have occurred in 6 states, there would hundreds to thousands of conspirators and some evidence veyond anecdotes.

        Are you this sloppy about everything you believe, or just those things you desperately want to believe?

      2. PA didn’t ignore Alito’s order. They had already set those ballots aside.

        Courts don’t allow evidentiary hearings simply because someone asks for one. The plaintiff needs standing. Do you want to change that rule for all court cases?

  19. “Over 70 million people voted for Trump and the most unifying act for Biden would have been to welcome such review to assure voters that the results were true and correct.”

    Professor Turley hits the nail squarely on its head…..and everything else are the finishing up of that process.

    This is why I am a student in his on-line teaching….lessons I learn every morning while enjoying coffee that is stronger than most Buttecup’s Feelings.

    As described by the good Professor….Democrat demands for unity, compromise, and healing are undone by their actions…..and we should judge others by their actions and not their words alone.

    That is the Achilles Heel of the Left….reality and truth that undercuts then at every turn.

    1. Ralph, explain the ‘reality of all those court defeats. Your many other puppets have failed so far. But ‘yeah’, strong coffee sounds like a manly man.

  20. Granny here needs to avoid stupid comments lest we see her a candidate for the rest home she so richly deserves. Here’s betting she can’t.

    1. Mesblow, you can’t avoid stupid comments. Does that make you a candidate for a rest home?

          1. You continually cast gay invectives at Mespo by using a gay sex reference which means youre the gay phantom that irks the WeHo idiot who comments under a thousand avatars. That or you really want Mespo’s 🍆

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