华盛顿-内布拉斯加州共和党参议员本·萨斯（Ben Sasse）对共和党试图对1月6日反对总统选举的选举学院的反对提出了有力的谴责，警告同事们不要采取“危险的手段”，以免破坏美国的公民传统。
萨瑟，一个潜在的2024总统候选人，公布了详尽的解释周四他对社交媒体的看法，包括拆除款由当选总统赢得关键州选民舞弊指控的一段拜登。萨斯说，他感到被迫以“真相”作为选民，支持唐纳德·特朗普总统的人想知道他在这个问题上的立场。
萨斯写道：“我不会参加推翻选举的项目。” 他说，他想解释“为什么我一直在敦促我的同事也拒绝这种危险的策略。”
特朗普是近30年来首位竞选连任失败的总统，尽管无党派选举官员表示没有任何选举，但特朗普的失败却归因于广泛的选民欺诈。尽管本月选举学院巩固了拜登在306-232的胜利，并且为质疑选举结果而采取的多项法律努力均告失败，但他已敦促共和党参议员继续提出毫无根据的指控。
与其他共和党人形成鲜明对比的是，萨斯（Sasse）的怀念给共和党提供了一条不同于后共和党的道路，其中最明显的是参议员乔什·霍利（R.Mo）。谁将在下周的国会联席会议上领导这一挑战。
霍利本周成为第一位共和党参议员，宣布他将在国会开会确认拜登在选举中获胜时提出异议，迫使众议院和参议院投票可能会拖延但绝不会改变拜登获胜的最终证明。
预计其他共和党参议员也将加入霍利的行列，因为他们也试图在后特朗普时代脱颖而出，以防万一。
民主党占多数的众议院中的一些共和党人已经表示，他们将在1月6日的选举投票中代表特朗普反对，他们只需要一个参议员就可以在两个参议院中强制投票。
萨斯（Sasse）着眼于特朗普为选举挑战筹款的“沼泽”性质，他概述了他相信拜登的选举胜利是有效的理由。
萨斯写道：“自选举日以来，总统及其同盟组织已从支持者那里筹集了超过10亿（十亿！）美元的资金，这些支持者被认为认为他们为凶猛的法律辩护做出了贡献。” “但实际上，他们大多只是给总统及其盟友一张空白支票，这些支票可以用于其超级PAC，下一次飞机旅行，下一次竞选或项目。这不是认真的治理。这是沼泽的政治。”
他将特朗普的法律团队以内布拉斯加州的条款提出选举挑战。
萨斯写道，他不能“简单地指责大学橄榄球季后赛选拔委员会是在“承担”，因为他们没有将康沃尔客队送到玫瑰碗，然后–在我未能证明选拔的任何人之后委员会是腐败的–认为我们需要进行调查，因为这些普遍存在的腐败“指控”。”
他说，在全国拥有1.6亿张选票的情况下，将会有一些欺诈事件，但没有什么能推翻选举的。
萨斯写道：“我们有充分的理由认为今年的选举是公平，安全和守法的。” “这并不是说它是完美的。但是，没有任何证据可以完全不信任我们的选举，也不能得出结论不能反映我们的同胞实际投票的证据。”
霍利周三表示，他没有提出具体细节或证据，因为“某些州，包括宾夕法尼亚州”没有遵守自己的选举法，因此将提出异议。一些州改变了选举程序，例如扩大缺席投票，以容纳冠状病毒大流行期间的选民，这是一个世纪以来美国最严重的公共卫生突发事件。挑战拜登在宾夕法尼亚州胜利的诉讼均未成功。
霍利在一份声明中说：“至少，国会应该调查有关选民欺诈的指控，并采取措施确保我们选举的完整性。” 他还批评了Facebook和Twitter处理与选举有关的内容的方式，称其为帮助拜登的努力。
拜登过渡团队的发言人詹·普萨基（Jen Psaki）否认霍利的举动是“滑稽动作”，与拜登于1月20日宣誓就职无关。
普萨基在与记者的电话中说：“美国人民在这次选举中大声疾呼，有8100万人投票支持拜登和卡马拉·哈里斯。
由于白宫没有解释的原因，特朗普缩短了他在佛罗里达的假期，打算在星期四回到华盛顿，比预期的提前一天。
当国会召集证明选举学院的成绩时，任何议员都可以以任何理由反对州的投票。但是，除非众议院议员和参议院议员以书面形式提出并签字，否则反对意见不予受理。
如果有这样的要求，则联席会议暂停，众议院和参议院分别进入会议进行审议。为了维持反对意见，两个议院必须以简单多数票同意。如果他们不同意，则计入原始选举人票。
作为参议院主席，副总统迈克·彭斯（Mike Pence）将主持1月6日的会议，并宣布获胜者。
参议院多数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔（R-Ky。）已要求核心小组不要参加徒劳的寻求推翻结果的努力。
一系列的无党派选举官员和共和党人已经证实，在11月的选举中没有欺诈行为会改变选举结果。其中包括前司法部长威廉·巴尔（William Barr），他说他认为没有理由任命特别律师调查总统关于2020年大选的主张。他上周辞职了。
特朗普及其盟友已提出约50项诉讼，对选举结果提出了挑战，而且几乎所有人都被解雇或撤职。他还在美国最高法院两次失利。
众议院共和党集团已表示计划挑战密歇根州，威斯康星州，宾夕法尼亚州，乔治亚州和内华达州的选举结果。都是拜登所载的州。
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芝加哥的美联社作家Aamer Madhani对此报告做出了贡献。
WASHINGTON -- Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska has issued a pointed rebuke of GOP attempts to object Jan. 6 to the Electoral College tally of the presidential election, warning colleagues against a “dangerous ploy” that could damage the nation's civic traditions.
