Sen. Josh Hawley skipped a conference call Thursday morning with Republican colleagues eager to confront the Missouri lawmaker over his intent to object to the Electoral College vote.
GOP senators, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who are against the long-shot bid to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, appeared not to realize Hawley was missing because they confronted the senator from Missouri about his plan and did not get an answer, according to multiple reports.
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In an email to colleagues that came later in the day, Hawley said he was “unable” to join the call, and he explained that his constituents were a driving force behind his decision to object on Jan. 6.
“If you’ve been speaking to folks at home, I’m sure you know how deeply angry and disillusioned many, many people are — and how frustrated that Congress has taken little or no action,” he wrote in the email, which was posted on Twitter.
On Wednesday, Hawley announced his designs to object to the certification of electoral votes in Pennsylvania and possibly other states, drawing attention to allegations of voter fraud and concerns about a failure to follow state election laws.
“At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections,” Hawley said. “But Congress has so far failed to act.”
Hawley’s decision to join a band of House Republicans, who huddled with President Trump at the White House last week, goes directly against the wishes of McConnell, who pressed members of his caucus not to support the effort to contest the Electoral College results.
A source who spoke to Axios paraphrased what McConnell said on the New Years Eve morning call with colleagues. The Kentucky Republican, according to this person, said his vote to certify Biden’s victory “will be the most consequential I have ever cast.” Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey defended the integrity of his state’s election, and his spokesperson told Politico: “Senator Toomey made his views on Senator Hawley’s planned objection clear. He strongly disagrees.”
Despite Hawley being on board, and at least 140 GOP House members voting to object, according to CNN sources, the Electoral College challenge faces long odds.
A member of both chambers objecting to each slate of electors in writing would lead to both the Senate and House holding a two-hour debate, and then they would vote to accept or reject the challenged Electoral College votes, with only a simple majority needed to defeat the challenge.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016, said, “We are preparing to respond in elaborate detail about how in each state there were canvasses and recounts that confirmed the results,” according to NBC Washington’s Scott MacFarlane.
Trump flew back to the White House from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday, earlier than expected, with his focus set on challenging and overturning the election certification process in Congress on Wednesday. Trump and his allies have also turned to the courts, where they have found little success.
