Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington. As Congress prepares to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, thousands of people have gathered to show their support for President Donald Trump and his claims of election fraud.(AP Photo/John Minchillo)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Blake Moore has joined the chorus of congressmen and women condemning the violence that occurred on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
“I was greatly saddened and troubled by the assault on the U.S. Capitol,” the 1st District’s new representative said in a statement released Thursday. “I urge the American people to unite and help usher in a peaceful transfer of power.
“Violence and intimidation against the legislative branch are unacceptable and un-American,” Moore added.
The new representative from northern Utah was referring to a riotous breech of Capitol Hill security Wednesday that occurred while the U.S. House and Senate were debating the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college victory. The violence that ensued left four protestors dead and the city of Washington under a nighttime curfew.
During the recent general election, Moore stated that he hoped to be able to cooperate with Democratic colleagues in the House of Representatives to achieve legislative progress. In his statement of Thursday, the new congressman took a non-partisan stand on the controversy over alleged voter fraud in the recent presidential balloting.
“It is clear to me,” Moore explained, “that each and every one of my Republican colleagues is firmly committed to election integrity. Our union functions and thrives because people’s votes are fairly counted and we were dismayed by reports of fraudulent activity during the 2020 presidential election. Every abuse must be thoroughly investigated…
“However, I could not in good conscience endorse federal intervention in state-certified elections. It is up to states to implement their own laws and cast their own electoral votes. And it is up to the judiciary to determine if the states acted constitutionally in changing their election systems.”
Partisans of President Donald Trump dismiss similar arguments as self-serving political evasions. They contend that some state officials, with the cooperation of partisan judges, used the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to usher in mail-in ballot schemes that were deliberately vulnerable to manipulation and fraud.
Even Moore acknowledges that the changes to voting systems in some states were hastily conceived.
“As I stated in August,” he recalled, “I have been concerned that many states rushed to implement mail-in balloting systems during the pandemic. It took Utah several years to ensure that we had a secure and efficient election process to address the integrity of mail-in ballots.”
The president’s supporters also argue that neither Congress nor the judiciary have made any effort to “thoroughly investigate” their charges of voter fraud. Instead, they say, the recent lawsuits by the Trump campaign were all dismissed by appellate courts on procedural grounds without any examination of witness statements or other evidence.
The strategy of Republican die-hards in the U.S. House and Senate on Wednesday was to force such a thorough investigation of their allegations of voter fraud by objecting to the certification of Biden’s electoral count. Utah’s other freshman congressman, Rep. Burgess Owens, publicly supported that effort. Moore did not.
“I could not in principle object, or vote to agree to the objection,” he explained. “But I promise that I will fight for every American’s voice to be heard and every voter to have trust in our system…
“Our determination to abide by the Constitution no mater the outcome is what makes us strong,” Moore added, “and respecting the balance of power in our system of government will ultimately reward us.”