Sunday, the Republican congressman filed a lawsuit against Vice President Mike Pence in yet another desperate attempt to overturn the presidential election, which Democrat Joe Biden won handily. In the suit, Gohmert and several other Republicans ask a Texas federal judge to allow Pence to choose pro-Trump electors on Jan. 6, according to The Daily Beast.
News of the suit drew both awe and ire on social media. CNN legal analyst Elie Honig had harsh words for Gohmert, calling his effort “dead on arrival” and accomplishing nothing but “giving false hope to the last and most reality-resistant of the election deniers.”
Some critics, like author Steve Silberman, warned against laughing off Gohmert’s attempt to keep the outgoing president in office. Rather than just being “far-fetched,” Gohmert’s effort is seditious and he should “GO TO PRISON for sedition,” Silberman said in a tweet.
Others did find humor in the Gohmert’s move, though."Gohmert’s gonna Gohmert." – Professor Mark Jones
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“breaking: Louie Gohmert has tested positive for being the stupidest fucking idiot on Capitol Hill,” said Twitter user @itsJeffTiedrich.
If nothing else, Gohmert’s lawsuit will make Pence’s “difficult job just a little more difficult,” said Mark Jones, political science professor at Rice University. Now, the vice president will either support the suit, thus flouting the intent of millions of voters, or he’ll reject it, which would put him at odds with Trump.breaking: Louie Gohmert has tested positive for being the stupidest fucking idiot on Capitol Hill
— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) December 28, 2020
So far, none of the more than 50 lawsuits filed by Trump and his GOP supporters have stuck, including a “wacko” one by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that the U.S. Supreme Court threw out earlier this month.
Some have speculated that Paxton filed his own frivolous lawsuit to curry favor with Trump's base because he may be vulnerable to losing in the Republican primary when he’s up for reelection in 2022. Others believe he did it because he was seeking a presidential pardon to absolve him of his various legal conundrums.
But Gohmert doesn’t have much to gain, Jones said; he easily secured reelection in 2020 and has never faced much of a challenge during the Republican primary. Rather than deploying the lawsuit as a sort of self-preservation floatie, the “gadfly” politician likely just filed it because he wanted to.
Or, as Jones succinctly quipped: “Gohmert’s gonna Gohmert.”
