Only AP history students and desperate reporters looking for an angle on January 6, 2021 care about Samuel J. Tilden. Jay is the former, and expounds on the contested election of 1876, resulting in an overhaul of the Electoral procedures used to officially certify a presidential election.
Such minutiae matter now because a number of members of the House of Representatives, and at least one Senator, Josh Hawley of Missouri, plan to sign on to multiple objections to the elector slates submitted by states to Congress.
The podcast was recorded on December 30. Since then, Vice President Mike Pence signaled he’s not going to play along with the charade, asking a federal judge in Texas to toss a lawsuit designed to pave the way for Pence to do some shenanigans during the January 6 session.
The very thing Jay and I discussed—and rejected as manure—is that essentially forged documents could find their way onto the rostrum in front of Pence, and he would be obligated to open them and read them into the record as competing slates of electors. This legal magical thinking is the last redoubt of those who believe Trump should remain president at the cost of the entire constitution, or at least make it look like they believe it so a certain number of their own voters can give them a high five.
From the Boston Globe:
“Plaintiffs conclude their Electoral College fantasy by proposing unlimited discretion for defendant Pence to usurp the electoral process as plaintiffs desire,” Kennedy, a lawyer, said in a motion to intervene in the case. “On behalf of the American People, please stop this madness.”
Kennedy argues that competing slates of electors cannot be chosen because, among other things, they don’t exist. States can only choose one slate -- and the swing states at issue already did so -- for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, he said.
Listen to the podcast as we drive past the exit labeled “Competing slates of electors” at 60 MPH and don’t even slow down.
As a bonus, listen to the end to find out if soon-to-be-ex-President Trump will be able to live at Mar a Lago when he departs Washington D.C.
One more thing: we cut the part where Jay and I discuss the latest hot thing among long-time collectors. Baseball cards, in bulk. When we were kids, Jay used to have thousands of the things. Unfortunately, a fire when we were teens consumed the entire collection, which today would be worth (sigh) a heap of dough.
We’ll have to have a baseball card podcast if you kind listeners are game. Maybe I can twist WSB host Mark Arum’s arm and get him on as a guest.
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The haunting of Samuel J. Tilden's ghost. Breakfast with Bermans EP24