Senate protest expert: Political theater

A group of Republican senators who have doubts about whether Joe Biden won the presidential election are preparing for a final battle in the United States. Vice President Mike Pence is not opposed to the attempt.

– It’s political theater, says David Prindle, professor of political science at the University of Texas.

“Pence shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the recent elections,” the vice president’s office said, welcoming members to protest and present evidence to Congress.

The group, which currently consists of eleven senators, or incoming senators, with Texas Senator Ted Cruz being the best known, will make one last attempt on January 6 to reverse the election result, which will then be approved by Congress.

“And when they see the facts, many more will come … Our country will love them for that,” outgoing President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter.

Lead to debate

Approval in Congress is in many ways a ceremonial procedure, and the Republican senators’ attempt, along with a similar attempt in the House of Representatives, is unlikely to have any effect, other than forcing both the Senate and the House. of Representatives to discuss the issue separately in each House. .

“There will be a debate and it will take a while, then the votes will be counted and Trump will have lost,” Professor David Prindle told TT.

On at least two occasions, the College of Electors has been challenged in Congress. In 1969-1970, a rather narrow attempt was made to discard the indirect voting procedure entirely, following the uniform presidential election between Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey. In 2005, a group of Democrats accused Ohio of electoral irregularities the previous year, an attempt that was abruptly thwarted by both houses.

“Congress has never really come close to changing the outcome of elections since the 19th century,” Prindle says.

Fear of Trump supporters

None of the senators in question have explicitly stated that electoral fraud has occurred, but they assert more cautiously that there are a large number of allegations of electoral fraud in the elections. They want what they describe as controversial states to be investigated in a 10-day independent review.

They do not even seem to believe that the experiment will take place.

“We hope that most, if not all, Democrats, and perhaps more than a number of Republicans, will vote differently,” the group of senators wrote on appeal, according to The New York Times.

– They play a political theater for the Trump audience. Many have noted that about a third worship Trump, it’s like a cult of personality. And politicians fear that if they don’t follow Trump, when they run for re-election, they will be challenged by another Republican in the primaries, who will say they weren’t loyal enough to the president, so they lose, Prindle said.

“Approaching violence”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican, called on his party colleagues to approve the Electoral College results. That this group goes against him creates a rift in the party, according to Prindle.

– McConnell knows very well that, in the first place, they cannot reverse the elections. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate must vote to reject the election result, and since Democrats control the House of Representatives, there is no chance of that happening.

Prindle also believes that McConnell fears that the escalation of the situation could lead to violence, something that some Trump supporters defend.

– We are approaching the edge of something we do not want to happen. In other words: McConnell has a boundary that he doesn’t cross, he says.