A prominent Republican who previously managed election administration in one of the nation’s largest swing-state counties tore to shreds a theory from a MAGA-aligned attorney about how to put Trump’s election conspiracy theories into practice.
The California election results, and particularly far-right reality star Spencer Pratt’s elimination from the Los Angeles mayoral race after California’s notoriously slow results count evaporated his lead with initial, early-returned ballots, have triggered a fresh wave of baseless claims from Republicans that elections are somehow being rigged.
And speaking to Blaze TV on Tuesday, pro-Trump lawyer Will Chamberlain came up with a wild theory of how to punish California for this idea: have House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) literally stop the count and refuse to seat any member of Congress from California who was not leading the initial returns on Election Night.
“Here’s my basic idea: Mike Johnson in the House when it comes time to actually seat the representatives from California — any representative who wasn’t ahead on election day, you don’t even provisionally seat them,” said Chamberlain. “And you refer them to the committee that evaluates these things … And they have to show up and prove that they’ve won legitimately. And if they can’t do that, then they don’t get seated, and California can go back and do a special election again.”
Chamberlain’s idea is flagrantly illegal for multiple reasons. For one, Johnson wouldn’t even be Speaker during the initial seating of members elected to the next Congress on January 3, 2027, and a Speaker won’t be elected until the newly seated members do. Additionally, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Powell v. McCormack that the House cannot arbitrarily impose new disqualifications to exclude duly elected members.
Responding to the post on X, Stephen Richer, the former GOP recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, had nothing but disdain for the idea.
“Just casually suggesting that Speaker Johnson should refuse to seat elected representatives from the most populous state despite having… 0 cases of widespread fraud or error,” wrote Richer. “The shame is that Will Chamberlain was a legitimate attorney with a good head. But he heard the call of the siren song of clickbait nonsense just like all the unsavory folks at Article III Project.”
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