NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
A5
Bentz backs bid to upend presidential vote count
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz of
Ontario has called for an inves-
tigation of the 2020 presiden-
tial election, a move that would
delay and possibly derail the
certification of Democrat Joe
Biden’s victory over President
Donald Trump in November’s
election.
“I have joined many of my
colleagues in asking for a con-
gressional investigation and
review into what has happened
in states where election irreg-
ularities have been observed,”
Bentz said in a statement Dec.
15.
Bentz has declined repeated
requests since last week to say
whether he would join an effort
by more than 100 Republican
House members to vote against
accepting the Electoral College
results when Congress makes a
usually perfunctory review of
the process on Jan. 6.
Bentz’s accusation of vot-
ing irregularities worthy of
a congressional investiga-
tions is an about face from the
stance of his predecessor, Rep.
Greg. Walden, R-Hood River.
Walden, who represented the
district covering Eastern and
Central Oregon for 20 years,
stepped down Saturday. Bentz
was sworn in Sunday.
In a Dec. 1 radio inter-
view with the National Jour-
nal, Walden said the election
had been fair and “the die is
cast” for Trump’s departure. At
the time he was one of only 27
Republicans in the House and
Senate who would say Biden
had defeated Trump.
Contributed photo
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, right, is sworn into office on Sun-
day, Jan. 3, as the representative for Oregon’s Congressional
District 2. The oath was administered by House Minority Lead-
er Kevin McCarthy, R-California, with Bentz’s wife, Lindsay Nor-
man, middle, holding a Bible.
Biden defeated Trump by
over 7 million votes, and the
Electoral College confirmed his
victory on Dec. 14 by a 306-
232 margin.
Trump or his surrogates
have filed more than 50 law-
suits, with only one proce-
dural request winning. The
other cases seeking to stop
vote counting or certification of
votes have been rejected. The
U.S. Supreme Court declined
without comment to consider
lawsuits by Trump supporters.
Trump has kept up the pres-
sure, switching to a long-shot
gamble to get Congress to reject
the Electoral College votes sent
by the states.
The Electoral College
results are sent to Congress,
where they are read aloud. Nor-
mally, Congress rapidly certi-
fies the vote in a largely cere-
monial process.
However, if a member of
the House and a member of the
Senate object to any slate of
electors, both chambers must
hold separate two-hour debates
before voting whether to accept
or reject the Electoral College
numbers.
House members — includ-
ing Democrats — have made
single objections in the past, but
no senator has joined the effort.
However, more than 100 of
the House’s 221 Republicans
have said they will oppose the
vote.
“Multiple states have
engaged in litigation and thou-
sands of witnesses have submit-
ted sworn affidavits of reported
fraud in the 2020 Presiden-
tial election,” a letter signed by
Bentz and other freshmen says.
Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ken-
tucky, had lobbied his caucus
not to join the objection. But
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri,
announced he would object,
and an additional dozen sen-
ators, led by Sen. Ted Cruz,
R-Texas, say they will also
object.
While the moves to block
certification are expected to
delay the result by a few hours
on Wednesday, the House
Democratic majority of 222
members will be joined by sev-
eral Republicans who oppose
the effort as un-democratic.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah,
the Republican presiden-
tial nominee in 2012 who lost
to President Barack Obama,
slammed those challenging
the Electoral College votes as
“dangerously threatening our
democratic republic.”
“I could never have imag-
ined seeing these things in
the greatest democracy in the
world,” Romney said. “Has
ambition so eclipsed principle?”
Former House Speaker Paul
Ryan, R-Wisconsin, told his
former colleagues in the House
that challenging the Electoral
College results was “striking at
the foundation of the republic.”
Ryan said he could not think
of “a more anti-democratic and
anti-conservative act than a fed-
eral intervention to overturn the
results of state-certified elec-
tions and disenfranchise mil-
lions of Americans.”
Trump tweeted that those
members of Congress who
were not supporting him were
cowards.
