Josh Hawley Creates Nightmare Scenario for
McConnell, GOP by Objecting to Biden Win Certification
BY
ELIZABETH CRISP ON 12/30/20 AT 12:35 PM EST
Missouri
Senator Josh Hawley's decision to object when Congress meets next week to tally
the results of the presidential election will force Republican senators into
the tricky position of having to publicly say whether they support President
Donald Trump's baseless claims that he should have won instead of
President-elect Joe Biden.
Hawley,
thought to be a possible 2024 contender for the GOP presidential nomination,
has hinted for weeks that he would raise an objection over the results from
Pennsylvania and other battleground states that voted for Biden—forcing a
lengthy debate over the election followed by a roll call vote. House
Republicans already had announced plans to lodge an objection in the lower
chamber, and Hawley formally announced his plans Wednesday to do the same in
the Senate.
Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had privately tried to discourage GOP senators
from forcing a vote, as Trump remains politically popular among Republicans but
the president has repeatedly pushed his allies to raise an objection. The
Electoral College formally cast votes December 14. Trump has portrayed Congress
as a last-ditch effort to override the electors.
Hawley, who
has accused Facebook and Twitter of unfairly backing Biden, said he decided to
force a vote so he would have an opportunity to highlight that "some
states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election
laws."
Pennsylvania
officials have repeatedly denied allegations that they skirted election laws,
and Attorney General Josh Shapiro accused Hawley on Wednesday of plotting a
"baseless attempt by Trump's enablers to undermine the will of the
people."
"Pennsylvania's
election was secure, legal & fair," Shapiro tweeted after Hawley's
announcement. "Our electoral votes have been cast for Joe Biden &
Kamala Harris. I will continue fighting these attacks on voting rights until
Jan 20. Until then, the people should know that any senator making declarations
about challenging Pennsylvania's election result is performing political
theater for Donald Trump, not following any facts or laws."
Aside from
their recorded votes that could put them on Trump's friend list or foe list and
prompt an angry tweet or praise, lawmakers will each get up to five minutes to
expound on their views of the election outcome—good or bad.
It will be
only the third time in a century that the House and Senate will be forced to
vote on whether they agree with a state's slate of electors. Two previous
attempts to reject Electoral College votes—one in 1969 and one in
2005—overwhelmingly failed. For any to be thrown out, the Republican-controlled
Senate and Democrat-controlled House would have to agree after two hours of
debate, allowing every member to speak.
Trump has
refused to concede the election and mounted unsuccessful legal challenges
across multiple states that Biden won.
Asked about
Trump's continued protests over the election outcome, McConnell told reporters
earlier this month that he had no advice for the president.
"For
me, on the basis of the way the system works, the decision by the Electoral
College was determined," he said.
McConnell
has privately spoken to Biden and publicly acknowledged Biden's win.
McConnell's office didn't immediately respond to Newsweek's request Wednesday
for comment on Hawley's decision.
Hawley
defended his decision as being the "same practice Democrat members of
Congress have in years past." He cited examples from 2005, when Senator
Barbara Boxer (D-California) and the late Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones
(D-Ohio) forced the House and Senate to vote over whether to reject George W.
Bush's win in Ohio, and a challenge by several members of the House in 2017.
The Senate didn't vote in 2017 because no senator joined in the objection.
House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California, defended Democrats in those symbolic
rejections but dismissed Hawley's attempt.
"I
have no doubt that on next Wednesday, a week from today, that Joe Biden will be
confirmed by the acceptance of the vote of the Electoral College as the 46th
president of the United States," she told reporters Wednesday.
Separately,
in 1969 a Representative and Senator forced a vote in both chambers over a
single North Carolina elector who switched his vote. That attempt also failed.
Jen Psaki,
a Biden-Harris transition spokeswoman and incoming White House Press Secretary,
dismissed "antics" that are still trying to overturn the election
results.
"The American people spoke resoundingly in this election," she told reporters Wednesday, adding
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