Matt Gaetz Announces Challenge To Biden Confirmation Vote

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Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fl.), an ardent supporter of outgoing President Donald Trump, announced on Monday that he was planning to object to the electoral college vote totals when Congress meets to confirm the outcome in early January. In order to proceed with a challenge to electoral votes, challengers must have the support of at least one member from both houses of Congress, and in the Senate, Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has already suggested that he might join in the challenge. There is no legitimacy to the Trump-backed claims of widespread fraud — judges have rejected the president’s claims in courts around the country — and the planned electoral vote challenge amounts to little more than a political stunt to appease Trump’s base.

Gaetz self-confidently commented as follows:

‘On January 6th, I’m joining with the fighters in Congress. We’re going to OBJECT to electors from states that didn’t run clean elections.’

Every state, according to any reasonable description, ran a “clean election.” Trump allies have not come close to successfully proving their claims of widespread fraud in a single state anywhere in the country, no matter their belligerence.

The Trump team’s claims themselves are ridiculous. For instance, top Trump ally Rudy Giuliani recently put forward the idea that undocumented immigrants voted in significant numbers — in the thousands and tens of thousands — in certain states. This suggestion is ludicrous — if these undocumented immigrants voted, then where are the records? How did they cast their ballots? If they cast ballots in-person, then how did these imaginary fraudsters convince untold numbers of frontline election workers to let thousands of people vote who weren’t actually on record? Why would thousands of people who clearly aren’t eligible to vote in the presidential race head out to local polling places anyway? Would Trump allies suggest that these undocumented immigrants coordinated their imaginary illegal voting? Would they suggest that the undocumented immigrants are all in a group chat?

The point is that the Trump team’s claims of dirty elections are ridiculous and have no legitimacy. Judges around the country, including a slew of Trump’s own appointees, have rejected Trump’s arguments. During a weekend radio show, Giuliani suggested that Democrats “fixed” the courts around the country, as if there’s truly no sector of society that Trump folks are unwilling to suggest is conspiring against them if they don’t get their way.