“The ‘Surrender Caucus’
within the Republican Party
will go down in infamy as weak
and ineffective ‘guardians’ of
our Nation, who were willing to
accept the certification of fraud-
ulent presidential numbers!”
Trump tweeted Monday.
The heat of the argument
intensified Sunday when a
recording of an hour-long tele-
phone call by Trump in the
White House to Georgia Sec-
retary of State Brad Raffen-
sperger, a Republican, was
made public.
In the call, the president told
Raffensperger, the state elec-
tions official who had already
certified the results, to go back
into the votes again to overturn
Biden’s 11,779-vote win.
“So look. All I want to do is
this. I just want to find 11,780
votes, which is one more
than we have,” Trump said.
“Because we won the state.”
Raffensperger said repeated
recounts had not changed the
outcome and that he would not
change the result.
“Well, Mr. President, the
challenge that you have is,
the data you have is wrong,”
Raffensperger said.
Bentz is the only Repub-
lican among Oregon’s five
House members and two sen-
ators. One of his colleagues,
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, said
Trump’s call to the Georgia
officials should be prosecuted.
“In 17 days, Trump has
NO claim to immunity and
should be investigated,” he
said. “If a crime was commit-
ted, he should be arrested and
prosecuted.”
Soon after the election
Republican political leaders
were refusing to buck Trump’s
claims of having the election
stolen from him. McConnell
declined to support Trump’s
conspiracy theories on vot-
ing but publicly refused to call
Biden “president-elect.”
BENTZ SWORN IN
Former state Sen. Cliff
Bentz was sworn in
on Jan. 3 to represent
Oregon’s Second Con-
gressional district as a
member of the 177th
United States Congress.
“It is an honor to
represent the citizens
of Oregon’s Second
Congressional District,
and I humbly thank
them for entrusting me
with this responsibility,”
said Bentz in a press
release. “I will fight ev-
ery day to protect rural
communities and stand
up for Oregon values in
Congress.”
Bentz was elected in
November after receiv-
ing 273,835 votes in the
congressional district.
Democrat Alex Spens-
er was in second with
168,881 votes received.
His wife, Dr. Lindsay
Norman, accompanied
him when he was sworn
in.
Bentz was one of many
new people sworn in as
a part of 177th congress.
“Thankful to have the
support of so many
including my wife, Dr.
Lindsay Norman,” Bentz
said on Facebook and
Twitter. “Ready to get to
work for the people of
(Congressional District
2) and Oregon.”
Rural public health administrators sign letter against statewide restrictions
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Grant County Public Health
Administrator Kimberly Lind-
say addresses the Nov. 18 ses-
sion of Grant County Court.
Heads of six rural East-
ern Oregon County Public
Health Departments, includ-
ing Grant County, sent an
open letter to Oregon’s Pub-
lic Health Authority request-
ing its top health official revise
the standards used to establish
COVID-19 risk categories.
The health officials from
Morrow, Baker, Klamath,
Lake, Grant and Malheur
Counties said in the letter that
rural geographic areas are
affected differently than urban
areas. The state guidelines
have not accounted for that.
The administrators pointed
to Baker County as an exam-
ple in the letter that was signed
just before Christmas. While
in the extreme category, Baker
had, as of the letter’s drafting,
72 cases over two weeks. The
letter pointed out those cases
span an area of nearly 3,000
miles.
But then Malheur County,
the administrators said in the
letter, saw over 200 cases
in two weeks over roughly
10,000 miles.
The letter’s authors said a
cafe in the tiny town of Jun-
tura, more than 70 miles from
Ontario, the country’s popula-
tion center, could be put out of
business based on the state’s
methods of establishing risk
categories.
Grant County’s Public
Health Administrator Kim-
berly Lindsay said the let-
ter’s timing was “a bit unfortu-
nate.” She said the letter went
out around the same time that
Gov. Kate Brown issued a
press release on Dec. 23 revis-
ing school reopening metrics.
