In a recent speech on the Senate floor Senator Joni Ernst decried Democratic efforts to protect the right to vote. Ernst claimed the Democrats are “using fake hysteria… to blow up the Senate and fundamentally change our country”.

If the Senator had been paying attention, she would know that Republicans across the country have introduced and passed legislation restricting voting rights and, in some cases, like Georgia, replacing existing nonpartisan voting officials with Trump supporting Republicans. They claim it is to make elections “more secure”, despite the complete lack of evidence that there was any significant voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Politico reported Jan 11 that Republicans in Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona submitted fake election certificates to the National Archivist claiming Trump actually won. As Trump and Senator Lyndsey Graham pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger to “find” 11,780 votes to make Trump the winner, it became clear that Republicans like these would do anything to keep Trump in the Whitehouse.

Perhaps if Senator Ernst had had the moral clarity to see why we need to get to the bottom of the attempted coup on Jan. 6, and the courage to make protecting the Constitution as important as protecting Trump she wouldn’t have made such a baseless and ignorant comment. Although you won’t hear this on Fox News, the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee is uncovering more evidence daily of how Trump supporters plotted to overturn the election. Millions of Americans, including our elected officials, have no idea how corrupt the former President was. Hopefully the Jan 6 committee can educate the public who to this point seem to regard the attempted coup and future disenfranchisement of millions of voters with a yawn.

Tom Jacobson

Riverside