Pelosi Just Announced This Familiar Face Will Lead Democrats at Electoral College Certification Vote
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California will be among the Democrats responding to objections raised Wednesday when the House debates the results of the Electoral College vote.
Schiff, who led the House effort to impeach President Donald Trump, was picked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi along with fellow Democrats Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Zoe Lofgren of California and Joe Neguse of Colorado.
In a “Dear Colleague” note posted on Pelosi’s website, she said the four “have been working on our Democratic presentation of the Constitutional, historical and thematic justification for respecting the will of the people. On the Floor of the House, we will have a civics lesson about protecting the integrity of our democracy.”
Wednesday’s joint session of Congress will begin with a roll call of states in alphabetical order. Although objections from House members are often made along the way, the roll call is generally a ritual act in which the results of the Electoral College are approved.
Last month, the Electoral College met and handed a presumptive election victory to Democrat Joe Biden, despite Trump’s objections that the vote was tainted by fraud.
This year, the list of states will stop at least three times as Republican House members, supported by senators including Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, will object to the results. So far, Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania are expected to be targeted, the New York Post reported.
At that point, the joint session splits for up to two hours of debate on the objections in each state. Procedurally, objections must pass both houses of Congress for the Electoral College votes to be rejected. That’s not likely given the fact that Democrats hold a majority in the House, and the Republican majority in the Senate is fractured over whether to object to the results.
Trump has suggested Vice President Mike Pence, who will preside over the session, can reject states’ electoral votes.
Schiff pushed back against Trump and the Republicans who plan to object, according to KCRW-FM.
“The vice president’s role is purely a ministerial one, but I’m not surprised to see the president push up yet another falsehood,” Schiff said this week.
Schiff said Republicans objecting to the vote “fear angering the president. They fear being on the wrong side of an angry tweet. They fear a primary challenge within the Trump base. Some of these senators want to run for president, and they want to run with the support of Trump’s base.”
The objections are the result of a long fall for the Republican Party, Schiff said.
Last year, we proved Donald Trump guilty of abusing the power of his office.
But Republican Senators refused to convict, claiming on principle, voters should decide.
Now, those same Senators wish to overturn the election results.
They have no principle, only fear and ambition.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) January 3, 2021
“It is the product of four years of degeneration of the Republican Party under Donald Trump. They don’t stand for anything anymore. Not their own, not the Constitution, not their ideology, merely the perpetuation of their power,” he said.
Schiff said Republicans’ actions will harm the nation in the long run.
“They are setting a precedent that we can expect others to try to follow in the future. Little by little, this is how you diminish safeguards in our democracy,” he said.
Trump’s campaign has insisted that there has been voter fraud in states that include Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as Pennsylvania. However, despite numerous claims of voting irregularities, including affidavits alleging fraud sworn to by reported eyewitnesses, no court has yet ruled that widespread fraud materially affected the results of the presidential election.
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