With Republicans on the national stage threatening one last attempt to block president-elect Joe Biden from taking office, local Republicans are saying – well, most aren’t saying much.
Wednesday marks the joint congressional session to count electoral votes and certify Biden’s victory. Typically, the session is a formality, a constitutionally required rubber stamp.
This year, however, a group of Republican senators and House members have said they will officially object to the results. Those objections – based on unfounded allegations of fraud – will almost certainly fail, according to the Associated Press. But they could force votes in the House and Senate that could delay the certification process.
The Enquirer asked congressional representatives from Greater Cincinnati about the plan to object. Here’s what they said:
Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, Republican
Portman released a statement Monday saying he does not plan to object to the certification, saying he "cannot support allowing Congress to thwart the will of the voters.”
Portman said he voted for President Donald Trump and supported the president’s right to legally challenge the election results. “But after two months of recounts and legal challenges, not a single state recount changed a result and, of the dozens of lawsuits filed, not one found evidence of fraud or irregularities widespread enough to change the result of the election.”
Portman said the only time in the past 70 years that Congress had an objection to certifying results was in 2005, when some Democrats objected to Ohio’s Electoral College votes going to George W. Bush.
“I was concerned then that Democrats were establishing a dangerous precedent where Congress would inappropriately assert itself to try to reverse the will of the voters,” Portman said. “I cannot now support Republicans doing the same thing."
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Democrat
Brown, the lone Democrat in the local mix, called Republican senators “spineless.”
“If Republican senators had the backbone to stand up to President Trump, none of this insanity would be possible,” Brown tweeted Monday morning. “Their spinelessness is a danger to our democracy.”
In a statement to The Enquirer, Brown said Trump’s lawsuits and the phone call where Trump said he wanted to “find” votes in Georgia “are the last desperate acts of a presidency that voters rejected in record numbers last November.”
“It’s unconscionable that Republican lawmakers are actively threatening the integrity of our election process by dealing in unfounded conspiracies and refusing – yet again – to stand up to the President,” Brown said. “It’s clear to Democrats and Republicans alike that President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris won this election and I look forward to voting to certify the results of the election on Wednesday.”
U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Westwood
Chabot did not respond to The Enquirer’s questions.
U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R- Columbia Tusculum
Wenstrup did not respond to The Enquirer’s questions.
U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Troy
Davidson did not respond to The Enquirer’s questions. He did, on Dec. 31, tweet about the 12th amendment, which outlines the process for Congress certifying the results of the election. It’s unclear exactly what he meant by the tweet.
“I’m not sure who needs to hear this,” he tweeted, “but the 12th Amendment describes the Constitutional culmination of the Presidential Election.”
Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republican
McConnell did not respond to The Enquirer’s questions, but the Senate Majority Leader has warned his Republican colleagues not to object to the certification, saying, according to USA Today, that it would force them to take a “terrible vote.”
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Republican
Paul did not respond to The Enquirer’s questions.
U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Garrison
Massie did not respond to The Enquirer’s questions, but he released a joint statement with six other House members over the weekend denouncing the planned objections.
"The text of the Constitution is clear," the statement reads in part. "States select electors. Congress does not. Accordingly, our path forward is also clear. We must respect the states’ authority here. Though doing so may frustrate our immediate political objectives, we have sworn an oath to promote the Constitution above our policy goals. We must count the electoral votes submitted by the states.”
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