Leader of the majority of the Senate Mitch McConnell
Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnell Senate GOP Warns Biden Against Choosing Sally Yates as Attorney General Top GOP Senators Recognize Biden as President Elect After Electoral College Electoral College GOP Leaders Try to End Election Disputes MORE (R-Ky.) Urges Republicans not to object during the congressional count and the certification vote in the electoral college next month.
McConnell’s comments were made during a caucus call on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the call, and come as House Republicans see a challenge to the results Jan. 6 at a joint session of Congress.
A Republican senator who took part in the call said McConnell, Senate Republican Whip John Thune
John Randolph Thune Top GOP Senators Recognize Biden President-Elect After Electoral College Senate Vote GOP Leaders Seek End Election Disputes Hillicon Valley: Lawmakers Call for Action After ‘Devastating’ Cyber Attack on Federal Government US Cyber Agency Issues Emergency Directive After Hacks | FTC opens privacy investigation into major internet platforms MORE (RS.D.) and Chairman of the Senate Committee Roy Blunt
Roy Dean BluntTop GOP Senators Recognize Biden as President-Elect Following Electoral College Window Voting Fast Shutting Over Major Coronavirus Deal The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – COVID-19 Vaccine Advances. Congress? Not so much MORE (R-Mo.) All urged colleagues not to object to the election votes of states when they are received in the House of Representatives next month.
McConnell warned that any GOP senator who signed a House Republican objection to a state’s electoral vote would force the Senate to debate and vote on the objection, putting fellow GOP senators in a bad position.
The GOP leader said an objection is “not in the best interest of everyone.”
No Senate Republicans indicated during the call that they currently intend to object.
“Not that I’ve heard of,” said Sen. Mike Rounds
Mike RoundsBig Banks Get Major Break in Pending Hillicon Valley Whistleblower Act: Government Uses Patriot Act to Collect Website Visitor Logs in 2019 | Defense Act omits repeal of Section 230, including the position of the White House CyberSaar | Officials warn that hackers are targeting the vaccine supply chain. Defense Policy Bill Would Create New Cyber Czar Position MORE (RS.D.), asked if anyone indicated they would object during the conversation.
Sen. John Barrasso
John Anthony Barrasso Top GOP senators recognize Biden as president-elect following vote of the Electoral College Government Spending Bill to include bipartisan energy provisions. (Wyo.), The No. 3 GOP senator, added that he has not “heard from” a GOP senator who wants to object next month.
“ I think we were encouraged on the phone to accept the result, although it’s not what we, you know, envisioned for the next four years, and to try to do what’s best for the American people , namely to look ahead, “said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito
Shelley Wellons Moore CapitoTop GOP Senators Recognize Biden as President-Elect After Electoral College Vote GOP Hopes to Escape Trump Confrontation Biden Says GOP Senators Called to Congratulate Him MORE (RW.Va.) said about the call.
Rep. Mo Brooks
Morris (Mo) Jackson Brooks The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Mastercard – US Inoculations Begin; state voters declare Biden; Barr has been squeezed out of GOP leaders by pro-Trump bid to reverse election results Senate GOP leaders try to end election disputes MORE (R-Ala.) Has said he will object as part of next month’s electoral college count, and is likely to gain support from other Trump allies in the House.
But in order to successfully force a debate and vote on his objection, he needs support from at least one GOP senator. According to the Congressional Research Service, that has only happened twice since 1887.
No Republican senator has joined Brooks, although a few conservatives, including Sens. Josh Hawley
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Ronald (Ron) Harold Johnson Senate GOP Leaders To End Election Disputes This Week: Congress Braces For Chaotic Finishing Trump Allies In Congress To Challenge Election Results: Report MORE (Delete.) And Rand Paul
Randal (Rand) Howard Paul Senate GOP Leaders Try To End Election Disputes This Week: Congress Braces For Chaotic Finishing Trump Allies In Congress To Challenge Election Results: Report MORE (Ky.), Have not ruled it out.
A growing number of Senate Republicans recognize the elected president Joe Biden
Joe BidenHogan on Republicans Won’t Accept Election Results: ‘They’re Not on the Job’ Biden Tears Up Trump’s Refusal to Admit After Electoral College Election Senate GOP Warns Biden Not to Elect Sally Yates as Attorney General MORE as the winner of the November election, including McConnell, who congratulated him from the Senate floor on Tuesday, a day after electoral college voters gathered to cast their votes. Biden and McConnell had their first known conversation since Tuesday’s election.
Top Republicans in the Senate have also publicly pushed back against talk of trying to object to the election results next month. McConnell did not discuss the matter at a press conference on Tuesday.
Blunt, the chairman of the Senate Committee, said Thune had explained to GOP senators that it was “pointless” to object to any state’s election votes next month.
Thune said on Monday that the effort was “going nowhere.”
If both a member of parliament and a senator object, the two houses must meet separately, discuss the matter, and then vote by a majority in both houses to uphold the objection to a state slate. A legislator has never been able to successfully throw away the results of a state.
The strenuous effort, members of the GOP leadership warn, will only result in delaying the inevitable outcome.
“It creates a debate with a certain outcome and it will certainly fail,” said Blunt. “I certainly don’t see any merit in that.”
Blunt, who also addressed GOP colleagues on the call, said that the electoral vote counting during a joint session “should be very uncontroversial”.
He noted that Biden rejected objections to electoral votes when the joint session recorded the results of the 2016 election and that no senator signed a notice of objection four years ago.
“If you take the vote of the Electoral College as decisive, receiving those votes in the joint session should be very uncontroversial,” he said. “I think that objection makes no sense.”