Michigan Rep. Paul Mitchell on Monday left the Republican Party for the Republican Party’s refusal to admit that President Donald Trump lost the election to President-elect Joe Biden.
Mitchell, in a scathing letter to Republican Party leaders, wrote that Trump’s baseless allegations alleging widespread voting fraud and the Republican Party’s tolerance of such claims threatened “long-term damage to our democracy”.
“It is unacceptable for political candidates to treat our electoral system as if we were a third world nation and incite distrust of something as basic as the sanctity of our vote,” Mitchell wrote to Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, and House Minority Leader Kevin. McCarthy of California.
“Furthermore, it is unacceptable for the president to attack the U.S. Supreme Court because his judges, liberals and conservatives, did not rule with his side or that ‘the court ruled him,'” Mitchell wrote in the letter. which was first reported by CNN.
Mitchell is retiring from Congress when the current session ends early next year.
Trump has claimed that he lost Michigan and several battlefield states whose electoral votes gave Biden his margin of victory in the Electoral College, due to the illegal suppression of votes by him and the artificial inflation of Biden ballot boxes.
The Electoral College meets Monday and California votes pushed Biden to exceed the 270-vote threshold needed to win the White House at 5:30 p.m.
Mitchell wrote, “If Republican leaders sit down collectively and tolerate unfounded conspiracy theories and ‘stop the theft’ without protesting our electoral process, which the Department of Homeland Security said was’ the safest American history, “our nation will do. be damaged.”
“I have spoken clearly and forcefully in opposition to these messages,” he wrote.
“However, with the leadership of the Republican Party and our Republican Conference in the House actively participating in at least some of these efforts, I fear that our democracy will be harmed in the long run.”
Mitchell, who represents Michigan’s 10th District last year, said he would not seek a third term in Congress, complaining that the “rhetoric and vitriol” he saw in Washington overwhelmed the actual work of enacting the policy. .
Mitchell said that with more than 155 million people voting in the election, “there were probably both administrative errors and even some fraudulent votes.”
But he also said Trump “didn’t lose Michigan because of Wayne County,” a Democratic stronghold that the president claims had votes laden with fraud.
“Rather it lost due to declining support in areas like Kent and Oakland, both former Republican strongholds,” the congressman wrote.
Mitchell said in his letter that he had voted for Trump “despite some reservations about four more years under his leadership.”
But he also wrote: “The stability and strength of our democracy has been a permanent concern for me.”
“I expressed strong concern about the president’s response in Charlottesville, the anti-migrant who returns rhetoric to them and even the racist comments from my own colleagues in the House.”
Although Mitchell left the Republican Party, the president and his deputies continued to strive to undermine public confidence in Biden’s victory, arguing that Congress will have the final say in selecting the next president on December 6. gener.
This is the date on which Congress is scheduled to confirm the votes of the Electoral College.
Trump, his campaign, and his allies have lost or withdrawn all demands that challenged the validity of ballots for Biden. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a Texas application to file a lawsuit challenging the voting processes in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Before the Supreme Court acted on that request, Trump had called the Texas case “the big one” that would reverse Biden’s victory.