AP
Washington Hispanic:
President Donald Trump’s extraordinary effort to overturn the presidential election is being brought to Congress as lawmakers gather for a joint session to confirm the Electoral College vote won by Joe Biden.
Wednesday’s typically routine course will be anything but a political confrontation not seen since the aftermath of the Civil War as Trump mounts a desperate effort to stay in office. The president’s Republican allies in the House of Representatives and the Senate Plan to oppose the election results, heeding supporters’ request to “fight for Trump” while organizing a rally outside the White House. It’s ruining the party.
The long-range effort is sure to fail, defeated by bipartisan majorities in Congress willing to accept the results. Biden, who won the Electoral College 306 – 232, will open on 20 January.
“The most important part is that, in the end, democracy will prevail here”, Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said in an interview among those managing the proceedings.
The joint session of Congress, required by law, will meet at 1 pm EST under a vigilant and restless nation, months after the November 3 elections, two weeks before the traditional peaceful transfer of power of the inauguration and in the context of a growing COVID pandemic – 19.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who warned his party of this challenge, is expected to make early comments. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, who began to give a procedure next to the Capitol, called it a day of “enormous historical importance.” It is about “ensuring confidence in our democratic system,” he said in a letter to his colleagues.
But it is Vice President Mike Pence who will be closely watched as he presides over the session.
A Despite Trump’s repeated claims of voter fraud, election officials and his own former attorney general have said there were no problems on a scale that changed the outcome. All states have certified their results as fair and accurate, by both Republican and Democratic officials.
Pence has a largely ceremonial role, opening the states’ sealed envelopes after which are carried in mahogany boxes used for the occasion, and the results read aloud. But he is under increasing pressure from Trump to tip him in favor of the president, despite having no power to affect the outcome.
While other vice presidents, including Al Gore and Richard Nixon , also presided over their own defeats, Pence supports those Republican legislators who are making greater challenges for the outcome of 2020.
“I hope our great vice president comes for us,” Trump said at a rally in Georgia this week. He’s a great guy. Of course, if it doesn’t come through, I won’t like it so much.
It’s not the first time legislators have challenged the results. The Democrats did it in 2017 and 2005. But the intensity of Trump’s defiance is like nothing in modern times, and an outpouring of current and elected NoP Party officials warns that the standoff is sowing mistrust in the government and eroding Americans’ faith in democracy.
“There is no constitutionally viable means for Congress to annul an election,” said Sen. Tim Scott, RS.C., announcing his refusal to join the effort on the eve of the session.
Still, more than a dozen Republican senators led by Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, along with up to 100 House Republicans, are pushing to raise objections to the state results of Biden’s victory.
According to session rules jointly, any objection to the electoral scrutiny of a state must be presented in writing by at least one member of the House and one of the Senate to be cons devised. Each objection will force two hours of deliberations in the House of Houses and Senate, ensuring a long day.
Republican legislators in the House of Representatives are signing objections to electoral votes. in six states: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Arizona will likely be the first to be contested as the state’s tales are posted in alphabetical order, and Cruz has said he will join House Republicans in opposing that state.
Hawley has said he will oppose the election results from Pennsylvania, almost assuring a second two-hour debate despite resistance from Republican State Senator Pat Toomey, who said Biden’s victory tally is accurate.
Senator Kelly Loeffler you can contest the results in your state of Georgia. But it’s unclear if any of the other senators will oppose any other state, as lawmakers were still coming up with a strategy.
Democrats hold the majority in the House of Representatives and the Republican-led Senate is divided on the issue. The bipartisan majorities of both houses are expected to strongly reject the objections.
The group led by Cruz is vowing to object unless Congress agrees to form a commission to investigate the election, but That seems unlikely.
The ones with Cross are Sens. Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, James Lankford from Oklahoma, Steve Daines from Montana, John Kennedy from Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee, Mike Braun from Indiana, Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming, Roger Marshall from Kansas, Bill Hagerty from Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville from Alabama.
Trump has promised to “fight like hell” to stay in The charge. He said that at a rally in Georgia voters who vote for Biden are “not going to take this White House!”
Many of the Republicans challenging the results said they are trying to give a voice to voters at home who do not trust the election result and want to see lawmakers fighting for Trump.
Hawley defended his role saying that his constituents have been “ loud and clear ”about his distrust in the elections. “It is my responsibility as a senator to raise your concerns,” he wrote to his colleagues.
As criticism mounted, Cruz insisted that his goal was “not to neglect the elections ‘But to investigate claims of voting problems. Has produced no new evidence.
Both Hawley and Cruz are potential presidential contenders for 2024, vying for Trump’s supporter base .
Lawmakers are being counted by Capitol officials to arrive early, due to safety precautions with protesters in Washington. Visitors, who normally fill the galleries to see the iconic procedures, will not be allowed under COVID restrictions – 19.