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Trump Berates Senate Republicans Who Won't Back Election Challenge
trump in a navy blue suit and red tie
President Donald Trump (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Monday, 04 January 2021 01:04 PM
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President Donald Trump on Monday pounced on Senate Republicans who won’t back challenges to Joe Biden’s election victory.
In a Monday tweet, the president joined a fight that has split the GOP ahead of a joint session of Congress on Wednesday to certify the White House winner.
“The ‘Surrender Caucus’ within the Republican Party will go down in infamy as weak and ineffective ‘guardians’ of our Nation, who were willing to accept the certification of fraudulent presidential numbers!” Trump tweeted.
Trump has insisted voter fraud was responsible for his Nov. 3 election defeat, but his challenges in the courts have been unsuccessful, and former Attorney General William Barr said in early December that an investigation hadn’t yet found evidence of fraud. Barr later resigned.
In a separate Monday tweet, Trump singled out Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who Sunday declined to join 12 Trump allies in the Senate — and over 100 in the House — who’ve said they’ll challenge certification of Biden’s win despite GOP leaders’ pleas not to do so.
“How can you certify an election when the numbers being certified are verifiably WRONG. You will see the real numbers tonight during my speech, but especially on JANUARY 6th. @SenTomCotton Republicans have pluses & minuses, but one thing is sure, THEY NEVER FORGET!,” Trump tweeted.
Other GOP lawmakers traded accusations over the weekend, with some repudiating their colleagues’ Jan. 6 plans as dangerous to democracy.
“I think it’s a very, very bad idea,” Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said, The Wall Street Journal reported. “I mean, I’m concerned about the division in America, that’s the biggest issue, but obviously this is not healthy for the Republican Party either.”
But on Sunday, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said the move wasn’t an attempt to thwart the democratic process, but one “to protect it.”