Former Speaker Paul Ryan issued a rare statement Sunday attacking those in his party who plan to challenge Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.
“Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden’s victory strike at the foundation of our republic,” Ryan, a Republican who served as speaker from 2015 until 2019, said in the statement. “It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans. The fact that this effort will fail does not mean it will not do significant damage to American democracy.”
Ryan’s statement follows one issued earlier Sunday from a bipartisan group of senators calling on Congress to certify the election results for Biden’s win.
“The 2020 election is over,” the group, which includes Sens. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, said. “All challenges through recounts and appeals have been exhausted. At this point, further attempts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 Presidential election are contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine Americans’ confidence in the already determined election results.”
House and Senate Republicans plan to launch a significant challenge to the certification of Biden’s victory. At least 140 House Republicans and 11 Senate Republicans plan to contest the certification of the election results in several states where they believe voting irregularities, particularly those related to mail-in balloting, need closer examination.
Republicans who plan to contest the results say they want a process that will ensure the integrity of the election system.
But other Republicans disagree with the challenge.
“The elections held in at least six battleground states raise profound questions, and it is a legal, constitutional, and moral imperative that they be answered,” a group of GOP lawmakers said in a statement Sunday.
Congress will convene on Jan. 6 in a joint session to certify the results of the election in all 50 states.
The objections will force lawmakers to debate and vote on the results, which will delay certification of Biden’s victory.
Ryan’s statement breaks his general silence since leaving office at the end of 2018. Ryan worked closely with Trump during the first half of his term but was known to object to some of the president’s statements and tweets.
