“Trump won, I will oppose Biden’s ratification”

Published on: 01/01/2021 6:17 PM

“I have no doubt that President Trump won.” So Burgess Owens, the former African-American NFL player who will take office as Republican-elect in Utah on Sunday, announced that he will join dozens of House colleagues who will oppose the ratification of Joe Biden’s victory during the joint session. of the Congress that will take place on Wednesday, January 6.

In an interview with a local newspaper, he said that challenging the Electoral College result is “the right thing to do” because “more than 70 percent of conservatives” believe the elections “were not fair.”

More than two months after the November 3 vote, tens of millions of votes counted and counted, dozens of legal appeals rejected, so on Wednesday the last act of the very long trial of the US presidential elections will be staged in Congress.

In fact, the deputies and senators must meet, in a joint session chaired by Mike Pence, who as vice president is president of the Senate, to ratify the votes of the Electoral College that on December 14 sanctioned Joe Biden’s victory by 306 electoral votes against. the 232 of the defeated Donald Trump.

The meeting, usually a procedural process, this year became the last hope of Trump, and his staunch supporters, to annul the electoral results that have been certified by the states, the Electoral College and confirmed in dozens of legal offices. , including the Supreme Court of the United States.

While Wednesday’s meeting is scheduled to confirm the defeat of the outgoing president, several of Trump’s Republican allies are expected to seize the opportunity to publicly oppose the certification of the election results when the meeting begins at 1 p.m., Washington time, as required by law. which since 1887 regulates this procedure.

Pence will be tasked with chairing the meeting, limiting himself to reading the electoral votes state by state and asking if there are objections from senators and deputies. Objections must be in writing and supported by at least one member of the House and one member of the Senate to be considered. For each objection the joint session is suspended, to allow the House and Senate to debate, for two hours, and then vote.

While it is clear that Trump does not have the numbers to actually overturn the election result, he will have dozens of Republicans in Congress – more than 100 by media estimates – to back the objections.

And now also about a senator, Josh Hawley of Montana, who, contrary to the direct indication of the Republican Majority Leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, announced last Wednesday that he intends to raise objections to the electoral votes of at least one state, Pennsylvania. And speaking with journalists, he said that he did not rule out that some other senator could follow him.