GOP members of the Senate, including Mitch McConnell, have said they would stand against Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville’s last-ditch attempt to contest the 2020 presidential election results. The DC swamp is ready to push President Trump out the door. But it’s not over yet!
GOP pushing Trump out
President Trump is surrounded by enemies, many of whom are members of his own party. The DC swamp runs deep, even into the heart of the GOP. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is calling for fellow Republicans to ditch the “stop the steal” effort and focus on the incoming Biden administration. But some GOP members are on the Trump train until the end.
Tommy Tuberville, a newly elected senator from Alabama, hinted that he would join GOP Representative Mo Brooks to challenge the election by using the Electoral Count Act of 1877 when Congress meets to finalize the vote on January 6.
If Brooks and Tuberville successfully team up to oppose the electoral vote, both chambers would be required to hold a two-hour debate and then vote on whether to approve or deny the objection. For the process to move forward, both chambers would have to agree on the objection in order to throw out contested electoral votes. Not a likely outcome.
GOP senators want to avoid the messy process. Senate Republican Whip John Thune said GOP leaders will tell Tuberville that voting to oppose the Electoral College vote would be a futile and politically damaging move.
“Ultimately every senator will have to make their own decision about that but I think there will be people reaching out to him just to kind of find out what he’s going to do,” Thune said of Tuberville’s intentions. “I’m hoping in the end that all senators will conclude that this election needs to be over with and it’s time to move on.”
All throughout American history, time after time, American men and women have stood strong and fought for their country. That’s what we need to do now! pic.twitter.com/xoNvZIXhEr
— Mo Brooks (@RepMoBrooks) December 18, 2020
President Trump vs the Deep State
Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas and an adviser to the Senate GOP leadership, said that “he’d be shocked,” if fellow GOP leaders haven’t already encouraged Tuberville not to contest the vote. “It’s basically going through the motions,” Cornyn said of objecting the Electoral College tally. “It’s a futile exercise.”
The Electoral College officially confirmed Joe Biden to be the next President of the United States on December 14. The upcoming congressional meeting will be the final attempt that Trump and his allies have to contest the vote. Time is running out.
Along with Thune, McConnell and Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt have also advised GOP senators not to oppose the electoral vote next month. During a December 15 conference call, Mitch McConnell warned that objecting to counting certain states’ electoral votes on Jan. 6 would be a political mistake, especially for senators up for reelection.
Senator Thune said that the GOP leadership wants to “encourage all of our members — new members included — that we got a lot of work ahead of us and that rehashing this takes a lot of time and energy and political capital that could best be used working on an agenda for next year.”