“Given this, the school met-
rics are less of an issue,” Lind-
say said. “Speaking for myself,
that was the biggest reason we
signed on to the letter.”
The governor’s press
release said the decisions to
reopen schools could be made
at the local level essentially.
The press release stated
that local community spread of
COVID-19 that guides when
it is “appropriate” to open
schools for in-person instruc-
tion would be advisory rather
than mandatory, effective Jan.
1.
“Moving forward, decisions
to resume in-person instruction
must be made locally, district
by district, school by school,”
according to the governor’s
press release.
with a cone stuck over its
head.
• Grant County Sheriff’s
Office
Dec. 28: Received a report
of theft on Antelope Drive.
Dec. 28: Received a report
of theft on Dixie Creek.
• John Day ambulance
Dec. 28: Responded for
a 71-year-old man who had
fallen on Southeast Hillcrest
Drive.
Dec. 28: Responded for a
90-year-old woman with trou-
ble breathing on East Ninth
Street.
Dec. 30: Dispatched for a
man who was injured in the
mouth at the fairgrounds.
Dec. 31: Dispatched for
an ATV accident on Canyon
Creek, involving a 21-year-
old man with a broken arm.
Jan. 1: Received a report
of an 18-year-old woman who
overdosed on Patterson Drive.
• John Day fire
Dec. 31: Received a report
of a tree on fire on LaCosta
Road. It was a controlled burn
with a permit.
Dec. 31: Responded to a
report of a possible brush and
grass fire.
• Long Creek ambulance
Dec. 28: Along with John
Day ambulance, responded for
a 55-year-old man with chest
pain on East Main Street.
COPS AND COURTS
Arrests and citations in
the Blue Mountain Eagle are
taken from the logs of law
enforcement agencies. Every
effort is made to report the
court disposition of arrest
cases.
a count of driving under the
influence committed on Oct.
16. His license was suspended
for a year, and he was ordered
to pay $2,255 in DUII fines
and intoxication conviction
fees.
Grant County Circuit
Court
Grant County Sheriff
David W. McNeil, 67,
pleaded guilty Dec. 31 to a
count of harassment commit-
ted on June 23. He was sen-
tenced 18 months of bench
probation, 40 hours of com-
munity service and to pay
a $500 compensatory fee
and a $100 fine. A count of
third-degree sexual abuse was
dismissed.
Abraham M. Schaefer,
37, pleaded guilty Dec. 31 to
The Grant County Sher-
iff’s Office reported the fol-
lowing for the week of Dec.
30:
Concealed
handgun
licenses: 17
Average inmates: 9
Bookings: 8
Releases: 8
Arrests: 4
Citations: 0
Fingerprints: 2
Civil papers: 5
Warrants processed: 0
Assistance/Welfare check:
0
Search and Rescue: 0
Grant County Justice
Court
Exceeding speed limit:
Jacob M. Brown, 29, John
Day, Nov. 26, 86/65 zone,
fined $265.
Driving uninsured: Leann
J. Musgrove, 40, John Day,
Oct. 12, fined $265; David W.
Burke, 26, John Day, Oct. 4,
fined $265; Kohlten F. Jones,
18, John Day, Nov. 11, fined
$265, Nov. 11, fined $265.
No operator’s license:
Danil Germanov, 25, Sunny
Isles Beach, Florida, Nov. 22,
fined $265; Patrick L. Kinsey,
54, Prairie City, March 18,
fined $265.
Dispatch
John Day dispatch worked
143 calls during the week of
Dec. 27 to Jan. 3, including:
• John Day Police
Department
Dec. 30: Somer Robinson,
31, of John Day was cited for
driving while suspended and
no insurance.
Jan. 1: Received a report of
criminal mischief at a business
on West Main Street.
Jan. 2: Cited Levi B. Kalin,
38, of John Day for driving
while suspended and with no
insurance.
Jan. 3: Hope 4 Paws was
called regarding a found bor-
der collie on Southwest Brent
Drive.
• Oregon State Police
Jan. 2: Advised of a deer
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