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Staff Report
WASHINGTON -- The Republican senators from Ohio and West Virginia say they will oppose efforts to reject the Electoral College results.
Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Rob Portman of Ohio cited the Constitution and the will of the people who elected Joe Biden.
"Several of my congressional colleagues have made clear their plans to object to counting certified electoral votes from certain states," Capito said. "I will oppose their effort because the will of voters in each state, not political considerations or the individual preferences of senators and representatives, must determine the winner of the presidential election."
Congress today meets to certify the results. Biden received 306 Electoral College votes to 232 for Donald Trump, who with his supporters have made baseless claims of widespread election fraud.
"Following the election, I supported the Trump campaign's right to pursue recounts and legal challenges. There were instances of fraud and irregularities, as there are in every presidential election, and those who engaged in that conduct should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," Portman said. "But after two months of recounts and legal challenges, not a single state recount changed a result and, of the dozens of lawsuits filed, not one found evidence of fraud or irregularities widespread enough to change the result of the election. This was the finding of numerous Republican-appointed judges and the Trump administration's own Department of Justice. Every state has now weighed in and certified its electoral slate based on its vote and the process set out in the Constitution."
The statements from Capito and Portman followed a joint statement on Sunday from 10 Republican and Democratic senators including Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., that said the election is over and "All challenges through recounts and appeals have been exhausted."
"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," Sunday's statement said. "The voters have spoken, and Congress must now fulfill its responsibility to certify the election results."
Trump has not conceded the election and this weekend was recorded begging and pressuring Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of Georgia to find enough votes to show he won the state. Raffensperger told Trump his claims of fraud were false.
Ohio Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Washington, on Tuesday said he'll vote to support the objections.
"I'm not interested in hearing lectures from Democrats after they've objected to the certification of every Republican presidential win this century," he said. "Following the 2016 election, multiple House Democrats attempted to object to the electoral votes from several states. There was even a concerted effort to persuade individual electors to switch sides. The left and their cheerleaders in the mainstream national media lauded this effort. Democrats did the same after the 2000 and 2004 elections, with a senator joining the effort in the 2004 instance."