No. 2 House Republican refuses to say election wasn’t stolen

WASHINGTON – The House's second-ranking Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise, repeatedly refused to accidental connected Sunday that the 2020 predetermination wasn’t stolen, lasting by Donald Trump’s lie that Democrat Joe Biden won the White House due to the fact that of wide elector fraud.

More than 11 months aft Americans picked their president and astir 9 months since Biden was inaugurated, Scalise was unwilling during a nationalist tv interrogation to admit the legitimacy of the vote, alternatively sticking to his belief that the predetermination results should not person been certified by Congress.

"I’ve been precise wide from the beginning," helium said. “If you look astatine a fig of states, they didn’t travel their state-passed laws that govern the predetermination for president. That is what the United States Constitution says. They don’t accidental the states find what the rules are. They accidental the authorities legislatures find the rules,” the Louisiana congressman said connected “Fox News Sunday.”

Ad

Pressed by moderator Chris Wallace connected whether the predetermination went beyond a fewer irregularities to beryllium considered “stolen,” Scalise responded: “It’s not conscionable irregularities. It’s states that did not travel the laws acceptable which the Constitution says they’re expected to follow.”

Trump near bureau successful January a fewer weeks aft a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol successful a convulsive riot successful an effort to forestall Congress from formally declaring Biden the winner.

As Trump mulls a 2024 statesmanlike bid, helium has been intensifying efforts to shame — and perchance region — members of his enactment who are seen arsenic disloyal to his bogus claims that past year’s predetermination was illegitimate. House Republican person Kevin McCarthy of California, who is vying to go talker if the GOP takes power aft the 2022 midterm election, continues to support Trump and his mendacious assertions.

Ad

At a rally Saturday successful Iowa, Trump spent astir 30 minutes arguing falsely that helium had won Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds stood by and welcomed his instrumentality to their state.

In fact, nary predetermination was stolen from Trump. His erstwhile lawyer general, William Barr, found nary evidence of wide predetermination corruption. Allegations of monolithic voting fraud besides person been dismissed by a succession of judges and refuted by authorities predetermination officials and an limb of the Homeland Security Department during the Trump administration.

Scalise connected Sunday appeared to beryllium referring to the ineligible argument, made successful respective lawsuits backed by Trump earlier and aft past November's election, that the Constitution gives the powerfulness of predetermination medication exclusively to authorities lawmakers. The suits sought to invalidate a fig of pandemic-era accommodations including expanded message voting that were enactment successful spot by governors, authorities predetermination officials and judges.

Ad

The precocious tribunal yet turned distant the cases, declining to regularisation connected the matter. There’s nary denotation successful immoderate of the suits that changing the COVID-19 accommodations would person altered a state’s predetermination results.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who is serving connected a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, connected Sunday slammed Scalise for spreading Trump’s “Big Lie.”

“Millions of Americans person been sold a fraud that the predetermination was stolen,” Cheney tweeted. “Republicans person a work to archer the American radical that this is not true. Perpetuating the Big Lie is an onslaught connected the halfway of our law republic.”

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This worldly whitethorn not beryllium published, broadcast, rewritten oregon redistributed without permission.