[ad_1]
Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and nine other Republican senators or senators-elect from the United States said Saturday that they will reject presidential voters from states where US President Donald Trump has contested their defeat before President-elect. Joe Biden, “unless and until [an] The 10-day emergency audit is completed ”of those results.
The move is largely symbolic and unlikely to overturn the outcome of the presidential election. However, it adds to a deepening sense of the schism and crisis plaguing American democracy.
Trump has refused to give in to Biden, although the Democrat won more than 7 million more votes nationally and took the electoral college by 306-232, a margin that Trump said was an overwhelming slippage when he beat Hillary Clinton. in 2016.
The Trump campaign has lost the vast majority of the more than 50 lawsuits it has filed in battle states, alleging massive electoral fraud, and before the United States Supreme Court.
On Friday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a House Republican that sought to give Vice President Mike Pence, who will preside over the certification of the electoral college result on Wednesday, the power to revoke it.
Nonetheless, senators and senators-elect who released a statement Saturday followed Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri in pledging to challenge the result.
‘Unprecedented accusations’
Objections are also expected from a majority of House Republicans. Such objections must be debated and voted on, but as Democrats control the House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other high-ranking Republicans have voiced their opposition, attempting to disenfranchise most of the Americans seem doomed.
Cruz and Johnson were joined by Senators James Lankford (Oklahoma), Steve Daines (Montana), John Kennedy (Louisiana), Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) and Mike Braun (Indiana). Senators-elect Cynthia Lummis (Wyoming), Roger Marshall (Kansas), Bill Hagerty (Tennessee) and Tommy Tuberville (Alabama) also signed.
“The 2020 election,” they said, “like the 2016 election, was very close and, in many undecided states, it was decided by a narrow margin. However, the 2020 elections included unprecedented allegations of electoral fraud, violations and lax application of the electoral law and other irregularities in voting.
No strong evidence has been presented for such claims. Federal officials, including former Attorney General William Barr and Christopher Krebs, a cybersecurity chief later fired by Trump, have said the election was safe.
Regardless, the senators said Congress “should immediately appoint an electoral commission, with full investigative and fact-finding authority, to conduct a 10-day emergency audit of the election results in the disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the commission’s findings and could call a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if necessary. “
The senators made reference to the most direct precedent of their demand, the contested election of 1876, which ended with the appointment of that commission.
“We must follow that precedent,” they said.
Most well-informed observers would suggest otherwise, given that the process led to a political settlement that ended post-civil war reconstruction and led to the institution of racist Jim Crow laws throughout the former slave-owning South.
In August, Pulitzer-winning historian Eric Foner told The Guardian: “The 1876 election would not have been contested at all if there had not been mass violence in the South to prevent blacks from voting and voter suppression as we have it. today . Now, voter suppression is mostly legal. “
Profoundly, given the unsubstantiated claims by Trump and his supporters that Democrats extensively abused vote-by-mail during a pandemic, he added: “Today, I can certainly see Trump’s people challenging these mail-in ballots: ‘They are all fraudulent, they should not be counted. ‘ Challenging the vote of the people. “
‘Cowardice and betrayal’
Cruz, like Hawley, is prominent among Republicans expected to run for president in 2024 and is therefore eager to appeal to a party that is still solidly loyal to Trump.
On Saturday, Christine Pelosi, daughter of Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, and a member of the Democratic National Committee, addressed the bitter 2016 Republican primaries when she tweeted: “Ted Cruz is defending Trump’s attacks on democracy. with more energy than him. defended his own family against Trump’s attacks on his wife and father. “
Democratic strategist Max Burns pointed to political irony when he wrote: “Exactly the same Senate Republican Party that refused to allow a single witness during President Trump’s impeachment trial now wants to delay certification and call a group of witnesses to ‘investigate ‘Joe Biden’s 2020 win. “
The Trump campaign tweeted: “THANK YOU!” Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar hailed the senators as “patriots.”
But there were also criticisms from the right. Joe Walsh, a former congressman who ran against Trump in the 2020 primaries, wrote: “They cite ZERO evidence of voter fraud. 61 days later and still, ZERO evidence. Donald Trump’s greatest legacy is the destruction of truth. His second great legacy is to reveal what a major American political party is: a cowardly cult that embraces the conspiracy. “
Mr. Walsh added: “Make no mistake. These Republicans know this is bad for the country. But they don’t care. They think it is good for them politically. They are putting their own interests before the interests of the country. Unfair, plain and simple. “
Unintentionally pointing out such concerns, the senators and senators-elect said their “allegations are not believed by a single individual candidate. Instead, they are widespread. Reuters / Ipsos polls tragically show that 39 percent of Americans believe that “the election was rigged.” That belief is held by Republicans (67 percent), Democrats (17 percent), and independents (31 percent).
“Some members of Congress disagree with that assessment, as do many members of the media. But, believe it or not our elected officials or journalists, that deep mistrust in our democratic processes will not magically disappear. It should concern us all. And it represents a constant threat to the legitimacy of any subsequent administration. “
Marc Elias, a prominent Democratic election lawyer, said that “in no way” does the measure “change the outcome of the elections.” But de Cruz, Johnson and their allies added: “History will remember them and curse them for their cowardice and betrayal.” – Guardian
[ad_2]