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Utah Senator Mitt Romney and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse – two of the few lawmakers in their party willing to criticize Trump – issued statements late Thursday night, blaming the president for his attempts to reverse his defeat in Michigan. .
“Having failed to make even a plausible case of fraud or widespread conspiracy in court, the president has now resorted to undue pressure on national and local authorities to overthrow the will of the people and annul the election.” Romney said in a statement posted on Twitter. “It’s hard to imagine worse, more undemocratic action from a sitting US president.”
Romney and Sasse were reacting to Trump’s decision to invite Republican leaders in the Michigan legislature to the White House on Friday as he plans to delay or block certification of elections in key states that have opted for Biden.
Sasse said in his statement he is asking his constituents to watch what Trump’s legal team is arguing in court, not what they say in public.
“Based on what I read in their documents, when lawyers for the Trump campaign went to court under oath, they repeatedly refused to allege the grand fraud – because there are consequences legal to lie to judges, ”Sasse said. “President Trump lost Michigan by more than 100,000 votes, and the campaign and its allies lost or withdrew from the five lawsuits in Michigan for failing to produce evidence.”
Romney and Sasse’s statements are unlikely to be a sign that support on Capitol Hill is waning for Trump and his post-election campaign of lies and conspiracy theories.
Romney was the only Republican senator to vote to convict Trump in his impeachment trial earlier this year and has frequently criticized the president. Sasse is at times a critic of the president, going hot and cold with the president, but having intensified his criticism in recent months, including during a town hall call with voters ahead of the November elections.
Most Republican lawmakers have encouraged the president to take his unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud to court and have refused to recognize Biden as president-elect. Biden will win the Electoral College by a vote of 306-232, CNN drafts, the same margin Trump won in 2016. He will also garner more than 5 million more votes than Trump in the popular vote.
Sasse described this press conference as particularly dangerous.
“Wild press conferences erode public confidence,” he said. “So no, obviously Rudy and his cronies shouldn’t be pressuring voters to ignore their certification obligations under the law. We are a nation of laws, not tweets.”
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