Although the Electoral College determines the official vote for president on Dec. 14, it’s up to Congress to confirm the results a few weeks later.
And federal law gives different members of the House and Senate the authority to challenge the results from the Senate floor — a rarely used maneuver meant to be the last of all last opportunities to safeguard an election.
But several House Republican lawmakers and colleagues now tell POLITICO they’re thinking about this option to back Trump’s crusade.
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“Nothing is off the table,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
Gaetz pointed out that in January 2017, a few House Democrats took this specific procedural step before their struggles burned out during a mutual session of Congress controlled over by none other than Biden, then the friendly vice president.
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“It is over,” Biden said at the time, gaveling down Democrats as Republicans cheered.
This time, Vice President Mike Pence will be in the chair for any potential lawsuits — a seemingly uncomfortable situation as his boss proceeds to reject the reality of the election he lost.
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Trump's legal fights have failed to prevent states from certifying Biden. Also, his effort to press state legislators to flip Biden’s victory seems to be going nowhere. Congress — where Republicans are still mostly in lockstep with Trump — is the last organization that could be a factor.
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Here’s how Trump’s defenders in Congress may take a final chance at overturning the election, who might carry Trump’s screen, and why it’s almost certain to be more of a display than a solution for Trump.
Some of Trump’s associates are already pressing GOP lawmakers to take this step.
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“Ask your senators and congressman if they will object to any Electoral College certification of Joe Biden on January 6,” Tom Fitton, the pro-Trump head of Judicial Watch, said last week.
Fitton may not have much difficulty persuading House members to accept. In addition to Gaetz, some incoming GOP legislators, like Georgia congresswoman-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene, have embraced the president’s occurrence of fraud in the 2020 contest. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) was a prosecutor on a case— recently dismissed by the state’s high court — claiming that Pennsylvania’s entire mail-in voting system was illegal.
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On Friday, a group of Republican state lawmakers in Pennsylvania filed a judgment announcing the results of their state’s election results “in dispute” and prompting Congress to weigh Biden’s electors in Pennsylvania to be acknowledged disputed as well. Kelly has not shown whether he might carry their fight into the Capitol.
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