Despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell instructing GOP senators not to object to the election certification process, one senator has decided to act upon it himself.
According to Fox News, a coalition of GOP senators and senators-elect lead by Texas Senator Ted Cruz will object to the January 6 certification of the electoral college when a join session of Congress gathers to certify the votes
Cruz is joined by Senators Ron Johnson (R-Wis), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), John Kennedy (R-LA.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.), alongside with the incoming Senator-elects Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)
The group of senators and senators-elect are calling for Congress to appoint an Electoral Commission to conduct a 10-day emergency audit of the election results in return to the state which these results were disputed in.
If the objection were to carry through, the joint session of Congress would be dissolved and members of the House and Senate would meet separately for two hours to debate on the contested election results.
Ted Cruz cited the election dispute of 1877 when Rutherford Hayes won his election after it was discovered there was voter fraud in multiple states.
He said “In 1877, Congress did not ignore those allegations, nor did the media simply dismiss those raising them as radicals trying to undermine democracy. Instead, Congress appointed an Electoral Commission — consisting of five Senators, five House members, and five Supreme Court Justices — to consider and resolve the disputed returns. We should follow that precedent. To wit, Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission’s findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote.”
The last time this happened which was also only the second time in U.S. history was in January 2005 when former President George W. Bush narrowly won his reelection bid over John Kerry, One Senate Democrat Barbara Boxer of California, and one House Democrat Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones objected. In 2017 a handful of House Democrats tried to object to Trump’s victory but no Senate Democrats would join them.
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