GOP Electoral College objectors are starting to fold

Tim O'Donnell

The push to object to the Electoral College certification process led by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) appears to be fizzling after President Trump's supporters breached the Capitol earlier Wednesday.

Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who were already opposed to the plan, enhanced their criticism, with Paul calling it "a big mistake" and Cotton urging his colleagues — and Trump — to drop their objections.

Meanwhile, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who was originally on board with the plan, just released a statement suggesting otherwise, apparently changing his mind after the incident. "We will not let today's violence deter Congress from certifying the election," he said.

And Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) said he thinks Wednesday's events "changed things drastically," despite objecting to Arizona's electoral votes earlier in the day.

In the House, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said she'll no long object to the results and encouraged Trump to do the same. There were many more representatives than senators who were prepared to object, but the upper chamber has to be involved for objections to have any life.

More stories from theweek.com
Trump claims he'll lead march to the Capitol, only to slip back to White House in motorcade
7 scathing cartoons about Trump's Georgia phone call
In wake of Capitol violence, Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump's chief of staff, has resigned

Latest Stories

  • Rudy Giuliani says pro-Trump rioters attacking US Capitol building are ‘on the right side of history’

    Former mayor and other Trump allies release statements only after violent rioters clash with law enforcement and breach Capitol building

  • Ted Cruz suggested the Senate hold a 'commission' to investigate election results. Bipartisan senators immediately tore him apart.

    In his opposition to the counting of electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) suggested Congress "follow the precedent" of another disputed election.In 1877, just a few years after the end of the Civil War, a disputed election was resolved with a bipartisan electoral commission that put former Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes in the White House, but also ended most of the Reconstruction efforts aimed at enforcing the end of slavery and white supremacy in the South. The 1877 commission allowed Jim Crow laws to take hold in the South and remain for nearly a century later. But without much regard for that racist history, Cruz suggested today's Congress follow 1877's lead.> "I would urge that we follow the precedent of 1877," says Senator Ted Cruz.> > The bipartisan electoral commission that Cruz speaks of was widely regarded as a disaster https://t.co/azXMO0zfYw pic.twitter.com/dLSuPLrvcO> > — Bloomberg Opinion (@bopinion) January 6, 2021Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) followed with a complete teardown of Cruz's argument, questioning why Cruz wasn't also disputing the elections of dozens of House members elected on the same ballots. And then came Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), a Republican from a swing state Biden won. Despite supporting and campaigning for Trump, Toomey also wasn't siding with the Republican opposition, instead questioning just how much good a "commission" would do for the undisputed count.More stories from theweek.com Trump claims he'll lead march to the Capitol, only to slip back to White House in motorcade GOP Electoral College objectors are starting to fold 7 scathing cartoons about Trump's Georgia phone call

  • Hong Kong's top judge cautious on calls for judicial reform

    Hong Kong’s outgoing top judge said Tuesday that calls for reform of the city’s judiciary cannot be based on dissatisfaction with court rulings, as pro-Beijing figures and state-owned media step up criticism of the city’s legal system. “(The) judiciary’s position has all along been the same. In recent weeks, Chinese officials and state-owned media have accused the semi-autonomous city’s courts of misinterpreting Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, in rulings relating to last year's pro-democracy protests.

  • Attorney of woman who falsely accused Black teen of phone theft speaks out

    “That phone could have been in hand of 90-year-old grandma, an Asian person... someone Black or blue,” said the attorney of 22-year-old Miya Ponsetto.

  • Democrat Warnock claims Senate victory but Republican Loeffler vows she will win

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democrat Raphael Warnock claimed victory on Wednesday in his U.S. Senate race, while his Republican opponent, Senator Kelly Loeffler, said she would ultimately emerge from the contest as the winner. With 98% of the votes counted, Warnock led Loeffler 50.4% to 49.6%, according to Edison Research. The Warnock-Loeffler contest, and a second Senate runoff between Republican Senator David Perdue and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, will determine control of the Senate and the fate of President-elect Joe Biden's legislative agenda.

  • Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah: 'The election was NOT stolen. We lost.'

    Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah is pushing back on President Trump's false election fraud claims amid chaos in Washington, D.C, telling supporters, "We lost."Farah, who resigned as White House communications director just last month, in a series of tweets on Wednesday urged the president's supporters to accept that he lost the 2020 election, as rioters breached the Capitol building to disrupt the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's victory."I campaigned w/ Trump & voted for him," Farah wrote. "But I need you to hear me: the Election was NOT stolen. We lost."Farah went on to write that supporters "need to know" that the "legitimate margins of victory for Biden are far too wide to change the outcome," adding that it is "NOT and NEVER will be a time for violence." Earlier in the afternoon, Farah called on Trump to "condemn" the rioting in Washington, writing, "You are the only one they will listen to. For our country!"Although Trump later released a video telling the rioters to "go home," in the same video, he also again falsely claimed the election was "stolen" and told the supporters who breached the Capitol that "we love you" and "you're very special." The New York Times' Annie Karni reports that "some around POTUS are worried his video message was counter-productive and that the message received was that he still wants his supporters to fight for him."More stories from theweek.com Trump claims he'll lead march to the Capitol, only to slip back to White House in motorcade GOP Electoral College objectors are starting to fold 7 scathing cartoons about Trump's Georgia phone call

  • What does ‘Status Not Available’ mean on stimulus tracking site? Here’s what IRS says

    Stimulus checks started arriving through direct deposit last week, the IRS said.

  • ‘Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’: Democrats including Hillary Clinton and AOC rejoice over Georgia as Trump goes wild on Twitter

    President launches all-caps Twitter tirade as Democrats celebrate electoral upset victories

  • Huckabee: 'I'd love to see some Democrats' demand a 'full accounting' of election results

    Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee weighs in on GOP senators demanding an audit of the 2020 election results saying he wishes that 'all the elected officials would demand a full accounting for how the ballots were tabulated.'

  • US Capitol siege: Top officials quit White House as Republicans turn their backs on Donald Trump

    US Capitol in lockdown: Follow the latest news A wave of top officials quit the White House on Wednesday, turning their backs on Donald Trump hours after the US Capitol was stormed by his supporters. Incited by the US president, violent protesters broke into the Capitol building in an attempt to overthrow the result of the November election. A number of White House staff, including Sarah Matthews, the deputy press secretary, and Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump's chief of staff, resigned effective immediately. It was also reported on Wednesday evening that Chris Liddell, the president's deputy chief of staff, and Rickie Niceta, the White House social secretary, have quit. The US media reported that Mr Trump's Cabinet secretaries were discussing invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president. The amendment theoretically allows for the removal of a president who is incapacitated or unwilling to perform their duties. Seventeen Democratic congressmen signed a letter on Wednesday night calling on Mike Pence to enact the amendment and remove Mr Trump.

  • China doubles down on COVID narrative as WHO investigation looms

    As a team from the World Health Organization (WHO) prepares to visit China to investigate the origins of COVID-19, Beijing has stepped up efforts not only to prevent new outbreaks, but also shape the narrative about when and where the pandemic began. China has dismissed criticism of its early handling of the coronavirus, first identified in the city of Wuhan at the end of 2019, and foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday that the country would welcome the WHO team. But amid simmering geopolitical tensions, experts said the investigators were unlikely to be allowed to scrutinise some of the more sensitive aspects of the outbreak, with Beijing desperate to avoid blame for a virus that has killed more than 1.8 million people worldwide.

  • 11 Storage Beds to Keep You Organized in 2021

    Read on for space-saving, clutter-clearing magicOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Woman reportedly shot at Capitol, protesters hold 'armed standoff' with police at House chamber door

    People trying to overtake the Capitol building forced senators and House members into hiding on Wednesday.Both the House and Senate's debates over opposition to electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden were halted Wednesday when Trump supporters, some of them seemingly armed, broke into the Capitol. The protesters broke glass doors and pushed past security guards, eventually making it into the congressional chambers and offices.After filling the halls waving Trump and Confederate flags, some members of the mob broke the glass on the doors to the House chamber. Reporters said there was an "armed standoff" at the doors between police and insurgents. Some protesters eventually made it to the Senate floor; some seemingly did so by jumping down from the viewing gallery above. One protester took the presiding officer's chair, yelling "Trump won that election."> They’re in the chamber. One is up on the dais yelling “Trump won that election!” This is insane pic.twitter.com/p6CXhBDSFT> > — Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 6, 2021> Incredible Getty photos from inside the Capitol pic.twitter.com/IN2rRcsOg5> > — David Mack (@davidmackau) January 6, 2021House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy later confirmed to PBS News that shots were fired inside the Capitol and that someone had been injured. Paramedics were seen taking someone out of the building on a stretcher. CNN reported a woman had been shot at the Capitol and was in critical condition.More stories from theweek.com Trump claims he'll lead march to the Capitol, only to slip back to White House in motorcade GOP Electoral College objectors are starting to fold 7 scathing cartoons about Trump's Georgia phone call

  • Proud Boys and neo-Nazis: Who are the protesters who stormed the US Capitol?

