Sen. Mullin Refuses to Commit to Certifying 2024 Election Results, Citing ‘Standards’

On Thursday, Oklahoma Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin sparred with CNN anchor Pamela Brown as he declined to give a definitive answer on whether he would vote to certify election results if they went against former President Donald Trump in 2024. During the heated exchange, Mullin repeatedly tried to downplay Trump’s efforts to block the certification of the 2020 election, shifting the focus to past Democratic complaints about election outcomes.

Mullin initially stated that he would certify the results of the next election, but with a caveat: “if the elections are certified underneath the standards that they put forth.” This comment referenced baseless claims by some Republicans that several battleground states in 2020 did not follow their own election laws.

He further attempted to justify his position by drawing a parallel between Republican claims in 2020 and Democratic objections following Trump’s 2016 victory. “I will say this, Pam, at this point, it doesn’t matter if Republicans win or the Democrats win. Both parties are probably going to cry, cry foul,” Mullin said. “You got to remember in 2016 when President Trump won, that Democrats were saying that election was stolen.”

Brown quickly pushed back, calling his comparison a “false equivalence.” She pointed out the critical difference between complaints voiced by Democrats in 2016 and the organized effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which culminated in the January 6 Capitol riot, as per reports Politifact.

“What happened in 2020 was you had a sitting president in office who lost the election, who said it was rigged, it was stolen,” Brown explained. “And members of Congress voting against certification that the states had already certified and taking it to the Supreme Court, trying to overturn the will of millions of voters. That is very different than what is—”

Mullin interrupted, attempting to deflect once again by bringing up past Democratic objections: “Well if you want to talk about how many people did not vote to certify, let’s talk about the Democrats that didn’t vote to certify the election when Bush won!”

Brown persisted, highlighting the gravity of the January 6 attack and the organized effort to subvert the election: “It’s one thing for people to complain, it’s another for people to organize, and then you had January 6.” When pressed about whether he would accept the results of the 2024 election, Mullin remained noncommittal, stating, “I said I’m gonna look at it. I’ll take it by case, absolutely I’ll look at it.”