Alabama AG Steve Marshall Won’t Say If Biden Is ‘Lawfully Serving’ President

Day four of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing veered into conspiracy territory on Thursday when one of the GOP’s witnesses, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, repeatedly refused to say that Joe Biden is the lawfully elected president.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pressed Marshall on his ties to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Marshall runs the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a nonprofit under the Republican Attorneys General Association that helped organize the protests in support of President Donald Trump that fed into the insurrection.

Jackson wasn’t present at Thursday’s hearing, as it was only for witness testimony.

Whitehouse asked Marshall if he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and if he approved a robocall that went out from the Rule of Law Defense Fund urging pro-Trump protesters to march to the Capitol that day. He also asked if Marshall had any contact with members of Congress that day “in any effort to keep the electoral process open, through objections, to give those coming to assault the Capitol time to breach the Capitol and disrupt the elections process.”

Marshall said no to all questions.

After some tense back-and-forth, Whitehouse then asked, “Is Joseph R. Biden of Delaware the duly elected and lawfully serving president of the United States of America?”

“He is the president of this country,” replied Marshall.

“Is he the duly elected and lawfully serving president of the United States?” asked Whitehouse.

“He is the president of our country,” said Marshall.

The Democratic senator paused and asked if Marshall was purposefully omitting “duly elected and lawfully serving” in his response.

“I’m answering the question,” replied the GOP attorney general. “He is the president of the United States.”

Whitehouse pressed a little more, “You have no view as to whether he was duly elected or is lawfully serving?”

Marshall replied, “I’m telling you he’s the president.”

“No further questions,” Whitehouse concluded.

The evasiveness by Marshall, who is up for reelection this year, was certainly aimed at fueling the “big lie”: the idea that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump amid widespread voter fraud across the country. This is the same lie that fueled the Jan. 6 Capitol assault that left five people dead and dozens injured, and the same lie that 147 Republicans in Congress used to justify their vote to overturn the election.

Even more than a year since Biden overwhelmingly won the election, fair and square, some Republicans like Marshall still want to keep the idea alive that the election was stolen in order maintain their own political support from the GOP’s base of Trump loyalists.

“Call our press office,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), when HuffPost asked him earlier this year if he believes Biden fairly won the election a year ago.

“I don’t have anything for you,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said.

“I don’t do hallway interviews,” said Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), stepping into a Senate elevator.

Cruz, Kennedy and Hyde-Smith all voted to overturn the presidential election.