President Donald Trump on Monday met with a handful of Republican members of Congress about how to move forward with challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows tweeted after the meeting saying the group is "preparing to fight back against mounting evidence of voter fraud."
According to POLITICO's Jake Sherman, multiple Republicans from the House were spotted at the White House.
Fox News' Chad Pergram confirmed that Republican Congressmen Mo Brooks (AL), Matt Gaetz (FL) and Louie Gohmert (TX) were in the Oval Office.
It's no surprise that Gaetz, one of President Trump's closest allies in Congress, was in attendance. He told Turning Point USA's Student Action Summit that he planned to contest the election results.
"I'm joining with the fighters in the Congress, and we are going to object to electors from states that didn't run clean elections!" Gaetz said, Newsweek reported.
"Our friends in the media will breathlessly exclaim that we are attacking democracy. That's nonsense," he told the crowd. "Democracy is left undefended, if we accept the result of a stolen election without fighting with every bit of vigor we can muster."
Congressman Paul Gosar (AZ) also confirmed he was in attendance.
The goal of the meeting was to prepare for the possibility of overturning the Electoral College's decision to name former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) as the president-elect and vice president-elect.
According to Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), a number of Republican legislators have questions about voting irregularities that took place.
"I believe we have multiple senators and the question is not if but how many," Brooks told CNN.
One of Brooks' goals is to challenge election results in a minimum of six battleground states, although there's a potential for more. He is also hoping to get 72 lawmakers – between both chambers – to make five minute speeches, something he dubs "a significant task."
Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX) said he didn't need convincing. He was planning to challenge the election's results.
Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) stated she would lead the Georgia delegation in challenging the results.
It's important to note that Brooks' effort to lead the fight are rooted in personal experience. When he first ran for the Alabama House in 1982, 11 of the 45 voting machines that were used were allegedly rigged for Democrats, the Washington Examiner reported. Poll workers spotted the mistake and allowed Brooks supporters to tally their votes on a sheet of paper on the wall. He ended up coming out of the race victorious with 57 percent of the vote. Based on his personal experience and what he's seen, he fully believes the presidential results "are wrong" and no one knows just how wrong things actually are.
Brooks believes Trump's path to victory is no longer in the courts but rather in the House of Representatives. As the House moves to certify the election results, they must go state-by-state. All it takes is one representative and one senator to object to that state's results. The congressman says those states that are called into question should be thrown out. If that happens in enough battleground states then neither Trump nor Biden would hit the 270 electoral votes to win the Electoral College. That would mean the House would pick the president.
Under the Constitution, according to Brooks, should the House have to pick the president, each state gets just one vote. That one vote is based on what party controls the state House. The GOP runs 26 state Houses, meaning the Republicans pick who will be the next president.
“House Republicans control the election of the next president of the United States," Brooks explained to the Examiner.
There's a legal question about whether each state delegation will get one vote or if each member gets a vote, which could dramatically change the outcome.
“The Constitution says that in the election of the president by the House, you vote by state delegation. So, the fight, the legal fight, will be whether the same standard applies to this part of the election of the president. So, I'm sure the Democrats will argue that it's the majority of 435 that make the determination," Brooks explained. "The Republicans would be wise to argue that there are 50 votes won by each state, and that makes the determination. Now, what will happen? I don't know,” Brooks said.
It's unclear what senators will be up for the challenge of challenging the election's results. Alabama Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville has said he was contemplating being that one person.
Trump says he spoke to Tommy Tuberville last night. Tuberville had said he’d vote against codifying the electoral college results
— Sam Stein (@samstein) December 20, 2020
What will take plane on January 6th is anyone's guess. But buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
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