Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert rejected accusations Saturday night that he called for violence during a Friday interview on Newsmax when he spoke about his lawsuit against Vice President Mike Pence intended to reverse the presidential election being dismissed by the court.
A federal judge ruled on Friday that Gohmert, along with several Arizona Republicans who would have been electors for President Trump, did not “have standing” in the lawsuit filed against Pence. Pence, through Justice Department lawyers argued in a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, that Gohmert and the Arizona Republicans should have sued Congress, not the vice president.
“I have not encouraged and unequivocally do not advocate for violence. I have long advocated for following the teaching and example of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of peaceful protest. That does not keep me from recognizing what lies ahead when the institutions created by a self-governing people to peacefully resolve disputes hide from their responsibility,” Gohmert said in a statement on Saturday. “Violence is not the answer. The appropriate answer is courts and self-governing bodies resolving disputes as intended.”
BREAKING ?: Representative Louie Gohmert reacts to his lawsuit being dismissed. https://t.co/VlT7z8drtO pic.twitter.com/BAS6HGX5FU
— Newsmax (@newsmax) January 2, 2021
“If a member of Congress who is going to object to electors who were fraudulently sent there, and a state has sent two sets, and I don’t have standing to go to court and say, ‘The Electors Act — it has got an unconstitutional provision,'” Gohmert said during his interview with Newsmax.
Gohmert argued that the ruling of the court said it was unwilling to go near the case, and the congressman along with his allies had no legal path to resolve the issue, while a group such as antifa can get its way by being violent in the streets.
He added, “If I don’t have standing to do that, nobody does. And it’s part appropriate defendant is not the vice president that under the Constitution has the power to make that determination, then there is no one. But the bottom line is, the court is saying, ‘We’re not going to touch this. You have no remedy.’ Basically, in effect, the ruling would be that you got to go to the streets and be as violent as antifa and BLM.”
Gohmert appealed the court ruling, but the appeals court upheld the federal court ruling on Saturday.
