Donald Trump knows that nothing about the election he lost to Joe Biden will change on Jan. 6, yet he continues to exhort his supporters to come to Washington under the false hope that it will.
“JANUARY SIXTH, SEE YOU IN DC!” he tweeted this week.
It was just the latest of such urgings.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley from Missouri said Wednesday that he will object next week when Congress convenes to certify the electoral college vote.
The law says if a member of the House is joined by a senator both chambers must debate and then vote on the contest.
Majorities in both the House and the Senate would need to support a challenge against a slate of electors, according to the Congressional Research Service. The challenge will fail because Democrats hold a majority in the House and because, you know, Trump lost.
And there has been no proven fraud in spite of dozens of court challenges.
Hawley is said to have his eye on running for president in 2024, however, and this could be a way of trying to solidify the backing of Trump supporters.
Then again, Trump himself has his eye on 2024.
Who would dare go against Trump?
Hawley’s action will force Republicans into the uncomfortably awkward position of voting for the democratic process or voting for an undemocratic coup. A number GOP senators already have acknowledged that Biden won.
And who among them will go against Trump?
Republican Sen. John Thune already got into trouble with the cult’s dear leader by saying Hawley’s action makes no sense “when you know what the ultimate outcome is going to be.”
He added, “I mean, in the Senate, it would go down like a shot dog.”
Trump, as you’d imagine, didn’t like that. He’d already branded Thune as a “RINO” for acknowledging that Biden won the election, even though Thune had been a solid supporter through Trump’s term.
The pandemic rages. People suffer.
Instead of wasting time on what they know will be a losing proposition Republicans could be spending their time increasing the stimulus check amounts for struggling Americans.
That effort was blocked by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Political antics and useless attempts to upend an election take precedent in Washington over helping Americans in need.
This in spite of the fact that, as the Washington Post points out, more than 90 federal and state judges have rejected challenges to the November vote.
Nebraska Repubulican Sen. Ben Sasse condemned Hawley’s effort in a lengthy Facebook post, writing in part, "The president and his allies are playing with fire. If you make big claims, you had better have the evidence. But the president doesn’t and neither do the institutional arsonist members of Congress who will object to the Electoral College vote."
Republican Sen. Susan Collins said of Hawley’s move, “I do not think that he will prevail in his quest. And I question why he is doing it when the courts have unanimously thrown out the suits that the president’s team have filed for lack of credible evidence.”
What will happen on Jan. 6 isn’t about credible evidence for Republicans like Hawley. It’s about politics.
While the people who elected them, and who need the help, are ignored.
Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.
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