Will the Senate Vote to Overturn the 2020 Election?

Trump has signaled that he intends to carry his fight to overturn the election to Congress. He evidently wants to take a shot at overturning the electoral vote that occurred Monday by challenging that vote when Congress certifies it on January 6. 

But just because Trump wants to challenge the Electoral College vote in the Senate, it does not necessarily mean that he will succeed in upending the proceedings and getting it done.

I think there’s a possibility that this will sputter out before it gets started. Here’s why. 

Trump will need two members of Congress, one from each body, who are willing to put it in writing that they object to certifying the Electoral College vote. There appears to be several House members who have said they would sign on to this. At this point, only newly-elected Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville has indicated that he might be willing to take up the cudgel on the Senate side.

This would be a vote to overturn the election, to completely disregard the will of the people, all the people, no matter how they voted, by voiding their action in casting a ballot. 

In addition to needing two members of Congress to kick off this shindig, Trump will also need Pence in the chair. If anyone else is wielding the gavel, they will have been put there by McConnell, and he’s already made it clear that he doesn’t want to go down this road.

So, here’s what Trump needs to do this deal. 

1. Trump needs Vice President Pence to sign on to help him. Pence must exercise his position as President of the Senate to take the chair and, if there’s a tie, vote to overturn the Electoral College vote. I want to emphasize that Pence does not have to do this just because Trump tells him to. He can refuse. 

2. Trump needs a senator and a house member who are sufficiently stupid and uncaring about this country to object to certifying the 2020 election. They have to be willing to toss the votes of 153,000,000 Americans, including their own constituents in the toilet. 

If Trump can get that done, then the deal rolls on its own momentum. There will be a floor debate and a vote on certification of the Electoral College vote in both houses.

Faced with this, Mitch McConnell ended his six-week refusal to admit that Joe Biden is the new president-elect and toddled out to the Senate floor where he groveled before Trump for endless minutes before finally saying that, yes indeedy, Joe Biden won the election. He had to.

He followed up his little speech with a call for Senate Republicans to stand down and behave themselves and not make any motions to de-certify the 2020 election. 

Will Trump stand down, or will we end up with a big fight in Congress? I guess we’re going to find out.