Republican Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville of Alabama may join efforts to block the Electoral College vote from being certified by Congress on Jan. 6.
Tuberville may have indicated in a video taken Wednesday night that he thinks the Senate should support a challenge to the results of the Electoral College, suggesting he is likely to join GOP Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama to block the submission of votes from certain swing states with flawed election systems.
BREAKING: Defying McConnell, Sen-elect Tuberville suggests he will challenge Electoral College, while stumping in Georgia pic.twitter.com/1z5wJ2ajVP
— Lauren Windsor (@lawindsor) December 17, 2020
Brooks only needs one senator to join him in challenging the certification for a debate and vote to be triggered in the House and Senate, according to The Hill.
TRENDING: Supreme Court Hands Trump Temporary Win Over Blue States
There have been rumors that Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky may join in these efforts.
President Donald Trump tweeted in response to the reports, “Tommy will be more popular than ever before – a hero!”
Tommy will be more popular than ever before – a hero! https://t.co/dTAXJyENlr
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2020
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday urged GOP senators not to object to the vote, telling them during a caucus call that an objection “isn’t in the best interest of everybody,” according to The Hill.
In a Thursday interview with Alabama-based Yellowhammer News, “Tuberville emphasized that he has not made up his mind on whether he will support the congressional challenge; he outlined that he will be doing his ‘due diligence,’ studying the issue and soliciting feedback from his constituents before taking a stance,” the outlet reported.
“I want to do what’s best for President Trump and the people of Alabama and the people of this country,” Tuberville said.
“They asked me, ‘Are you going to support President Trump?’ And, of course, I’m always going to support President Trump. He’s the best president of my lifetime and has done more for the people of this country and the state of Alabama than anybody. But we want to make sure we do the right thing.”
Sen.-elect @TTuberville: “I’m always going to support President @realDonaldTrump. He’s the best president of my lifetime and has done more for the people of this country and the state of Alabama than anybody.
“We want to make sure we do the right thing.” https://t.co/Gwvc8IZvRv
— Kyle Morris (@RealKyleMorris) December 18, 2020
The former Auburn University football coach related that he’s been getting a large number of emails and texts on the issue, with people expressing concern about voter fraud.
Tuberville, who has been campaigning in neighboring Georgia ahead of the state’s U.S. Senate runoffs, will now turn his attention to the Electoral College issue.
“Now that I’m off the road I’m going to start doing my due diligence,” he said. “It’s not like you have to make your mind up in the next 24 hours. I’ll probably meet with Mo Brooks and get his side of it.”
Tuberville plans to conduct his “due diligence” through Christmas.
“You just don’t jump out there and decide you’re going to throw a ‘Hail Mary’ pass — or a halfback pass. You’ve got to have a reason why you’re doing it. There’s no doubt I’m a huge Donald Trump guy, as most people in the state of Alabama are,” he said.
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Trump campaign senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis contended that despite the Electoral College vote that occurred Monday in the 50 states certifying Joe Biden as the winner, there is still time because the date of most significance is Jan. 6, when the vote is received and tallied in Congress.
She noted in an interview with Epoch Times host Jan Jakielek that in the swing states the Trump campaign is legally contesting, Republican electors met and cast their votes for Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
The seven states that cast alternative ballots include Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, New Mexico and Michigan.
Georgia GOP Chairman David Shafer tweeted, “Our action today preserves [Trump’s] rights under Georgia law.”
Had we not meet today and cast our votes, the President’s pending election contest would have been effectively mooted. Our action today preserves his rights under Georgia law.
— David Shafer (@DavidShafer) December 14, 2020
The Pennsylvania Republican Party explained its decision in a statement.
“At the request of the Trump campaign, the Republican presidential electors met today in Harrisburg to cast a conditional vote for Donald Trump and Mike Pence for President and Vice President respectively,” the statement read.
We took this procedural vote to preserve any legal claims that may be presented going forward,” said Bernie Comfort, Pennsylvania chair of the Trump campaign. “This was in no way an effort to usurp or contest the will of the Pennsylvania voters.”
The PA GOP cited the 1960 election, in which then-Vice President Richard Nixon was declared the winner in Hawaii, but Democratic electors met and cast their vote for Sen. John Kennedy “to preserve their intent in the event of future favorable legal outcomes.”
The Epoch Times reported there have been instances in recent history when members of Congress objected to the validity of a state’s electoral vote.
“Challenges were made by Democrats in 2016 but failed because no senators supported them. In 2004, Rep. Stephanie Tubb Jones (D-Ohio) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) objected to votes from Ohio, but both chambers voted the objection down,” according to the news outlet.
Gary Gregg II, director of the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville, told The Epoch Times that it will take “actual evidence of fraud” to move members of Congress not to certify the electors sent by the states governors.
Ellis has contended the state legislatures have the ultimate authority to designate the electors to be sent to Congress under Article II, section 1 of the Constitution.
“Once one state actually calls an electoral session and is willing to run that resolution to vote by simple majority and say, ‘We’re not going to allow corrupted, false certifications to prevail in terms of how we select our delegates’” the attorney stated. “If one state is willing to do this, I think others will follow.”
Tuberville might just be the wrench in the works that forces lawmakers to face squarely the election irregularities that happened in places like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
He’s definitely shaping up to be a lawmaker of consequence even before taking office.
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