Congressional Republicans Won't Overturn Biden's Win. But Their Objections Are Still Dangerous
Both chambers of Congress will gather Wednesday to count the states’ electoral votes and officially declare Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
In normal times, the event is defined by pomp and circumstance, a formality mandated by the Constitution. But this year, President Trump has refused to concede, turning the ceremony into a loyalty test and effectively daring Republicans to defy him by acknowledging Biden’s legitimate victory. In a sign of Trump’s continuing grip on the party, many are heeding his call by announcing they will object to Biden’s win. Dozens of Congressional Republicans are using the joint session as a final attempt to undermine that most hallowed tradition of American democracy: the peaceful transition of power.
The ploy almost certainly won’t reverse the outcome of the race. Biden will still be sworn in as the next President of the United States on January 20. But Trump’s reckless attempts to sow chaos—and Republicans’ willingness to abet it—have forced a reckoning within his party and revealed the vulnerability of Americans’ centuries-old democratic traditions.
“Lending credence to Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen is a highly destructive attack on our constitutional government. It is the opposite of conservative; it is radical,” former GOP Senator John Danforth of Missouri said in a statement. In an indication of the widening split Trump’s loss has created within the party, Danforth’s old seat is now occupied by Sen. Josh Hawley, who is leading the charge to challenge the results.
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