Ari Melber showed that as John Eastman was working the phones trying to stop the certification of the Electoral College vote, Sen. Ted Cruz was on the Senate floor asking for the same ten-day delay that Trump and Eastman wanted.
Melber said on his MSNBC show The Beat:
This is important, again, for what a jury will hear and decide about whether to convict Trump. Whether Trump would spend future days not in an Oval Office but in a rectangular cage. Jack Smith notes minutes before midnight, lawyer John Eastman was back at it, pressing Mike Pence’s lawyer in writing, in an email, that they should still try to fraudulently claim when they reconvene there was a fake violation in the Electoral Count Act.
For ten days, that was the pitch. Just give us ten more days to allow the legislatures to finish their investigations. You see 11:44 P.M. At the top of your screen. That’s from the indictment. This was after Pence fled for his life. The plotters were still trying to demand he would join them in the plot hatched against him. That’s what they wanted, those ten days. Listen to one of the Republicans who voted against certification that night, after the violence, after the insurrection, after Mcconnell said this was a terrible insurrection. Listen to this Trump ally in the context that we have tonight asking for what? A ten-day delay.
Video:
Ari Melber shows evidence connecting Ted Cruz and GOP senators to the coup plot. pic.twitter.com/V0EX33QMVW
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) August 2, 2023
It is not a coincidence that Cruz would have been echoing Eastman’s request on the Senate floor. The two men have been close for decades.
Cruz is on tape consulting with Eastman on how the Senate could be used to block the election and then set up a bogus commission to investigate election fraud. Senate Republicans can’t feign ignorance about the plot because Senators like Cruz and Mike Lee were offering advice and ideas on how the Senate could be used to block the certification of the election.
The Republican congressional role in the 1/6 plot has never been seriously addressed, but the time needs to come for the members of Congress who may have participated in a coup attempt to be held accountable.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
