By Viviane Faver
The president’s false allegations of a rigged Pennsylvania vote could ignite the party’s base in the coming years. Trump has twisted the arms of state lawmakers in an effort to overturn the election results. A lawmaker said that refusing to support his claims “would make my house bomb.”
Last week, President Trump’s allies accused Republican leaders in Pennsylvania of being “cowards” and “liars” and disappointing the United States. Trump himself summoned top Republicans to the General Assembly to twist the arms of the authorities in an attempt to reverse an election he lost. Pennsylvania lawmakers told the president that they had no power to convene a special session to address their complaints. But they also rewarded their efforts: on Friday, the mayor and majority leader joined far-right colleagues – whom they had previously resisted – and asked Congress to reject Joseph R’s 81,000 vote victory. Biden Jr. in Pennsylvania.
This intervention by the president and the attitude of some of the top party leaders to encourage his efforts demonstrates how Trump’s dominance over elected Republicans will endure after he leaves office and how his false allegations of “fraud” The 2020 vote could ignite the party’s base in the coming years.
Pennsylvania Senate Republican majority leader Kim Ward said the president called her to declare voting fraud. But she said she had not received the letter to Congress, which was hastily prepared, before its release.
Asked if she would have signed it, she indicated that the Republican base expected party leaders to back up Mr. Trump’s claims — or to face its wrath. “If I would say to you, I don’t want to do it”, she said about signing the letter, “I’d get my house bombed tonight.”
Pennsylvania is the third state in which Trump has tried to reverse voter will. He previously summoned Michigan legislative leaders to the White House and, over the weekend, pressured Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp to call on that state’s legislature to reverse the election.
Michigan leaders and Kemp did not try to change the results in their states but took steps that would please Trump. In Michigan, Republican-controlled House and Senate oversight committees held hearings last week to examine missing vote counts, and Kemp said he would be in favor of a vote signature audit in Georgia.
A big question that Republicans face everywhere, including those in Pennsylvania – where open seats for governor and the U.S. Senate are on the ballots in 2022 – is whether the party will present candidates aligned with Trump in future disputes.
“Those who continue to beat the drum that the election was rigged are trying to appease the Trump base and get his support from the start,” said state deputy Ryan Bizzarro, a member of the Democratic leadership. Bizzarro said it would be a gift for Democrats if Republican candidates for governor or Senate who emerge from the primaries were remembered for echoing Trump’s baseless allegations of mass mailbox fraud and his bitter resistance to admitting a loss.
“Forget all the Democrats who voted by mail – look at all the Republicans who voted by mail,” he said. “Are you saying their voice isn’t as important as the fringe who are blind to facts and the ways our Constitution clearly lays out elections?”
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court became the latest of dozens of tribunals to throw out a case brought by Trump allies, in this instance a Pennsylvania congressman and a losing congressional candidate. They had sought to invalidate the state’s 2.6 million mail-in votes, 77 percent of which were cast for Mr. Biden. Nearly every state has certified the results of this election, and Mr. Biden has secured the 270 electoral votes needed to become the next president when the Electoral College meets on Monday. Nonetheless, more than 60 Republicans in the Pennsylvania legislature — about half of the party’s total caucus — urged Congress to take one last stand for Mr. Trump and object to the state’s Biden electors.
To proceed, a challenge to an electoral slate requires the endorsement of one member of the House and one senator. Both chambers would then meet separately to debate and vote on the objection. The Democratic-led House would almost certainly reject any challenge.
“I’d bet my last dollar that vote will fail,” said Representative Matt Cartwright, a Democratic member of the House delegation from Pennsylvania. “But what will be really interesting is to see which of the Republican members have the courage to ignore that request from Pennsylvania’s General Assembly.”
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