Joe Biden is the certified winner in the electoral college, and he defeated Donald Trump by over seven million popular votes.
But that isn’t stopping Trump and his Republican enablers from attempting a coup on Wednesday.
It is a direct attack on our Republic, likely to create severe long lasting ramifications.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has said he will be among a dozen Republican senators who will challenge Biden’s victory when Electoral College results are tallied in Congress.
That brings the number to twelve Republicans who have now said they will vote to reject the electors on January 6, after Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley became the first to announce his intentions this week to challenge the result.
In a statement today with ten more GOP senators, Cruz demanded the appointment of an emergency commission to conduct a 10-day audit of the election returns in ‘disputed states’.
Until such a commission is appointed, they vowed to intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from those states – a largely symbolic move that has little chance of preventing Biden from taking office.
Trump’s Justice and Homeland Security Departments have called the election the ‘most secure’ in American history, and dozens of lawsuits challenging the election have been tossed out of courts.
There is no evidence of voter fraud that would overturn any of the states Trump needs to reach 270 electoral votes, meaning the effort to stop the election is a coup attempt.
Cruz was joined in the statement by Senators Ron Johnson, James Lankford, Steve Daines, John Kennedy, Marsha Blackburn, Mike Braun, along with Cynthia Lummis, Tommy Tuberville, Bill Hagerty, and Roger Marshall, all of whom will be sworn in as senators on Sunday in the new Congress.
The effort is splitting the GOP, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pleading with his caucus not to attempt to block certification of the Electoral College results.
In conference calls with colleagues, McConnell has reportedly argued that any attempt to block certification of Biden would be futile, and only divide the party.
A number of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives also plan on contesting the vote tally.
The days ahead are expected to do little to change the outcome.
Biden is set to be inaugurated January 20 after winning the Electoral College vote 306-232.
Hawley was the first to defy McConnell by announcing he would join House Republicans in objecting to the state tallies during Wednesday’s joint session of Congress.
The moves drew swift condemnation from Democrats, including former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, who tweeted ‘There are actually 12 Senators ‘pointing a loaded gun’ at the heart of democracy. They should always be known as the #dirtydozen.’
The Dirty Dozen was a 1967 war film about about ragtag group of hardened criminals who were recruited to form an elite Allied commando unit sent on a virtual suicide mission against high-ranking Nazi officers.
On the other side of the Republican party’s split, Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska warned such challenges are a ‘dangerous ploy’ threatening the nation´s civic norms.
The issue is forcing Republicans to make choices that will set the contours of the post-Trump era and an evolving GOP.
Caught in the middle is Vice President Mike Pence, who faces growing pressure and a lawsuit from Trump´s allies over his ceremonial role in presiding over the session Wednesday.
‘I will not be participating in a project to overturn the election,’ Sasse wrote in a lengthy social media post. Sasse, a potential 2024 presidential contender, said he was ‘urging my colleagues also to reject this dangerous ploy.’
Trump, the first president to lose a reelection bid in almost 30 years, has attributed his defeat to widespread voter fraud, despite the consensus of nonpartisan election officials that there wasn’t any.
Of the roughly 50 lawsuits the president and his allies have filed challenging election results, nearly all have been dismissed or dropped. He´s also lost twice at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Still, the president has pushed Republican senators to pursue his unfounded charges even though the Electoral College has already cemented Biden´s victory and all that’s left is Congress´ formal recognition of the count before the new president is sworn in.
‘We are letting people vote their conscience,’ Sen. John Thune, the second-ranking Republican, told reporters at the Capitol.
Thune´s remarks as the GOP whip in charge of rounding up votes show that Republican leadership is not putting its muscle behind Trump´s demands, but allowing senators to choose their course.
He noted the gravity of questioning the election outcome.
‘This is an issue that´s incredibly consequential, incredibly rare historically and very precedent-setting,’ he said. ‘This is a big vote. They are thinking about it.’
Pence will be carefully watched as he presides over what is typically a routine vote count in Congress but is now heading toward a prolonged showdown that could extend into Wednesday night, depending on how many challenges are mounted.
The vice president was sued by a group of Arizona Republicans who wanted Pence to have the power to overturn the election results, but a Trump appointed judge tossed the lawsuit out on Friday.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who has acknowledged Biden´s victory and defended his state´s elections systems as valid and accurate, spoke up on the call, objecting to those challenging Pennsylvania´s results and making clear he disagrees with Hawley´s plan to contest the result, his office said in a statement.
McConnell had previously warned GOP senators not to participate in raising objections, saying it would be a terrible vote for colleagues.
In essence, lawmakers would be forced to choose between the will of the outgoing president and that of the voters.
Several Republicans have indicated they are under pressure from constituents back home to show they are fighting for Trump in his baseless campaign to stay in office.