Planning to throw a temporary monkey wrench into the Electoral College certification in Congress Jan. 6, 2021, 40-year-old Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) signaled he plans to challenge the Electoral College vote in Pennsylvania. Giving 74-year-old President Donald Trump once last gasp before he goes into the night, the latest GOP strategy has Hawley objecting to the Electoral College results in Pennsylvania, forcing Congress to go out of joint session into separate bodies to debate the issue. Whatever votes back Trump’s last-ditch attempt to dispute the election, there isn’t enough to overturn the election, forcing the House and Senate to go back into joint session to certify the results. “This is a scam,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) “The reality is there is no impetus to overthrow ant election,” Kinzinger said, meaning the voters aren’t there.
Trump hoped he could pull some last ditch maneuver in the joint session to overturn the Nov. 3 election, claiming widespread election fraud and voting irregularities in battleground states, especially Pennsylvania. Trump litigated his claims of voter fraud in the federal courts, losing some 50 court cases, since he was not able to prove voter fraud. Kinzinger makes the point that there’s no Constitutional mechanism for overturn an election other that going to the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump’s big hope was Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton filing for injunctive relief in the Supreme Court claiming election fraud. When the Supreme Court rejected Paxton’s case Dec. 11 claiming Texas voters were disenfranchised by fraudulent results in battleground states, his legal challenges were over. Challenging now in a joint session carries no weight.
Trump has at least one U.S. senator in Hawley willing to go out on a limb, only to watch his efforts fail. Led by Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, at least four GOP house members plan to back Hawley’s plan to challenge the election. But the fact is neither Hawley in the Senate nor Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) have the votes to stop the certification when the House and Senate go back into joint session. “The courts refuse to hear the President’s legal case. We’re going make sure the People can!” tweeted Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.). Hice knows that Trump made his cases at least 50 times in federal courts in battleground states, all finding no legal basis to his fraud claims. A handful of partisan Congressmen and women can’t overturn a national election without having supermajorities in the Hous and Senate, which they don’t have.
Kinzinger sees the handwriting on the walls that the latest subterfuge won’t persuade their colleagues to overturn an national election. Members of the House and Senate are jaded with all the attempts to dispute the election results without showing proof that something inappropriate or illegal went on. “We talk about the Constitution, and we have to follow it and I’m sorry if that doesn’t mean the outcome was what you wanted,” Kinzinger said. Kinzinger goes over the deep end thinking this has anything to do with the “deep state.” “If you convince people that, you know, Congress can change a legitimate election and everything was stolen, there is a deep state theory driving this that Sate runs the government,” Kinzinger said. Instead of whipping up more speculation, Kinzinger should stick to the facts.
Trump does not have enough backers in the House or Senate to do anything other that delay the final joint session certification of the Electoral College by a few hours. “You can see people driven to violence so I’m concerned about that,” Kinzinger said, worried that the Proud Boys, Boogaloo or other right wing groups would erupt when Biden is officially certified as President-elect by the joint session of Congress Jan. 6. Chatter in popular social networks whips the public up to think that right wing groups will erupt once it’s final that Trump lost the election. They point to the Christmas morning suicide bombing in Nashville as proof of right wing violence, when the FBI hasn’t yet determined motive. Trump’s backers hope that Vice President Mike Pence can unilaterally declare the election invalid—something he can[‘t do.
Pence’s role in the ultimate Washington dog-and-pony show Jan. 6 is limited to, “opens the envelopes” with the electoral votes,” gives them to the teller, the teller counts,” said North Carolina attorney T. Greg Doucette. “The vice president is not supposed to control the outcome of the process for counting electoral votes from the sates,” said Ohio State law professor Edward Folley. “The vice president chairs the joint session but does not decide what electoral votes to count,” throwing cold water on the idea that the Vice President can nullify the vote tabulation. Conservative pollster Scott Rasmussen stirred the pot, quoting something attributed to Russian dictator Joseph Stalin. “Those who cast votes decide nothing. Those who count votes decide everything,” hinting at the voter fraud. Only one minor problem: Trump couldn’t proved any voter fraud to the satisfaction of any federal court.
