Indiana's attorney general is promoting the same untrue claim that former President Donald Trump used to incite a mob of his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as members of Congress were counting the electoral votes from last year’s presidential election.
Republican Todd Rokita, a Munster native who took office as attorney general last month, tweeted from his campaign account on Valentine’s Day an image of Trump with the message: “You stole my heart like a 2020 election.”
Records show officials in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. certified the Nov. 3 presidential election. Those officials concluded the election was conducted in accordance with state and federal law, and dozens of lawsuits filed by or on behalf of Trump claiming the election was “stolen” have been rejected by state and federal courts at every level, including by several Trump-appointed judges and justices.
In addition, after order was restored following the deadly Capitol insurrection, Republican Vice President Mike Pence — a former Indiana governor — also affirmed Democrat Joe Biden was legitimately elected the 46th president of the United States.
Rokita remains unconvinced.
In a series of follow-up tweets Monday, Rokita insisted: “It is perfectly reasonable that many citizens in Indiana, and across the nation, have valid concerns regarding the conduct of the 2020 presidential election.”
“Deeply rooted in these concerns is the fact that several left-leaning states conducted their elections without regard for the U.S. Constitution,” Rokita said. “We’ll never know the full extent to which these states’ actions impacted the 2020 presidential election.”
In fact, the outcome of the presidential election wasn’t even particularly close.
Biden’s 4.4% popular vote margin of victory over Trump — a total of 7,052,770 votes — is 18th narrowest in the nation’s 59 presidential elections.
Trump was elected in 2016 despite losing the popular vote by 2.1% to Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The 306 electoral votes earned by Biden also were 36 more than he needed to be elected. Data show the electoral vote result was closer in 13 presidential contests, including in 2016 when Trump received 304 electoral votes.
Rokita, however, claimed “unelected bureaucrats, biased judges, or executive branch officials” undermined the election results by adjusting voting procedures amid the COVID-19 emergency, and he vowed to ensure only the Republican-controlled General Assembly dictates Indiana election rules in the future.
The first part of that statement could land Rokita in hot water with the Indiana Supreme Court, which regulates and enforces professional conduct rules for Hoosier attorneys.
The rules state it is professional misconduct for an attorney to “engage in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice” — which may include accusing judges of bias without any basis for the allegation.
The Supreme Court previously has held that attorneys who are public officials have an obligation to avoid any abuse of their office that might suggest an inability to fulfill their professional duties as a lawyer.
It’s not known whether a complaint has yet been filed against Rokita with the Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Commission.
On the other hand, Twitter wasted no time in labeling Rokita’s valentine to Trump as “disputed,” and prohibited replies, retweets or likes “due to a risk of violence.”
This is the first time Rokita has successfully been cited by Twitter for violating its terms of service. The notice eventually was removed.
Rokita initially tried to be banned from Twitter less than 48 hours after the Capitol attack when Rokita tweeted: “I will always be for our President @realdonaldtrump.”
The next day, Rokita claimed that was an “experiment in free speech” to see if his Twitter account would be removed -- just as Trump’s account was removed following the violence in Washington, D.C.
Rokita said Monday now that he’s actually being “censored” by Twitter, he plans to fight “Big Tech” in order to protect “Hoosiers’ liberty and the integrity of our elections.”
Hoosier Democrats, meanwhile, urged Rokita to spend his time on issues important to Hoosier families, not some faux “cancel culture” critique.
“The Indiana Democratic Party would like to remind Indiana Republicans that they are being ‘canceled’ simply for being jerks and discarding their Hoosier values, not because of any hidden political agenda from independently owned social media companies," a party statement read.
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