WASHINGTON (AP) – Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Said on Wednesday he will object next week when Congress meets to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the election, enforcing votes from the House and Senate that are likely to delay final certification – but in no way change of Biden’s victory.
President Donald Trump has claimed, without evidence, that there was widespread fraud in the election. He has pushed Republican senators to pursue his baseless allegations, even though the electoral college confirmed Biden’s 306-232 victory this month and multiple legal attempts to challenge the results have failed.
A group of Republicans in the majority Democratic house have already said they will object on Trump’s behalf during the Jan. 6 count of election votes, and they only needed one senator to go with them to enforce votes in both houses.
Without providing details or evidence, Hawley said he would object because “some states, including Pennsylvania in particular” did not follow their own electoral laws. Lawsuits against Biden’s Pennsylvania victory have been unsuccessful.
“At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and take steps to ensure the integrity of our elections,” Hawley said in a statement. He also criticized the way Facebook and Twitter handled content related to the election, calling it an attempt to help Biden.
Biden’s transition spokeswoman Jen Psaki dismissed Hawley’s move as “antics” that will not affect Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
“The American people spoke wholeheartedly in this election and 81 million people voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” Psaki said in a call to reporters. She added, “Congress will certify the results of the election, as it does every four years.”
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows praised Hawley on Twitter for ‘standing up unashamedly for the integrity of the election.’
When Congress meets to certify the results of the electoral college, any legislator can object to a state’s votes for any reason. However, the objection will only be considered if it has been drawn up in writing and signed by both a member of the House and a member of the Senate.
If there is such a request, the joint session will be adjourned and the House and Senate will enter separate sessions to consider it. For the objection to be accepted, both chambers must agree with a simple majority of votes. If they disagree, the original electoral votes are counted.
The last time such an objection was considered was in 2005, when Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio and Senator Barbara Boxer of California, both Democrats, objected to Ohio’s election votes by claiming there were irregularities in the ballot. Both chambers have discussed and rejected the objection. It was only the second time such a vote had taken place.
As President of the Senate, Vice President Mike Pence will chair the January 6 session and declare the winner.
When asked about Hawley’s announcement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Said, “I have no doubt that next Wednesday, a week from today, Joe Biden will be confirmed by the Electoral College’s acceptance of the vote as the 46th President of the United States. the United States. “
Hawley is a first-term senator and potential contender in the 2024 presidential primaries, and his decision to join the House objectors is a rejection of Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who called for his caucus not to participate in a meaningless quest to topple the results.
Aware that the Democrat-led House would not support such a challenge and that it would get most of his fellow GOP senators in trouble, McConnell told them in a private December 15th that it was a “terrible vote”. would be to take. That’s according to two people who were not authorized to discuss the private conversation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
While some Republicans have repeated, or at least refused to refute, Trump’s baseless claims, McConnell and an increasing number of GOP senators have acknowledged that Biden won and will be inaugurated on January 20.
Senate Republican No. 2, Senator John Thune of South Dakota, said earlier this month that if the Senate were forced to vote on a challenge, it would fail like a dog shot. Thune said there was no point in letting senators vote if “you know what the final outcome will be.”
A series of impartial election officials and Republicans have confirmed that there was no fraud in the November contest that would alter the results of the election. That includes former Attorney General William Barr, who said he saw no reason to appoint special counsel to investigate the president’s allegations about the 2020 election. He then resigned last week.
Trump and his allies have filed about 50 lawsuits against the election results, and nearly all of them have been rejected or dropped. He has also lost twice in the Supreme Court.
The House Republicans group has said they plan to challenge the election results from Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada. They are all states that Biden wore.
Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, one of the Republicans leading the effort, has raised questions about the way state elections were held. Some states made changes to ballots and procedures during the pandemic. While the new procedures have caused confusion in some places, state and federal officials have said there was no credible evidence of widespread fraud.
In addition to voting, Republicans are worried about the negative effects on Georgia’s two second Senate elections on Tuesday. GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler face Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in a state that turned for Biden in November.
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Aamer Madhani, Associated Press writer in Chicago, contributed to this report.