[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 4 (Wednesday, January 6, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S14]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CHALLENGE TO THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, we are debating a step that has never 
been taken in American history: whether Congress should overrule the 
voters and overturn a Presidential election.
  I have served 36 years in the Senate. This will be the most important 
vote I have ever cast.
  President Trump claims the election was stolen. The assertions range 
from specific local allegations, to constitutional arguments, to 
sweeping conspiracy theories. I supported the President's right to use 
the legal system. Dozens of lawsuits received hearings in courtrooms 
all across our country, but over and over, courts rejected these 
claims, including all-star judges whom the President himself nominated.
  Every election, we know, features some illegality and irregularity, 
and, of course, that is unacceptable
  I support strong State-led voting reforms. Last year's bizarre 
pandemic procedures must not become the new norm. But, my colleagues, 
nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale--
the massive scale that would have tipped the entire election, nor can 
public doubt alone justify a radical break when the doubt itself was 
incited without any evidence.
  The Constitution gives us here in Congress a limited role. We cannot 
simply declare ourselves a national board of elections on steroids. The 
voters, the courts, and the States have all spoken. They have all 
spoken. If we overrule them, it would damage our Republic forever.
  This election actually was not unusually close. Just in recent 
history, 1976, 2000, and 2004 were all closer than this one. The 
electoral college margin is almost identical to what it was in 2016. If 
this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, 
our democracy would enter a death spiral. We would never see the whole 
Nation accept an election again. Every 4 years would be a scramble for 
power at any cost. The electoral college, which most of us on this side 
been have defending for years, would cease to exist, leaving many of 
our States with no real say at all in choosing a President.
  The effects would go even beyond the elections themselves. Self-
government, my colleagues, requires a shared commitment to the truth 
and a shared respect for the ground rules of our system. We cannot keep 
drifting apart into two separate tribes with a separate set of facts 
and separate realities with nothing in common except our hostility 
toward each other and mistrust for the few national institutions that 
we all still share.
  Every time--every time in the last 30 years that Democrats have lost 
a Presidential race, they have tried a challenge just like this--after 
2000, after 2004, and after 2016. After 2004, a Senator joined and 
forced the same debate. And, believe it or not, Democrats like Harry 
Reid, Dick Durbin, and Hillary Clinton praised--praised and applauded 
the stunt. Republicans condemned those baseless efforts back then, and 
we just spent 4 years condemning Democrats' shameful attacks on the 
validity of President Trump's own election. So there can be no double 
standard. The media that is outraged today spent 4 years aiding and 
abetting the Democrats' attacks on our institutions after they lost.
  But we must not imitate and escalate what we repudiate. Our duty is 
to govern for the public good. The United States Senate has a higher 
calling than an endless spiral of partisan vengeance.
  Congress will either overrule the voters, the States, and the courts 
for the first time ever or honor the people's decision. We will either 
guarantee Democrats' delegitimizing efforts after 2016 became a 
permanent new routine for both sides or declare that our Nation 
deserves a lot better than this. We will either hasten down a poisonous 
path where only the winners of elections actually accept the results or 
show we can still muster the patriotic courage that our forebears 
showed not only in victory but in defeat.
  The Framers built the Senate to stop short-term passions from boiling 
over and melting the foundations of our Republic. So I believe 
protecting our constitutional order requires respecting the limits of 
our own power. It would be unfair and wrong to disenfranchise American 
voters and overrule the courts and the States on this extraordinarily 
thin basis, and I will not pretend such a vote would be a harmless 
protest gesture while relying on others to do the right thing. I will 
vote to respect the people's decision and defend our system of 
government as we know it.

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