On 6 January 2021, the US Congress is due to validate the 2020 election and declare the winner of the presidential race. Any objections with regard to election certificates will be conserved by the legislative body if at least one member each of the Senate and House of Representatives raises his or her voice.
Representative Mo Brooks (R-Ala) told Fox & Friends on 28 December that “dozens” of House GOP members will challenge the Electoral College results over uncertainty stemming from the suspected election fraud during the November vote. It is unclear whether Republican senators will support the initiative of their party fellows in the House. Previously, Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala) and Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) mooted the idea that they might join Brooks. Nevertheless, neither of them has made a public announcement so far to confirm the actions, according to The Epoch Times. Moreover, although the new Senate will comprise 48 Democrats and 51 Republicans – since Georgia run-offs won’t yet be certified – probably giving the GOP an advantage in the upper chamber, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already made it clear that he won't pick this fight.
"The Electoral College has spoken."
— ABC News (@ABC) December 15, 2020
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell congratulates President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, saying, "our nation needs us to add another bipartisan chapter to this record of achievement." https://t.co/67VETbbnoE pic.twitter.com/lNhIgdESoc
'It Appears That Both Political Parties Want Trump Out'
"Objections may be raised concerning purported slates of electors and that the Vice-President would then make a final, binding determination as to which electors are the valid ones casting votes on behalf of voters in the 50 states and in Washington, DC", says Charles Ortel, a Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist. "Then, when the electoral votes are counted the question will be whether Trump or Biden attracts at least 270 votes. If neither candidate reaches 270 votes, then the House delegations, voting by state and Washington, DC will cast a total of 51 votes and a winner would need 26 votes".
A number of Republicans have called upon Vice-President Mike Pence to interfere in the validation process. Pence ought to "open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted", as the amended Electoral Count Act stipulates. According to Forbes, he will have to open all “papers purporting to be certificates,” which includes "alternate electors" who voted for Trump in a number of swing states. Alternative electors were picked in the swing states where, according to the Trump campaign, election fraud took place. However, Pence's power to throw out electors is disputed, the magazine pointed out.
To remove this obstacle the Republican Representative for Texas, Louie Gohmert, has filed a lawsuit against Pence, urging a federal judge to annul the 1887 Electoral Count Act and grant the vice-president the authority to overturn the election results which are 306-223 in Joe Biden's favour. However, The Epoch Times reported on 30 December that the vice-president had not backed the idea, citing lawyers familiar with the issue.
"I think the establishment wants Trump out and that the two political parties have closed rank against Trump," notes Dr Paul Craig Roberts, an American economist and former assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy under President Ronald Reagan.
Although President Trump is calling upon the GOP to stand up and fight for him, many Republican lawmakers appear to be guided by their own political and financial interests, according to Ortel. It was previously reported that Senate Majority Leader McConnell persuaded his caucus not to challenge the Electoral College's decision.
"In the case of Mitch McConnell, a long-lived Senator from Kentucky, his wife is from an extraordinarily rich family whose origins are in Taiwan but now operates on the mainland and internationally," says the Wall Street analyst. "It is certainly possible that establishment Republicans also are upset with President Trump's determination, correct in my view, to decouple from China, so long as it remains controlled by their Communist Party".
Legal Battles Likely to Continue After 6 January Session
Although it appears that - regardless of growing political dissent - the US Congress will seal Joe Biden's victory on 6 January, the controversy surrounding the 2020 election is unlikely to fade any time soon, the Wall Street analyst notes.
On 22 December, Trump legal adviser Jenna Ellis announced that her team would continue investigating the handling of the 2020 elections after the 6 January Congressional session.
"Unless allegations of voter fraud and corruption are compellingly disproved, Trump supporters and Bernie Sanders supporters are highly unlikely to follow dictates of a Biden-Harris administration," the investigative journalist reckons.
"I believe that for the evidence to be avoided as it has been and not examined will poison the people, who voted for Trump and believe the election was stolen from Trump, against Biden," echoes Dr Roberts.
Trump’s lawyers might take a rework of the Texas lawsuit to the Supreme Court, the former Reagan official suggests. The lawsuit was filed against four battleground states, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, over alleged election irregularities. It argued that the four states made last-minute changes to voting rules and procedures either through the courts or executive orders, but not through the state legislatures, as mandated. However, the Supreme Court dismissed the case, explaining that Texas does not have standing to challenge election rules of other states.
In addition to this, clouds may potentially gather on Joe Biden's horizon if the ongoing FBI-IRS probe into Hunter Biden finds that the former vice-president had known about his son's overseas dealings, according to Ortel. At present, GOP politicians are calling for appointing a special counsel to probe the President-elect's son to ensure that the investigation will continue and will be conducted impartially.
"America has reached a point predicted some 238 years ago by Thomas Jefferson where our rights "shall [either] revive or expire in a convulsion", the Wall Street analyst concludes.