Congressional Record/Volume 167/Issue 4/House/Counting Electoral Votes/Pennsylvania Objection Debate/Cartwright Speech
Mr. Cartwright. Madam Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague Representative Dwight Evans, and I remind this Chamber that Pennsylvania is the cradle of American democracy.
We can’t claim to be the birthplace of American democracy. That would be a disservice to James Otis, Jr., who, in 1761, stood up in a Massachusetts courtroom and argued against the King’s writs of assistance.
But Pennsylvania is the cradle of democracy. It is where we hosted the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution.
It was Pennsylvanians who immediately went to battle to defend this idea of democracy. They went right after Bunker Hill to the Siege of Boston. American riflemen were instrumental at the transformational Battles of Trenton and Saratoga in victory. And it is Independence Hall where these documents got signed, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
You heard my colleagues. You heard Representative Houlahan talking about the privations at Valley Forge, all in support of creating democracy.
You heard Representative Brendan F. Boyle quoting John Adams, that democracy only dies by suicide.
You heard Representative Dean quoting John Lewis, our hero, who said: Democracy is not a state. It is an act.
You heard Representative Wild talking about this stunning assault on our democracy.
If it seems like we get a little prickly in Pennsylvania about assaulting democracy, you are right. We do. Pennsylvania is the cradle of democracy.
You heard how foolish and empty these challenges are. Representative Lamb said it: 31 cameras filming the place where the count was happening, resulting in thousands of hours of videotape—you can see it on YouTube—proving there was no fraud.
You heard Representatives Michael F. Doyle and Brendan F. Boyle talking about Act 77, how the Republicans in Pennsylvania were falling all over themselves to pass this law for mail-in voting because they thought it would help them.
You heard Representative Scanlon explaining why there were no allegations of fraud made in court because a lawyer going into court and lying to the court gets his or her ticket to practice law punched. They can be disbarred.
Politicians can say anything on cable TV, but they have to be darn careful when they are in court. So all these big TV talkers never alleged fraud in court.
Let me tell you about one court case. It was a case where they brought on their best legal talent. It was a case where they drew as a judge a staunch, principled, conservative Republican, Judge Matthew Brann. He called this case “strained legal arguments without merit” and “speculative accusations.” He called it “like Frankenstein’s monster,” a “haphazardly stitched together” case.
Judge Brann said he “has no authority to take away the right to vote of even a single person, let alone millions of citizens.”
On appeal Judge Bibas, a Trump appointee writing for the Third Circuit, agreed. He said: “Calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”
So, we have judges—dozens and dozens of them, Federal judges, State judges, Democrats, Republicans—turning away these challenges. All they ever wanted was evidence.
Here is the number-one rule when you go to court: Don’t forget to bring the evidence with you.
This objection, in all seriousness, reflects the most profound disrespect to our American judiciary. We Pennsylvanians understand democracy. It was in Pennsylvania that our Founders signed the Constitution, and Article II makes it plain as day: We elect our President. We don’t have a king.
If you can undo a Presidential election simply by alleging that something was amiss, then we don’t have a democracy at all. We have something else entirely.
And if we vote to sustain this objection, we are not upholding our Constitution at all. We are doing something else entirely.
Let’s vote “no” on this objection.