Van Hollen: Dems Created a Precedent ‘Which We Are Seeing Today’ by Objecting to 2004 Results, What GOP Is Doing Now Is Different

On Monday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) stated that Democrats made a mistake by objecting to the certification of the Electoral College in the 2004 election and that while the action was “totally different in major respects” from what Republicans are doing with the 2020 election, Democrats did create a precedent, “Which we are seeing today, in the sense that Republicans are pointing to that action.”

Van Hollen said, “I did think that was a mistake, to use that particular method to try to raise legitimate concerns about voter suppression, and in that statement, I commended those members for raising issues of voter suppression, but warned that the method they were choosing was very dangerous and could create a precedent. Which we are seeing today, in the sense that Republicans are pointing to that action. Obviously, what’s happening today is so totally different in major respects, John Kerry had conceded the election in Ohio. Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones said that it wasn’t her intent to overturn the election but to use this as an opportunity to raise these issues. But again I think that the choice of using the overturning of an election, that vote, that was a mistake, and that’s what I said at the time.”

Van Hollen added that Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and others have cited his statement without including his denunciation of objecting to the Electoral College certification.

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