Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and nine other U.S. Republican senators or elected senators said Saturday they will reject presidential voters from states where Donald Trump’s campaign answers the results, “unless [an] the 10-day emergency audit is completed ”.
The measure is largely symbolic, but nonetheless adds to the deepening sense of the schism and crisis affecting American democracy.
Trump has refused to concede the defeat of Joe Biden, although the Democrat won more than 7 million more votes nationally and won the electoral college by 306-232, a margin that Trump said it was a landslide when he beat Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The Trump campaign has lost the vast majority of more than 50 lawsuits it initiated in battlefield states, alleging massive electoral fraud and before the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Friday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a House Republican who tried to give Vice President Mike Pence, who will preside over the ballot certification on Wednesday, Jan. 6, the power to overturn it. verdict.
Still, Republican senators and elected senators who issued the statement Saturday followed Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri to pledge to challenge the election university’s outcome.
Objections are also expected from a majority of Republicans in the House. These objections should be debated and voted on, but as Democrats control the House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other senior Republicans have expressed opposition, the attempt to disenfranchise a majority. Americans seem doomed to fail.
Senators James Lankford (Oklahoma), Steve Daines (Montana), John Kennedy (Louisiana), Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) and Mike Braun (Indiana) joined Cruz and Johnson in a statement on Saturday.
Also signed were Elected Senators Cynthia Lummis (Wyoming), Roger Marshall (Kansas), Bill Hagerty (Tennessee) and Tommy Tuberville (Alabama).
“The 2020 election,” they said, “like the 2016 election, was very contentious and, in many swing states, was narrowly decided. The 2020 election, however, presented unprecedented allegations of electoral fraud. violations and lax application of electoral legislation and other voting irregularities “
No firm evidence of these claims has been presented. Federal officials, including former Attorney General William Barr and Christopher Krebs, head of cybersecurity later fired by Trump, have said the election was safe.
Independently, senators said Congress “should immediately appoint an electoral commission, with full authority of inquiry and investigation, to conduct a 10-day emergency audit of electoral declarations in disputed states. finalized, the individual states would evaluate the conclusions of the commission and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if necessary. “
The senators referred to the most direct precedent of their demand, the contested elections of 1876, which ended with the appointment of this commission.
“We should follow that precedent,” Republicans said.
Many well-informed voices would suggest that it would be a bad idea, as this process led to a political agreement that ended the Reconstruction process and led to the institution of Jim Crow’s racist laws throughout the South, formerly owned by ‘slaves.
In August, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner told The Guardian: “The 1876 election would not have been discussed at all if there had not been mass violence in the south to prevent blacks from voting and suppressing it. voters as we have done today. ” Now, the suppression of voters is mostly legal. “
Precisely in the face of claims by Trump and his supporters that postal votes used under a pandemic were widely abused by Democrats, he added, “Today, I can certainly see Trump’s people challenging these ballots:” They are all fraudulent. , should not be counted “. Challenging the vote of the people”.
Cruz, like Hawley, is prominent among Republicans who are expected to run for president in 2024 and therefore eager to appeal to a party base that is still solidly loyal to Trump.
Perhaps inadvertently pointing to widespread concern about the damage caused by Trump’s stance and Republican party support for it, senators and senators elected said his “accusations are not believed only by an individual candidate.
“Instead, they are widespread. Tragically, Reuters / Ipsos polls show that 39% of Americans believe that “the election was called.” This belief is shared by Republicans (67%), Democrats (17%) and Independents (31%).
“Some members of Congress disagree with this assessment, as do many members of the media. But regardless of whether our elected officials or journalists believe it, this deep mistrust of our democratic processes will not magically disappear. We should all worry. And it poses a continuing threat to the legitimacy of any subsequent administration. “