Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) slammed Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) as “demented” Friday for echoing President Donald Trump’s baseless election fraud claims and for saying Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) “didn’t legally win.”
Trump delivered an address to the nation Thursday riddled with conspiracy theories about election fraud in 2020 after reports that he would allege Ossoff and Warnock — who won runoff contests on Jan. 5, 2021 to give Democrats control of the Senate — were illegitimately elected. Trump also claimed that newly declassified documents revealed Chinese interference in the 2020 election, which he has always said was “rigged” since his loss to Joe Biden.
Himes appeared on the “Bulwark Takes” podcast with Sam Stein, managing editor of The Bulwark, and noted Tuberville took things even further on Thursday by claiming there are “four or five senators that didn’t legally win” their seats.
“They shouldn’t be up here,” the MAGA Republican added during his Newsmax appearance.
“What worries me most about that is not that Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are being kicked out of the Senate,” Himes said. “That’s not going to happen. I’m not even sure there’s a legal mechanism for that to happen.
“What is devastating is that a United States senator, and maybe more than one United States senator, would effectively tee up a coup d’état, right? And I mean, let’s just be very clear what we’re talking about here.”
Catch the bulk of Himes’ comments around 13:16:
He began by noting that there has been “zero evidence” of widespread fraud in the 2020 elections, adding they were questioned by “nobody” until Trump suggested malfeasance — and that some “six dozen courts” had already upheld the elections’ legitimacy.
“What you have is somebody who is so demented that they are either wittingly or unwittingly participating in a coup d’état,” Himes said Friday. “And let me tell you this, as the ranking member of the intelligence committee, you know whose work you’re really doing.”
The congressman continued, “Read this stuff on Russia. Russia’s objective here is, yes, to elect Donald Trump, because Donald Trump loves him some Vladimir Putin, but Russia’s core objective here is to create chaos.”