Letter to the editor: Eastman is no insurrectionist

Commentary

OPINION:

Your recent editorial “Democrats unveil strategy to overturn 2024 election result” (web, Dec. 29) offers a valid critique of the unconstitutional and deeply undemocratic proposal of attorneys Evan A. Davis and David M. Schulte (i.e., that Congress should attempt to block Donald Trump’s certification as president on Jan. 6 based on a discredited 14th Amendment theory).

Your editorial also rightly exposes the hypocrisy of the “save democracy” rhetoric of the Biden-Harris interregnum, considering the lack of any condemnation by Democrats of the Davis-Schulte proposal.

However, the piece inaccurately compares attorneys John C. Eastman and Jeffrey B. Clark to Mr. Davis and Mr. Schulte by saying that their legal proposals in 2020 were “precisely what the new insurrectionists have just done.”

To the contrary, Mr. Eastman, Mr. Clark and others attempted to vindicate the will of the 2020 electorate in ways supported by the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent, such as Bush v. Gore. They argued that the COVID-19 pandemic allowed large numbers of illegal votes to be cast and state legislatures had to respond, including by engaging in further investigation. This argument was legally and factually supported then, and it remains so now.

Mr. Davis and Mr. Schulte, by contrast, are openly attempting to subvert the will of the voters with a legal theory rejected by the Supreme Court in Trump v. Anderson. It is reminiscent of several lines in a Bertolt Brecht poem: “Some party hack decreed that the people had lost the government’s confidence and could only regain it with redoubled effort. If that is the case, would it not be simpler, If the government simply dissolved the people And elected another?”

For attempting to do what they thought was right in raising legitimate questions about the 2020 election, Mr. Eastman and other lawyers have been subject to outrageous personal and professional consequences. This battle will not be over on Jan. 20 because district attorneys and prosecutors from leftist jurisdictions have indicated that they intend to continue with their politically motivated cases. The Washington Times’ editorial board should support them in this struggle.

CHARLES BURNHAM