In the wake of a Trumpist mob storming the Capitol even as some congressional Republicans tried to overturn the results of the elections in several states from within the Capitol, some had hoped that enough of those Republicans would back down and allow the counting of electoral votes to conclude quickly. That is supposed to be a routine task, after all. But Senate Republicans with 2024 presidential ambitions, like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, were trying to curry favor with Trump’s base after Donald spent the last two months convincing his voters that the election had been stolen, and were intent on dragging it out.
After hours of lockdowns and danger, this is Hawley’s concession: He’s still going to object to the counting of Pennsylvania’s electoral votes. But then he’ll shut up and yield his time—all five minutes of it. Other members of Congress can yap to their hearts’ content, or at least for five minutes. So this will still be a long night on top of a long, traumatic day.
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Mark Sumner
In other words, Hawley said he thought it was so important to object to Arizona’s votes that it was worth debating, but he didn’t mention Arizona when it was his turn to talk. And then Hawley thought it was so important to talk about Pennsylvania that he’s forcing the House and Senate to sit through another round of debate. But he’s not even going to bother to say anything.
Stunt voting in it’s most basic form.
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Mark Sumner
Georgia got an objection from the House side, which appears to have come from just Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. But now that Kelly Loeffler has lost interest in playing along—likely because her political career, such as it was, is over more than the day’s events—no other Senator signed on.
So Trump lost Georgia. Again.
