New GOP lawsuit only gives false hope to the most reality-resistant of Trump's election deniers: op-ed

Texas GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert filed a federal lawsuit this Monday in a likely-to-fail effort to empower Vice President Mike Pence to ignore President-elect Joe Biden's electors and reverse the 2020 election's results. According to CNN's Elie Honig, Gohmert's move "accomplishes nothing beyond giving false hope to the last and most reality-resistant of the election deniers."

Honig writes that there's a simple way to see how ridiculous Gohmert's lawsuit is: just look to the 2000 and 2016 elections. "...on January 6, 2017, Vice President Joe Biden could have decided to install President Hillary Clinton, rather than Donald Trump. And on January 6, 2001, Vice President Al Gore could have named himself the winner of the 2000 election."

In sum, Honig writes, Gohmert's lawsuit defies reality -- namely the Constitution and federal law.

"The vice president's role in counting electoral votes (in his constitutional capacity as the presiding officer of the Senate) is entirely ceremonial, limited by law to 'open[ing]' and 'reading' the results of the states' electoral ballots," writes Honig.

Read the full op-ed over at CNN.com.