At least 140 House Republicans are reportedly set to vote against counting the electoral votes on January 6 when Congress meets to officially certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
CNN is reporting President Donald Trump skipped his annual New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago and returned to the White House, where he will ring in the new year. While Mr. Trump did not cite a reason for his early return, reports suggest he is focused on a last ditch effort to overturn the results of the presidential election.
Despite judges, governors, election officials, the Electoral College, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Supreme Court all affirming the results; Mr. Trump views the January 6 meeting of Congress as another attempt to overturn the results of an election he lost, citing voter fraud.
However, there is no evidence of any voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. That is not stopping the GOP politicians who are supporting his baseless claims out of fear of provoking him or losing support of his base. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has privately urged Republicans to not object to the results being certified.
Mr. Trump has been pushing for Congress to interfere and stop the results from being certified, making Biden’s win formally official. The Electoral College met on December 14 and certified the results of all 50 states.
Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse spoke out against Mr. Trump and his plan, calling on his Republican colleagues to “reject” the effort to object to the certification process.
“The president and his allies are playing with fire,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “They have been asking — first the courts, then state legislatures, now the Congress — to overturn the results of a presidential election. They have unsuccessfully called on judges and are now calling on federal officeholders to invalidate millions and millions of votes. If you make big claims, you had better have the evidence. But the president doesn’t and neither do the institutional arsonist members of Congress who will object to the Electoral College vote.”
Reps.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee have all said they will reject the certification of results.
