Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a vocal critic of President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, is slamming Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) for declaring that he will object to certifying the Electoral College vote count.
Shortly after Hawley announced his intention to object to certifying the Electoral College’s vote on Wednesday, Kinzinger criticized his fellow Republican and suggested he was motivated by presidential aspirations.
He shared Hawley’s statement on Twitter and wrote, “Internal monologue: ‘I want to be President so I decided to try to get POTUS tweet saying I’m great even though I know this isn’t going anywhere.'”
“‘But hey… I’ll blame someone else when it fails,'” he added.
Internal monologue: “I want to be President so I decided to try to get POTUS tweet saying I’m great even though I know this isn’t going anywhere, but hey… I’ll blame someone else when it fails.” https://t.co/2YuSFZ1RSk
— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) December 30, 2020
Biden won the November 3 general election. However, Trump has refused to concede the election as he has made baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud that he says cost him his reelection bid.
As the Trump campaign has suffered a series of legal setbacks in its effort to overturn the election, some of the president’s Republican allies in Congress are planning to object to certifying five states’ electoral votes due to alleged fraud.
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) is reportedly leading the effort to disqualify the electoral votes of Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, and Wisconsin — which Trump lost — when Congress meets on January 6 to certify the election results.
The long-shot bid, which is expected to fail, requires that a senator join the effort. On Wednesday, Hawley became the first Republican senator to publicly state his intention to sign on to the effort, as IJR reported.
In a statement, Hawley said, “I cannot vote to certify the electoral college results on January 6 without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws.”
“And I cannot vote to certify without pointing out the unprecedented effort of mega corporations, including Facebook and Twitter, to interfere in this election, in support of Joe Biden. At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act,” he added.
Once lawmakers make their objection, senators and representatives will return to their respective chambers for two hours of debate on the objection. Afterward, they will vote on whether or not to disqualify the states’ results.
Kinzinger previously blasted Trump and his allies’ effort to overturn the election. During an interview on CNN, he said, “This is a scam…I mean to explain to people that somehow Congress can overthrow the certified results of every state, that we can change an election outcome when there was not a single court case that had any legs.”
“It is going to disappoint the people that believe this election was stolen…But instead of being disappointed in the people who led them on this grifting scam, they’re gonna somehow try to convince these people that it was, I don’t know, what’s the new word? The RINOs in Congress,” he added.
