Congresswoman Maxine Waters Booed After Objection To Electoral College Count
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com/AP) — Congress certified Donald Trump's presidential victory Friday over the objections of a handful of House Democrats, including Los Angeles-area Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
Waters and other House Democrats from at least 10 states objected to the votes, raising issues of voter suppression as well as American intelligence showing that Russia tried to influence the election in favor of Trump. In each case, their objections were denied because they didn't have the support of any senators.
As the votes were announced for state after state, Democratic members of the House stood up to object. But in each case, no Democratic senator would join them, and Biden cut them off.
"There can be no debate," Biden said repeatedly.
Under federal law, if at least one senator and one House member object to the vote from any state, the House and Senate will meet separately to debate the merits of the objection.
Toward the end of the count, Waters - who had campaigned for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign - pleaded for a senator to join her in objecting.
"Is there one United States senator who will join me in this letter of objection?" Waters said to boos from Republicans. None did.
As Waters began to speak, House Speaker Paul Ryan was seen seated behind Biden laughing at the overture.
After the vote, Biden told some of the House Democrats who tried to object why he had cut them off.
"Basically, it was the rules and we understand that," said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, who led the effort to object to Trump's election.
Trump received 304 electoral votes, compared with the 227 won by his Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton, according to the official vote tally.
Waters, a ranking member of the influential House Financial Services Committee, said in a TV interview earlier this week that she doesn't plan on cooperating with the Trump administration.
"I have no intention of pretending everything is alright, that we're going to work together," she told MSNBC. "I'm going to fight him every inch of the way."
When asked if she would reconsider if Trump invited her to the White House, Waters replied, "Oh no, I won't go."
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