Hardcore Trump loyalists plan to deny Joe Biden the presidency on House floor if POTUS gives orders: Report
They are waiting like loyal troops. Hardcore supporters of President Donald Trump who serve in the House are ready to try denying Joe Biden the presidency if the incumbent gives them a green signal, it has been reported.
According to a report from the New York Times on Sunday, December 13: “As the president continues to refuse to concede, a small group of his most loyal backers in Congress are 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.”
Pence said in an interview with Fox News on Saturday, December 12, that “It’s not over” and that Biden would be an “illegitimate president”. His words have encouraged those Republicans who are plotting to use the House’s rules to contest the results of the November 3 election that went to Biden.
The NYT report said that the effort to challenge the election is being led by Alabama Representative Mo Brooks who has strongly backed Trump’s allegations of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence.
More than 120 GOP House members backed the lawsuit that Texas brought at the Supreme Court recently to overturn the election results in four key states. The SCOTUS dismissed the case, delivering a body blow to Trump and his loyalists. Bill Pascrell, the Democratic Congressman from New Jersey even sought invoking a Civil War-era law to stop those lawmakers from seated in the Congress.
'We have a superior role under Constitution than Supreme Court'
That the GOP members supporting Trump were upset became evident when Brooks was quoted as saying by the NYT report: “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.”
“What we say, goes. That’s the final verdict.”
In presidential election contests, Congress has a superior role under the 12th Amendment to the Constitution than the Supreme Court, any federal court, or any state court. Congress is empowered to certify electoral college vote submissions, or not. https://t.co/aPFCoS6TT8
— Mo Brooks (@RepMoBrooks) December 13, 2020
The NYT report further pointed: “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.”
“Once an objection is heard from a member of each house of Congress, senators and representatives will retreat to their chambers on opposite sides of the Capitol for a two-hour debate and then a vote on whether to disqualify a state’s votes,” the report added. “Both the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate would have to agree to toss out a state’s electoral votes — something that has not happened since the 19th century.”
Could it put Mike Pence's future in a spot?
Such an outcome could put Pence in a spot, it was reported.
“The dilemma is particularly acute for Mr. Pence, who is eyeing his own presidential run in 2024. As president of the Senate, he has the constitutionally-designated task of opening and tallying envelopes sent from all 50 states and announcing their electoral results,” the NYT said. “But given Mr. Trump’s penchant for testing every law and norm in Washington, he could insist that Mr. Pence refuse to play that role. And either way, it will call for a final performance of the delicate dance Mr. Pence has performed for past four years, trying to maintain Mr. Trump’s confidence while adhering to the law.”
Trump and his loyalists have been claiming that the November 3 election was stolen by the opponents through legal fraud, even more after Biden was projected to win the contest with 306 Electoral College votes as against Trump’s 232.