Richmond, VA — While prominent GOP leaders from across the country have condemned Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans' baseless efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election, Kirk Cox has refused to join them, siding again with Trump and Amanda Chase.
Republicans in Congress - including at least one from Virginia - are planning to object to the certification of the electoral college results on Wednesday, their latest attempt to subvert democracy and invalidate a free and fair election. Five Republican Senators including Mitt Romney, Governor Larry Hogan, former House Speaker Paul Ryan, and Chair of the House Republican Conference Liz Cheney have all slammed these efforts as an attack on American democracy.
Recently after President Trump tried to force the Georgia Secretary of State to either "find" or invalidate thousands of votes to change the outcome of the election, even more Republicans spoke out. Yet Cox has said nothing, standing by the president who has been pushing baseless conspiracy theories about the election for months.
Staying silent while siding with the conspiracy theorists in his party undermining the election is nothing new for Cox. When Senator Chase alleged that his own constituents were committing voter fraud (a claim Politifact gave a “pants on fire” rating), Cox declined to comment. And when his fellow Virginia Republican, Denver Riggleman, denounced attacks on the election results and accepted Joe Biden's win, Cox refused to join him and waited six weeks to acknowledge reality.
"Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans are attacking our democracy, launching baseless claims about voter fraud and spreading conspiracy theories that undermine our free and fair elections. While other Republicans have rightly condemned their attempts to overturn the election, Kirk Cox and Amanda Chase are siding with the far-right extremists in their party. Standing up to defend our democracy should be easy, but Cox's spinelessness is exactly why Virginians don't trust him to lead," said Democratic Party of Virginia Communications Director Grant Fox.