GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy to Nancy Pelosi: ‘Mariannette Miller-Meeks Won Her Election’

US House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, speaks during his week
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Jacob Bliss

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) sends a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) saying Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) won her election with the bipartisan recount boards.

“Miller-Meeks won her election. Not only did Dr. Miller-Meeks not trail in any officially reported count, but she also continued to lead following a recount conducted by bipartisan recount boards.” There was also a member from each campaign included in the bipartisan group that oversaw the recount.

“Then, on January 3, 2021, you seated Congresswoman Miller-Meeks as a Member of Congress with support from every Democratic Member,” McCarthy said.

The California Republican continued:

Yet Rita Hart has contested the results of Iowa’s free and fair election with the Committee on House Administration, which is made up of twice as many Democrats as Republicans. In fact, Contestant Hart purposefully skipped Iowa’s impartial courts and moved directly to this Democrat-controlled committee, stating it was “the only way to get the result we need.”

While the Constitution gives Congress the authority to determine its own members, it is unprecedented and antithetical to our democracy to unseat the duly elected and certified winner of a state election simply because you have the majority.

You have already begun to manipulate this contest in order to guarantee a win for Contestant Hart, inventing brand-new procedure that violates federal law and your own rules. Unbelievably, this would require almost nothing from Contestant Hart but would have Congresswoman Miller-Meeks prove that she won her seat, despite holding a valid election certificate. Even worse, as Ranking Member Rodney Davis noted, Marc Elias, an attorney recently sanctioned by a federal appellate court for untruthfulness, represents half of the Democrats on the Committee—the judges—while also representing Contestant Hart, a serious conflict of interest.

McCarthy urged Pelosi to put “faith in our democracy and dismiss this partisan contest”:

While you may have the ability through force of majority vote to disenfranchise Iowa voters and replace their selection with your own, Iowa’s voters, the American people, and every duly-elected Representative serving in this 117th Congress with the same certifications and credentials that Congresswoman Miller-Meeks, you, and I have, deserve better.

McCarthy is set to travel to Davenport, Iowa, this week to support Iowa’s Second Congressional District congresswoman. He intends to rally support for Rep. Miller-Meeks with a day full of public events.

Breitbart News reported last week the only remaining Democrat elected to Congress from Iowa, Rep. Cindy Axne’s (D-IA), has used the same exact statement for nearly four months on the Democrats’ partisan effort to overturn the state-certified election of Miller-Meeks, her Iowa Republican colleague.

On Monday morning, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) released an ad targeting Axne for her support of Pelosi and Hart’s effort to overturn the state-certified election results in Iowa’s Second Congressional District.

There has been pressure mounted against the Democrats’ attempt to overturn the election. Multiple vulnerable Democrats have started to come out against the efforts in recent weeks, as well as many Republicans and party leaders. In addition, multiple editorial boards are coming out against the overturning of the election.

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