Washington – President Trump huddled with Congressional Republican allies in the White House on Monday to discuss the possibility of challenging the Electoral College’s votes when Congress meets on Jan. 6 to count them, in what would be the president. last ditch effort to reverse the results of the presidential election.
Several of the president’s closest supporters on Capitol Hill attended the meeting, including Congressmen Jim Jordan from Ohio, Matt Gaetz from Florida, Mo Brooks from Alabama, Louie Gohmert from Texas and Andy Biggs from Arizona. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, himself a former Republican congressman, confirmed the meeting on Twitter.
Several members of Congress have just completed a meeting with President @realDonaldTrump in the Oval Office in preparation to fight back against growing evidence of voter fraud. Stay tuned, Meadows tweeted Monday night.
Biggs, who chairs the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told Fox Business in an interview that the group was discussing the process of objecting to electoral votes at a joint session of Congress, which will be chaired by Vice President Mike Pence.
“We think we can actually challenge this, as you say, with at least one objection from the House – and we will have dozens of objectors in the House – and then at least one in the Senate, and we think we will have more. have, ”said the Arizona Republican.
Since the presidential election, of which President-elect Joe Biden was declared the winner, Mr. Trump has waged an unsuccessful campaign to reverse the election outcome. He turned to court and then State legislatures led by the Republicans to dispute the results.
But the vast majority of lawsuits are filed by the Trump campaign and the president’s allies state and federal courts, just like the High Council, have been discarded, and have state republican lawmakers withstand pressure by the president to undermine the will of voters and place their own voters.
The 538 members of the Electoral College from all 50 states and the District of Columbia gathered on December 14 to count electoral votes, confirming Mr. Biden’s victory.
But January 6, when Congress meets to count those votes, will be the last attempt for the president and his donors to challenge the election outcome. During the joint session, which is legally required to ratify the results, members can object to each individual state’s declarations as announced, opening the door for Mr. Trump’s GOP allies to declare a state’s results. To contest.
Objections must be made in writing by at least one member of both the House and Senate, after which the joint session will pause and the two houses separate and discuss the objection in their respective houses for no more than two hours, the Congressional Research Maintenance said. The House and the Senate then vote separately on whether or not to accept the objection. If the two chambers agree to accept the objection, the disputed state’s electoral votes are discarded.
While Biggs expressed his optimism, numerous House Republicans would line up to contest the votes of the states’ electoral college, but the plan has failed to gain traction in the Senate, harming the prospect of Congress giving Trump a second term in office. , are limited. In addition, because Democrats control the House, it is highly unlikely that the lower house would vote to throw out a state’s electoral votes.
Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the majority of the whip, said he is not aware of GOP senators who plan to object to the results.
“What they have to remember is it’s just not going anywhere,” he told reporters on Monday. “In the Senate it would go down like a shot dog. And I just don’t think it makes much sense to get everyone through this if you know what the final outcome will be.”
GOP Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, an ally of Mr. Trump said contesting the votes “would probably do more harm than good.”
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell last week asked Senate Republicans not to object to the election results when the joint session of Congress meets. Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, a Republican, told reporters “there was an encouragement on the phone to accept the result.”