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Futile Ploy to Overturn Election in Congress Divides GOP

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President Trump’s epic ongoing failure to subvert America’s democracy and overturn his unambiguous loss to President-elect Joe Biden gained a whiff of pointless steam on Saturday when 11 Republican senators and senators-elect that they will vote against the counting of electoral college votes during a joint session of Congress next week. Missouri senator (and 2024 hopeful) Josh Hawley that he would object to the pro-forma count of electoral votes and confirmation of Biden’s victory on January 6 — which means at least 12 GOP senators and 140 House Republicans will now oppose, for the history books, next week’s inevitable Congressional confirmation of Biden’s victory. And Vice President Mike Pence has now come out in support of the ploy, as well.The 11 senators, led by Texas’ Ted Cruz (who will also likely run for president, again, in 2024), that they would support the objection to the count and called for a 10-day audit of election results in “disputed states,” asserting that Congress was the “lone constitutional power remaining to consider and force resolution” of the allegations of “serious voter fraud.” Those false allegations, endlessly promoted by the president since before he even lost, aren’t just baseless, but have failed to gain even the slightest traction in countless courts since the election and by Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, before he resigned last month. Nonetheless, Trump has pressured Republican lawmakers across the nation to demonstrate their loyalty to him and support his attempted coup. And that’s now exactly what many of them plan to do, futility, precedent, and Democratic principles be damned.Joining Cruz in the pledge were senators Marsha Blackburn (TN), Mike Braun (IN), Steve Daines (MT), Ron Johnson (WI), John Kennedy (LA), James Lankford (OK), and senators-elect Bill Hagerty (TN), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Roger Marshall (KS), and Tommy Tuberville (AL).Soon afterwards, Mike Pence’s chief of staff that Pence, too, “shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the last election” and “welcomes the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections and bring forward evidence before the Congress and the American people on January 6th.”Hawley, whose Senate website says he “is recognized as one of the nation’s leading constitutional lawyers,” that he is “glad to see more Senators joining the fight” and that he hopes “many more will listen to their constituents and act.”A Biden spokesperson as a “stunt.”At best, the objecting Republicans aren’t so much showing fealty to Trump as they are performing it for his supporters, many of whom have bought into the president and his allies’ false claims about the election being “rigged.” The 11 senators’ statement claimed that their proposed audit of the state-certified election returns would “dramatically improve Americans’ faith in our electoral process” and “significantly enhance the legitimacy of whoever becomes our next President,” but that’s not a realistic outcome, either. They also claimed that were not actually trying to thwart Biden’s victory and acknowledged that they “fully expect most if not all Democrats, and perhaps more than a few Republicans, to vote otherwise.”As CNN , “Not one of the Republican officeholders objecting to Biden’s victory have objected to their own wins on the same day on the same ballots using the same election systems.”Several GOP senators have publicly opposed the scheme. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for his part, has unsuccessfully tried to dissuade his colleagues from objecting to the count and forcing the vote — which would put vulnerable Republicans up for reelection in 2022 in the politically unenviable position of either voting against Trump or democracy. McConnell even went so far that his vote to confirm Biden’s victory “will be the most consequential I have ever cast.” Senator Pat Toomey that Hawley and Cruz’s effort to “overturn the results” of the election “directly undermines the right [of the people to elect their own leaders.” Mitt Romney that Cruz et al’s “egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic.” Lisa Murkowski , “I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and that is what I will do January 6.”There is, in other words, absolutely no chance that this effort to block the count and help the flailing president cling to power will gain majority support in either the Senate of House on Wednesday. What it will accomplish is help cement, in the minds of many Republican voters, the plainly false notion that Donald J. Trump is not a loser.Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Googleandapply.Terms &amp; Privacy NoticeTHE FEEDA last-minute move to deescalate with IranThe Pentagon has abruptly sent the aircraft carrier Nimitz home from the Middle East and Africa over the objections of top military advisers, marking a reversal of a weekslong muscle-flexing strategy aimed at deterring Iran from attacking American troops and diplomats in the Persian Gulf.Officials said on Friday that the acting defense secretary, Christopher C. Miller, had ordered the redeployment of the ship in part as a “de-escalatory” signal to Tehran to avoid stumbling into a crisis in President Trump’s waning days in office. American intelligence reports indicate that Iran and its proxies may be preparing a strike as early as this weekend to avenge&nbsp;, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.Senior Pentagon officials said that Mr. Miller assessed that dispatching the Nimitz now, before the first anniversary this Sunday of General Suleimani’s death in an American drone strike in Iraq, could remove what Iranian hard-liners see as a provocation that justifies their threats against American military targets.&nbsp;—The Brexit agreement will become law at the end of the dayBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed the post-Brexit trade and cooperation agreement Wednesday.A Royal Air Force plane transported the text from Brussels to London shortly&nbsp;&nbsp;by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel in the morning.The deal, agreed on December 24,&nbsp;&nbsp;of the future relationship between the U.K. and the EU.“By signing this deal, we fulfil the sovereign wish of the British people to live under their own laws, made by their own elected Parliament,”&nbsp;.—Britain approves the vaccine from Oxford and AstraZeneca for emergency useThe U.K. authorized a Covid-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and&nbsp;&nbsp;PLC, opening the door for the rollout of millions of doses in a country where infections have surged amid&nbsp;.The green light represents the third emergency-use approval of a Western-developed vaccine this month and comes as cases rise sharply in the U.S. and Europe. A shot developed by&nbsp;&nbsp;Inc.&nbsp;and Germany’s&nbsp;&nbsp;SE and one by&nbsp;&nbsp;Inc.&nbsp;have both been&nbsp;&nbsp;and are being distributed there.AstraZeneca’s shot—less effective in clinical trials than its rivals’ injections—won’t be available in the U.S. until the Food and Drug Administration reviews large-scale trials still being conducted there and decides to authorize its use.—Letlow was to be sworn in as a Louisiana state congressman on SundayConfirming this very, very sad news: Rep.-elect Luke Letlow has died of coronavirus. He was 41 and had a wife &amp; 2 small children. Was just days away from being sworn into Congress. Absolutely devastating.—McConnell says no, for nowBREAKING: Mitch McConnell just blocked a proposal from Bernie Sanders for a vote on the House bill on direct payments for $2,000.—Incoming veep inoculatedBreaking: Kamala Harris just received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.—Sign In to Comment

President Trump’s epic ongoing failure to subvert America’s democracy and overturn his unambiguous loss to President-elect Joe Biden gained a whiff of pointless steam on Saturday when 11 Republican senators and senators-elect that they will vote against the counting of electoral college votes during a joint session of Congress next week. Missouri senator (and 2024 hopeful) Josh Hawley that he would object to the pro-forma count of electoral votes and confirmation of Biden’s victory on January 6 — which means at least 12 GOP senators and 140 House Republicans will now oppose, for the history...

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Chas Danner

New York is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite, and established itself as a cradle of New Journalism. Over time, it became more national in scope, publishing many noteworthy articles on American culture by writers such as Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, Nora Ephron, John Heilemann, Frank Rich, and Rebecca Traister.

Futile Ploy to Overturn Election in Congress Divides GOP

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