So apparently Mitch McConnel is begging Republican Senators NOT to go along with attempts to object to Biden electors at the joint session. It’s easy to see why. The attempt is doomed from the start – per the process I’ve outlined above, the state-certified Biden electors MUST be counted unless BOTH chambers vote to sustain an objection. But the Democratic House is not going to play along, and even a majority of the Senate is unlikely to vote to overturn the Biden electors.
BUT if an objection is raised, it must be voted on. So it would put each Senate Republican on the record as either trying to overturn democracy or betraying Trump. Either way the vote will be used as a cudgel against them in their next primary or general election.
BUT, in order for an objection to be raised, it must be signed by at least one Representative and one Senator. If Mitch can keep his Senators from signing on to any objections, they never have to vote. Trump will be furious, but it will be much harder to blame any individual Senator than it would be on a recorded vote.
BUT, can Mitch keep his caucus in line? He’s got a lot of influence with his members and some powerful tools (e.g. committee assignments) to punish and reward. But it only takes one, and there are some Senators with MAGA ambitions who would be strongly tempted to carry Trump’s water here. Stay tuned . . .
If it looks like Mitch is getting what he wants, perhaps a Democrat in each house should make a pro forma objection to the entire slate of electoral college votes, to force a poll and make every member of Congress go on record about whether they accept the results of the election? Does that work, procedurally? Maybe it’s crazy, but if Mitch McConnell is opposed to something, almost by default I think we should be trying to make it happen.
There’s no procedural bar to an objection being lodged by a Republican House Member and Democratic Senator. I cannot imagine any Democratic Senator doing so, because it would trample their message that the Republicans are the ones playing procedural games with our democracy.
But perhaps not if it’s done as a publicized planned move with the approval of Democratic leadership, for the explicit purpose of requiring that every member of Congress be required to go on record about whether they accept the results of the election. Perhaps Schumer could be the guy to do it to make this abundantly clear.
It would be good if there were a way to force them to answer the question that the Washington Post put to every Republican member of Congress recently, that 90% of them declined to answer.
But I guess it wouldn’t work anyway, they could just respond that it’s not a serious objection and abstain.
I believe what UV said. In every case that I know of a republican with actual power to do something did the right thing, whether a judge, governor, rep, or whatever. All the other Republicans are making noise because they know there’s nothing they can do to change the outcome.