WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell believes it is dangerous for his party to challenge the electoral triumph of President-elect Joe Biden. But some Republicans are moving forward anyway, and this time McConnell is facing dynamics that he cannot fully control.
Despite opposition from the Kentucky Republican, 13 Republican Party senators said they would join many House colleagues on Wednesday and object when Congress formally affirms the victory of the Biden Electoral College.. The effort will surely fail, was spurred by President Donald Trump heavily defeated as an unjustified last-minute effort to annul the election results, which all 50 states have already certified.
McConnell warned his colleagues that the confrontation is risky because it will force Republican senators, including those in potentially difficult reelections in 2022, to decide whether to support or oppose the happy Trump in a fight they are sure to lose. In mid-December, McConnell privately warned them that pressing the issue would force a “terrible vote”, even as he publicly congratulated Democrat Biden for his victory, ignoring Trump’s refusal to budge.
To emphasize their views, Republican Party advisers say McConnell plans to be the first speaker when the initial objection is raised during the joint session of Congress on Wednesday and the senators return to their chamber for a two-hour debate and vote. McConnell also made it clear that the Senate will meet all night, if necessary, to address all objections, the advisers said.
McConnell actively avoided confrontation with Trump whenever possible, but he is clearly fed up with Trump’s chaos. His comments on Wednesday will certainly leave no doubt about the seriousness with which he takes the vote, which hits the heart of the orderly transfer of power in American democracy.
But McConnell cannot avoid the objections, which are permitted by the constitution and federal law if a deputy and senator contest a state’s electoral votes. He is also facing overwhelming political dynamics, including the presidential ambitions expected by some senators for 2024, the desire of others to protect himself from the 2022 primaries brought on by the offended Trump and the temptation to use the struggle to raise money and support the support of Trump’s fervent followers.
“You have people who would like to be presidential candidates who are acting in the best interest of being candidates,” said David Winston, a political adviser to Republican congressional leaders.
Trump’s allegations of electoral fraud, which he began presenting months before election day, were rejected by Republican and Democratic officials in one state after another and by several judges, including the conservative-dominated Supreme Court. Former Trump attorney general William Barr said there was no evidence of fraud that could change the outcome of the election.
Newbie Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Said he will challenge Pennsylvania’s electoral votes. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who leads a group of 11 senators who want to create a commission to examine unfounded allegations of electoral fraud, is expected to challenge Arizona’s votes. Both men are expected to run for president in 2024.
Senator Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Can also dispute the results in her state. Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia were all key states that Biden won in his 306-232 victory at the Electoral College.
Spokesman David Popp said McConnell is not pressuring his colleagues to vote with him. But he made his views clear last week, telling Republican senators that he considers the vote to be the most important vote of his career and sharing his views with several colleagues who came to him.
His most powerful allies are with him, with South Dakota’s GOP Whip John Thune, winning a threat on Trump’s Twitter after predicting that the Senate effort “would fall like a targeted dog.”
McConnell is trying to lead his colleagues to a conservative argument that Congress should not overturn states’ electoral decisions. He has gained momentum in recent days, winning the support of influential members, including moderate Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and conservative Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., And Pat Toomey, R-Pa.
Aides expect the majority of Republican senators to join McConnell and all Democrats to take down election challenges. Cotton is considered another presidential candidate.
McConnell, 78, has served as a Republican leader since 2007 and is the oldest Republican Senate leader in history. But his status as a majority leader is in danger for reasons outside the Electoral College’s intraparty dispute. The majority of the Republican Party in the Senate wavered on Wednesday morning, with Democrat Raphael Warnock winning one of the two second rounds of the Georgia Senate; a thin margin separated the Republican and Democratic candidates in the second race. The loss of both would cost McConnell the majority.
McConnell did not shy away from previous battles with the party’s conservative base. He won more than not lately, but in 2010 and 2012, marginal Republican candidates in Nevada, Colorado and Indiana seemed to cost the party seats. But he turned the tide in 2014, winning a primary challenge of his own and bringing the Republican Party into control of the Senate after eight years as a minority.
Cruz’s group includes all four freshman Senate Republicans, a worrying sign for McConnell, since strong allies like Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. And Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Retired. Each freshman has sworn allegiance to Trump in his campaigns and is launching the first vote of their careers in the Senate according to Trump’s wishes.
In a previous day, freshmen might be more inclined to side with the establishment’s leadership figures who would likely be more important than an outgoing president.