Plan to overturn election result rips GOP apart
Pence signals support as Trump pressures Georgia official to ‘find’ him more votes
The extraordinary effort to overturn the presidential election is ripping the Republican Party apart as GOP lawmakers orchestrating the challenges to Joe Biden’s victory faced intense blowback from others in the party warning they are undermining Americans’ faith in democracy.
Vice-President Mike Pence signalled support on Sunday for a Republican bid to overturn the election in Congress this week, after a dozen Republican senators and up to 100 House Republicans said they would reject President-elect Joe Biden’s victory when the House and Senate meet to formally certify it.
The announcement by the senators — and Pence’s move to endorse it — reflected a groundswell among Republicans to defy the unambiguous results of the election and indulge President Donald Trump’s attempts to remain in power with false claims of voting fraud.
With Biden set to be inaugurated on January 20, the outgoing president is intensifying efforts to prevent the traditional transfer of power. Trump can be heard in an audio recording of a phone call pressuring Georgia’s election officials to “find” enough votes to flip Biden’s win to him. Allies are pressuring Pence to ensure Trump’s victory in presiding over the congressional session. Trump is whipping up crowds for a rally in Washington.
But without evidence of voter fraud or other problems, leading Republicans across the nation are joining Democrats in saying there is no reason for the federal government to intervene in what state officials have certified were free and fair elections. Attorney General William Barr, who was appointed by Trump, said before leaving office that there was no evidence of fraud that would change the election outcome.
“The 2020 election is over,” said a statement yesterday from a bipartisan group of 10 senators, including Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mitt Romney of Utah.
“At this point, further attempts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 Presidential election are contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine Americans’ confidence in the already determined election results,” the senators wrote.
The Republican challenge to America’s democracy, on a scale unseen since the aftermath of the Civil War, clouded the opening of the new Congress and is set to consume its first days. The House and Senate will meet on Thursday in a joint session to accept the Electoral College vote, a typically routine process now expected to be a prolonged fight.
The effort being led by Republican senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz was hit with swift criticism.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said his colleagues must produce evidence and facts. “They have a high bar to clear,” he said.
Others simply said they do not plan to join the effort. “I don’t think either of the two efforts has any chance for success,” said Missouri’s other senator, Republican Roy Blunt.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues that while there is “no doubt as to the outcome of the Biden-Harris presidency, our further success is to convince more of the American people to trust in our democratic system”.
Hawley defended his actions in an email to colleagues, explaining his Missouri constituents have been “loud and clear” with their belief that Biden’s defeat of Trump was unfair.
Hawley plans to object to the state tally from Pennsylvania. But that state’s Republican senator, Pat Toomey, criticised the attack on Pennsylvania’s election system and said the results that named Biden the winner are valid.
Cruz’s coalition of 11 Republican senators vows to reject the Electoral College tallies unless Congress launches a commission to immediately conduct an audit of the election results. They are zeroing in on the states where Trump has raised baseless claims of voter fraud. Congress is unlikely to agree to their demand. The group has not produced any new evidence to back up their claims.
Trump, the first president to lose a re-election bid in almost 30 years, has attributed his defeat to widespread voter fraud. Of the roughly 50 lawsuits Trump and his allies have filed challenging election results, nearly all have been dismissed or dropped. He’s also lost twice at the US Supreme Court.