Top Senate Democrat Patty Murray: 'Hawley and Cruz Should Resign'

Sen. Patty Murray on Friday called for the resignation of Republican lawmakers whose attempts to baselessly challenge the legitimacy of President-elect Joe Biden's electoral victory contributed to this week's storming of the U.S. Capitol by an insurrectionary pro-Trump mob.

"Our job is to keep this country a democracy where voices win, not brute force."
--Sen. Patty Murray

Representing Washington state and the third most powerful Democrat in the Senate, Murray said that like President Donald Trump, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) were guilty of inciting and abetting the violent attack on the halls of Congress that occurred during Wednesday's joint session to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.

"As a senator, I respect every member who disagrees with my ideas. I reserve my right to use my voice to fight for what I believe in. But at the end of the day, our job is to keep this country a democracy where voices win, not brute force," said Murray. "Any senator who stands up and supports the power of force over the power of democracy has broken their oath of office. Senators Hawley and Cruz should resign."

Denouncing the anti-democratic actions of Trump as well as the dozens of congressional Republicans who refused for weeks to accept the validity of Biden's victory, Murray continued:

I come to the Capitol every day to fight for what I believe in. I often have issues I feel very strongly about--whether it's a woman's right to choose, or immigration, or healthcare, or the issue of the day. I use my voice to tell people what I believe to be right, and I listen to the other side. We hear each other out, we vote, and whoever has the votes wins. And I accept that. Do I always like the outcome? No, but I accept it, because that is what our democracy requires. People having a voice, being able to use it, and all of us accepting that no one person or group should get their way all the time.

"There can be no normalizing or looking away from what played out before our eyes this week," Murray added. "The violent mob that attacked the Capitol was made up of people who don't accept democracy, and want to take this country by use of force. This is not how we keep our people and our country free."

Cruz and Hawley were not the only lawmakers who voted in the early hours of Thursday to overturn the election results, as Common Dreams reported. Joining them in the failed effort to undermine the democratic process were Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Cynthia Lummis (R-W.Va.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.).

In addition, hundreds of House Republicans voted to reject Arizona and Pennsylvania's electoral votes--disenfranchising tens of millions of voters--even after dozens of federal and state courts dismissed Trump's legal challenges due to a lack of compelling evidence of fraud.

After the months-long refusal of hundreds of congressional Republicans to accept Trump's defeat at the ballot box in November, polls show more than three-quarters of GOP voters believe Biden's victory is invalid, and nearly half approve of the assault on the Capitol.

While claiming to support a peaceful transfer of power, GOP lawmakers have tried to justify their actions in terms of defending the "integrity" of an election that the Trump-created Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency called "the most secure in American history."

By demanding that Cruz and Hawley resign, Murray is echoing a call made one day earlier by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who herself has joined an effort led by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) to expel "the Republican members of Congress who have incited this domestic terror attack through their attempts to overturn the election."