WASHINGTON (AP) – Republicans launching an unprecedented challenge to Joe Biden’s election victory are preparing for a clash in Congress on Wednesday that threatens to divide his party and the country in the years to come.
With protesters already meeting in Washington to support President Donald Trump, the House and Senate will convene a joint session to count the electoral votes cast in the November election. Trump has repeatedly said there has been widespread fraud, but his claims have been rejected by Republican and Democratic election officials in one state after another and by judges, including in the Supreme Court, further cementing Biden’s victory.
Trump sees the joint session of Congress as one of his final attempts to reverse the results, although there is no reliable way to do so. Echoing Trump’s baseless claims, some of his Republican allies in Congress plan to formally oppose the results, focusing on six battle states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But an increasing number of his Republican colleagues, especially in the Senate, said they would not sign.
If an objection is supported by a member of the House and a senator in writing, both houses will vote for it. This could happen three or more times on Wednesday, as Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ted Cruz of Texas and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, along with at least ten other Republican senators, have indicated that they will support at least some of the House’s challenges. It is unclear what the Republican senators will do, but the process could drag on into the night, as the two chambers will have to consider each objection individually.
There may be more than 100 Republicans in the House willing to object.
The challenge for the presidential election is on a scale never seen since the aftermath of the Civil War, although the typically routine process of confirming the votes of the Electoral College has been met by brief objections before. In 2017, several House Democrats contested Trump’s victory, but Biden, who was then president as vice president, quickly dismissed them to assert Trump’s victory. In 2005, the challenge of a Democratic House member and a Democratic senator to George W. Bush’s victory in Ohio was quickly dismissed by both chambers.
This week’s effort is expected to be much broader, but it will certainly fail. Biden is due to open on January 20.
Republicans had not yet defined a complete strategy the night before the joint session. A Monday morning meeting convened by Cruz came to little conclusions, according to two Republicans familiar with the situation and guaranteed anonymity to discuss it. Cruz will object to Arizona’s election results, said another Republican – probably the first objection considered, in a state that Biden won.
Hawley said he would oppose Pennsylvania’s results, and Loeffler could oppose Georgia, where she was competing to keep her seat in the second round on Tuesday.
With growing desperation, Trump declared at a campaign rally by Loeffler and David Perdue in Georgia on Monday that he would “fight like hell” to stay in the presidency and called on Republican lawmakers to reverse their electoral defeat. Perdue seeks another six years in the Senate, but his term expired on Sunday.
The days that follow will be defining ones for your presidency. Trump is stirring crowds and people are gathering in Washington, where security is on the alert. Lawmakers are being instructed to arrive at the Capitol early and some are considering sleeping at night in their offices to ensure they can access the building safely amid protests.
Vice President Mike Pence will be closely watched while chairing the session. He is under increasing pressure from Trump and others to skew the results in favor of Trump. But Pence has a ceremonial role that does not give him the power to affect the outcome.
“I promise you this: on Wednesday, we will have our day in Congress,” said Pence as he campaigned in Georgia ahead of Tuesday’s second round of elections that will determine Senate control. But he did not elaborate on what that meant.
High-risk decisions about allying with Trump are dividing the Republican Party. A number of Republican officials – including Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland; Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the Republican Party’s third leader in the House; and former mayor Paul Ryan – criticized the Republican Party’s efforts to overturn the election. And more than a dozen Republican senators said they would not support the effort.
“The 2020 election is over,” said a statement on 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. Several others said they would also not support the objections, including Republican Sens. John Thune, of South Dakota, the second Republican in the Senate who said last month that he thought any challenge would fall “like a long shot.”
In a statement on Tuesday, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said that while reading the Constitution, “there are no constitutionally viable ways for Congress to overturn an election in which states have certified and sent their voters.”
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell tried to prevent his party from engaging in the battle, which could help define the Republican Party in the post-Trump era and create lingering resentments among Republican voters.
Hawley and Cruz are potential candidates for the presidency in 2024, vying for the base of Trump supporters. Some other potential candidates, including Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, chose not to contest the results.
The Cruz coalition of 13 senators said it would vote to reject Electoral College scores, unless Congress created a commission to immediately conduct an audit of election results. Congress is unlikely to agree with that.
Facing criticism from many in his own party, Cruz tried to put a finer point in his challenge. The commission remains his focus, he said, not to undo the election results, although that was the practical effect of a successful objection.
“We are going to vote to object to voters – not to annul the election, I don’t think it would be the right thing to do,” Cruz said on Mark Levin’s conservative radio program on Monday. “But rather to push for the appointment of an electoral commission.”
When the two chambers divide to consider objections and voting, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Will chair the House. If Pence does not chair the Senate, it will be Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who serves as the Senate pro tempore because he is the most senior senator in the majority.
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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking in Washington, 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.