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WASHINGTON (AP) – The unprecedented Republican effort to overthrow the presidential election has been condemned by a wave of current and former GOP officials warning that the effort to cast doubt on Joe Biden’s victory and to keep the president Donald Trump in power is undermining Americans’ faith in democracy.
Trump garnered the support of a dozen Republican senators and up to 100 House Republicans to challenge the Electoral College vote when Congress meets in joint session to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 victory.
With Biden slated to be inaugurated on January 20, Trump is stepping up efforts to prevent the traditional transfer of power, tearing the party apart.
Despite Trump’s allegations of electoral fraud, state officials insisted that the elections run smoothly and that there was no evidence of fraud or other issues that could change the outcome. States have certified their results as fair and valid. Of the more than 50 lawsuits the president and his allies have brought against election results, almost all have been dismissed or dropped. He also lost twice in the United States Supreme Court.
In a leaked call on Sunday, Trump can be heard pressuring Georgian officials to “find” him more voice.
But some senior lawmakers, including prominent Republicans, are pushing back.
“The 2020 election is over,” a statement from a bipartisan group of 10 senators, including Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mitt Romney of Louisiana, said on Sunday. Utah.
The senators wrote that further attempts to question the election are “contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine the confidence of Americans in the already determined election results.”
Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said, “Members of Congress’ plan to reject presidential certification mocks our system and who we are as Americans.”
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said in a statement that “Biden’s victory is completely legitimate” and that efforts to cast doubt on the election “strike at the foundation of our Republic”.
Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third House Republican, warned in a note to colleagues that objections to the Electoral College’s results “set an extremely dangerous precedent.”
One of the more outspoken conservatives in Congress, Republican Senator from Arkansas, Tom Cotton, has said he will not oppose the certified electoral count on January 6. “I’m grateful for what the president has accomplished over the past four years, which is why I campaigned so vigorously for his re-election. But opposing certified electoral votes won’t give him a second term – it won’t. than to encourage Democrats who want to further erode our constitutional system of government.
Cotton said he supports further investigation of any electoral issue, regardless of the electoral college’s certified results tally.
Other prominent former officials have also criticized the ongoing attack on election results. In a brief Washington Post editorial, the 10 living former defense secretaries – half who served as Republican presidents – said “the time to question the results has passed; the time for the official counting of the votes of the Electoral College, as prescribed in the Constitution and the Statute, has arrived. “
The unusual challenge of the presidential election, on a scale never seen since the aftermath of the civil war, has clouded the opening of the new Congress and is about to consume its first days. The House and Senate will meet in joint session on Wednesday to accept the Electoral College vote, a generally routine process that should now be a protracted struggle.
Trump refuses to give in, and pressure is mounting on Vice President Mike Pence to secure victory while presiding over what is usually a ceremonial role during the session of Congress. Trump stirs up crowds for a rally in Washington.
The president tweeted Sunday against the election record and Republicans not on his side.
Biden’s transition spokesman Mike Gwin called Senators’ efforts a “rant” that will not change the fact that Biden is sworn in on January 20.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to her colleagues that while there is “no doubt” about Biden’s victory, their job now “is to convince the American people more to trust him. our democratic system. “
The effort in the Senate was directed by the senses. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., And Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Hawley defended his actions in a lengthy email to his colleagues, explaining that his constituents in Missouri have been “loud and clear” with their belief that Biden’s defeat to Trump was unfair.
“It is my responsibility as a senator to voice their concerns,” Hawley wrote on Saturday night.
Hawley plans to oppose the Pennsylvania state count. But Republican Senator Pat Toomey criticized the attack on Pennsylvania’s electoral system and said the results that named Biden the winner were valid.
Cruz’s coalition of 11 Republican senators promises to reject the Electoral College tally unless Congress launches a commission to immediately audit the election results. They focus on the states where Trump has raised unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud. Congress is unlikely to accept their request.
The group, which presented no new evidence of electoral problems, includes Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Mike Braun of the ‘Indiana. The new senators in the group are Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
The convening of the joint session to count the votes of the electoral college has already been the subject of objections. In 2017, several House Democrats contested Trump’s victory, but Biden, who was then presiding as vice president at the time, quickly fired them to assert Trump’s victory. The protests rarely approached this level of intensity.
This is a defining moment for the Republican Party in a post-Trump era. Hawley and Cruz are both potential candidates for the 2024 presidential election, further strengthening their alignment with Trump’s base of supporters. Others are trying to chart a different course for the GOP.
Pence will be closely watched as he presides over what should be an extended showdown, depending on the number of challenges ahead.
The vice president “commends the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections,” Pence chief of staff Marc Short said in a statement. press release Saturday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has warned Republicans about such challenges, but said little about it, as on Capitol Hill when the Senate opened on Sunday.
“We will deal with all of this on Wednesday,” he said.
Some Republicans are not planning to join the effort. Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., said on Sunday that his colleagues will have the opportunity to make their case, but that they must produce evidence and facts. “They have a high bar to cross,” he says.
Congress is reluctant to interfere with state-run electoral systems. States choose their own electoral agents and write their electoral laws. During the coronavirus pandemic, many states have adapted by allowing postal voting to mitigate the health risks of in-person voting.
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