Former Speaker of the House and 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan (R-WI) issued a statement Sunday afternoon blasting Republicans who are planning to challenge Biden electors when Congress meets in a joint session on Wednesday to certify the vote of the Electoral College, saying, “Joe Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate.”
One dozen Republican senators and a reported 140 GOP Congressmen have said they will challenge electors when Congress meets Wednesday.
January, 2017 photo from the House of Representatives, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) (right) gestures as he and then-Vice President Joe Biden (left) prepare to receive the Electoral College votes from the States and territories during a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
All our basic rights and freedoms flow from a fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law. This principle is not only fundamentally American but a central tenet of conservatism. Under our system, voters determine the president, and this self-governance cannot sustain itself if the whims of Congress replace the will of the people. I urge members to consider the precedent that it would set.
Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden’s victory strike at the foundation of our republic. t is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans. The fact that this effort will fail does not mean it will not do significant damage to American democracy.
The Trump campaign had ample opportunity to challenge election results, and those efforts failed from lack of evidence. The legal process was exhausted, and the results were decisively confirmed. The Department of Justice, too, found no basis for overturning the result. If states wish to reform their processes for future elections, that is their prerogative. But Joe Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate.
Paul Ryan statement: “Under our system, voters determine the president, and this self-governance cannot sustain itself if the whims of Congress replace the will of the people.” pic.twitter.com/nyQz0geV80
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) January 3, 2021