In addition to at least 140 House Republicans preparing to overturn the US election results, a coalition of 11 Republican senators, led by Ted Cruz, has announced its plan to turn voters away from some states when the Congress meets on January 6 to formally certify the Electoral College and Victory of President-elect Joe Biden. In a joint statement, the senators claimed that the 2020 presidential elections included “unprecedented allegations of voter fraud” and other voting irregularities.
“We intend to vote on January 6 to reject the voters of the disputed states as not ‘regularly delivered’ and ‘legally certified’ (the legal requirement), unless and until the emergency audit of 10 days, “the statement read.
US Vice President Mike Pence has also welcomed Republican senators’ plan to refuse to certify Biden’s victory. The vice president’s chief of staff, Marc Short, said Pence shares the “concerns of millions of Americans,” adding that he has welcomed efforts by lawmakers to use their authority “to raise objections and present evidence to Congress.” .
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What can happen on January 6?
The House of Representatives and the Senate will debate for two hours the objections, if any, raised by the legislators, which will be followed by a vote. However, US President Donald Trump’s allies need a majority of lawmakers in both houses to vote in his favor to uphold the objections. Such attempts have virtually no chance of success, as Democrats control the House and top Senate Republicans have already recognized Biden as the next president of the United States.
Several Republican leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have been warning their Republican colleagues not to disrupt the certification process. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said in a statement that the “heinous ploy” to turn voters away “threatens our Democratic Republic dangerously.” Romney highlighted the fact that the Justice Department did not find sufficient evidence of wrongdoing to overturn the election.
“I would never have imagined seeing these things in the largest democracy in the world. Has ambition at the beginning so eclipsed? he asked rhetorically.
Earlier, Republican Senator Ben Sasse had written in a Facebook post that he had been urging his colleagues to reject the “dangerous ploy” to reverse the election. Sasse explained that there is a group of ambitious politicians who think there is a quick way to “tap into the president’s populist base without causing any real long-term damage.”
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