At least seven of the eight senators who voted to object to Electoral College votes in favor of President-elect Joe Biden from either Arizona or Pennsylvania will attend Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday.
The offices of Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy and Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall confirmed to the Washington Examiner that they will attend Biden’s inauguration. The Washington Examiner also confirmed that Texas. Sen. Ted Cruz and Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville will be in attendance.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley — who, in a move that angered some of his Senate colleagues, led the objection to Pennsylvania’s results following the Jan. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol building — will reportedly be at the inauguration as well, Fox News reported.
Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Florida Sen. Rick Scott have publicly said that they will attend the inauguration.
“We’re just glad it’s over. President-elect Biden’s going to be President Biden,” Hyde-Smith told WAPT last week. “He is going to be sworn on January 20. I will be at the inauguration.”
Scott revealed his intention to attend in a statement on Jan. 8, following Trump’s announcement that he would not attend the inauguration. “I plan to attend and believe it is an important tradition that demonstrates the peaceful transfer of power to our people and to the world,” Scott said.
The office for Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis did not respond to questions about whether or not she plans to attend.
“I have serious concerns about election integrity, especially in Pennsylvania, and expressed some of them in a written statement to the Senate. But today’s sickening, un-American attack on the U.S. Capitol overshadowed that debate,” Lummis said in a statement following her vote to object. “Congress cannot fix problems with election integrity, only states can fix these problems. But Congress can investigate those problems and raise awareness.”
Cruz, Hawley, Hyde-Smith, Kennedy, Marshall, and Tuberville on Jan. 6 voted to sustain the objection to Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes. For Pennsylvania and its 20 votes, it was Cruz, Hawley, Hyde-Smith, Lummis, Marshall, Tuberville, and Scott who voted to object.
In the days before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building, 11 Republican senators, including Cruz, Lummis, Kennedy, and Marshall, jointly called for an electoral commission to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of election returns in disputed states.
