Paul Ryan slams GOP plans to object to Biden win as “anti-democratic.”
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WASHINGTON – Former House Speaker Paul Ryan excoriated fellow Republicans Sunday in a rare statement that called planned GOP efforts to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s win “anti-democratic and anticonservative.”
Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin who served as House Speaker from 2015 to 2019, has seldom weighed in on events since leaving office, but issued a lengthy statement decrying Republican plans to object to certifying the Electoral College results in a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. Twelve incoming and sitting Republican senators and dozens of GOP House members plan to object to the count over President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
“Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden’s victory strike at the foundation of our republic,” Ryan said in a statement. “It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of statecertified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans. The fact that this effort will fail does not mean it will not do significant damage to American democracy.”
Ryan asked fellow conservatives to think about the “precedent that it would set” and noted the Trump campaign’s failed efforts in the court to challenge election results in a number of states.
“The Trump campaign had ample opportunity to challenge election results, and those efforts failed from lack of evidence. The legal process was exhausted, and the results were decisively confirmed,” he added. “The Department of Justice, too, found no basis for overturning the result. If states wish to reform their processes for future elections, that is their prerogative. But Joe Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was the first senator to announce plans to object to the electoral vote count. Since then, 11 GOP senators joined in a similar effort, vowing to object to the certification of Biden’s win when Congress meets in a joint session on Wednesday if an election commission was not formed to investigate the election and claims of fraud.
Objections will launch a lengthy process that includes two hours of debate and a vote in each chamber for each state that is challenged.