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WASHINGTON – Austin Rep. Chip Roy, in a dramatic escalation in the GOP feud over whether to challenge Democrat Joe Biden’s White House win, on Sunday night objected to the seating of his House colleagues elected in the six states where President Donald Trump disputes the results.
Roy, a conservative firebrand, used the tactic to underscore his opposition to the efforts by some Republicans – including several Texans – to not certify Biden’s victory on Wednesday.
The Republican’s point was that if anyone is claiming the presidential election in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin was marked by widespread fraud, then the same would have to hold true for the down-ballot candidates elected in those states.
“Those representatives were elected through the very same systems — with the same ballot procedures, with the same signature validations, with the same broadly applied decisions of executive and judicial branch officials,” he said.
NEW: Republican Rep. Chip Roy – who opposes objections to the Electoral College – challenges the seating of reps-elect from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. pic.twitter.com/1u38qHjwap
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) January 3, 2021
Roy noted that “the legislatures of those states have sent us no formal indication that the results of these elections should not be honored by this body.”
But he added that “it would confound basic human reason if the presidential results were to face objection while the congressional results from the same election escaped without public scrutiny.” He explained his view that a recorded vote was necessary to clear up the matter.
The House’s answer? A 371-2 vote to move forward with swearing in all of its members.
Today, I objected to the seating of my colleagues from six states: AZ, GA, MI, NV, PA, and WI.
It would confound reason if the presidential results of these states were to face objection while the congressional results of the same process escaped public scrutiny. pic.twitter.com/VzmafDSsT7
— Rep. Chip Roy (@RepChipRoy) January 3, 2021
Roy’s approach stood out because his former boss, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, is leading the GOP push in the Senate to object to congressional certification of Biden’s victory unless Congress heeds Cruz’s demand for a late-in-the-game commission to audit the November election results.
Another Texas Republican, Rep. Louie Gohmert of Tyler, is among those headlining the charge in the House, where a growing group of conservatives have bought into Trump’s baseless claims that widespread fraud caused the election to be stolen from the incumbent.
But Roy, a second-term lawmaker, has developed a reputation for a damn-the-consequences approach to doing what he thinks is right, even if it means irking his fellow Republicans.
I am as outraged as anyone about the still-unanswered questions about the election. But the Constitution is clear:
States select electors. Congress does not.
There is only one path to victory for @POTUS on Jan. 6: state legislatures certifying Trump electors in states at issue pic.twitter.com/QypY9Kyk8P
— Rep. Chip Roy (@RepChipRoy) January 3, 2021
Even before Roy’s procedural move on Sunday night, the congressman had made clear his opposition to any effort by Congress to somehow overturn the White House election results, explaining that Congress’ role is simply to “count the electors submitted by the states.”
“There is no authority for Congress to make value judgments in the abstract regarding any state’s election laws or the manner in which they have been implemented,” he said. “Nor does Congress have discretion to disqualify electors based on its own finding that fraud occurred.”
He added, in a joint statement with five other Republicans, that “not a single state has submitted multiple conflicting slates of electoral votes.”
“To unconstitutionally insert Congress into the center of the presidential election process … would amount to stealing power from the people and the states,” he said, explaining that the end result could eventually be the doom of the Electoral College.
Roy, to be clear, also said that he remains “outraged at the significant abuses in our election system resulting from the reckless adoption of mail-in ballots and the lack of safeguards maintained to guarantee that only legitimate votes are cast and counted.”
But, he said, the “Constitution is clear.”
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Chip Roy objects to seating 67 lawmakers from states Trump disputes to highlight GOP election hypocrisy - The Dallas Morning News
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