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.

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