Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Congress Set to Confirm Biden's Electoral Win Over Trump
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 4 years ago on
January 6, 2021

Share

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s extraordinary effort to overturn the presidential election is going before Congress as lawmakers convene for a joint session to confirm the Electoral College vote won by Joe Biden.

The typically routine proceeding Wednesday will be anything but, a political confrontation unseen to such intensity since the aftermath of the Civil War, as Trump mounts a desperate effort to stay in office. The president’s Republican allies in the House and Senate plan to object to the election results, heeding supporters’ plea to “fight for Trump” as he stages a rally outside the White House. It’s tearing the party apart.

The last-gasp effort is all but certain to fail, defeated by bipartisan majorities in Congress prepared to accept the November results. Biden, who won the Electoral College 306-232, is to be inaugurated Jan. 20.

“The most important part is that, in the end, democracy will prevail here,” Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, among those managing the proceedings, said in an interview.

The joint session of Congress, required by law, will convene at 1 p.m. EST before a watchful, restless nation — months after the election, two weeks before the inauguration’s traditional peaceful transfer of power and against the backdrop of a surging COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawmakers were told by Capitol officials to arrive early, due to safety precautions with protesters in Washington. Visitors, who typically fill the galleries to watch landmark proceedings, will not be allowed under COVID-19 restrictions.

The session also comes as overnight results from Georgia’s runoff elections put Democrats within reach of a Senate majority.

The current majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who tried to warn his Republican Party off this challenge, is expected to deliver early remarks. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it a day of “enormous historic significance,” about “guaranteeing trust in our democratic system.”

But it is Vice President Mike Pence who will be most closely watched as he presides over the session.

Despite Trump’s repeated claims of voter fraud, election officials and his own former attorney general have said there were no problems on a scale that would change the outcome. All the states have certified their results as fair and accurate, by Republican and Democratic officials alike.

Trump Amplified His Pleas to Stay in Office

Pence has a largely ceremonial role, opening the sealed envelopes from the states after they are carried in mahogany boxes used for the occasion, and reading the results aloud. But he is under growing pressure from Trump to overturn the will of the voters and tip the results in the president’s favor, despite having no legal power to affect the outcome.

“Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!” Trump tweeted Wednesday.

With the Senate results from Georgia streaming in, Trump amplified his pleas to stay in office as a veto check on Democrats. The country “NEEDS THE PRESIDENCY MORE THAN EVER,” he tweeted after Raphael Warnock won one of runoff election seats.

While other vice presidents, including Al Gore and Richard Nixon, also presided over their own defeats, Pence supports those Republican lawmakers mounting challenges to the 2020 outcome.

It’s not the first time lawmakers have challenged results. Democrats did in 2017 and 2005. But the intensity of Trump’s challenge is like nothing in modern times, and an outpouring of current and elected GOP officials warn the showdown is sowing distrust in government and eroding Americans’ faith in democracy.

“There is no constitutionally viable means for the Congress to overturn an election,” said Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., announcing his refusal to join the effort on the eve of the session.

Still, more than a dozen Republican senators led by Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, along with as many as 100 House Republicans, are pressing ahead to raise objections to individual states’ reports of Biden’s wins.

Under the rules of the joint session, any objection to a state’s electoral tally needs to be submitted in writing by at least one member of the House and one of the Senate to be considered. Each objection will force two hours of deliberations in the House and Senate, ensuring a long day.

House Republican lawmakers are signing on to objections to the electoral votes in six states — Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Democrats Have the Majority in the House, While the Republican-Led Senate Is Divided Over the Issue

Arizona will likely be the first to be disputed as the state tallies are announced in alphabetical order. Cruz has said he will join House Republicans in objecting to that state, even as he acknowledged the effort will not have the votes to succeed.

“Extraordinarily uphill,” he said late Tuesday on Fox News.

Hawley has said he will object to the election results from Pennsylvania, almost ensuring a second two-hour debate despite resistance from the state’s Republican senator, Pat Toomey, who said the tally of Biden’s win is accurate.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler may challenge the results in her state of Georgia. She was defeated in Georgia’s runoff to Warnock, but can remain a senator until he is sworn into office.

The other Senate runoff race between Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff remained too early to call Wednesday, though Ossoff declared he won. Perdue, who was seeking reelection, is ineligible to vote in the Senate because his term expired with the start of the new Congress Sunday.

It’s unclear if any of the other senators will object to any other state, as lawmakers were still devising a strategy.

Democrats have the majority in the House, while the Republican-led Senate is divided over the issue. Bipartisan majorities in both chambers are expected to soundly reject the objections.

The group led by Cruz is vowing to object unless Congress agrees to form a commission to investigate the election, but that seems unlikely.

