Concern Grows as Trump Repeatedly Requires Election to Be ‘Overturned’ – and Republicans Refuse to Cease Him

President Donald Trump has run out of options to reverse his election loss to Joe Biden, and perhaps his last best hope is to pressure one of his Republican allies in Congress to take drastic action.

The electoral college officially elects the president on Dec. 14, but individual members of the House and Senate can legally challenge the results in front of Congress before Congress confirms the results a few weeks later – and several GOP lawmakers and aides say they do consider seldom used maneuvers, reported Politico.

“Nothing is off the table,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

According to Gaetz, the Democrats attempted the same maneuver in January 2017 when a handful of members of the House of Representatives undertook this procedural step before their efforts collapsed during a joint congressional session chaired by Biden, the then-outgoing vice-president.

Vice President Mike Pence will play the same role in this trial next month, potentially creating an uncomfortable scenario if Trump still refuses to deny his apparently obvious loss.

Voters selected 306 voters for Biden and 232 for Trump, and they will cast their formal votes in two weeks. The Election Census Act, passed in 1887, describes the process for Congress to officially ratify the election in a joint session on January 13 at 1:00 p.m. 6th

The same federal law also gives lawmakers the power to question the results, and a House member and Senator could team up to challenge entire electoral rolls – though they have to make a written statement.

Once that happens, the House and Senate will meet in their own chambers to discuss the outcome up to two hours before the vote. This process could have implications for multiple states, as each state’s voters are certified separately.

Some of the president’s allies are already calling on Republicans in Congress to take these measures, and several new GOP lawmakers, including Georgia-based Marjorie Taylor Greene, agree to Trump’s lies about electoral fraud.

Several Pennsylvania GOP lawmakers tabled a resolution contesting their state’s election results, and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), who challenged the state’s mail-in voting system in court and lost, won that battle bring to Congress.

Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) has signaled he could challenge the election results and a chief of staff from another GOP lawmaker said his boss could do so.

Politico also reported that Arizona officials Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs and David Schweikert may be open to questioning the president’s loss of the election.

Adviser to House minority leader Kevin McCarthy declined to comment, despite the fact that the California Republican had previously supported Trump’s efforts to reverse his loss.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has raised questions about the legitimacy of the election based on Trump’s unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, but Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell appears not to be in favor of a potentially toxic vote on the challenge.

If all of these long-term scenarios for Trump break and the Senate sustains the challenges facing some constituencies, it would put the Senate with the GOP majority in conflict with the House with the Democratic majority.

Federal law gives the governors of these states the power to resolve this unprecedented dispute, but the Constitution expressly gives state lawmakers the power to appoint presidential elections.

That’s the argument that Trump’s legal team advanced to encourage GOP lawmakers to overthrow the will of voters, but Pennsylvania’s official response to that claim is that the writers never intended to give lawmakers the power to control themselves make a choice.