Ahead of the certification process of the Electoral College and President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, some of the Republican lawmakers are planning to object to the certification in their last attempt to overturn the results. US President Donald Trump and his allies have been trying to overturn the election results on the basis of unproven claims of large-scale electoral fraud.
According to a CNN report, at least 140 House Republicans are planning to vote against the counting of electoral votes on January 6. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley has also announced that he will object to the Electoral College vote, reportedly prompting Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to ask him about the rationale behind the decision.
Republican leader explains the motive
However, several Republican leaders, including McConnell, have been warning their GOP colleagues to not disrupt the certification process. Republican Senate Ben Sasse wrote in a Facebook post that he has been urging his colleagues to reject the “dangerous ploy” to overturn the election. Sasse said that he hasn’t heard a single Congressional Republican allege in private that the election results were fraudulent.
“Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will “look” to President Trump’s most ardent supporters,” he wrote.
Sasse explained that there are a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to “tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage.” He warned that Trump and his allies are “playing with fire”, adding that the president and his “arsonist members of Congress” have no evidence to prove voter fraud.
While such attempts have virtually no chance to succeed, it could further delay the certification by a few hours, affecting an already delayed transition. Biden had earlier singled out the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), accusing the office of obstructing the incoming administration’s efforts to prepare for the presidency.
Trump’s budget chief Russ Vought said that the Biden transition team has been making “false accusations” about Office of Management and Budget. In a letter to Biden’s transition chief Ted Kaufman, Vought said that OMB has fully participated in transition efforts, including more than 45 meetings. He further added that redirecting staff and resources to draft “your team’s budget proposals is not an OMB transition responsibility.”
“OMB will not participate in developing policies that will weaken border security, dismantle the President’s deregulatory successes, and draft budgets that will bankrupt America,” the letter read.