Republican Alabama AG refuses to acknowledge Biden as the 'duly elected' president

On Thursday, March 24 — the fourth and final day in the Senate confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee — one of the Republican witnesses was Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall. And when Marshall was questioned by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, he refused to admit that Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election.

The Washington Post reports, “Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) repeatedly questioned Marshall — who was the chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association’s Rule of Law Defense Fund in the lead-up to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — over what involvement he may have had in the robocalls the Rule of Law Defense Fund sent out urging recipients to march to the Capitol that day. Marshall, who said he was not in Washington on January 6, 2021, protested Whitehouse’s efforts to ask about the group’s ties to the insurrection.”

After grilling Marshall, Whitehouse asked the Alabama attorney general, “Is Joseph R. Biden of Delaware the duly elected and lawfully serving president of the United States of America?” — to which Marshall replied, “He is the president of this country.”

Marshall was obviously being evasive, and Whitehouse reiterated, “Is he the duly elected and lawfully serving president of the United States?” But Marshall still refused to answer the “duly elected” part of Whitehouse’s question, repeating, “He is the president of this country.”

Marshall refused to give Whitehouse a straight answer, making it painfully clear that he continues to buy into the Big Lie — the false and debunked claim that Donald Trump really won the 2020 presidential election but was robbed of his victory because of widespread voter fraud. In fact, bipartisan recounts in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia and other swing states confirmed that Biden won the election, picking up 306 electoral votes and defeating Trump by more than 7 million in the popular vote.