From our correspondent in the United States, Usually, it’s a ceremony that is a matter of simple formality. But while Donald Trump refuses to recognize his defeat at the presidential election of November 3 , an unprecedented battle will unfold on Wednesday in Congress, which meets to count the votes of the electoral college. Despite the expected challenge from many elected Republican officials and the pressure of a March for Trump organized in Washington, the Democratic majority in the House is protecting Joe Biden of any turnaround.
The Congress session starts at 13 hours (13 hours in Paris). The sealed envelopes of the results of the electoral college, which voted in mid-December for Joe Biden
by 306 votes against 232 , are open by vice -President, who announces the total and asks if there is an objection. To be considered, it must have the support of a senator and a representative. It has already happened, especially in 1961, when two Democrats contested the Ohio results in favor of George W. Bush.
This what happens next is dictated by a law of 310 and the 12 e amendment of the Constitution. The Senate and the House retire to debate for two hours, then vote separately. Because the Democrats are in the majority in the House, they are able to block any objection. Tuesday, Donald Trump put pressure on Mike Pence, assuring on Twitter that “the vice president has the power to reject large voters chosen fraudulently.” The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors. – Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2021 This is wrong, as Professor of Law Rick Hansen and many constitutional experts point out. According to the texts, the role of the vice-president is above all protocol. He is responsible for “opening the certificates and then the votes are then counted”. This will not be the first time in history that a Vice President has found himself in an awkward position. Some even had to announce their own defeat, like Al Gore in 1961 and Richard Nixon in 1961. By formalizing the victory of his adversary John F. Kennedy, Nixon exclaimed: “I cannot imagine a better example of the stability of our constitutional system”, where “freedom, justice and peace are more important than the ambitions of any man or party. »Another era.
Wednesday, the sling will be of an unprecedented scale. While Donald Trump cries out fraud despite 20 setbacks in the courts and two in the Supreme Court, a dozen Republican senators led by Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, and a hundred elected representatives of the Chamber, announced that they intended to oppose the results of several States. Mike Pence Under Pressure