Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) lashed out at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday over an investigation into a razor-thin House election.
“Right now as we speak, Speaker Pelosi and Washington Democrats are literally trying to overturn a state-certified election here in Congress. That’s exactly what they’re doing over in the House right now,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.
McConnell’s comments come as the House Administration Committee is digging into the election results in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District where Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) won by six votes.
“The outcome was certified. That’s the magic word, certified, that we heard over and over again in November and December. … the process played out in a way that every liberal in America spent November, December and January insisting was beyond question,” McConnell said.
Miller-Meeks’s victory was certified by Iowa in late November and she was sworn in in early January.
But the Democratic candidate, Rita Hart, is challenging the results, arguing that there are 22 ballots that were tossed that should be counted. She is using language in the Constitution that allows Congress to “judge” its own elections to try to make her case in the House.
Pelosi has defended the House action, telling ABC News that it was “very narrow” and that the panel was taking “next step” to “see where it goes from there.”
“This is not unique,” she added.
McConnell is accusing Democrats of hypocrisy after they criticized Republicans who refused to recognize President Biden’s election win for weeks and dozens subsequently tried to throw out election results from key states.
“Democratic leadership is trying to use brute political power to kick her out and replace this congresswoman with a Democrat whom she defeated. You don’t often see hypocrisy this blatant and this shameless so quickly,” he said.
None of the presidential battleground states were decided by six votes. Trump claimed that the election was “rigged” and launched unsuccessful legal challenges in several states.
Pelosi, speaking to ABC News, accused Republicans of hypocrisy.
“For them to call anybody hypocritical about elections when two-thirds of them in the House voted against accepting the presidency of Joe Biden is — well, it’s just who they are,” she said.