The battle will therefore take place until the end. Eleven elected Republican members of the United States Senate announced on Saturday, January 2, that they would oppose the certification by Congress of the result of the presidential election, a final attempt to contest the victory of Joe Biden as Donald Trump wishes.
So far, only one senator, Josh Hawley, had announced Wednesday his intention to challenge the Democrat’s election at the certification ceremony scheduled for January 6. This last-ditch attempt follows repeated failures by supporters of Donald Trump in the courts to invalidate the election results in several key states where Joe Biden won.
“Congress should immediately appoint an electoral commission, with full authority to investigate” on possible “Electoral fraud”, said in a statement the eleven elected officials of the upper house, echoing the accusations of fraud repeated by President Trump and by many Republican parliamentarians for two months. “The allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any that we have known in our life”, say the eleven senators.
Emergency audit
The commission they want to be created must “Conduct a ten-day emergency audit of results in the states” where the two candidates were neck and neck, asked these elected officials, led by the influential senator from Texas Ted Cruz. If this audit does not take place, “We will vote on January 6 to reject voters from disputed states”, they announced.
Still according to the press release from the senators, the states concerned could then convene extraordinary legislative sessions and potentially revise their electoral results. In the United States, the president is chosen by indirect universal suffrage. The electoral college declared on December 14 the victory of Joe Biden with 306 electors against 232 to Donald Trump, while it takes 270 electors to become president.
The leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, then recognized the victory of Joe Biden, and he called on the Republicans to certify this result. The House and Senate are due to meet on Wednesday to certify these results, a procedure that is usually a mere formality. But the outgoing president still claims to have won the Nov. 3 election by a large margin, and he called on his supporters to rally in Washington on Wednesday.
“We are not naive”
Donald Trump posted on Saturday on Twitter the list of the eleven senators who joined Josh Hawley, senator from Missouri, in praising their initiative and in repeating that he was the victim of a fraud by the Democrats during the presidential election. “An attempt to steal a landslide victory. We can’t let that happen! “, he wrote. Mr. Trump is counting on the debate in Congress to provide public exposure to the material he believes is the basis for his fraud charges. “And after people see the facts, there is still plenty to come …”, he tweeted.
In the House of Representatives, with a Democratic majority, more than a hundred elected Republicans plan to vote against certification, according to the CNN channel. But in the House as in the Senate, there will not be enough votes for the process to succeed. “We are not naive. We expect the majority if not all Democrats, and perhaps more than a few Republicans, will vote otherwise ”, recognized the eleven senators in their press release.
Among the Republicans who disapprove of their initiative is Pat Toomey, senator from Pennsylvania, one of the states whose outcome should be challenged in Congress. “A fundamental and essential characteristic of a democratic republic is the right of citizens to elect their leaders”, Mr. Toomey said on Twitter, before continuing: “The attempt by Senators Hawley, Cruz and other senators to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in key states like Pennsylvania directly undermines this right. “
