John Tierney: “The challenger has the obligation and burden to overcome the results that are there and that are certified. In this…”

“The challenger has the obligation and burden to overcome the results that are there and that are certified. In this instance, it is an even additional burden on that because there they are certified. The recount has been done. Again, I do not mean to contradict my colleagues here, but I like to keep bringing the focus back to this institution and this leadership that is allowing this to continue. We can talk about a private individual having too much authority, a private individual getting subpoena power that no other private individual has, but we have to come back to this institution and wonder why our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, that have elected that leadership to this body, are allowing them to do to a Member of this body what has never been done before, and ought not to have been done in the first place, and ought not to be done, period, in this body, because it is a blight on this entire situation, it is a blight on the membership of this organization. We have an institution here that has to be protected, we have Members that have rights, and we have to go back to the voters and explain to them why it is that this body and this leadership is disregarding the Constitution, disregarding the rights of a Member, disregarding the rights of people living in that district and of the American public in general, and making a mockery of the electoral process.”