Republicans appear hell-bent on kicking our great democracy to the curb and follow Donald Trump mindlessly into fascism. Over one-fourth of the Senate Republicans are intent upon challenging President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College’s 2020 win on January 6. Democrats are taking no nonsense off of them.
Thus far, 11 members of the Senate GOP announced on Saturday they intend to vote against certifying Biden’s election. Senator Ted Cruz R-TX mixed around in the muck of these Republicans’ thinking. He convinced them to make their certification votes contingent upon an election audit. This from the least liked man in the Senate, according to The Politico:
“We intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not “regularly given’ and ‘lawfully certified. Unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed.’
Senator Josh Hawley R-MO was the first senator to start the snowball effect. He said he hopes “many more will listen to their constituents and act.”
Senator Amy Klobuchar D-MN is the ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee with jurisdiction over federal elections. She released a news release on her website, calling the incident a “publicity stunt”:
‘Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20th, and no publicity stunt will change that. Every single state in America has certified its election results and that includes by Republican Secretaries of State and Governors.’
‘In Georgia, for example, the state conducted a hand audit and two recounts and the results were certified by the Republican Secretary of State. Joe Biden won. Over 80 judges, including Trump-appointed judges, have rejected lawsuits which seek to overturn the results across the country.
Klobuchar continued, pointing out that the Republicans were calling for another federal “commission” to rise above the state certifications:
“For a group of my Republican colleagues to claim that they want an additional federal “commission” to supersede state certifications when the votes have already been counted, recounted, litigated, and state-certified, amounts to nothing more than an attempt to subvert the will of the voters.
Then, the senator from Minnesota nailed it, by calling the 11 senators “undemocratic:”
‘It is undemocratic. It is un-American. And fortunately it will be unsuccessful. In the end, democracy will prevail.’
Not all of the Republicans support the insurrection. Senator Pat Toomey R-PA fought back against this wayward movement. Some of the 11 senators would even disqualify their own elections, and such an event would affect Toomey’s state considerably. He said Hawley’s and Cruz’s efforts “directly undermines” Americans from electing their own president.
Hawley responded to “shameless personal attacks” on him. He said the senators looked forward to an opportunity to debate the issue on January 6. Saturday evening he said, according to Politico:
‘We should avoid putting words into each other’s mouths and making unfounded claims about the intentions of our fellow senators. I never claim to speak for another senator, but I do speak for my constituents when they raise legitimate concerns about issues as important as the fairness of our elections.’
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell R-KY opposed the effort, but 140 Republicans in the House of Representatives supported it.
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