Accountability for the Ohio GOP Starts Now

On Jan. 20, 2021, Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.

However, many Republicans are still humoring Donald Trump — even as he has attempted to overturn the will of the voters and endangered public health and national security by blocking the transition.

Sen. Sherrod Brown told his Senate colleagues, “You don’t have to play along with the tweets and the chaos and the crazy anymore. We need to move on. We need to actually deliver for the people who voted for us and put their faith in us.”

We aren’t waiting until January to hold Ohio Republicans accountable for pandering to Trump. Ohioans are writing to their local newspapers to call out the GOP for their calculated strategy of putting party over country.

Here’s what they’re saying …

In the Warren Tribune Chronicle, Linda Cocuzzi Ritcher writes:

It must be that time again. Rob Portman is worried about his re-election, so he’s pretending to be bipartisan once more, after four years of kowtowing to Donald Trump’s every single whim.

Portman voted for Betsy DeVos as secretary of education. He voted for Alexander Acosta, despite knowing about the sweetheart plea deal he arranged for sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. He voted for Trump’s tax scam that gave huge breaks to corporations like GM that laid off Ohio workers and shipped jobs overseas.

Now, he’s calling for bipartisan legislation to address the coronavirus crisis. What he fails to mention is the House passed the HEROES Act months ago. Since that time, Mitch McConnell has sat on his hands and done nothing to help the millions of Americans who lost their jobs and the small businesses struggling to survive.

If Portman wants to do more than talk about bipartisanship — if he actually wanted to demonstrate it — he could acknowledge the reality that Joe Biden won the 2020 election and is president-elect. Joe Biden will be sworn into office on Jan. 20, and every minute the Trump administration stonewalls his transition team, our national security is put at risk.

I don’t believe Portman really cares about the coronavirus crisis or our national security. I think he cares about his political future and that’s why he continues to placate Trump. Nobody in Ohio believes Rob’s bipartisan act anymore.

In the Toledo Blade, Susan Muezner writes:

I was willing to give Mike DeWine the benefit of the doubt in the early months of the coronavirus crisis. It seemed like he was listening to public health experts like Dr. Amy Acton, and he was willing to stand up to right-wing extremists in his own party, at least for a time.

But there was one extremist Mr. DeWine refused to stand up to — Donald Trump.

In the weeks before Election Day, Mr. Trump came to Ohio multiple times to hold superspreader rallies to glorify his own ego. He caught coronavirus himself, but that didn’t stop him from continuing to hold events where the attendees refused to wear masks and follow social distancing guidelines.

And Mr. DeWine didn’t say a single critical word about Mr. Trump’s rallies, despite the statewide mask mandate.

Now coronavirus cases are spiking, and our hospitals are filling up with patients. Even though Mr. DeWine wouldn’t call out Mr. Trump, now the soon-to-be former President is tweeting out veiled threats against Ohio’s governor.

When will Ohio Republicans learn? Mr. Trump does not care about their loyalty. He doesn’t care that more than 1,000 Americans are dying every single day from coronavirus. He only cares about himself.

In the Martins Ferry Times Leader, Amy Shaw Yevincy writes:

As Ohio’s attorney general, Dave Yost is supposed to represent the interests of the people of this state, not Donald Trump and his failed presidential campaign.

But that’s exactly what Yost is doing by intervening in a lawsuit to throw out ballots cast by Pennsylvania voters, simply because the Trump campaign is desperate to create doubt around the results of the election.

Just like all of the Republicans in D.C. that are “humoring” Trump and going along with his schemes, Dave Yost is playing political games.

However, it’s even worse when Ohio’s top law enforcement official uses the power of his office to push a false narrative and attempt to overturn the will of the voters.

Let’s keep in mind — the relatively small number of ballots that are being contested would not change the results in Pennsylvania. That isn’t stopping Dave Yost from wasting Ohio taxpayer resources on this shameful exercise.

Remember, he is wasting Ohio taxpayer resources to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters by having their vote not count. How would you feel if Pennsylvania’s attorney general did the same for your vote?

In two years it will be time for Dave Yost to go before the voters and explain why he decided to side with Donald Trump instead of democracy. I won’t forget. Will you?