Republican senators, including Majority leader Mitch McConnell, have said they would stand against newly-elected GOP senator from Alabama Tommy Tuberville, who previously hinted he would contest the results of the 2020 election on behalf of President Donald Trump.
The Electoral College officially confirmed Joe Biden to be the next President of the United States on December 14. The upcoming congressional meeting will be the final attempt that Trump and his allies have to contest the vote, after months of failed lawsuits and unsubstantiated claims that the election was riddled with voter fraud.
Earlier this month, Tuberville said that he would join GOP Representative Mo Brooks to challenge the election by using the Electoral Count Act of 1877 when Congress meets to finalize the vote on January 6.
But Senate Republicans have made it clear they want to avoid that messy process that would result in even more damage for Republicans.
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If Brooks and Tuberville successfully band together to oppose the electoral vote, both chambers would be required to hold a two-hour debate and then vote on whether to approve or deny the objection.
Sen. John Thune, the second most powerful Republican in the Senate, said GOP leaders will tell Tuberville that voting to oppose the Electoral College vote would be a futile and politically damaging move, The Hill reports.
“Ultimately every senator will have to make their own decision about that but I think there will be people, yeah, reaching out him just to kind of find out what he’s going to do,” Thune said of Tuberville’s intentions, The Hill reported.
“If nothing else, we need to kind of know the plan,” he said. “We’ll see. He’s made some public statements,” he added. “I’m hoping in the end that all senators will conclude that this election needs to be over with and it’s time to move on.”
Along with Thune, McConnell and Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt have also advised GOP senators not to oppose the electoral vote next month.
Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas and an adviser to the Senate GOP leadership, said that “he’d be shocked,” if fellow GOP leaders haven’t already encouraged Tuberville not to contest the vote.
“It’s basically going through the motions,” Cornyn said of objecting the Electoral College tally. “It’s a futile exercise.”
