The first scheduled congressional hearing on election “irregularities” should be canceled, the top Democrat in the Senate said on Thursday.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, announced the Dec. 16 hearing this week.
“Rather than accept the simple truth that Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States, there are actually sitting senators and Congress members who prefer to undermine our democracy by indulging President [Donald] Trump’s wild conspiracy theories,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor in Washington. There was an announcement “that next week the senator will convene a hearing on, quote, election irregularities. When is this nonsense detrimental to our democracy going to end?”
Using a Senate committee to spread “misinformation” about elections “is beyond the pale,” Schumer added later.
He called on Johnson to call off the hearing immediately.
If he won’t, Schumer said, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should intervene.
Johnson spoke on the floor after Schumer but didn’t comment on the proposal. McConnell spoke before Schumer and did not return to the floor.
Requests for comment sent to the Republicans weren’t immediately returned.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington on Dec. 3, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Schumer and Democrats allege the election is over and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden won. Trump and others assert that because of a growing body of evidence of voter fraud and other irregularities, the election isn’t settled. Several paths to victory remain to Trump, including objections to electoral votes during the Jan. 6, 2021, joint session of Congress. The Epoch Times is not calling the race at this time.
Johnson announced the hearing, which will take place on Dec. 16, this week.
“I am mindful that many of the issues that have been raised have been, and will continue to be, appropriately resolved in the courts. But the fact remains that a large percentage of the American public does not view the 2020 election result as legitimate because of apparent irregularities that have not been fully examined. That is not a sustainable state of affairs for our country,” he said in a statement.
“The only way to resolve suspicions is with full transparency and public awareness. That will be the goal of the hearing.”
No hearing on the election appears to be scheduled in the House, where Democrats have a majority and thus control each committee, but over half of the Republicans in the lower chamber signed a brief on Thursday urging the Supreme Court to take up the lawsuit from Texas challenging election results in four battleground states.
“Let’s agree: requiring states to follow [their] own election laws is crucial to create trust in results & preserve the Electoral College. This is [the] final venue to examine election irregularities in full, ensure the vote of every American is treated equally,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement.
In a separate effort, 26 House Republicans this week urged Trump to direct Attorney General William Barr to appoint a special counsel to investigate election fraud allegations.
