Romney blasts fellow Republicans pushing to challenge Electoral College results
Former presidential candidate Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is calling out fellow GOP senators, like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who he says are undertaking an "egregious ploy" to overturn the results of the Electoral College.
Romney, himself familiar with conceding an election, joins Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who also came out against the effort Saturday.
President Donald Trump's allies, such as Hawley and Cruz, have said they plan to object to a certification of the results in a session on Jan. 6. The certification is usually a formality, but 11 senators and senators-elect plan to object this year. The move would be done in order to choose a different set of electors -- Republican electors -- even if Trump lost the vote to President-elect Joe Biden.
"The egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic," Romney said in a statement Saturday night. "The congressional power to reject electors is reserved for the most extreme and unusual circumstances. These are far from it. More Americans participated in this election than ever before, and they made their choice."
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The alternate slate of electors can only be approved by a majority vote in both the Senate and House of Representatives. With the House controlled by Democrats, the move by Republicans in the Senate would largely be symbolic. Several GOP members of the House will also likely object.
Trump has made baseless claims of conspiracy and fraud daily in the two months since the election. Hawley and Cruz have made similar claims in their statements about supporting the call for different electors -- a point assailed by Romney.
"President Trump’s lawyers made their case before scores of courts; in every instance, they failed," he said in the statement. "The Justice Department found no evidence of irregularity sufficient to overturn the election. The Presidential Voter Fraud Commission disbanded without finding such evidence."
Protesters, including far-right groups like the Proud Boys, are also expected to show up in Washington on Wednesday to protest the certification of results.
"Adding to this ill-conceived endeavor by some in Congress is the President’s call for his supporters to come to the Capitol on the day when this matter is to be debated and decided," Romney said. "This has the predictable potential to lead to disruption, and worse."
"I could never have imagined seeing these things in the greatest democracy in the world," he continued. "Has ambition so eclipsed principle?"
-ABC News' Trish Turner