WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Democrats and even some Republicans are slamming Sen. Josh Hawley’s plans to contest the Electoral College vote.
“This is the political equivalent of barking at the moon,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said. “It really doesn’t have any chance.”
The objection from Hawley, R-Mo., expected to happen as the Electoral College comes before the Senate Jan. 6, will not change the result of the election, but it will delay certification of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s win.
“Somebody has to stand up here,” Hawley said in an interview on Fox News. “You’ve got 74 million Americans who feel disenfranchised.”
But Durbin says the most is about politics, not widespread voter fraud, which President Donald Trump and his allies have claimed without evidence.
“(Hawley was) the attorney general of Missouri — show me the evidence (of fraud),” Durbin said. “He has none.”
“I think Josh Hawley’s running for president,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said. “There’s no fraud to speak of. This election is certain and every time somebody like Josh Hawley does that, it compromises the greatness of this country.”
So far, Hawley is the only senator planning to join House Republicans in objecting to certification, which will force Congress to debate the outcome but won’t change it.
“It will probably make a lot of sense from the standpoint of explaining or laying out the issues that need to be addressed, the irregularities that need to be explained,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., said.
Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University, said there have been symbolic objections in the past but this attempt is different.
“They have actually bought into Donald Trump’s flagrant lie that he actually won the election,” Lichtman said, adding he worries the objection undermines Americans’ confidence in democracy.