    US Capitol in lockdown: Follow the latest news The storming of the US Capitol is a jarring but natural product of years of violence and hateful rhetoric stoked by disinformation and conspiracy theories, experts on far-right extremism said as they watched Wednesday’s riot. Members of far-right groups, including the Proud Boys, joined the crowds that formed in Washington to cheer on President Trump as he urged them to protest Congress’s counting of Electoral College votes confirming President-elect Joe Biden’s win. Then they headed to the Capitol. Members of smaller white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups also were spotted in the crowds. Police were photographed stopping a man identified as a leading promoter of the QAnon conspiracy theory from storming the Senate floor. Online forums popular with Trump supporters lit up with gleeful posts about the chaotic scenes broadcast from the Capitol. Thousands of messages on Parler, a right-wing alternative to Twitter, included the hashtag civilwar or other variations of the term.

  • WHO's Tedros 'very disappointed' China hasn't granted entry to coronavirus experts

    The head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday he was "very disappointed" that China has still not authorised the entry of a team of international experts to examine the origins of the coronavirus. The 10-strong team had been due to set off in early January as part of a long-awaited mission to probe early cases of the coronavirus, first reported over a year ago in China's Wuhan. "Today we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalised the necessary permissions for the team's arrival in China," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online news conference in Geneva.

  • South Korean tanker was boarded by armed Iran Guard forces

    Armed Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops stormed a South Korean tanker and forced the ship to change course and travel to Iran, the vessel's owner said Tuesday, the latest maritime seizure by Tehran amid heightened tensions with the West over its nuclear program. The military raid on Monday on the MT Hankuk Chemi was at odds with Iranian explanations that they stopped the vessel for polluting the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, it appeared the Islamic Republic sought to increase its leverage over Seoul ahead of negotiations over billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen in South Korean banks amid a U.S. pressure campaign targeting Iran.

  • 'They need to be locking them up without question': Former DC police chief criticizes response to pro-Trump breach at Capitol

    "Anybody inside that building … ought to be face down in handcuffs right now," Ramsey said. "I don't know what they're doing in there."

  • McConnell: Democracy 'would enter a death spiral' if Republicans overturn Biden's win

    As Congress met Wednesday to formalize President-elect Joe Biden's election win, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warned that overturning the results would permanently harm American democracy.McConnell delivered a speech on Wednesday afternoon as lawmakers met to count electoral votes and some Republicans objected to the certification. The Republican leader spoke out against attempts to overturn Biden's victory, noting there is no evidence of voter fraud "anywhere near the massive scale" that would have changed the outcome like President Trump has claimed."The voters, the courts, and the states have all spoken," McConnell said. "They've all spoken. If we overrule them, it would damage our republic forever. ... If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral. We'd never see the whole nation accept an election again."McConnell noted that Congress has a "limited role" in the process, adding that lawmakers "cannot simply declare ourselves a national board of elections on steroids" and that ignoring the will of the voters on an "extraordinarily thin basis" would "be unfair and wrong.""And I will not pretend such a vote would be a harmless protest gesture while relying on others to do the right thing," McConnell said. "I will vote to respect the people's decision and defend our system of government as we know it." > BREAKING: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: "If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral. We'd never see the whole nation accept an election again." https://t.co/Y6Ixt5iEny pic.twitter.com/KO1PWiJ6Cm> > -- ABC News (@ABC) January 6, 2021More stories from theweek.com Trump claims he'll lead march to the Capitol, only to slip back to White House in motorcade GOP Electoral College objectors are starting to fold 7 scathing cartoons about Trump's Georgia phone call

  • China reports most COVID cases in five months as Hebei infections rise

    SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Authorities in the capital of China's Hebei province strengthened travel restriction on Thursday to curb the spread of the coronavirus as the country reported the biggest rise in daily COVID-19 cases in more than five months. Hebei, which entered a "wartime mode" on Tuesday, accounted for 51 of the 52 local cases reported by the National Health Commission on Thursday. This compared with 20 cases reported in the province, which surrounds Beijing, a day earlier.

  • FBI found Ghislaine Maxwell using mobile phone data

    Agents were able to pinpoint Ms Maxwell’s exact location, using GPS technology.