Senate Republicans, including majority leader Mitch McConnell, said they would oppose Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville’s efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election.
Tuberville, a newly elected Alabama senator, previously suggested that he would join Republican Party Representative Mo Brooks to challenge the election using the 1877 Electoral Counting Act when Congress met to finalize the vote on January 6.
If Brooks and Tuberville successfully team up to oppose the electoral vote, both chambers are expected to hold a two-hour debate and then vote on whether to approve or deny the objection. For the process to proceed, both chambers would have to agree with the objection in order to reject the contested electoral votes.
But Senate Republicans have made it clear that they want to avoid this messy process.
Republican Senate Whip John Thune said Republican Party leaders will tell Tuberville that voting against the Electoral College vote would be futile and politically damaging, according to The Hill.
“Ultimately, each senator will have to make his own decision about it, but I think there will be people, yes, contacting him just to find out what he is going to do,” said Thune of Tuberville’s intentions, The Hill reported. .
“At the very least, we need to know the plan,” he said. “We will see. He made some public statements,” he added. “I hope that in the end all the senators will conclude that this election needs to end and that it is time to move on.”
Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and adviser to the Senate Republican Party leadership, said he would “be shocked” if the other Republican Party leaders did not yet encourage Tuberville not to contest the vote.
“It’s basically following the rules,” said Cornyn of contesting the Electoral College count. “It is a useless exercise.”
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The Electoral College officially confirmed Joe Biden as the next president of the United States on December 14. The next Congressional meeting will be the last attempt that Trump and his allies will have to contest the vote, after months of failed lawsuits and baseless allegations that the election was riddled with electoral fraud.
Along with Thune, McConnell and Senate Rules Committee chairman Roy Blunt also advised Republican senators not to oppose the election vote next month.
During a conference call on December 15, McConnell warned that contesting the counting of electoral votes in certain states on January 6 would be a political mistake, especially for senators running for reelection, The Hill reported.
Ultimately, Thune said that the GOP leadership wants to “encourage all of our members – new members included – that we have a lot of work ahead of us and that redoing it takes a lot of time, energy and political capital that could be better used working in a agenda for next year. “
Although Tuberville has not officially confirmed whether or not he will vote to oppose the Electoral College count, Trump said in a radio interview on December 19 that the Alabama senator seemed eager to do so.
“I spoke to a great gentleman, Tommy Tuberville, last night,” Trump said in Discovering the truth, a radio talk show series with Rudy Giuliani.
“And he is so excited. He said … he said, ‘You made me the most popular politician in the United States.’ He said, ‘I can’t believe it’. He is great. Great senator. “
Newsweek contacted Tuberville for further comments, but received no response in time for publication.