AUSTIN, Texas — U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) said he expects the Electoral College certification process to be unlike those in past years.
Several Republican lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), plan to object to the results of the Electoral College on Wednesday. In an interview with KVUE's Bryan Mays on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Doggett called those objections "totally abnormal."
"I've been through this process several times. Normally, it involves no action at all, just a routine ministerial action. It is very troubling where we are," U.S. Rep. Doggett said. "It's a danger tomorrow, not just a physical danger, with President Trump calling out the Proud Boys and these other white nationalist groups who demonstrated their violent behavior before here in Washington, but more importantly, a danger to our democracy. There are people here who seem to want to trade democracy for autocracy and to throw out literally millions of votes."
U.S. Rep. Doggett also said, "One would not have imagined even days ago that at this point, after the rejection in court, after court, after the rejection in state after state run by Republicans, that the president would still be insisting that he won the election and that somehow the vice president can manipulate the votes to give him the victory that he surely did not achieve on his own."
When asked about the response to COVID-19 in Texas, U.S. Rep. Doggett criticized Gov. Greg Abbott and President Donald Trump and called the vaccine rollout "totally chaotic."
"What we need is a very strong national plan that backs up the state and local efforts in a way that provides some consistency and gets this vaccine out as quickly as possible," U.S. Rep. Doggett said, "because I know from the calls and contacts I've had, how many people are out there very anxious to get it and to protect themselves and their families."
Read the full interview with U.S. Rep. Doggett below:
KVUE's Bryan Mays: Well, this is usually a process and you've been part of these before. Not many people outside of the U.S. Capitol really pay attention to. Are these Electoral College objections that we're expecting to see tomorrow normal. And what are you expecting?
Doggett: They're totally abnormal. I've been through this process several times. Normally, it involves no action at all, just a routine ministerial action. It is very troubling where we are. It's a danger tomorrow, not just a physical danger, with President Trump calling out the Proud Boys and these other white nationalist groups who demonstrated their violent behavior before here in Washington, but more importantly, a danger to our democracy. There are people here who seem to want to trade democracy for autocracy and to throw out literally millions of votes. So it will be a momentous day. I think we all know the outcome. But the danger from these kind of challenges that sound more like a third-world country that will not accept the results of an election is really, really troubling. I just wish that instead of these potshots at democracy, President Trump were more focused on getting vaccine shots in the arms of people across America.
Mays: I want to ask you about that in just a second, congressman. But before we get to that, the lawsuits and objections we've seen, they've been going on for a couple of months now, places like Pennsylvania and Georgia, to name a couple. Should Texans be concerned at all about the voting process in our state?
Doggett: Well, our state has been ground zero for voter suppression before the election, attempts to limit voter participation, an antiquated registration system, voter I.D., the governor interfering with our ability to vote at multiple locations, only one location per county for early voting, all of those kind of steps. But this is an attempt to suppress the results after the election, practically unheard of that someone would come forward and continue to yell "fraud, fraud, fraud" without producing any evidence. When Republican-appointed, Trump-appointed judges across the country, when Republican election officials in places like Georgia have counted not once but three times the vote and still insist that votes be thrown out when there is absolutely no evidence to justify it, it is a really, really troubling situation and just really sets back our democracy to have this kind of false challenge. The only fraud here is the challenge that's being made, claiming fraud when there's no proof of it.
Mays: Let's talk just for a bit about the pandemic. Congressman, from what you've seen thus far, how has the COVID vaccine rollout gone here in Texas specifically?
Doggett: Totally chaotic. Gov. Abbott again failed to deliver in dealing with this crisis. He promised in early December that 1.4 million Texans would get their vaccine by New Year's Eve. And we haven't had anywhere close to that. Our health care providers, our hospitals don't know when vaccine will arrive, whether they'll have enough, whether they'll have a shortage. Our county officials don't have the information in any central place of who, where and when the vaccine is going to be out there. And there are many people who are quite anxious of getting in line, calling everywhere, trying to find out about the vaccine. And then a further problem is that against the long-standing disparities in health care in Texas and the fact that so many of our Latinx community, our African American community, have much higher rates because of the kinds of jobs that they do, that we're not getting the vaccine out to some of those essential workers who've been most affected by this pandemic.
Mays: Does there need to be a national plan, congressman?
Doggett: Absolutely. President Trump has treated this and Gov. Abbott have treated this the way they did personal protective equipment last spring, the way they did testing last summer with chaos, with state by state, lack of coordination anywhere within the state. What we need is a very strong national plan that backs up the state and local efforts in a way that provides some consistency and gets this vaccine out as quickly as possible, because I know from the calls and contacts I've had, how many people are out there very anxious to get it and to protect themselves and their families.
Mays: Final question, congressman, again, thanks for your time. It seems from the outside looking in, politics has changed a bit over the last four years, maybe more than a bit. Is your job vastly different now? And do you expect it to stay this way?
Doggett: Well, I think everyone's job is different these days because of the pandemic and the fact we're doing all of our contacts through Zoom instead of person-to-person. That provides a certain amount of distance that affects things. But yes, I would have to say that in the last few weeks, indeed, in the last few hours, it's become a very, very different situation. One would not have imagined even days ago that, at this point, after the rejection in court, after court, after the rejection in state after state run by Republicans, that the president would still be insisting that he won the election and that somehow the vice president can manipulate the votes to give him the victory that he surely did not achieve on his own.
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