Dhe planned disruptive action by several Republicans during the official reading of the results of the American presidential election in Congress on January 6th also met with criticism from within the party. Republican Senator Ben Sasse called the plans of several party colleagues to appeal against the election results at the congressional session on Thursday as a “dangerous trick”.
“Play with the fire”
In a long post on Facebook, Sasse tore up the allegations of election fraud by incumbent President Donald Trump and his supporters. There is no evidence of the allegations, stressed Sasse. “The President and his allies are playing with fire.” In internal discussions, he had heard “not a single” Republican in Congress have doubts about the election result.
Trump lost the election in early November by a clear margin to his Democratic challenger Joe Biden. However, he has so far stubbornly refused to admit defeat. The Republican claims he was defeated by massive fraud. However, neither Trump nor his lawyers have provided any solid evidence to support these claims. More than 50 lawsuits from the Trump camp have so far been thrown out of courts, including the Supreme Court, in which the majority of justices were appointed by Republican presidents.
The state electors have confirmed Biden’s clear victory. On January 6, the House of Representatives and the Senate traditionally meet to read the votes from the states and officially announce the election results. Then it is official who has won the election.
A group of Republican MPs from the House of Representatives and a Republican senator announced that they would appeal against the results from individual states that day. This enables them to force both chambers of congress to withdraw to separate sessions in order to debate the objection and, at the end of the day, vote on whether to accept it or reject it. That should delay the whole procedure, but it will not change Bieden’s victory. The Democrats have also sharply criticized the announced protest.