WASHINGTON (AP) – The extraordinary Republican effort to overturn the presidential election was condemned Sunday by many officials and former officials of the same political stream who warned that the attempt to cast doubt on Joe Biden’s victory and maintain the President Donald Trump in office undermines Americans’ confidence in democracy.
Trump garnered the support of a dozen Republican senators and up to 100 Republican representatives to challenge the electoral college vote when Congress meets in joint session to ratify President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 victory.
Faced with Biden’s presidential nomination on January 20, Trump stepped up his actions to prevent the traditional transfer of power, destroying the party.
Despite Trump’s election fraud allegations, state officials insisted the election went smoothly and there was no evidence of fraud or other irregularities that could change the outcome . States certified their results and qualified them as clear and legitimate. Out of more than 50 lawsuits brought by the president and his allies to challenge the election results, nearly all have been dismissed or withdrawn. The Federal Supreme Court also inflicted some setbacks on Trump.
In an appeal broadcast on Sunday, Trump can be heard pressuring Georgian officials to “find” more votes for him.
“The 2020 election is over,” a bipartisan group of 10 senators, including Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, said on Sunday; Lisa Murkowski, from Alaska; Bill Cassidy from Louisiana and Mitt Romney from Utah.
Senators wrote that continued attempts to cast doubt on the election “contravene the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine American confidence in the election results already decided.”
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said, “The plan by members of Congress to reject presidential certification is a travesty of our system and of who we are as Americans.”
Former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement that “Biden’s victory is totally legitimate” and that attempts to cast doubt on the elections “have hit the foundations of our republic”.
Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-highest-ranking Republican in the lower house, warned in a note to colleagues that objections to the Electoral College’s results “set an extremely dangerous precedent.”
Other prominent former officials have also denounced the current criticism of the election results.
In a Washington Post editorial, the 10 living former defense secretaries, half of whom were serving Republican leaders, called on Pentagon officials to make the transition to the new government “fully, cooperative and transparent.”
They also stressed that actions to involve the US armed forces in resolving electoral disputes “could put us in dangerous, illegal and unconstitutional territory.”
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