McConnell urges Republicans not to challenge Electoral College votes
(The Center Square) – Calling it the most important vote he has ever cast in his 36 years in the U.S. Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell emotionally urged his colleagues not to overrule the will of the people and stop plans to challenge the state’s Electoral College votes.
With protests raging outside Capitol Hill and shortly after President Trump spoke to a rally and said he would never concede the presidential election, McConnell spoke first after Vice President Mike Pence opened a session aimed at certifying the Electoral College vote.
McConnell spoke after members of the House and Senate objected to Arizona’s vote, moving both houses into chambers for debate. McConnell was first to speak and said he would not join the challenge and would vote to accept the state’s votes.
“It would be unfair and wrong to disenfranchise American voters and overrule the states, I would not pretend such a vote would be a harmless protest gesture while relying on others to do the right thing,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “We cannot declare ourselves a national board of elections on steroids. Voters, courts, states have all spoken. They have all spoken. If we overrule them, it would damage our Republic forever.”
McConnell also said there is no proof anywhere of voting illegality on a level that would change the election, saying public doubt has been incited without evidence.
“Self-government requires a shared commitment to the truth and a shared respect to the ground rules of our system,” McConnell said. “We cannot keep drifting apart into separate tribes with separate sets of facts.”
He also cautioned Republicans not to fall to the level of Democrats, who he said challenged every election in the last 30 years.
“There can be no double standard. We must not imitate what we repudiate,” McConnell said. “The United States Senate has a higher calling than an endless spiral of partisan ventures.”
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