Trump warns of dire consequences if Dems sweep Georgia Senate runoffs
Karl Rove, Jessica Tarlov and Bruce LeVell break down Tuesday's elections on 'Fox News @ Night'
President Trump slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and GOP Sens. John Cornyn and John Thune as "weak and ineffective" RINOs ahead of the Jan. 6 certification of the presidential election.
"I hope the Democrats, and even more importantly, the weak and ineffective RINO section of the Republican Party, are looking at the thousands of people pouring into D.C.," Trump tweeted Tuesday night.
"RINO" stands for Republican In Name Only.
"They won’t stand for a landslide election victory to be stolen," Trump tweeted, tagging McConnell, R-Ky., Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thune, R-S.D.
McConnell, Cornyn, Thune, as well as Republican Sens. John Boozman of Arkansas, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Mitt Romney, R-Utah, among others have said that they will vote to certify the Electoral College count during a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, certifying the presidential results in favor of President-elect Joe Biden.
But a number of Republicans in the House and Senate have committed to objecting to the certification.
Last month GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri was the first to say he would object to the certification of the presidential election results in at least one state: Pennsylvania.
And over the weekend, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, assembled a group of 11 Republican senators — Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; James Lankford of Oklahoma; Steve Daines of Montana; John Kennedy of Louisiana; Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Mike Braun of Indiana; as well as Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming; Roger Marshall of Kansas; Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama — announcing that they would object to the certification of the Electoral College results unless there was an emergency 10-day audit of the results by an electoral commission.
And Fox News first reported Monday that Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., who is engaged in a heated Senate runoff battle against Democrat Raphael Warnock, committed to objecting to certification of election results in at least one state. A source familiar told Fox News Loeffler would likely object to the certification of Georgia’s presidential election results.
Meanwhile, two sources told Fox News on Sunday that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., separately may object to at least one state during the joint session, but it is unclear, at this point, which state, if any, that may be.
The issue of Electoral College certification, though, is not being whipped by Senate Republican leadership, meaning they are not driving the Republican conference in a certain direction. As previously reported, McConnell has referred to this as a "vote of conscience."
But a bipartisan group of senators — including Collins, Romney and Murkowski — over the weekend said that efforts to object to the Electoral College results this week by Republicans only will "undermine" confidence in the 2020 election.
"The 2020 election is over. All challenges through recounts and appeals have been exhausted," the group said. "At this point, further attempts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 Presidential election are contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine Americans’ confidence in the already determined election results."
The group added: "The voters have spoken, and Congress must now fulfill its responsibility to certify the election results."
And on the other side of the Capitol in the House, more than 100 Republican lawmakers plan to object Wednesday to the election results in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin.
MORE THAN 100 GOP HOUSE MEMBERS TO OBJECT TO ELECTORAL COLLEGE CERTIFICATION
But a number of House Republicans, like Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Tom McClintock of California, Ken Buck of Colorado, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, and freshman Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina have taken issue with efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race, seeking to protect the Electoral College.
The group said to "unconstitutionally insert Congress into the center of the presidential election process—would amount to stealing power from the people and the states."
Meanwhile, the president tweeted that Washington "is being inundated with people who don't want to see an election victory stolen by emboldened Radical Left Democrats."
"Our Country has had enough, they won't take it anymore!" Trump tweeted. "We hear you (and love you) from the Oval Office. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
The president, on Tuesday evening, also confirmed that he would make in-person remarks a pro-Trump rally in Washington, DC on Wednesday, one of several pro-Trump rallies scheduled in the city during the joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, the president tweeted that "The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors."
Hours earlier, at an election eve rally in Georgia for the two GOP senators running in the state’s twin Senate runoff contests, Trump told the large crowd of supporters, "I hope Mike Pence comes through for us, I have to tell you."
"I hope that our great vice president – our great vice president, comes through for us. He's a great guy. Of course, if he doesn't come through, I won't like him as much," Trump emphasized.
But regardless of how much the president turns up the volume on his vice president, White House officials tell Fox News that Pence will "follow the law" on Wednesday.
White House officials on Tuesday afternoon told Fox News that Pence "is taking a very diligent and studious approach to his job tomorrow. He has consulted at length with staff. He has gone through the Electoral Count Act several times. He has read legal opinions, met with the Senate parliamentarian and consulted with outside experts on the subject matter."
But those officials add that "the vice president will follow the law. He will act tomorrow with fidelity to the law and the Constitution."
TRUMP PUTS PRESSURE ON PENCE AHEAD OF ELECTION SHOWDOWN IN CONGRESS
Trump has repeatedly charged for two months that the presidential election was "rigged" and has claimed that there was "massive voter fraud" in a handful of battleground states where Biden narrowly edged the president, to score a 306-232 Electoral College victory over the GOP incumbent.
The Trump campaign has launched a number of legal challenges, while Trump himself has urged states with Republican governors and legislatures to overturn Joe Biden’s victories.
While the Trump campaign has challenged the results in dozens of lawsuits, judges in multiple states have shot them down. Attorney General William Barr told the Associated Press last month that "to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election."
Fox News' John Roberts and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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