NeverTrump Republicans denounced their colleagues this weekend after several GOP senators announced they would support a congressional effort to challenge the certification of the Electoral College’s votes on Jan. 6.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and 10 other senators joined Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., in announcing that they will object to the Electoral College’s votes when Congress meets for a joint session on Wednesday to certify a victory for Democrat candidate Joe Biden.
More than 100 House Republicans have agreed to do the same.
But many of their GOP colleagues have vowed to oppose the effort.
“The egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic. The congressional power to reject electors is reserved for the most extreme and unusual circumstances. These are far from it,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said in a statement.
Romney insisted the presidential election was not stolen.
“My fellow Senator Ted Cruz and the co-signers of his statement argue that rejection of electors or an election audit directed by Congress would restore trust in the election. Nonsense. … Members of Congress who would substitute their own partisan judgment for that of the courts do not enhance public trust, they imperil it,” Romney added.
NeverTrump Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan also slammed Trump-supporting Republicans for making “a mockery of our system and who we are as Americans.”
“President Trump and his team have had every opportunity to provide evidence supporting their claims, and they have failed to do so,” Hogan, whose state voted for Biden, said in a statement. “Whether or not you like the result, the process worked as it always has. What’s not working is that far too many politicians in Washington seem to have forgotten the basic principle that they are beholden to the people, not the other way around.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, didn’t take a direct shot at her dissenting Republican colleagues, but she did urge the Senate GOP to certify Biden’s win and “affirm the 2020 presidential election.”
“The courts and state legislatures have all honored their duty to hear legal allegations and have found nothing to warrant overturning the results. I urge my colleagues from both parties to recognize this and to join me in maintaining confidence in the Electoral College and our elections so that we ensure we have the continued trust of the American people,” she said in a statement.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who has long been an ally of Trump’s, also rejected the Electoral College challenge and claimed it “has zero chance of becoming reality.”
He also argued that objecting to the electors’ votes “is not effectively fighting for President Trump.”
Rather, “it appears to be more of a political dodge than an effective remedy.”
Romney, Murkowski, and Republican Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Bill Cassidy, R-La., even joined several Democrats in releasing a bipartisan statement demanding an end to all election challenges.
“The 2020 election is over. All challenges through recounts and appeals have been exhausted. At this point, further attempts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 Presidential election are contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine Americans’ confidence in the already determined election results,” the group of senators, which included five Democrats, said in a statement.
