GOP Lawmakers Planning Last-Ditch Effort to Challenge Presidential Results

President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington before boarding Marine One. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

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A group of GOP House lawmakers is planning a last-ditch effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election results on Jan. 6 by challenging the electors in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada, reports The New York Times.

Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., is spearheading the effort, though he’ll need at one least senator to join him in order for an objection to get a debate. No Republican senator has stepped forward yet, though Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky have signaled they would be open to participating.

Once an objection is filed each chamber would have to debate for two hours and then vote on whether to disqualify a state’s votes. Both chambers would then have to agree to disqualify the state’s votes, an outcome that is nearly impossible, reports the Times.

“We have a superior role under the Constitution than the Supreme Court does, than any federal court judge does, than any state court judge does,” Brooks said in an interview with the Times. “What we say, goes. That’s the final verdict.”

The long-shot effort from the GOP members would put Vice President Mike Pence in a tough spot as he has the constitutional duty to declare a winner.

Edward B. Foley, a constitutional law professor at Ohio State University who has written extensively on the electoral process, told the Times the GOP effort will fail.

“The Jan. 6 meeting is going to confirm that regardless of how many objections get filed and who signs on, they are not going to affect the outcome of the process,” he said. “We can say that with clear confidence.”

The Electoral College will formally cast a majority of its votes for Joe Biden on Monday.

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