McConnell Warns GOP Senators Against Challenging Election

Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell throws in the towel on the 2020 Presidential Election and extends his congratulations to President-elect Biden. Still boiling mad, Trump launches a midnight Twitter attack on soon to be 46^th United States President’s legitimacy. 

After the electoral college voting concluded yesterday, confirming President-elect Biden’s landslide victory with 306 electoral votes and well over 7 million popular votes, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell finally capitulated.  He announced from the Senate floor that he recognizes Biden’s victory and congratulated him and Senator Kamala Harris for their victory. Harris was becoming the first woman elected as Vice President.

Then McConnell, during a private caucus call, warned his fellow Republican senators Tuesday not to object to the election results on January 6, according to two sources familiar with the matter according to Politico.

Senator McConnell told his Republican caucus members that any objection to the election results would force them to take a “terrible vote” because they would need to vote it down. That would give the appearance of them taking sides against President Donald Trump. Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and other GOP Senate leaders quickly reinforced McConnell’s remarks.

According to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), no Senator on the conference call one objected to Senator McConnell’s insistence on members finally accepting the election results. According to Capito…

“There wasn’t any pushback to it, and there’s wasn’t anyone saying: oh wait a minute. That didn’t occur.”

Several House Republicans, led by hardline Trumplican Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), insist they will still challenge the election results on January 6, when Congress will officially certify them.  These members of the house could be joined by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI.) and Rand Paul (R-KY), who have yet to go on the record in support of Senate.

The Majority leader’s finally made the call to put partisanship aside and recognize the obvious, that Biden and Harris won the election.

Suppose a Republican senator joins the long-shot effort. In that case, it will force both chambers to vote on the election, which amounts to a vote on whether our democracy will continue or whether the GOP will be considered an autocracy party and anti-constitutional party.

Appearing on Lawrence O’Donnell MSNBC show The Last Word Tuesday evening Lifelong Republican Steve Schmidt, the campaign manager of Senator John McCain’s 2008 Presidential campaign and one of the Lincoln Project founders that worked to defeat President Trump this year, warned that the Republican Party could split into two different factions. One that continues to believe in our democracy and another that believes in throwing out our democratic ideals and wants to go the way of an autocracy that would amount to a dictatorship.

                      Steve Schmidt: Trump ‘Has Been Fired By The American People’ 

McConnell’s warning to his GOP caucus underscores how the last-ditch bid to overturn the election is putting the Republican party in between a rock and a hard place.

Republicans face immense pressure from Donald Trump and his allies to support his attempt to remain in power because they want to keep their base energized ahead of a pair of critical Georgia runoff races on January 5, 2021, to determine control of the Senate. The problem with that is to pretend Biden didn’t win the election; they may end up facing a vicious backlash from voters and lose both runoff elections.

Trump, for his part, continues to believe he can somehow self-anoint himself as President for life.

McConnell also is thinking ahead and knows he will be defending a challenging Senate map in 2022. He has to ignore Trump’s ravings and desire to become a dictator for life if he has any hope of protecting his members from taking a tough vote.  That would show members of his caucus that they are anti-democracy Trumplicans that they have become.

                      Steve Schmidt: ‘106 Members Of Congress Broke Faith With American Democracy’

According to Politico and other analysts, if the Senate is forced to deliberate the election results, most GOP senators would be going on the record against a president who values fealty above our country’s democracy and Constitution.

Making matters worse, Vice President Mike Pence would be forced to preside over a floor debate that would amount to an argument deny the reality of the election he lost and if we would abandon our nations’ precious democratic legacy.  Senator McConnell doesn’t want that to happen. The backlash could wipe the Republican Party out of existence.

During his Tuesday call with GOP Senate caucus members, McConnell cited a 2005 objection from former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) after President George W. Bush’s reelection the process by a few hours. The Kentucky Republican warned, notably any Senator “in the class of 2022”, that wasn’t a good idea.

Kevin McCarthy, the House Minority Leader a Trumplican willing to throw the U.S. Constitution in the trash ally has yet to recognize Biden as the President-elect continues to dodge questions from reporters about whether he supports Rep. Mo Brooks’ gambit. During a recent appearance on Fox Business Network, McCarthy did say that the courts were the only proper venue to dispute election results. Given the court route has been exhausted, it would seem he is approaching the end of his resistance to reality.

                      Sen. Mitch McConnell: “I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden.”