Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Paul Meijer (R-MI) on Sunday expressed their disappointment with their Republican colleagues who voted to challenge the election results hours after the deadly insurrection at the Capitol that left five dead.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Mace said she found it “enormously disappointing” to witness more than 130 of her House Republican colleagues vote to object to President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory, especially after lawmakers’ lives were threatened during the deadly insurrection at the Capitol earlier this month.
“I literally had to walk through a crime scene where that young woman was shot and killed to get into the chamber to vote that night to certify what was supposed to be a ceremonial vote to certify the Electoral College,” Mace said. “And yet, my colleagues continued to object and they knew this was a failing motion. These objections were not going to work and they were unconstitutional. And so it is enormously disappointing.”
After stressing that her vote to certify Biden’s electoral victory was to “point out the lies that have happened,” Mace said that she supports Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who’s come under fire from fellow House Republicans after she voiced her support for impeaching Trump. Mace voted against impeaching Trump last week.
A day after Cheney announced her support for impeaching Trump, the President’s allies in the House Republican conference circulated a petition urging its third-ranking member to resign from her leadership position over her then-impending impeachment vote.
“There’s so much division, not only within our party, but within our country right now. And we’ve got to do a better job,” Mace said. “And I hope and I support Liz Cheney. And I hope that she stays a part of leadership. We need these voices right now more than ever.”
WATCH: Freshman Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) calls GOP objections to the electoral college "enormously disappointing."@RepNancyMace: "I literally had to walk through a crime scene where that young woman was shot and killed to get into the chamber to vote" to certify the election. pic.twitter.com/1UXDA9QVsm
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) January 17, 2021
Meijer, who was among the 10 House Republicans who voted in favor of Trump’s impeachment last week, also recalled the harrowing experiencing of being at the Capitol amid the deadly insurrection as he argued the importance of holding Trump accountable for inciting his supporters, during an interview on ABC News on Sunday.
After describing the aftermath of the Capitol riots as having been “absolutely gut-wrenching” because the impeachment of the President “was nothing that we ever hoped to do,” Meijer said it was necessary in order to “restore trust.”
“I think this is a time for reflection, but it’s also a time for accountability. And that’s something that I am deeply committed to,” Meijer said. “You know, I’m calling on my party to restore trust, to restore the trust of the voting public and to ensure that we never allow the actions that led up to January 6th and what happened on January 6th, we never allow that outburst of political violence to occur in our name again.”
Asked why so few of his Republican colleagues agreed with him on impeachment, Meijer replied that he “can’t speak to what’s in anyone else’s heart” but that he has concerns with those in his party who fed into “politics of deception.” Meijer pointed to Republicans who went along with Trump’s electoral challenge gambit based off of bogus claims of widespread election fraud — rhetoric that ultimately led to the Capitol riots spearheaded by Trump supporters.
“It was individual concerns about electoral integrity building to something that ended up supporting the President’s, you know, false idea that he had won in a landslide. And that was what inspired his followers to come out on January 6th,” Meijer said. “That was the message that he was propagating. But we need to make sure that we move away from a politics of deception. We need to make sure that we have leaders who are telling folks who trust them what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear.”
GOP Rep. Peter Meijer, one of ten House Republicans to vote for Pres. Trump's impeachment, says recent days have been "absolutely gut wrenching."
"I'm calling on my party to restore trust—to restore the trust of the voting public." https://t.co/UKlf1qPaGX pic.twitter.com/NkN4hZ8om1
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 17, 2021
Editor’s note: This post erroneously indicated that Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) voted in favor of impeachment. TPM regrets the error and has issued a correction.
