A dozen Republican senators, led by Ted Cruz, have decided to challenge the victory of President-elect Joe Biden when the Electoral College vote is summed up in Congress on January 6. To what extent can this move hinder Democrat Biden’s entry into the presidency?
Senator Ted Cruz’s efforts are directed against Republican leaders in the upper house of the US Congress, who have argued that the Senate’s role in certifying election results is largely ceremonial and have sought to avoid a lengthy debate over presidential election results.
In a statement, Ted Cruz, US Senator from Texas, and 10 other senators said they intend to vote to reject electors from the states that President Donald Trump mentioned in the context of his speeches about falsifying the 2020 elections. These politicians said Congress should immediately appoint a commission to conduct an emergency 10-day review of election results in these states.
“Upon completion, individual states will assess the commission’s findings and, if necessary, may convene a special legislative session to confirm the change in their vote,” the senators said.
Which states will be subject to the proposed revision has not yet been specified.
Democrats and some moderate Republicans called the senators’ move “undemocratic.” Biden’s campaign spokesman Michael Gwynne described these actions as ‘theatrical’, with no evidence whatsoever: “This stunt will not change the fact that President-elect Biden will be sworn in on January 20, and these baseless claims have already been reviewed and rejected by Trump’s own attorney general. , dozens of courts and representatives of election commissions from both sides.”
Derek Mueller, a law professor at the University of Iowa, said that pushing for an audit is a political move that will not affect the outcome of the election. Mueller said that while the 1887 law governing how legislators validate election results is not entirely clear, most scholars believe that Congress has no legal authority to request an audit.
Even if lawmakers had such powers, he said, the majority in both chambers would need to support the audit, and there is little chance that the proposal will receive this level of support.
As CNN previously reported, an objection from President Donald Trump’s Republican allies has little or no chance of changing the outcome of the election, unless it may delay the inevitable confirmation of Biden’s victory as the winner of the Electoral College vote and the next president of the United States by several hours.
There were no credible allegations of any voting issues that could affect the election, as confirmed by dozens of state and federal courts, governors, state electoral officials, and departments of homeland security and justice, CNN claims.
Recall that Biden defeated Trump with a margin of 306 votes against 232 for his opponent in the Electoral College. Under the electoral college system, “electoral votes” are allocated to the states and the District of Columbia based on their representation in Congress.
Trump has called on Republicans to prevent Biden from taking office, even though they have no viable mechanism to do so.
Lawsuits by Trump and his allies in the courts to overturn the election results have failed. On Friday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by MP Louie Gohmert, who was trying to allow Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the congressional vote count, to declare Trump the winner on January 6.
Pence chief of staff, Mark Short, said in a statement Saturday that lawmakers have the right to raise their objections.
“The Vice President applauds the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the powers they have under the law to file objections and present evidence to Congress and the American people on January 6,” Short said.
Cruise and other Republicans’ efforts came days after Missouri Senator Josh Hawley became the first serving Senate to announce that he would challenge the election, Reuters recalls. A number of Republicans in the US House of Representatives also plan to challenge the vote.
According to CNN , in addition to Ted Cruise, the group of senators includes Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, James Lankford from Oklahoma, Steve Danes from Montana, John F. Kennedy from Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee, and Mike Brown from Indiana, as well as Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming. Roger Marshall from Kansas, Bill Hagerty from Tennessee, and Tommy Tuberville from Alabama.
Senators said they expect their attempt to succeed: “We are not naive. We fully expect that most, if not all Democrats, and perhaps more than a few Republicans, will vote differently.”
Several Republican senators have said they do not support any attempts to disrupt the electoral college vote attestation.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican, acknowledged Biden’s victory on December 15 and called on other Republicans to refrain from objection on January 6.
Penn State Republican Senator Pat Toomey, who is about to step down, criticized Cruise and others for undermining voters’ will to choose their leaders and said Trump’s defeat in his state was due to diminishing support for the president in the suburbs and loss of support in most rural counties. rather than fraud: “I intend to vigorously defend our form of government against these efforts to disenfranchise millions of voters in my state and other states.”
Utah Senator Mitt Romney, the only Republican to vote to impeach Trump for seeking help from a foreign (Ukrainian) government to investigate his political rival (Biden), expressed dismay at his party’s support for the effort to cancel the election results.
“I never imagined that I would see such things in the greatest democracy in the world. Has ambition overshadowed principles so much? ”Romney asks rhetorically in a statement.
