President Donald Trump continues to pursue another term in office despite losing to President-elect Joe Biden in the 2020 election by 74 electoral votes—a "massive landslide victory" by Trump's standards.
Though all of Trump's efforts to overturn the election through litigation and pressure on state legislatures have failed, some Republicans in Congress have vowed to back the President on January 6, when Vice President Mike Pence will oversee a joint congressional session to announce the electoral college votes for certification by the House and Senate.
Congressman Mo Brooks (R-AL) and other pro-Trump representatives have announced they'll challenge certification, and on Wednesday, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) said he would back this objection from the Senate—a move that will bring the election results to a two hour debate.
Like the rest of Trump and his allies' efforts to overturn the election, the stunt will almost certainly fail thanks to the Democrat-majority House. Nevertheless, Americans across the country are stunned that a United States Congress will be debating whether to acknowledge the results of an election hailed by Trump's own officials as "the most secure in American history."
Though an unignorable faction of Republican lawmakers are siding with Trump, one Republican Senator rebuked his colleagues for amplifying the delusion that Democrats orchestrated widespread voter fraud to tip the election to Biden.
In a late-night Facebook post, Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) warned Republicans they were "playing with fire" in their "dangerous ploy" to dismiss the Electoral College votes of swing states won by Biden.
Sasse systematically debunked the bogus claims of widespread election fraud, pointing to the number of court cases lost by Trump and his allies and the numerous investigations that found no fraud significant enough to change the outcome of the election.
He went on to write:
"Let's be clear what is happening here: We have 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. But they're wrong – and this issue is bigger than anyone's personal ambitions. Adults don't point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government."
Some of Trump's critics commended Sasse for his rebuke.
Credit where due. Sasse repudiates the garbage that Trump and his allies have been peddling for months https://t.co/lL5NIBGVsN
— Daniel Larison (@DanielLarison) December 31, 2020
Sasse is right. Real conservatives preserve institutions rather than trashing them https://t.co/O2HHOr49at
— Lee Annis (@jleeannis) December 31, 2020
I like Senator Sasse, now more than ever. https://t.co/WAUl4x79Rm
— Matt Hines (@corpsole2) December 31, 2020
Ben Sasse is stepping up here! https://t.co/qxJXQ1oILW
— Teresa Freeman (@DemoLady7) December 31, 2020
Once again @BenSasse comes through. I agree with every word of this. https://t.co/FY4rbWGQuY
— Tom Giovanetti (@tgiovanetti) December 31, 2020
A ploy so transparent even Sasse is calling it out https://t.co/7aAQWecyjn
— 🤠 Ian Landsman (@ianlandsman) December 31, 2020
Others felt that Sasse's post focused too much on admonishing "both sides," rather than the party that's actively trying to subvert the will of the American people.
Even when people like Senator Sasse are candid about the problems in their own party, they often can't resist both-sides-ist jabs at the other party. Those jabs are PART OF THE PROBLEM. They justify precisely the actions that the author seeks to decry. https://t.co/SW00HxjQen
— Bear Braumoeller (@Prof_BearB) December 31, 2020
Better than nothing, but Sasse is still doing a both sides thing here, which misunderstands what has occurred in our politics over the last five years. https://t.co/ONukJ2X1Ae
— Kyle Baxter (@kbaxter) December 31, 2020
I found myself almost agreeing with Sasse ... then he did the bothsideserism bit. https://t.co/KCvjFhmLM1
— Samsara is fed up of MoscowMitch (@SamsaraSings) December 31, 2020
Congress will soon certify Biden's victory, but the objections from Republican lawmakers are almost certain to draw out the process.
