I spent nearly six hours listening to the impeachment proceedings against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold a few weeks ago. I would be dumber for it if those proceedings did not portend so much future danger.
Make no mistake, every attack on election officials this year is a part of the concerted effort to undermine our democratic norms.
Under the influence of Donald Trump and unable to convince a majority of Americans they have any interest in actually governing, the Republican Party has become increasingly reliant on attacking election results. It has been a constant since just before the 2020 election and became a staple of the political landscape as Trump used baseless accusations to inspire an insurrection.
Now Republicans at every level have adopted the same playbook.
That was the real purpose of the Griswold impeachment attempt. Republicans want to instill additional skepticism in our elections to create a fertile environment for post-loss allegations. The more conspiracies spewed over a longer period of time, the greater the buy-in from a base incapable of distinguishing truth from falsehood.
It does not even have to be a general election. Is there any question that if Dave Williams does not win his June primary he will immediately use his position as party chair to proclaim widespread irregularities?
Such is the state of the current GOP. And it was on full display during the impeachment effort.
The Republicans sponsoring the impeachment could not articulate a good reason for the proceedings. To the contrary, it seemed they had just watched too much Fox coverage of the evidenceless impeachment proceedings overseen by their congressional counterparts against officials in the Biden administration.
For example, one of the primary complaints they leveled against Griswold was support for the Fourteenth Amendment lawsuit to bar Trump from the Colorado ballot. But those claims were completely baseless and demonstrably false. As counsel for the petitioners in that case, I can unequivocally say that Griswold had no role whatsoever in developing, drafting or prosecuting those claims.
To the contrary, Griswold’s actions often caused consternation for our legal team. For example, last summer she made a statement regarding unilateral application of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment that caused enough concern within our group that we moved up the timeline for filing our complaint. Later, her public comments regularly undermined our strategy to remove the politics from the lawsuit. I have said as much in public forums.
Yet Republicans convinced by the narrative they whisper to each other proceeded.
They ignored basic facts. Griswold was the opposing party we filed the case against. Her office declined to examine all but one witness who took the stand. Not once at trial did anyone on her team state that Trump engaged in insurrection.
And when the Colorado Supreme Court stayed its decision pending appeal — and consequently, directed that Trump be placed on the primary ballot — Griswold certified the ballot with his name on it. But Republicans were immune to such provable fact.
In maybe the dumbest question of day, Republican state Rep. Gabe Evans — a would-be member of Congress — asked how Griswold could explain to the 500,000 who voted for Trump in the primary that she could be fair after she refused to put him on the ballot.
Griswold’s response? Because he did appear on the ballot, as evidenced by the 500,000 people Evans cited voting for him.
Evans would go on to mix up the burden of proof in civil versus criminal trials, insinuate that the Denver District Court was biased despite ruling in Trump’s favor, and make an argument that none of the Fourteenth Amendment, including the due process and equal protection clauses, could be given effect unless acted upon by Congress.
None of his cohort fared any better.
But Griswold likely came out smiling. The Republicans gave her precisely what she craved: a soapbox to stand on and deliver self-righteous oratory. Not only did she get to play the victim in this inane charade, but she also got to throw out rhetorical red meat to the liberal base of her party.
Whatever office Griswold runs for next, her campaign will use clip after clip from her testimony in videos and ads.
The only way this farce could have been any worse for the Republicans bringing it was if they had somehow brought up the Arizona Supreme Court decision upholding an anti-abortion law older than the Fourteenth Amendment itself.
But that is exactly why we should expect it to continue. They do not care about the optics or how idiotic it makes them look. They only care about undermining our electoral system. And that is exactly what they spent nearly an entire day doing.
Mario Nicolais is an attorney and columnist who writes on law enforcement, the legal system, health care and public policy. Follow him on Twitter: @MarioNicolaiEsq.
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