Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), the Republican leader of a plan to challenge Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, said that “dozens” of House members are going to sponsor a measure to object.
“There are dozens in the House of Representatives who have reached that conclusion, as I have; we’re going to sponsor and co-sponsor objections to the Electoral College vote returns,” Brooks told Fox News on Dec. 28.
The move, which must occur during the Joint Session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, requires a member of the House and a member of the Senate to carry out. So far, Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has suggested he might join Brooks and the other GOP House lawmakers. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has suggested he might as well. Neither Tuberville nor Paul has made public statements affirming the effort.
Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) has said that he thinks the effort led by Brooks is doomed to fail regardless of who joins.
Meanwhile, Brooks said in the Fox interview that it isn’t clear whether any Republican senator will take part in the challenge.
“The real issue is whether we have any senators who have done their homework and have studied what has transpired ... that there has been massive voter fraud and election theft unlike anything we have seen in American history,” Brooks said.
Over the weekend, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), in comments widely publicized by news outlets, referred to Brooks’s effort as “a scam.”
“It is sad to the extent that we’ve got Republicans who are unwilling to do their homework or unwilling to make tough decisions,” Brooks said. “If he would do his homework, he would understand that the evidence is overwhelming, and he can either surrender to the people who support voter fraud elections or he can fight for his country on this particular issue.”
For weeks, Brooks has said he isn’t giving up his plan to object to the electoral results in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona.
The challenge has been used by Democrats in past elections, the most recent being against former President George W. Bush’s election in 2004.
Brooks previously told The Epoch Times that he believes the Electoral College vote can be rejected, and the election can ultimately be decided in the House of Representatives.
In making the case, Brooks referred to a 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform report from former President Jimmy Carter and James Baker—a former Reagan administration official—that warned against fraudulent elections.
“They identified the very same problems that we faced in this election that they warned us that this was going to happen,” he said.
