Two Republican senators - Mitt Romney of Utah and Joni Ernst of Iowa - voiced harsh criticism on Thursday of voter fraud allegations made ...
Two Republican senators - Mitt Romney of Utah and Joni Ernst of Iowa - voiced harsh criticism on Thursday of voter fraud allegations made by President Trump’s allies as part of a long-shot attempt to overturn the results of the November 3 election.
With a late-night tweet, Romney hit out at the president, who has been unable to get the courts to stop the counting of votes in several key states that he lost to President-elect Joe Biden.
Ernst on Thursday blasted a suggestion by a lawyer working on Trump’s legal team who claimed that Republicans and Democrats may have ‘paid to have the system rigged to work for them.’
Trump has alleged he lost due to widespread voter fraud, though his campaign has yet to produce evidence to support the claim.
Senator Mitt Romney (left) of Utah and Senator Joni Ernst (right) of Iowa were critical of voter fraud claims made by allies of President Trump on Thursday
Trump and his allies allege that a massive conspiracy that resulted in votes being fraudulently switched on Election Day cost the president victory in several key swing states. No evidence has emerged that would support the allegation
‘Having failed to make even a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before any court of law, the President has now resorted to overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election,’ Romney tweeted on Thursday
‘Having failed to make even a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before any court of law, the President has now resorted to overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election,’ Romney tweeted on Thursday.
‘It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President.’
Romney, who is considered a moderate, was the only Republican senator to vote to convict Trump during the impeachment trial last year.
Trump and his allies have frequently criticized Romney as a ‘RINO’ - or ‘Republican in name only.’
Trump has summoned Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (left) and House Speaker Lee Chatfield (right) to the White House for an extraordinary meeting on Friday amid a longshot GOP push to subvert the democratic process that handed the battleground state to Biden
The move comes after Monica Palmer and William Hartmann - who serve as the two Republican members on the Wayne County Board of Canvassers - filed affidavits late on Wednesday to 'rescind' their decisions to certify the vote from the November 3 election. They spectacularly back-flipped and decided to certify the election results in their district on Tuesday after initially voting not to. Trump is said to have reached out to the two canvassers on Tuesday
Romney’s tweet was a reference to Trump’s White House invitation to two Republican lawmakers from the Michigan state legislature.
Trump summoned Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield to the White House for an extraordinary meeting on Friday amid a longshot GOP push to subvert the democratic process that handed the battleground state to Biden.
The two senior lawmakers agreed to go, according to a state official aware of the leaders’ plans. The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing private conversations.
It was not immediately clear what the meeting would be about. Neither Shirkey nor Chatfield commented.
Ernst was interviewed on Fox News Radio by Guy Benson. The senator from Iowa was asked about comments made earlier in the day by Sidney Powell, an attorney who is helping Trump’s legal campaign contest the election results.
During a news conference held alongside Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, Powell claimed that the president won the election and that millions of votes were overturned by software.
She then suggested that politicians from both parties paid to fix the results.
‘We have no idea how many Republican or Democratic candidates in any state across the country paid to have the system rigged to work for them,’ Powell said.
‘That is an offensive comment,’ Ernst said when asked about Powell’s remarks.
The Republican senators were critical of claims made during a bizarre Thursday news conference in Washington, DC, where the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, made wild allegations of voter fraud while suffering a hair-dye malfunction
Running: The president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani had matching streaks of either hair dye or make-up on both sides of his face as he addressed the media
‘For those of us that do stand up and represent our state in a dignified manner, we believe in the honesty, we believe in the integrity of our election system.’
Ernst added: ‘I do believe that if there is fraud out there, it should be brought to the courts’ attention... I think all of us agree on that.
‘But to insinuate that Republican and Democratic candidates paid to throw off this election, I think is absolutely outrageous.’
Another Republican senator, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, also offered a critical assessment of the news conference in which Powell made her allegation.
'Based on what I’ve read in their filings, when Trump campaign lawyers have stood before courts under oath, they have repeatedly refused to actually allege grand fraud - because there are legal consequences for lying to judges,' Sasse said in a statement to National Review.
'Wild press conferences erode public trust.'
Giuliani and others had held a press conference in Washington, DC, to allege a widespread Democratic election conspiracy involving multiple states and suspect voting machines.
But election officials across the country have said repeatedly there was no widespread fraud.
Many of the allegations of fraud stem from poll watchers who filed affidavits included with lawsuits in battleground states aimed at delaying vote certification.
Those affidavits lean into innuendo and unsupported suggestions of fraud.
Ernst was angered by an unfounded allegation made by Sidney Powell (right), who claimed that Democrats and Republicans paid money to have votes fixed
Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, was critical of the claims made by Trump's legal team. He said: 'Wild press conferences erode public trust'
For example, they refer to suitcases in a polling place, but make no suggestion that ballots were being secretly counted.
There are allegations of ballots being duplicated - something routinely done when a ballot is physically damaged.
There are claims that partisan poll watchers were too far away to observe well and therefore something fishy was probably going on. But they don’t have proof.
Poll watchers have no auditing role in elections; they are volunteer observers.
Giuliani cited a few sworn affidavits that he said showed a vast Democratic conspiracy, but added that he could not reveal much of the evidence.
One he cited was from Jessy Jacob, identified as a city employee in Detroit who said she saw other workers coaching voters to cast ballots for Biden and the Democrats.
A judge who refused to block certification of Detroit-area results noted that Jacob’s claims included no ‘date, location, frequency or names of employees’ and that she only came forward after unofficial results indicated Biden had won Michigan.
Trump legal adviser Jenna Ellis, who joined Giuliani, said more evidence would be forthcoming and that Trump’s allies would have more success in courts going forward.
But so far, most of their legal actions have been dismissed.
Trump’s campaign is openly floating the notion of trying to get friendly state legislatures to appoint electors who would overturn the will of the voters.
If Trump succeeds in convincing Michigan’s state board of canvassers not to certify Biden’s victory in the state, state lawmakers could be called on to select electors, but such a brazen move would be unprecedented and possibly illegal.
No comments