Mississippi lawmakers divided on election results.
It was a divided house in Mississippi when it came to certifying the results of the Electoral College early Thursday following a riot that started at the U.S. Capitol, leaving four people dead and dozens wounded.
The U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives resumed proceedings Wednesday night, despite the chaos that ensued earlier that day.
An objection to the certification of the electoral votes did not succeed, leading Vice President Mike Pence to declare former Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris the nation’s next president and vice president.
While an overwhelming majority voted against the objection, most Mississippi lawmakers voiced their support, claiming the electoral process had become corrupt and the 2020 presidential election results were based on fraud.
Sens. Cindy Hyde-smith and Roger Wicker, both Republicans, effectively canceled their Senate votes on the objection, with Hyde-smith in favor of the objection and Wicker taking a stand against it.
“The American democratic process is working despite the unacceptable violence and destruction at the U.S. Capitol today,” Hyde-smith said in a news release. “The mobs will not stop the Senate from fulfilling its constitutional duty.”
Wicker, however, sided with the majority, saying there was no cause for the objection.
“I am disappointed in the outcome of the 2020 election,” he said in a news release. “However, our campaign lost a close election, and it is time to acknowledge that. The President’s own Attorney General, his head of election security, and a number of Trump-appointed, conservative federal judges all have found that, despite widespread allegations of fraud, there simply was not enough evidence to change the outcome of the election in any state.”
Wicker went on to further explain, “Congress cannot — and should not — get into the business of deciding the results of our elections. Under the Constitution and federal law, Congress’s power is limited to counting electoral votes duly submitted by the states. Anything further would not be compatible with our Constitution or the conservative principles of limited government that I have sworn to defend.”
While Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson also voted against the objection, his Republican counterparts supported it. Reps. Michael Guest, Trent Kelly and Steven Palazzo all cast “yea” votes in objection to Biden and Harris’ wins in the Electoral College.
“I cannot idly stand by and watch Mississippi be disenfranchised while other states knowingly violated their Constitution and side-stepped their legislatures in the 2020 election,” Palazzo said of his decision. “I am committed to ensuring that all Americans are confident and trust the outcome of our election. It’s the bedrock of our democracy.”
Contact Lici Beveridge at 601-5843104 or lbeveridge@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge.