- Republican senators Mitt Romney, Pat Toomey and Lisa Murkowski said they would oppose an effort by their colleagues to challenge the election results.
- Senator Ted Cruz is among a group of Republican senators who said they oppose the certification of votes from the Electoral College on Wednesday, during a joint session of Congress that is usually procedural.
- The effort may delay the certification of results, but it will not change the outcome of the vote in any US state.
- In a statement on Saturday, Romney said the effort “may increase the political ambition of some, but it dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic”.
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Senator Mitt Romney of Utah and other Republican senators said on Saturday they would oppose an effort by their colleagues to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Earlier in the day, Texas senator Ted Cruz announced that he would oppose the certification of votes from the Electoral College, and several Republican senators are expected to join him.
“The blatant ploy to reject voters may increase the political ambition of some, but it dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic,” Romney said in a statement.
President-elect Joe Biden won the election by receiving 306 electoral votes, compared with President Donald Trump’s 232.. The results were certified in all states, and presidential voters cast their votes last month.
Voters’ votes are expected to be certified on Wednesday during a joint session of Congress, which is usually procedural, confirming the winner that voters and the Electoral College have already chosen.
Cruz’s effort to oppose may delay certification of the results, but it will not change the election results in any US state.
Romney strongly rejected the effort, emphasizing the will of voters.
“If Congress really rejected state voters, supporters would inevitably demand the same whenever their candidate lost,” said Romney. “Congress, not voters in their respective states, would choose our presidents.”
Republicans who plan to oppose are requesting a 10-day emergency audit of election results in some states, although Romney also noted that the Trump campaign has lost all election processes and that the Justice Department has found no evidence of widespread electoral fraud. that would change the result.
He also criticized Trump directly for calling your supporters to meet in DC on the day that the vote would be certified, saying it could lead to “disturbances and worse.”
“I could never have imagined seeing these things in the greatest democracy in the world,” said Romney. “Did ambition eclipse the principle so much?”
Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also said they would oppose the effort.
“A fundamental and defining characteristic of a democratic republic is the people’s right to elect their own leaders,” said Toomey in a series of tweets on Saturday.
He said the attempt by Cruz and others to overturn the election results “directly undermines that right.”
Toomey said that senators are justifying their objection by citing allegations of fraud, but that “allegations of fraud in a lost campaign cannot justify an election turnaround”. He also said that judges in the U.S. determined that the fraud allegations were not supported by evidence.
He said he voted for Trump, but that he plans to “vigorously defend our form of government, opposing this effort to deprive millions of voters in my state and elsewhere”.
Murkowski also said in a declaration Saturday she will vote to affirm the results of the Electoral College and asked the senators of both parties to do the same.
“State courts and legislatures honored their duty to hear legal allegations and found nothing to justify the annulment of the results,” she said.
Republicans who allegedly plan to oppose certification of results include Cruz, Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Mike Braun of Indiana and Sens. -elect Cynthia Lummis from Wyoming, Roger Marshall from Kansas, Bill Hagerty from Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville from Alabama.
Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri also said on Wednesday that he plans to oppose.
In an email to Republican senators on Saturday night, Hawley called the recent comments “shameless personal attacks,” Politico reported. Toomey specifically mentioned Hawley in his comments on how to undermine democracy.
“We should avoid putting words in each other’s mouths and making unsubstantiated statements about the intentions of our fellow senators,” said Hawley, according to Politico. “I never claim to speak for another senator, but I speak for my constituents when they raise legitimate concerns about issues as important as the fairness of our elections.”