Sasse, a potential 2024 presidential contender, posted a lengthy explanation Thursday of his views on social media, including a paragraph by paragraph dismantling of allegations of voter fraud in key states won by President-elect Joe Biden. Sasse said he felt compelled to speak “truth” as constituents and those supporting President Donald Trump wanted to know where he stands on the issue.
“I will not be participating in a project to overturn the election,” Sasse wrote. He said he wanted to explain “why I have been urging my colleagues also to reject this dangerous ploy.”
Trump, the first president to lose a reelection bid in almost 30 years, has attributed his defeat to widespread voter fraud, despite nonpartisan election officials saying there wasn't any. He has pushed Republican senators to pursue his unfounded charges even though the Electoral College this month cemented Biden’s 306-232 victory and multiple legal efforts to challenge the results have failed.
The missive from Sasse offers the Republican Party a different path for the post-Trump era, in stark contrast to other Republicans — most notably, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. — who are leading the challenge during next week's joint session of Congress.
Hawley became the first GOP senator this week to announce he will raise objections when Congress meets to affirm Biden’s victory in the election, forcing House and Senate votes that are likely to delay — but in no way alter — the final certification of Biden's win.
Other Republican senators are expected to join Hawley, wary of ceding the spotlight to him as they, too, try to emerge as leaders in a post-Trump era.
Some Republicans in the Democratic-majority House have already said they will object on Trump’s behalf during the Jan. 6 count of electoral votes, and they had needed just a single senator to go along with them to force votes in both chambers.
Sasse took aim at the “swampy” nature of Trump's fundraising off the election challenge as he outlined his reasons for believing Biden's electoral win is valid.
“Since Election Day, the president and his allied organizations have raised well over half a billion (billion!) dollars from supporters who have been led to believe that they’re contributing to a ferocious legal defense,” Sasse wrote. “But in reality, they’re mostly just giving the president and his allies a blank check that can go to their super-PACs, their next plane trip, their next campaign or project. That’s not serious governing. It’s swampy politics.”
He put the election challenges being waged by Trump's legal team in Nebraska terms.
Sasse wrote that he couldn't "simply allege that the College Football Playoff Selection Committee is ‘on the take’ because they didn’t send the Cornhuskers to the Rose Bowl, and then – after I fail to show evidence that anyone on the Selection Committee is corrupt – argue that we need to investigate because of these pervasive ‘allegations’ of corruption.”
With 160 million votes nationwide, there will be some instances of fraud, he said, but nothing of the magnitude to overturn the election.
“We have good reason to think this year’s election was fair, secure, and law-abiding,” Sasse wrote. “That’s not to say it was flawless. But there is no evidentiary basis for distrusting our elections altogether, or for concluding that the results do not reflect the ballots that our fellow citizens actually cast.”
Without giving specifics or evidence, Hawley said Wednesday that he would object because “some states, including notably Pennsylvania,” did not follow their own election laws. Some states made changes to their election procedures, such as expanding absentee voting, to accommodate voters during the coronavirus pandemic, the worst U.S. public health emergency in a century. Lawsuits challenging Biden's victory in Pennsylvania have been unsuccessful.
“At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections,” Hawley said in a statement. He also criticized the way Facebook and Twitter handled content related to the election, characterizing it as an effort to help Biden.
Jen Psaki, a spokesperson for the Biden transition team, dismissed Hawley’s move as “antics” that will have no bearing on Biden being sworn in on Jan. 20.
“The American people spoke resoundingly in this election and 81 million people have voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” Psaki said in a call with reporters.
Trump cut short his Florida holiday vacation to return to Washington on Thursday, one day earlier than expected, for reasons the White House didn’t explain.
When Congress convenes to certify the Electoral College results, any lawmaker can object to a state’s votes on any grounds. But the objection is not taken up unless it is in writing and signed by both a member of the House and a member of the Senate.
When there is such a request, then the joint session suspends and the House and Senate go into separate sessions to consider it. For the objection to be sustained, both chambers must agree to it by a simple majority vote. If they disagree, the original electoral votes are counted.
As president of the Senate, Vice President Mike Pence will preside over the Jan. 6 session and declare the winner.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had asked his caucus not to participate in a futile quest to overturn the results.
A range of nonpartisan election officials and Republicans has confirmed there was no fraud in the November contest that would change the results of the election. That includes former Attorney General William Barr, who said he saw no reason to appoint a special counsel to look into the president’s claims about the 2020 election. He resigned from his post last week.
Trump and his allies have filed roughly 50 lawsuits challenging election results, and nearly all has been dismissed or dropped. He’s also lost twice at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The group of House Republicans has said it plans to challenge the election results from Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada. All are states that Biden carried.
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Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Chicago contributed to this report.
