Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) is as "outraged" as anyone about the "unanswered questions" about the 2020 presidential election. But his number one priority, he explains in a new statement, is staying true to his Constitutional oath. And that means realizing his congressional limitations. Roy explained why he objects to his Republican colleagues' attempt to challenge the electoral college certification this Wednesday.
He reasoned that there is only "one" way Trump can still win this election.
I am as outraged as anyone about the still-unanswered questions about the election. But the Constitution is clear:
— Rep. Chip Roy (@RepChipRoy) January 3, 2021
States select electors. Congress does not.
There is only one path to victory for @POTUS on Jan. 6: state legislatures certifying Trump electors in states at issue pic.twitter.com/QypY9Kyk8P
"There is one and only one path to victory for President Trump on Jan. 6, 2021" Roy writes. "And it depends on state legislatures certifying Trump electors in the states at issue, pursuant to state law and the U.S. Constitution, and based on a finding that votes lawfully cast in November were sufficient to produce a Trump victory. If they believe there was fraud - and if they believe that such fraud affected the outcome of the election - they must, as a body, convene immediately and send us that information, along with certified electoral votes cast by a Trump slate of electors. Absent such action, there is not a constitutional role for Congress to change the outcome of any state's vote."
"The text of the Constitution is clear," he concludes. "States elect electors, Congress does not. Accordingly, our path forward is also clear. We must respect the states' authority here. Though doing so may frustrate our immediate political objectives, we have sworn an oath to promote the Constitution above our policy goals. We must count the electoral votes submitted by the states."
On Sunday, as the 117th Congress convened, Rep. Roy further objected to the seating of representatives-elect from the contested states, suggesting that if the presidential election is in question, then so too are their victories.
NEW: Republican Rep. Chip Roy – who opposes objections to the Electoral College – challenges the seating of reps-elect from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. pic.twitter.com/1u38qHjwap
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) January 3, 2021
"Such allegations – if true – raise significant doubts about the elections of at least some of the members of the United States House of Representatives that, if not formally addressed, could cast a dark cloud of suspicion over the validity of this body for the duration of the 117th Congress," Roy writes in a separate statement. "After all, those representatives were elected through the very same systems — with the same ballot procedures, with the same signature validations, with the same broadly applied decisions of executive and judicial branch officials — as were the electors chosen for the President of the United States under the laws of those states, which have become the subject of national controversy. And while the legislatures of those states have sent us no formal indication that the results of these elections should not be honored by this body, it would confound basic human reason if the presidential results were to face objection while the congressional results of the same process escaped without public scrutiny."