Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump and a key ally during the president’s Senate impeachment hearings, is reportedly circulating a letter to several fellow Senators opposing a plan to object to certifying the Electoral College vote.
Lee, who was once described as “the quiet force” that got Trump acquitted of charges he abused his power, and who spoke regularly to the White House and Trump’s attorneys as the president navigated both the House and Senate processes, appears to be among the president’s most vocal opponents on Wednesday, as a dozen Senators step up to challenge Electors from several states where, they claim, the presidential vote may have been tainted by widespread fraud.
Congress, Lee says, has “no authority” to question state electors.
“With respect to presidential elections, there is no authority for Congress to make value judgments in the abstract regarding any state’s election laws or the manner in which they have been implemented,” Lee’s letter says, according to Politico.
Lee’s letter echoes a memo from Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who also objected to the plan, citing the longstanding, Constitutional limitation on Congress’s involvement in presidential elections.
“[T]he Founders entrusted our elections chiefly to the states—not Congress,” Cotton wrote in the memo, published to his official Congressional website. “They entrusted the election of our president to the people, acting through the Electoral College—not Congress. And they entrusted the adjudication of election disputes to the courts—not Congress.”
Cotton went on to suggest that Congressional Republicans challenging the Electoral College would clear the way for Democrats who have long wanted to eliminate the body in favor of a national popular vote:
If Congress purported to overturn the results of the Electoral College, it would not only exceed that power, but also establish unwise precedents. First, Congress would take away the power to choose the president from the people, which would essentially end presidential elections and place that power in the hands of whichever party controls Congress. Second, Congress would imperil the Electoral College, which gives small states like Arkansas a voice in presidential elections. Democrats could achieve their longstanding goal of eliminating the Electoral College in effect by refusing to count electoral votes in the future for a Republican president-elect. Third, Congress would take another big step toward federalizing election law, another longstanding Democratic priority that Republicans have consistently opposed.
Wyoming Sen. Liz Cheney is also, reportedly, drafting her own memo that directly cites the nearly 60 losses Trump’s legal team has suffered in the intervening months since the November election and concluding that there is “no appropriate basis to object to the electors from any of the six states at issue.”
The three objections, two by dedicated Trump supporters, set up what could be a civil war on Wednesday, as Republicans battle over whether to force a 10-day audit of select states where some fraud has been alleged or reported, with Electoral College certification on the line.