Called to quit, Babin blames Court

The Houston Chronicle’s Editorial Board has called for Orange’s representative in Congress, Rep. Brian Babin of Woodville, to resign for his part in last Wednesday’s deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Babin, a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump the past four years, released a statement blaming the Supreme Court for the riot of Trump supporters that left five people dead.

“If SCOTUS [Supreme Court of the United States] had properly acted and heard the Texas lawsuit, we might have prevented frustrations from festering into the tragic acts of [Jan. 6],” Babin said on his Twitter account on Jan. 7.

“The American people deserved a decision on the merit of numerous claims of unconstitutionality, irregularity, and fraud. It was their duty. They failed.”

Babin, who represents Texas' 36th District, was referring to the Supreme Court rejecting a lawsuit filed by Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton seeking to throw out votes from Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan that helped Democrat Joe Biden win the Nov. 3 Presidential election.

The case was rejected by seven of the nine Justices saying Texas lacked standing to intervene in other states’ elections. Those voting not to hear the case included all three Justices appointed by President Trump.

In the week leading to Jan. 6, Babin announced he would vote in favor of objections to certifying the election, hoping to win a 10-day audit of all voting requested by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Babin appeared on Newsmax TV and FOX News and repeated the circular thinking that there must be fraud because Trump and his allies said there was and tens of millions of Trumpists believed it and if you asked anyone for proof, you were told it must be true because so many people were believed it.

Babin was one of 16 Texas Republican members of the House of Representative that joined Texas Cruz in ultimately voting Wednesday night in favor of discredited objections to certifying the election.

The Houston Chronicle referred to the Texas reps as “The Seditious Sixteen.”

The paper, in its editorial, said:

“We Texans have sent our share of buffoons, grifters, lightweights, crooks, ignoramuses and ego-obsessed asses to Washington as representatives of the people … In the wake of last week’s Capitol insurrection, there are more names to add to this list, starting with [Sen. Ted] Cruz and the 16 Republican House members who voted in favor discredited objections to certifying the election … Trump and his MAGA maniacs have made a mockery of our democratic institutions.

“We must hold our elected officials accountable for their role in this outrage. Congress members such as Randy Weber, Brian Babin and [others] ended the day where they began: in craven thrall to Trump and his true-believers. They must be censured, at the very least.

“In this hour of crisis, Cruz and his craven colleagues need to step aside. Bigger, braver, more principled Texans must step up.”

Houston Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a retired Navy SEAL who lost an eye to an IED explosion in Afghanistan, ripped lawmakers who had been saying this was “our time to fight.”

“When people fought, those same members of Congress who called people to fight, well, they were nowhere to be found,” he told the Dallas Morning News.

Among many corporations who have said they are pausing donations to Congressmen were defense contractors Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, each of which donated more than $10,000 of the $1.3 million Babin raised for the 2020 election.

His latest “pinned” Tweet, written over the weekend, insists he isn’t changing his stance.

“To the millions who were told to sit down, shut up, and blindly accept the unconstitutionality of the 2020 election: I stood and objected,” his account posted. “To abdicate that responsibility is a surrender to tyranny.”