Former Tennessee Congressman Zach Wamp and others reportedly want Congress to restrict the ability of a U.S. senator or U.S. representative to challenge the counting of electoral votes as submitted by individual states.
This, according to the St. Petersburg, Florida-based Bay News 9.
The station identified Wamp as a member of the Washington, D.C.-based National Task Force on Election Crises. This, even though the group’s website did not list Wamp as a task force member.
“This is the equivalency of the state of Florida making no election changes after the year 2000 and expecting a different result,” Wamp reportedly told the station.
“We have to re-clarify who can, and what the standing has to be, in order to object to this. We, as a nation, cannot allow any individual to intimidate the elected leaders into a place of not following the Constitution.”
National Task Force on Election Crises’ members recently published a report that explained their objectives.
“President Trump sought to both coerce federal and state officials to overturn the results and incited a violent insurrection. This attack on our democracy culminated with white supremacist rioters attacking the Capitol seeking to not only overturn the Constitutional order, but also to take hostages and assassinate members of Congress and the Vice President,” according to the report.
“While American democracy has survived this crisis so far, we will only be able to prevent the next one if we both 1) ensure accountability for all those who incited, abetted, and participated in the insurrection, and 2) adopt preventative reforms based on the lessons we learned in this election. Those lessons and reforms are the focus of this report.”
Wamp said in February that Time Magazine mischaracterized him and his role with a coalition of well-known political figures and what they did in the months leading up to the November 2020 presidential election.
The Time article seemed to brag that various groups collaborated “behind the scenes” to defeat former U.S. President Donald Trump. The article attracted nationwide attention. Author Molly Ball describes “a well-funded cabal of powerful people” who worked to “influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information.”
Time quoted Wamp, a Republican, more than once.
The magazine said Wamp and a bipartisan coalition of well-known political figures belonged to this cabal. Ball, in her piece, said Wamp and other officials actively worked against Trump’s best interests. Wamp and other officials identify this coalition as the National Council on Election Integrity.
According to the National Council on Election Integrity’s website, former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, former U.S. Senator Bill Frist, Donna Brazile, and Madeline Albright are among four of the council’s many members.
But Wamp said members of the National Council on Election Integrity did not belong to this cabal, as Time put it.
“I have no idea who these other groups [referred to] are. I have no idea who these other people are who are quoted in this article. They editorialize in this supposed journalistic piece by using words like ‘conspiracy’ and ‘cabal.’ They use those two words because they are the ones that put all of these groups together — not us. I don’t know who those people are. That is really unfortunate that that is how they do media now. They create the appearance of a conspiracy as if these groups all work together,” Wamp told The Star in February.
Wamp has sharply criticized Trump in the past, including on Twitter, but he said in February that he often stands up for the former president.
“I have defended Trump on issue after issue after issue on radio shows and in the newspaper, but I won’t defend him on the election outcome,” Wamp said at the time.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Zach Wamp” by Zach Wamp. Background Photo “Electoral College 2016” by Gage CC BY-SA 4.0.
