But they’ve defended Trump’s Big Lie and the violent Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol
Ahead of the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, a new report from the Philadelphia Inquirer highlights Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate candidates’ refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election.
According to the Inquirer, “Republican Sen. Pat Toomey forcefully defended Pennsylvania’s votes in the 2020 presidential election, but the Republicans running to replace him wouldn’t say if they would do the same.”
On top of refusing to say they accept the results of the 2020 election — just about every 2022 Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate has forcefully defended January 6, 2021’s violent attack on the Capitol:
- Kathy Barnette claims that Jan. 6 was a “hoax” and a “distraction.” But she organized buses to the Capitol that day and was photographed with a Pennsylvania man charged with macing a police officer.
- Jeff Bartos has downplayed the violence on Jan. 6, worked to undermine trust in Pennsylvania’s election results, and supported Donald Trump’s right to “challenge those election results.”
- Carla Sands has spread misinformation about the 2020 election and encouraged Pennsylvania Republicans’ sham partisan “audit.”
- Like the rest of the GOP field, Mehmet Oz and David McCormick refused to tell the Inquirer they would have accepted the results of the 2020 elections — which tracks with their respective campaign’s efforts to go full MAGA in the primary. But McCormick — who was a wannabe Democratic politico the last time he moved to Pennsylvania, in the 1990s — will have to square that hardline posture with having previously slammed the Jan. 6 Capitol attack as “seditious.”
Read more from The Philadelphia Inquirer: We asked GOP Senate candidates if they would have backed Pa.’s 2020 election results. They wouldn’t say.
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Published: Jan 5, 2022 | Last Modified: Feb 7, 2024