Posted on 01/04/2021 8:12:08 AM PST by Red Badger
The House of Representatives and the Senate on Sunday adopted rules that outline how the counting of Electoral College votes will take place on Jan. 6.
The rules were passed without recorded votes. Instead, a voice vote was used in both chambers.
The guidance, introduced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), says the chambers will meet in a joint session on Jan. 6 presided over by Vice President Mike Pence.
Pence, as president of the Senate, will open “all the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the electoral votes,” the rules state, a nod to how seven states sent so-called competing electors, or certificates for both Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, to Washington.
The certificates and papers will be opened, presented, and acted upon in alphabetical order, starting with Alabama.
This is when dozens of Republicans—50 representatives and 12 senators, according to an Epoch Times tally—are planning to object to some certificates, alleging election irregularities including voter fraud and failure to follow state election laws.
That will trigger a withdrawal from the joint session and a two-hour debate, followed by votes in each chamber. Only with a majority vote from both the House and the Senate would a challenge be upheld, which even supporters find unlikely, considering Democrats who control the House and Senate Republican leadership, including McConnell, have expressed disapproval with the plan to object.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a letter to colleagues on Sunday noted that objections can happen but said, at the end of the day, Biden “will be officially declared the next president.”
“On Monday, we will have a clearer picture of how many state votes will be subject to an objection. Our choice is not to use the forum to debate the presidency of Donald Trump,” she added.
Reps. Ron Estes (R-Kan.), Tracey Mann (R-Kan.), and Jacob LaTurner (R-Kan.) said Sunday they will join in the objections, saying in a statement that several states are “facing serious allegations of voter fraud and violations of their own state law.”
“This action is not taken lightly and comes after extensive study and research. Kansans deserve to know that all legal, and only legal, votes were counted. We hope our actions begin to restore the confidence of tens of millions of our fellow Americans that feel their sacred right to vote is under attack,” they added.
Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) also announced Sunday they’ll object.
But seven Republican representatives, including several strong Trump supporters, said they will not join in the effort, and denounced the move.
“Of the six states as to which questions have been raised, five have legislatures that are controlled by Republicans, and they all have the power to send a new slate of electoral votes to Congress if they deem such action appropriate under state law. Unless that happens between now and Jan. 6, 2021, Congress will have no authority to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election,” the group wrote in a statement.
“To take action otherwise—that is, to unconstitutionally insert Congress into the center of the presidential election process—would amount to stealing power from the people and the states. It would, in effect, replace the Electoral College with Congress, and in so doing strengthen the efforts of those on the left who are determined to eliminate it or render it irrelevant.”
The weekend saw a flurry of action, with 11 senators following Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in announcing they’d join in the objections unless Congress appoints a commission to examine alleged election irregularities. The idea is modeled on the panel formed in 1877 amid a contested election.
Hawley’s Dec. 30 announcement triggered a number of House members to announce their intention to object. The number planning to do so has more than doubled since then.
A segment of Republicans are focusing on Pence’s role in the proceedings. They sued the vice president and asked a court to rule he has the “exclusive authority” to decide between dueling electors.
A judge dismissed the case and an appeals court rejected an appeal.
Pence had asked the court to dismiss the suit but said through a spokesman on Saturday that he supports efforts to challenge electoral votes.
“Vice President Pence shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the last election,” Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, said in the statement sent to media outlets.
Follow Zachary on Twitter: @zackstieber
“They have already ignored tons of evidence, so why should another ton move them.”
Exactly.
I have a couple friends (one Infantry, one Armor both O-5s) still in (close to retirement) and I asked them point blank "If you were given an order by a President which you considered unlawful would you follow it? "No" was the reply.
Take a look at this post on Red State:
https://redstate.com/shipwreckedcrew/2021/01/04/the-presidents-call-with-the-georgia-sec-of-state-a-case-study-in-media-duplicity-and-what-pres-trump-has-had-to-battle-from-day-one-n303854 The writer (former attorney with the Justice Department). Essentially he says that Georgia is trying to "run out the clock" with regards to redress by President Trump. I hope that President Trump can prevail in some fashion in regards to Georgia.
It's telling that the attorney asking lots of questions was Cleta Mitchell and not Rudy G. I think Rudy's strategy has backfired and he does not have election law experience of the type and skill required like Mitchell does.
The President has not been well served from my perspective by Rudy.
“’Our choice is not to use the forum to debate the presidency of Donald Trump,’ [that beotch] added.”
It’ll be like Festivus! They’ll be airing all grievances to get it into the Congressional Record.
*SPIT*
This witch can go entertain herself.
NAMES. We want names of the seven.
President Trump should declassify
EVERYTHING! Then watch the
cockroaches scurry from the light.
If he can’t stop this coup, then
he might as well take a few down
as he’s being forced out the door.
At one time in my life I was a 19 year old jar head. I can tell you what they will do, they will follow the orders they are given.
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