Trump Allies Eye Long-Shot Election Reversal in Congress, Testing Pence

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

Trump Allies Eye Long-Shot Election Reversal in Congress, Testing Pence

Some House Republicans plan to try to use Congress’s tallying of electoral results on Jan. 6 to tip the election to President Trump. The attempt will put Republicans in a pinch.

By Nicholas Fandos and Michael S. Schmidt
Dec. 13, 2020
Updated 11:36 a.m. ET

President Trump lost key swing states by clear margins. His barrage of lawsuits claiming widespread voting fraud has been almost universally dismissed, most recently by the Supreme Court. And on Monday, the Electoral College will formally cast a majority of its votes for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.

But as the president continues to refuse to concede, a small group of his most loyal backers in Congress is plotting a final-stage challenge on the floor of the House of Representatives in early January to try to reverse Mr. Biden’s victory.

Constitutional scholars and even members of the president’s own party say the effort is all but certain to fail. But the looming battle on Jan. 6 is likely to culminate in a messy and deeply divisive spectacle that could thrust Vice President Mike Pence into the excruciating position of having to declare once and for all that Mr. Trump has indeed lost the election.

The fight promises to shape how Mr. Trump’s base views the election for years to come, and to pose yet another awkward test of allegiance for Republicans who have privately hoped that the Electoral College vote this week will be the final word on the election result.

-snip-

“We have a superior role under the Constitution than the Supreme Court does, than any federal court judge does, than any state court judge does,” Mr. Brooks said in an interview. “What we say, goes. That’s the final verdict.”

Under rules laid out in the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act of 1887, their challenges must be submitted in writing with a senator’s signature also affixed. No Republican senator has yet stepped forward to say he or she will back such an effort, though a handful of reliable allies of Mr. Trump, including Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have signaled they would be open to doing so.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/13/us/politics/trump-allies-election-overturn-congress-pence.html

[Blue Owl]

1. I've never seen a level of desperation like that of Diarrhea Donny

It's really quite breathtaking.

[magicarpet]

6. "The Art of the Steal".....

[regnaD kciN]

2. The typical Trumpublican position...

“What we say, goes. That’s the final verdict.” (Who gives a f*ck what the voters decide?)

[Girard442]

3. They might as well roll tanks down Pennsylvania Avenue.

There's no search for a just and legitimate outcome here -- just a bunch of dirtbag punks trying one door after another to see if one was accidentally left unlocked.

[blueinredohio]

4. I worry about faithless electors. Its not over yet.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. There are NOT going to be any faithless electors.

Certainly not in the numbers needed to switch the results.

Keep in mind that each party selects its own electors. Which means party faithfuls, behind the scenes workers who deserve a small reward. They are not chosen randomly, and there is not just one group of electors in each state.

Even those running as some kind of third party candidate are supposed to have their electors in place for each state whose ballot they are on. Which is one of the things Kanye West couldn't get right.

[Thekaspervote]

9. Electors are chosen by the party and are extremely loyal

There are consequences even if that were to happen

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/07/14/supreme-courts-faithless-electors-decision-validates-case-for-the-national-popular-vote-interstate-compact/

[dhill926]

5. still money to be made...

from the rubes...

[Thekaspervote]

7. This is such hyperbole! BOTH houses of congress have to agree to the objections

Here’s how it works

A senator would have to join a House member in objecting to a state’s slate of votes, and the narrow Republican majority in the Senate would have to stick together to approve the objection. But even if both of those things occurred, the Democratic-held House would not go along, and because both chambers must agree to an objection, the effort would fail.

More at the link
https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/dec/10/casting-and-counting-electoral-votes-roadmap/

[Nitram]

10. This is kinda dumb. They don't even have a majority in the House.

I expect it's all about fund-raising. Which means "getting the rubes to donate money towards a lost cause and fill the pockets of corrupt (I know, that's redundant) Republicans."