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WASHINGTON – Eleven Republican Senators and Senators-elect said on Saturday they would vote to reject President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory next week when Congress meets to formally certify it, challenging the results of a free election and fair to engage in President Trump’s futile attempts to stay in power with false allegations of voter fraud.
While their decision won’t change the outcome, it ensures that what would normally be a shallow session on Capitol Hill Wednesday to ratify the presidential election results will instead become a partisan brawl, in which Republicans amplify specious election rigging claims. widespread and irregularities that have been dismissed by courts across the country.
It will also expose deep divisions among Republicans at a critical time, forcing them to choose between accepting the results of a Democratic election – even if that means angering supporters who dislike the result – and showing loyalty. to Mr. Trump, who demanded that they support his attempt to hang on to the presidency.
In a joint statement, Republicans – including seven senators and four who are due to be sworn in on Sunday – called for a 10-day audit of election results in the “contested states” and said they would vote to reject voters in those “contested states”. States. until one is finished.
The group is led by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and also includes Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Mike Braun of Indiana. , and elected senators Cynthia Lummis. from Wyoming, Roger Marshall from Kansas, Bill Hagerty from Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville from Alabama.
With Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who announced this week that he would oppose Congressional certification of election results, they bring the proportion of Senate Republicans who have broken with their leaders to nearly a quarter. to join the drive to invalidate Mr. Biden. victory. In the House, more than half of Republicans have joined a failed trial seeking to overthrow the will of voters, with more expected to support the effort to challenge the results in Congress next week.
While the senators’ statement called the January 6 vote “the only remaining constitutional power to review and force the resolution of the multiple allegations of serious electoral fraud,” there is no provision in the Constitution for such a review. after the Electoral College certified the election.
In the statement, Republicans cited the results of a poll showing that most of their party members believe the election was “rigged,” a claim Mr. Trump has made for months, and which has been repeated in the right-wing news media and by many Republicans. members of Congress.
“A fair and credible audit – conducted swiftly and completed well before January 20 – would dramatically improve American confidence in our electoral process and greatly enhance the legitimacy of who will become our next president,” they wrote. “We are not acting to thwart the democratic process, but rather to protect it.”
They also noted that their efforts would likely be unsuccessful, given that any such challenge must be supported both by the House, where Democrats hold a majority, and the Senate, where top Republicans, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, tried to put it out.
“We expect most if not all Democrats, and perhaps more than a few Republicans, to vote otherwise,” the senators wrote.
The congressional certification process is usually a procedural step, but as Mr. Trump continues to perpetuate the myth of widespread voter fraud, Republicans in Congress are eager to challenge the results. This is the case, even though the vast majority of them just won the election in the same ballot that they now claim to have been fraudulent.
Mr McConnell has discouraged Senate lawmakers from joining House efforts, and South Dakota Sen. John Thune, Republican No. 2, told reporters that contesting the election results would fail in the Senate “as a hunting dog, ”prompting a Twitter tirade from Mr. Trump.
Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse on Thursday condemned the attempt, berating it as a “dangerous ploy” intended to “deprive millions of Americans.”
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