WASHINGTON (AP) – With growing desperation, President Donald Trump called on Republican lawmakers Monday to reverse his election loss to Joe Biden when Congress meets this week for a joint session to confirm the Electoral College to vote.
Trump’s unprecedented attempt to reverse the presidential election i Splitting from the Republican Party. Some GOP lawmakers backing Trump are rushing, despite a stream of condemnation from current and former party officials who warn that the effort is undermining Americans’ confidence in democracy. All 10 surviving former Defense Secretaries wrote in an opinion piece that “the time to question the results is over.”
It is unclear to what extent the GOP leaders in Congress will be able to monitor Wednesday’s joint session, which could last the night, although the challenges ahead of the election will almost certainly fail. Trump himself is calling crowds for a Wednesday rally near the White House.
Trump’s allies are adopting his baseless allegations of voter fraud. But according to a consensus of election officials in the states he disputes – as well as his former Attorney General William Barr – there is no evidence of fraud that could change the election results. Officials who control elections in their country, including battlefields that Biden has won, have validated those results.
Of the more than 50 lawsuits filed by the president and his allies, nearly all have been dismissed or dropped. He has also lost twice in the US Supreme Court.
The bid to keep Trump in office is led by Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, along with regular House members, some on the fringes of the party.
“I just called @realDonaldTrump,” tweeted newly elected Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is joining a conspiracy group that supports Trump.
“He wants you to call your representative and senators TODAY ALL DAY!” she tweeted Monday. “Don’t Let Republicans Be The Surrender Caucus!”
Senate Leader Mitch McConnell was in private talks with other Republicans to review the coming days, a defining period that will help shape the post-Trump era.
Both Hawley and Cruz are potential presidential candidates for 2024, vying for Trump support. Vice President Mike Pence, who is under pressure to tip the results for Trump, will be closely watched as he presides over a ceremonial role during Wednesday’s joint session.
“I promise you this: Wednesday we have our day in Congress,” Pence said as he campaigned for Republicans in Georgia ahead of Tuesday’s second election. that will determine the control of the Senate.
One of those Georgian Republicans, Senator Kelly Loeffler who faces Democrat Raphael Warnock, announced that she will object to Biden’s victory. The other Republican seeking re-election, David Perdue, who is up against Democrat Jon Ossoff, will not be eligible to vote in the Senate on Wednesday.
Biden said at a drive-in meeting in Atlanta that Trump “spends more time whining and complaining” than resolving the coronavirus pandemic. He added dismissively, “I don’t know why he still wants the job – he doesn’t want to do the job.”
Monday during the day, more current and former GOP officials rebuked the attempt to turn the election upside down.
Former Missouri Senator John Danforth has sharply criticized the attempt by Hawley and the others, a particularly sharp statement given that Danforth has long been a Hawley supporter.
“Making Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen credible is a very destructive attack,” Danforth, the 84-year-old senator from St. Louis, said in a written statement. “It’s the opposite of conservative; it is radical. “
Two current Republican senators, Rob Portman of Ohio and Mike Lee of Utah, joined the growing number who now oppose the challenge from the legislature.
Portman said in a statement, “I cannot allow Congress to thwart the will of voters.”
The US Chamber of Commerce, the gigantic lobbying organization and virtual embodiment of the business establishment, said the election challenge “undermines our democracy and the rule of law and will only result in further divisions in our country.”
GOP Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts said at a press conference that Biden “won the election fair and the square.”
McConnell has tried to prevent his party from participating in this fight. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, an ally of Trump, has refused to say much about it publicly.
So far, Trump has enlisted support from a dozen Republican senators and up to 100 House Republicans to help Biden’s 306-232 Electoral College victory.
With Biden inaugurated on Jan.20, Trump is stepping up efforts to prevent the traditional transfer of power. During a call announced on Sunday, he can be heard pressuring Georgian officials to ‘find’ him more votes from the November 3 election he lost in that state.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who organized a private appeal from House Democrats on Monday, said in a letter to colleagues that their job now is “to convince more American people to trust our democratic system.”
The challenge for the presidential election is on a scale unseen since the aftermath of the civil war, although the typically routine process of confirming votes in the electoral college has previously faced brief objections. In 2017, several House Democrats challenged Trump’s victory, but Biden, who at the time chaired as vice president, quickly dismissed them to claim Trump’s victory.
States hold their own elections, and Congress was reluctant to interfere. Despite Trump’s objections, many states have adapted to the coronavirus pandemic by allowing more postal votes to reduce the health risks of personal voting.
“The 2020 election is over,” said a statement Sunday from a bipartisan group of 10 senators, including Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mitt Romney of Utah.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, another potential 2024 president hopeful, announced that he, too, would not oppose the counting of certified electoral votes.
A range of Republican officials, including Maryland Governor Larry Hogan; Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, House GOP leader’s third rank; and former House Speaker Paul Ryan have criticized the GOP’s efforts to reverse the election.
Hawley defended his actions in a lengthy email over the weekend to his colleagues, saying his Missouri voters were “loud and clear” in insisting that Biden’s defeat of Trump was unfair.
Hawley plans to object to the Pennsylvania state figures, although that state’s Republican senator, Pat Toomey, has said the results that Biden call the winner are valid.
Cruz’s coalition of 11 Republican senators promises to reject the Electoral College unless Congress sets up a committee to immediately audit the election results. Congress is unlikely to agree.
The group, which did not present any new evidence of election problems, includes Sens. Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, James Lankford from Oklahoma, Steve Daines from Montana, John Kennedy from Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee, Mike Braun from Indiana, Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming, Roger Marshall from Kansas, Bill Hagerty from Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville from Alabama.
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Associated Press writers Bill Barrow in Atlanta, Steve LeBlanc in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Jim Salter in O’Fallon, Missouri, Alan Fram in Washington, and Tali Arbel of the Technology Team. contributed.