[ad_1]
President Donald Trump declared Monday night that he would “fight like hell” to maintain the presidency and asked Republican lawmakers to reverse their electoral loss to Joe Biden when they meet this week to confirm the Electoral College vote.
Electoral voters won by President-elect Biden “will not take this White House,” he yelled as supporters cheered at an outdoor rally in Georgia.
Trump’s announced purpose for the trip was to boost Republican Senate candidates in the second round of Tuesday’s election, but he spent much of his speech bitterly complaining about his electoral defeat, which he insists he won “by a lot.”
Earlier in Washington, he lobbied Republican lawmakers to formally object Wednesday in a joint session of Congress that will confirm Biden’s Electoral College victory, a confirmation of Biden’s national victory on November 3.
Although he received nothing but cheers Monday night, Trump’s attempt to reverse the presidential election is dividing the Republican Party.
Some Republican lawmakers backing him are rushing in, despite a barrage of condemnations from current and former party officials who warn the effort is undermining Americans’ faith in democracy.
I promise you this: on Wednesday, we will have our day in Congress
Mike pence
The 10 former defense secretaries alive wrote in an op-ed that “the time to question the results is over.”
It is unclear to what extent Republican leaders in Congress will be able to control Wednesday’s joint session, which could last into the evening, although challenges to the election are sure to fail.
Trump himself is cheering the crowds for a rally near the White House on Wednesday.
Vice President Mike Pence, who is under pressure to tip the results in Trump’s favor, will be watched closely as he presides over Wednesday’s joint session in a ceremonial role.
“I promise you this: on Wednesday, we will have our day in Congress,” Pence said while campaigning in Georgia ahead of Tuesday’s runoff elections that will determine control of the Senate.
Trump said in Georgia: “I hope our great vice president will help us. He’s a great guy. Of course, if he doesn’t make it, I won’t like him that much. “He added,” No, Mike is a great guy.
One of Georgia’s Republicans in Tuesday’s runoff, Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who is facing Democrat Raphael Warnock, told the crowd that he will join senators who formally object to Biden’s victory.
The other Republican seeking reelection, David Perdue, who is running against Democrat Jon Ossoff, will not be eligible to vote.
Trump repeated his allegations of voter fraud on numerous occasions, which have been rejected by election officials, both Republicans and Democrats in one state after another, and the courts up to the US Supreme Court.
His former attorney general, William Barr, has also said that there is no evidence of fraud that could change the outcome of the election.
Biden, speaking at a rally in Atlanta early Monday, said Trump “spends more time whining and complaining” than working to solve the coronavirus pandemic.
He added dismissively: “I don’t know why he still wants the job, he doesn’t want to do the job.”
During the day on Monday, more current and former Republican officials chided the effort to change the election.
Former three-term senator John Danforth of Missouri said in a harsh statement: “To give credence to Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen is a highly destructive attack.
“It is the opposite of conservative; it’s radical. “
The US Chamber of Commerce, the giant lobbying organization and the virtual incarnation of the business establishment, said the electoral vote challenge “undermines our democracy and the rule of law and will only result in further division in our nation.”
So far, Trump has enlisted the support of a dozen Republican senators and as many as 100 House Republicans to challenge Biden’s victory in Electoral College 306-232.
With the inauguration of Biden on January 20, Trump is intensifying his efforts to avoid the traditional transfer of power.
In a call released Sunday, he can be heard pressuring Georgia officials to “find” more votes from the Nov. 3 election he lost in that state.
The challenge to the presidential election is on a scale never seen before since the aftermath of the Civil War, although the typically routine process of confirming Electoral College votes has met with brief objections before.
In 2017, several House Democrats challenged Trump’s victory, but Biden, who was presiding at the time as vice president, quickly fired them to affirm Trump’s victory.
[ad_2]