Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., indicated this week that he may challenge the Electoral College votes from several battleground states in defiance of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Several House Republicans, led most prominently by Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, have already said they will challenge the Electoral College’s decision to elect Democrat candidate Joe Biden when Congress convenes for its joint session on Jan. 6.
But they need at least one Republican senator to join their efforts in order for the challenge to move forward.
Tuberville hinted this week that he might join them even though McConnell urged the Senate GOP to allow the electoral process to move forward without interruption.
“Well, you see what’s coming. You’ve been reading about it in the House. We’re gonna have to, we’re gonna have to do it in the Senate,” Tuberville said.
BREAKING: Defying McConnell, Sen-elect Tuberville suggests he will challenge Electoral College, while stumping in Georgia pic.twitter.com/1z5wJ2ajVP
— Lauren Windsor (@lawindsor) December 17, 2020
Brooks called it “unfathomable that anyone would acquiesce to election theft and voter fraud because they lack the courage to take a difficult vote on the House or Senate floor.”
“Last time I checked, that’s why we were elected to Congress,” he told Politico.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also hinted that he might take up Brooks’s challenge.
“The fraud happened. The election in many ways was stolen, and the only way it will be fixed is by in the future reinforcing the laws,” he said this week.
When pressed, however, Paul said he hasn’t “made plans to do anything.”
Asked Rand Paul whether he might object to a state’s election results on Jan. 6, and he said: “I haven’t thought about it, or made any plans to do anything.”
On McConnell urging the conference yesterday not to object, Paul says: “I wasn’t part of that phone call.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 16, 2020