Those with Cruz are Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Mike Braun of Indiana, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.

Many of the Republicans challenging the results said they are trying to give voice to voters back home who don’t trust the outcome of the election and want to see the lawmakers fighting for Trump.

Hawley defended his role saying his constituents have been “loud and clear” about their distrust of the election. “It is my responsibility as a senator to raise their concerns,” he wrote to colleagues.

As criticism mounted, Cruz insisted his aim was “not to set aside the election” but to investigate the claims of voting problems. He has produced no new evidence.

Both Hawley and Cruz are potential 2024 presidential contenders, vying for Trump’s base of supporters.

DON'T MISS

Trump Says He May Take Control of the US Postal Service. Here’s What to Know

DON'T MISS

Supreme Court Halts Trump’s Bid to Fire Whistleblower Chief

DON'T MISS

ICE Official Reassigned Amid Frustrations Over Mass Deportation Effort

DON'T MISS

Pentagon Says It Will Cut 5,400 Probationary Workers Starting Next Week

DON'T MISS

Federal Order to End DEI Policies Has Fresno Schools Scrambling for Answers

DON'T MISS

Bannon Denies Nazi Salute Accusation at CPAC, Calls It ‘a Wave’

DON'T MISS

Misty Her Calls for ‘Huge Mindset Shift’ at Fresno Unified as She Campaigns for Top Job

DON'T MISS

AP Sues 3 Trump Administration Officials, Citing Freedom of Speech

DON'T MISS

Bullard Teacher Arrested for 10 Sex Felonies Involving Student

DON'T MISS

Protester Hurls Tomato at Tulare Assemblywoman During High-Speed Rail Conference

UP NEXT

Bullard Teacher Arrested for Inappropriate Behavior With a Minor, Principal Says

UP NEXT

Nearly 1 in 10 U.S. Adults Identifies as LGBTQ+, Survey Finds

UP NEXT

Arctic Blast Causes Massive Pileups, Power Outages Across East Coast

UP NEXT

Struggling Forever 21 Plans to Close 200 Stores in Possible 2nd Bankruptcy

UP NEXT

2 People Are Dead in a Small Plane Collision at a Southern Arizona Airport

UP NEXT

Official White House Account Declares Trump ‘King’ in Latest Post

UP NEXT

A$AP Rocky Returns to a Life of Music, Fashion, Film and Rihanna With His Acquittal

UP NEXT

Leonard Peltier Released After Biden Commuted Sentence in FBI Agents’ Killings

UP NEXT

Death of South Korean Actor at 24 Sparks Discussion About Social Media

UP NEXT

Former Vice President Kamala Harris to Be Honored by NAACP With Its Chairman’s Award

Pentagon Says It Will Cut 5,400 Probationary Workers Starting Next Week

10 hours ago

Federal Order to End DEI Policies Has Fresno Schools Scrambling for Answers

11 hours ago

Bannon Denies Nazi Salute Accusation at CPAC, Calls It ‘a Wave’

11 hours ago

Misty Her Calls for ‘Huge Mindset Shift’ at Fresno Unified as She Campaigns for Top Job

12 hours ago

AP Sues 3 Trump Administration Officials, Citing Freedom of Speech

12 hours ago

Bullard Teacher Arrested for 10 Sex Felonies Involving Student

12 hours ago

Protester Hurls Tomato at Tulare Assemblywoman During High-Speed Rail Conference

12 hours ago

LA Mayor Bass Removes Fire Chief Kristin Crowley After Wildfire Response Criticism

13 hours ago

Salman Rushdie’s Attacker Found Guilty of Attempted Murder in New York

14 hours ago

Rate the SE Fresno City Council Candidates Before You Vote

14 hours ago

Trump Says He May Take Control of the US Postal Service. Here’s What to Know

PHILADELPHIA — President Donald Trump on Friday said he may put the U.S. Postal Service under the control of the Commerce Department in what...

9 hours ago

9 hours ago

Trump Says He May Take Control of the US Postal Service. Here’s What to Know

9 hours ago

Supreme Court Halts Trump’s Bid to Fire Whistleblower Chief

9 hours ago

ICE Official Reassigned Amid Frustrations Over Mass Deportation Effort

10 hours ago

Pentagon Says It Will Cut 5,400 Probationary Workers Starting Next Week

11 hours ago

Federal Order to End DEI Policies Has Fresno Schools Scrambling for Answers

12 hours ago

Bannon Denies Nazi Salute Accusation at CPAC, Calls It ‘a Wave’

12 hours ago

Misty Her Calls for ‘Huge Mindset Shift’ at Fresno Unified as She Campaigns for Top Job

12 hours ago

AP Sues 3 Trump Administration Officials, Citing Freedom of Speech

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend