Momentum continued to build in Wednesday’s vote-fraud challenge to the Nov. 3 election, with at least 140 GOP members of the US House of Representatives expected to back it—an unprecedented repudiation in modern times.
.@JakeTapper quotes others saying 140+ House GOPers will vote against voter fraud, illegal ballots & election theft. For once, I hope #CNN & Jake Tapper are not #FakeNewsMedia! 140+ is a WHOLE LOT MORE than the ONE we started with the week of November 3rd. 😉 https://t.co/1YwLLTDaiK
— Mo Brooks (@RepMoBrooks) December 31, 2020
The number amounts to roughly a third of the total House delegation of 435 members, and two-thirds of all Republican members.
The estimate was floated on Dec. 31.
As of Monday, roughly 50 House members had gone on record to pledge support. In addition, at least a dozen senators plan to support the challenge, according to the Epoch Times.
“There may very well be a big fight in Congress over whether the votes of the electors of those states where they changed the rules without legislative action should be accepted,” Trump legal adviser Kris Kobach, Kansas’s former secretary of state, told Breitbart.
Despite the brewing battle, Congress made a show of symbolic unity on Monday, agreeing at least to the terms of the debate by passing its rules via voice vote, the Epoch Times reported.
Much of it relied upon the guidelines outlined by the 12th Amendment and the 1887 Electoral Count Act, including the agreement that Vice President Mike Pence will preside over the joint session.
However, Pence is unlikely to back the electoral challenge himself, after a lawsuit against him brought by Trump supporters including Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, was dismissed for lack of standing.
The suit challenged the 1887 law, saying that the Constitutional amendment had primacy over it, and that the amendment empowered Pence with the exclusive authority to recognize electors.
Several key battleground states plan to send sets of rival Trump-backing electors, and the legislators will thus be compelled to vote on how to proceed.
Massive protests—largely driven by supporters of the president—are also expected to take place around Capitol Hill.
