Stimulus Checks, Electoral College Threaten to Divide Republicans
The closing days of the Trump administration will force some uncomfortable choices on a party that otherwise has been largely unified.
A SENATE REPUBLICAN HAS announced plans to contest the Electoral College votes next week — a tactic doomed to fail, and one that will likely force division and uncomfortable choices for a Republican Party that has been remarkably united during the soon-to-end term of President Donald Trump.
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GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri’s junior senator, said he will challenge the results in what is typically a pro-forma vote ending the process of electing a U.S. president. After the Electoral College meets to formally tally the results from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Congress certifies the vote on Dec. 6. But any member of the House, if joined by a single member of the Senate, can contest that result.
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Hawley on Wednesday was the first to say he will be that guy.
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“I cannot vote to certify the electoral college results on January 6 without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws. And I cannot vote to certify without pointing out the unprecedented effort of mega corporations, including Facebook and Twitter, to interfere in this election, in support of Joe Biden,” Hawley said in a statement. “At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act.”
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Pennsylvania followed election law the GOP-controlled state legislature passed — laws that said absentee ballots not be counted until after polls closed on Election Day. Since then-candidate Biden had encouraged his supporters to cast ballots in advance to avoid exposure to the coronavirus — and Trump had discouraged absentee balloting — Biden overcame Trump as the evening went on and absentee votes were tallied.
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The move puts GOP senators in an awkward position. The vote is almost certainly doomed to fail, since several Republican senators have already declared that Biden is, in fact, the president-elect. Even if the Senate were to back Hawley on party lines, the Democratic-controlled House would not follow suit.
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But the very prospect of a vote serves to divide the GOP caucus, which has been extremely unified in supporting Trump and his policies during the president’s term. Those who vote against Hawley’s move could anger the Trump loyalists in their states, Those who vote for it risk alienating other constituents by giving the impression they do not respect the will of the voters.
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Meanwhile, Senate Republicans may be presented with another potentially divisive issue — whether Congress should approve, in its waning days, a measure to increase direct payments to American taxpayers to $2,000, up from the $600 already approved.
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Some Republicans — including Sen. David Perdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler, both facing runoff elections next week in Georgia — are in favor of the increased payments. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is refusing to bring the bill to the floor, citing runaway spending.
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Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, tweeted Wednesday that McConnell’s holdup could cost him his majority leader job.
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“If Senate Republicans fail to bring up the $2000 payment as a clean vote they run a real risk of losing the two seats in Georgia. This is an 80% issue. People get it,” Gingrich tweeted. “Billions for the banks, billions for big companies, but we can’t find $2000 for everyday Americans.
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The lame-duck issues foreshadow an emerging division within the Republican Party, which lost the White House, did not take back the House and holds a thin majority in the Senate — one it may lose if Loeffler and Perdue do not keep their jobs.
In the past two years, it has been Democrats suffering from intra-party division, with the progressive wing of the party demanding a more leftward tone and policy platform. Democrats lost a few seats in the November elections, and there has been finger-pointing about whether that was because moderates were tainted by progressives’ “defund the police” and “Medicare for All” calls or whether they simply were not progressive enough to motivate base voters.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announced Wednesday she is creating a new, bipartisan Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth. She said the panel was similar to a commission President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed after the Great Depression.
Select committees do not write or pass legislation but can help develop policy. The new committee “will be an essential force for the Congress to combat the crisis of income and wealth disparity in America,” Pelosi said.
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The panel is likely to appeal to the left flank of the party, including supporters of failed Democratic primary hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has made income inequality a major issue.
Pelosi said Wednesday she is not concerned about her narrower majority and the divisions in the party.
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Democrats “are unified around our common ethical belief and “our responsibility to America’s working families,” Pelosi said. “I would not want to be a leader of a party that was rubber stamp, lockstep. That’s called Republicans.”
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Susan Milligan, Senior Politics Writer
Susan Milligan is senior political writer at U.S. News & World Report. She has covered … READ MORE
Tags: economic stimulus, Electoral College, 2020 presidential election, Senate