Fox News anchor Bret Baier confronted Sen. Josh Hawley Monday night about some conservative lawmakers contesting the election results, asking the Missouri Republican, “Don’t you have a responsibility to tell [your constituents] it’s not going to be President Trump as of Jan. 21st as well?”
Hawley was the first of at least a dozen Republican senators since to announce their plan to object to the Senate certification of the Electoral College vote for President-elect Joe Biden.
On Monday’s “Special Report,” Baier pointed out to Hawley that courts across the country have dealt with the standing of cases and their lack of evidence and “and some of them Trump judges,” Baier said of the 60 lawsuits (all but one of which were tossed out). “I just want to pin you down on what you’re trying to do. Are you trying to say that as of Jan. 20th that President Trump will be president?”
“Well, Bret, that depends on what happens on Wednesday. I mean, this is why we have the debate…” Hawley answered, but Baier interrupted before he could finish.
“No, it doesn’t,” Baier said, adding that the Constitution says the states certify the election, which they all did. “By the Constitution, Congress doesn’t have the right to overturn the certification, at least as most experts read it.”
Hawley cited a 19th-century statute in an attempt to justify his and the other senators’ plan, but Baier did his homework and shot that down.
“It’s the Tilden-Hayes race, in which there were three states that did not certify their electors, so Congress was left to come up with this system, this commission, that eventually got to negotiate a grand bargain,” Baier rattled off. “But now ALL of the states have certified their elections as of Dec. 14th, so it doesn’t by Constitutional ways open a door to Congress to overturn that, does it?”
“Well, no,” Hawley responded. “My point is, this is my only opportunity during this process to raise an objection and to be heard. I don’t have standing to file lawsuits. I’m not a prosecutor anymore. I used to be, but I’m not anymore. I can’t investigate claims of voter fraud on my own, but I do have a responsibility in this joint session of Congress to either say ‘I’ve got no problem with it’ or ‘I do have a problem with it.”
“Right, but don’t you have a responsibility to your constituents?” Baier fired back. “Don’t you have a responsibility to tell them it’s not going to be President Trump as of Jan. 21st, as well?”
Trump and his allies have been baselessly insisting since November that Biden’s win was the result of election fraud, despite having no evidence. The plan by Hawley and the other senators to object to the Senate certification is the latest Republican attempt to overturn the election.
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