The Electoral College will meet on Monday to vote to determine who won the presidential election. The expected winner is President-elect Joe Biden, but some of President Trump’s allies in Congress have already hinted they won’t accept this result — even after the Electoral College makes it official.
Last month, Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama announced his intention to challenge the Electoral College’s votes if Biden is declared the winner. Several House Republicans have since joined Brooks’s effort, according to Axios, though he’d need at least one senator to sign on to his written objection in order for it to move forward in Congress. It is not clear whether any senators will object.
Brooks will certainly receive support in the House, though. More than 100 House Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, signed onto Texas’s failed lawsuit in an attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election in four battleground states. And on Sunday, Republican Lousiana Rep. Steve Scalise refused to say whether Republicans would consider Biden the president-elect after the Electoral College casts its votes.
If Republicans were smart, they’d leave Brooks hanging. Trump has lost his case at almost every level of government: local county election boards, state legislatures, state and federal courts, and most recently, the Supreme Court. This election has been decided, and any attempt to delay or overturn its results should be seen as an illegitimate attempt to circumvent the will of the American voters and the governments that represent them.
Even if Brooks does successfully rope a senator into his objection, he will not change the outcome. At best, he will delay the process by forcing a two-hour debate period in both the House and the Senate. But that doesn’t make Brooks’s maneuvering any less serious. Even failed attempts to bypass our constitutional order can do lasting damage to its institutions.
Which is exactly what’s happening right now. By entertaining and promoting Trump’s election fearmongering, Republicans are setting a horrible precedent — one that will encourage political parties not to concede or admit defeat until they are forced to do so, and maybe not even then. This has serious implications for the transition of power and the country’s cultural well-being.
Republicans will have the opportunity this week to do the right thing and allow the electoral process to move forward without interruption. The outcome will be the same either way: Biden will be elected president. But how they choose to respond will make all the difference.
