Republicans on Capitol Hill see little reason to counter Trump’s electoral lies

Asked if he believed the election was stolen, Mast said: “I think there are some real inaccuracies that we are not investigating.”

With polls showing that about three-quarters of Republican Party voters believe there has been widespread fraud, many Republican lawmakers show little willingness to clarify things to their voters, even with court after court rejecting one Trump-supported case after another in one. futile attempt to launch Biden’s victory.

“I am very concerned about the integrity of the elections and I think some of his own state electoral laws and calculations have been violated,” said Republican Senator Roger Marshall, a Kansas doctor and freshman, when asked if he is willing to say the election has not been stolen. . “That’s why we needed to take a look.”

This view is not universal among Republicans, particularly Republican senators who are ready to overcome the tumultuous Trump era.

“I am not,” said Texas Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Republican Party leadership, when asked if he planned to go to Mar-a-Lago to visit Trump in Florida, as the two leading House Republicans did after the 6 of January.

But many others see Trump as the dominant force and plan to remain allied with him.

“I don’t know what the case would be or why we would like it to be,” said Rubio when asked if Trump should have no role in the party going forward, as Wyoming MP Liz Cheney said this week.

Rubio, who said he saw no evidence to suggest that the election was stolen, also indicated that he would have no qualms if Trump told his supporters this weekend that the election was stolen.

“He can say what he wants,” said Rubio.

House Republican won’t support Johnson over election claims

“I think there are some real questions that have not been answered, and I think these are legitimate concerns about the election,” Johnson told CNN when asked if he believes the election was rigged. “I’m not afraid of the truth, okay?”

Johnson, who has yet to decide whether to run for reelection, faced a flurry of criticism this week for highlighting the spotlight during a high-profile hearing of an alleged eyewitness article suggesting that Trump supporters were not to blame for the violence of 6 of January.

Congressman Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who has become a leading critic of Trump’s electoral lies, called Johnson – and said “no” to CNN that he would not support the Wisconsin Republican if he ran for a third term.

“You can’t sell conspiracies,” said Kinzinger. “My basic bar for anyone now is just telling the truth. We need to sell less out of fear – sell more truth and inspiration.”

However, Kinzinger is clearly in the minority in his party.

“I agree that the election was compromised in several southern states,” said Representative Clay Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana. “I look forward to recording this accurately.” Asked if he believed that Biden was legitimately elected, Higgins said: “I believe the election has been compromised and the investigations take time.”

“I want the states to investigate this – so I’m not going to judge,” said Rep. Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, when asked if he believes the election was stolen.

Many Republicans are not going to adopt the Trump line to say the election was “stolen”. But at the same time, they suggest that something went terribly wrong in November.

Representative Jim Jordan, who helped lead the charge on the floor of the House to overturn the election results in six states, said he “never” said on the floor that the election was “stolen”. But he quickly added, “Fifty million Republicans have real concerns – more than a third of the electorate. And several states, the main states, have changed their electoral laws unconstitutionally.”

However, efforts in the courts to challenge these state electoral rules have been totally rejected – even rejected by Trump-appointed judges, including in the United States Supreme Court.

Florida Senator Rick Scott, who chairs the Republican Party’s campaign arm in the Senate, voted to overturn the Pennsylvania election results even after the January 6 riot. Scott said “no” on Thursday when asked if he regretted the vote, arguing that the state “don’t follow the law” by accepting ballots after election day, although the courts have confirmed Pennsylvania’s actions.

Asked whether he agreed with Trump that the election was rigged or stolen, Scott just said, “We’ll see what he says. I know Joe Biden is the president.”

Still, critics blame major Republicans for fueling this misperception by refusing to say the election was free and fair. Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy joined forces to overturn election results after January 6 and signed a lawsuit in Texas to invalidate millions of votes, as well as his number 2, Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican who refused to vote. say over the weekend that the election was not stolen.

A minority of Republicans in the House believe that their party leadership must make it clear that the election was legitimate and was not stolen.

“I think we need to move on,” said Rep. Tom Reed, a New York Republican who co-chairs the Problem Solvers Caucus bipartisan committee.

“We are not going to try to compete and gain power by blaming the stolen elections,” said Kinzinger. Asked if he could support McCarthy as president of the House if the Republican Party regains a majority next year, Kinzinger suggested that it would depend on the message adopted by the House’s top Republican.

“This is two years from now,” said Kinzinger.

Anxiety in the ranks about Trump’s speech and the 2022 outlook

In fact, Republicans fear that the party’s split over Trump could jeopardize their prospects of retaking a majority in both houses in 2022, exemplified last week when the former president attacked McConnell in extremely personal terms afterwards that the Senate leader accused Trump of “shameful abandonment of duty” and of being responsible for the January 6 events. McConnell declined to comment this week when asked if he regretted his statements about Trump.

“I think it would be a lot nicer if we tried to get along and stopped kicking our own ass,” said Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana.

Asked whether he believed the election was stolen, Kennedy declined to be involved. “I have already said everything I wanted to on this subject. At some point, you will have to stop talking about yesterday,” he told CNN.

Still, Trump could very well bring attention back to the election results when he speaks on Sunday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, even though several Republicans don’t want him to suggest that the election was stolen.

“That would be a big mistake,” said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close confidant to Trump who said he encouraged the former president to avoid saying the election was rigged and instead to focus on comparing his views. political with those of Biden.

“The election is over and defeats are difficult,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia and part of McConnell’s leadership team. “I think the part that heals the nation is the union that the president could serve the nation better by accepting that fact.”

But some Republicans see it differently. “I’m fine with him saying that,” said Mast when asked about Trump’s potential to tell the CPAC crowd that the election was stolen.

Cheney, meanwhile, said that it is up to the CPAC to decide whether to speak there, but added: “I do not believe that it should play a role in the future of the party or the country.”

But Cheney’s Wyoming senator, Republican Party senator Cynthia Lummis, disagrees. “I don’t agree with Liz Cheney about this at all,” said Lummis.

And, in fact, Cheney is outnumbered when it comes to his views on Trump among Republicans on the Capitol – until more than a month after he stepped down.

“She is an exception in the party,” said Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican.