Posted on 12/25/2020 6:36:23 AM PST by RandFan
Senate Republicans say Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will reach out to Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville (Ala.) in an attempt to avoid a messy floor fight next month over finalizing the results of the Electoral College vote.
Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) said GOP leaders will tell Tuberville that voting to suspend the tally of the Electoral College vote next month will be a futile — and politically damaging — move.
“Ultimately every senator will have to make their own decision about that but I think there will be people, yeah, reaching out him just to kind of find out” what he’s going to do, Thune said of Tuberville’s intentions about the Electoral College tally on Jan. 6.
“If nothing else, we need to kind of know the plan,” he added. “We’ll see. He’s made some public statements” about objecting to the vote.
“I’m hoping in the end that all senators will conclude that this election needs to be over with and it’s time to move on,” he said.
President Trump is encouraging Tuberville, who beat former Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) in the Alabama Republican primary with Trump’s support, to contest the electoral vote tally when Congress convenes in a joint session next month.
Trump said in a radio interview over the weekend that he spoke to Tuberville about challenging the vote count and the incoming senator appeared enthusiastic about the idea.
“He’s so excited,” Trump said, adding that Tuberville is grateful for the president’s support during the election. “He said, ‘You made me the most popular politician in the United States.’ He said, ‘I can’t believe it.’ He’s great. Great senator.”
One Republican senator said he expects McConnell to reach out to Tuberville to persuade him that forcing a Senate debate over the legitimacy of any state’s electoral votes is not a good idea.
“I’m sure the leader’s going to reach out and talk to him,” said the senior lawmaker of the expectation that McConnell will try to step in to avoid a messy floor fight over the election results.
“The question is will [Tuberville] listen because his whole election was predicated on Trump not liking Sessions,” the senator added. “From a cold-blooded standpoint … if Trump asks him, I assume he would probably do it because he would see no downside.”
Tuberville defeated Sessions, who represented Alabama in the Senate for 20 years before leaving Congress to serve as Trump’s attorney general, in the July primary thanks largely to Trump’s backing.
Trump endorsed Tuberville on Twitter in March as “a REAL LEADER who will never let MAGA/KAG, or our Country, down!”
McConnell, Thune and Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) have all advised GOP senators not to contest the electoral vote next month.
“I haven’t talked to him about it personally but I’d be shocked if somebody hasn’t talked to him,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas,), an adviser to the Senate GOP leadership.
“It’s basically going through the motions,” Cornyn said of objecting to the Electoral College tally when there’s no chance of reversing the results. “It’s a futile exercise.”
“I hope no senator will decide to do that,” he said before adding that there’s no way GOP leaders can be sure of what happens next month.
“Everybody up here is a free agent,” he said
Election officials in states around the country have already certified the results of the Nov. 3 presidential election and Trump’s legal team has failed to provide evidence to back up his claims of widespread voter fraud, which courts have resoundingly rejected.
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) plans to contest Biden’s victory when the House meets on Jan. 6 to consider the Electoral College votes. A number of other House Republicans have said they will join Brooks, but he needs one senator to do so to force a debate and vote in both chambers.
If any senator signs onto an objection by a House member to reported electoral votes of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin or any other swing state, it would suspend the joint session and force each chamber to separately debate and vote on the issue.
McConnell warned Senate Republican colleagues during a Dec. 15 conference call that objecting to counting certain states’ electoral votes on Jan. 6 would be a political mistake.
He said it would be politically damaging to Republican senators up for reelection to cast votes on such a divisive topic, according to senators who participated in the discussion.
Senators who vote to dismiss the objection face Trump’s wrath, which could dampen support from Trump loyalists in future elections.
Trump in recent days has vented his frustration with Senate Republicans for not joining his effort to contest the election.
“Mitch, 75,000 VOTES, a record for a sitting President (by a lot). Too soon to give up,” he tweeted at McConnell. “The Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!”
On Tuesday, Trump threatened Thune with a primary challenge in 2022 for urging fellow Republicans not to object to the Electoral College tally.
“Republicans in the Senate so quickly forget. Right now they would be down 8 seats without my backing them in the last Election. RINO John Thune, 'Mitch’s boy', should just let it play out. South Dakota doesn’t like weakness. He will be primaried in 2022, political career over!!!” Trump tweeted.
Senators who vote to support efforts to throw out the electoral votes of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin or other states, face backlash as well.
Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) — if she wins a runoff on Jan. 5 — and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) are up for reelection in 2022 in states facing unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.
Republicans also have to defend retiring Sen. Pat Toomey’s (R) seat in Pennsylvania. Toomey has dismissed Trump’s claims of voter fraud in his home state, citing a lack of evidence.
Thune said the GOP leadership wants to “encourage all of our members — new members included — that we got a lot of work ahead of us and that rehashing this takes a lot of time and energy and political capital that could best be used working on an agenda for next year.”
They're not cowards ... they're delirious with joy.
The swamp is safe!
I hope Alabamians are reminding tuberville of all that. He might need some help stiffening his spine.
When I moved to Tennessee, I was surprised to hear the term Yankee still used. And it still means the same thing. And they don’t like them moving here! Lol
And I know of the perfect man to lead one!
“So the betrayal isn’t that the Republican leadership is not acting - the betrayal is that they are not encouraging the state legislators to do the right thing. Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Bill Barr, the Republican Governors in GA and AZ - should be cheering the Republican state legislators on - but they are doing the opposite.”
“That is the betrayal.”
Spot on and bears repeating.
Agree!
And he should have hired competent lawyers.
—
According to some, no major firm would take his case because their management said their current clients, their future clients, and the Democrat party and so on, would either drop them or not use them again. Since no major firms were hired, this may well be the case.
McConnell, Thune and Cornyn should be worried about their own political careers. Their advise to the other Republican Senators will result in their grossly limited time in office. McConnell wouldn’t have won re-election if it weren’t for Trump. Vote as you will gentlemen but if you remember nothing else remember this….. WE WILL NOT FORGET!
Lurkinanloomin wrote: “Biden is your President if you won’t fight for Trump.”
Fighting battles that can’t be won isn’t a good strategy.
Then Biden IS your President.
Change your tag line.
They all seem to be managing their political careers pretty well.
What Republican legislators are those?
The Republican Legislatures of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona have appointed 73 Biden/Harris electors.
Is that what you want to cheer on?
Because they are winning. Why on earth would they agree to an audit?
And if he loses, Tuberville will be on the short end of a 1-99 loss in a club where that really matters.
The GOPE is assuring my family will never again help Republicans.
————-
Many of us will be joining you
It seems obvious to me that Trump has been trying massively to take Constitutional means to challenge and correct the fraud. But States and ALL three of their branches have been failing to follow not only their own State Constitutions, but the Federal Constitution. They are in REBELLION.
SCOTUS has cowardly bowed out.
The Federal Legislature is discouraging a challenge to the EV fraud.
That leaves the Federal Executive branch to correct this revolutionary overthrow masquerading as an election in swing States.
Trump is in a very hard place. He is a man of tremendous integrity and courage. All hate this. The constitutional oath he swore means something. Are there enough men and women of similar faithfulness positioned in the Executive Branch and throughout the United States to challenge this revolutionary coup?
I've heard this described as an 1860's moment. But here the commies have gone for the brass ring big time from within and throughout (there are less clear geographic lines, although one might argue from the recent Texas suit, there may be of a sort -- coast vs center). If this is not the moment to exercise Article IV powers, then we have truly lost our Constitutional Republic.
It is 1775.
Lurkinanloomin wrote: “Then Biden IS your President.”
The point is, these efforts to overturn the election are doomed to failure and only dissipate the strength necessary to resist the Biden agenda.
Try posting a strategy that has even a remote chance of installing Trump instead of Biden.
Alexander Bolton is a liar.
“Banana republics have death squads.”
They also have crooked elections..
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