WASHINGTON — The White Home hoped to discover a “James Baker-like” determine to guide its postelection battle to by some means discover a option to
WASHINGTON — The White Home hoped to discover a “James Baker-like” determine to guide its postelection battle to by some means discover a option to win a second time period. However the unique James Baker says the White Home ought to cease making an attempt to cease the votes from being counted.
Mr. Baker, the previous secretary of state who led the authorized and political staff in the course of the epic Florida recount battle in 2000 that secured the presidency for George W. Bush, mentioned in an interview on Thursday that President Trump could have legit points to pursue, however they shouldn’t be used to justify halting the preliminary tabulation of ballots.
“We by no means mentioned don’t rely the votes,” mentioned Mr. Baker, a Republican who voted for Mr. Trump. “That’s a really onerous determination to defend in a democracy.”
The wrangling since Tuesday has evoked many reminiscences and never a number of post-traumatic stress flashbacks from the showdown in Florida that riveted the world. Figures like Mr. Baker, now retired and spending a lot of his time at his Texas ranch after recovering from the coronavirus, have been evoked as proxies for the present debate. However the comparisons solely go up to now.
Within the 2000 episode, Mr. Bush, the Republican candidate, and Al Gore, the Democrat, didn’t begin their authorized struggle till after the votes in Florida have been already counted. Mr. Bush completed election evening with a lead of 1,784 votes out of some six million forged within the state that may finally decide which candidate would win the Electoral School. As a result of the margin was so small, an automated machine recount was then performed, upholding Mr. Bush’s lead.
Arguing that some ballots have been improperly disqualified or in any other case not counted, Mr. Gore’s staff went to court docket asking for hand recounts in 4 closely Democratic counties whereas Mr. Baker argued that the votes didn’t should be counted once more. By the point the Supreme Court docket halted the method greater than a month afterward the grounds that completely different counties have been making use of completely different requirements, Mr. Bush’s lead had been pared to 537, nonetheless sufficient to win.
Mr. Trump, by comparability, has sought to stop even the primary spherical of counting and to exclude complete batches of mail-in ballots. In a middle-of-the-night look after the closing of the polls, the president characterised the routine counting of votes as an effort to steal the election with none proof in any respect. “STOP THE COUNT!” he wrote on Twitter on Thursday as his attorneys tried in useless to do exactly that. Whereas Mr. Bush was making an attempt to protect his victory, Mr. Trump is making an attempt to overturn what could also be his opponent’s.
“There are enormous variations,” Mr. Baker mentioned of the Florida battle and the brewing fights over this week’s election. “For one factor, our complete argument was that the votes have been counted they usually’ve been counted they usually’ve been counted and it’s time to finish the method. That’s not precisely the message I heard on election evening. And so I believe it’s fairly onerous to be towards counting the votes.”
For example, he criticized the Republican effort to throw out 127,000 votes in Harris County, which incorporates his hometown, Houston, as a result of they have been forged by means of a drive-through system that the social gathering objected to. “I didn’t assume that was a very sensible factor to do and, because it seems, it wasn’t sensible legally as a result of they’ve misplaced in state court docket and in federal court docket,” he mentioned.
That in some methods mirrored one of many aspect battles within the Florida struggle when Democrats requested courts to throw out 25,000 absentee ballots in two different counties due to “irregularities” with the way in which the poll functions have been dealt with. Two Florida judges rejected the trouble, ruling that any procedural points by native authorities didn’t justify stopping voters from having their ballots counted.
One of many attorneys who argued towards the Republican effort in Texas this week was Benjamin L. Ginsberg, one of many nation’s most pre-eminent Republican election attorneys and a part of Mr. Baker’s recount staff in 2000. In a pal of the court docket temporary in federal court docket, Mr. Ginsberg in contrast the Texas Republican bid to exclude the drive-through ballots to the struggle over the 25,000 ballots in Florida.
In an interview, Mr. Ginsberg mentioned Mr. Trump’s effort to cease the rely wholesale was harmful. “It’s half and parcel of him tearing down the democratic core establishment of free elections by saying they’re rigged with out offering any actual proof,” he mentioned.
Mr. Ginsberg was a part of the all-star Republican authorized staff that Mr. Baker assembled in Florida on the fly. Amongst them have been three future members of the Supreme Court docket, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, in addition to a future senator, Ted Cruz of Texas; a future nationwide safety adviser, John R. Bolton; and outstanding attorneys like Theodore Olson and Michael Carvin.
Mr. Trump, for his half, has had little luck attracting something like that type of high-level Republican authorized firepower this week, counting on Rudolph W. Giuliani, his private lawyer, and sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, amongst others, to hold his message.
Mr. Baker, who ran 5 Republican presidential campaigns, has been sharply essential of Mr. Trump at occasions and refused to publicly endorse him, however nonetheless voted for him this fall, citing fears of a “far left” agenda if Democrats led by former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. have been to take over.
Mr. Baker mentioned that Mr. Trump has each proper to pursue any legit challenges after the votes are counted. “You’re entitled to contest or query the outcomes of any election in any state till you’re glad that it’s been performed pretty and brazenly,” he mentioned. “That’s not failing to just accept a peaceable transition of energy.”
Mr. Baker agreed that Mr. Trump ought to discover somebody like Mr. Baker to function a discipline marshal. “Message self-discipline,” he mentioned, “is especially vital in one thing like this.”
However at 90, he’s prepared for it to be another person.