[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text
version below transcribed directly from audio]
Vice President Pence:
Pursuant to
SenCon [Concurrent Resolution] Res 1 and
Section 17 of title 3, United States Code, when the two
Houses withdraw from the Joint Session to count the electoral vote for separate
consideration of an objection, a Senator may speak to the objection for five
minutes and not more than once. Debate shall not exceed two hours, after which
the Chair will put the question, "Shall the objection be sustained?" The clerk
will report the objection made in the Joint Session.
Clerk: Objection from Representative Gosar
from Arizona and Senator Cruz and others:
We, a Member of the House of
Representatives and a United States Senator, object to the counting of the electoral
votes of the state of Arizona on the grounds that they were not, under all the
known circumstances, regularly given.
Vice President Pence:
Majority Leader.
Senator McConnell:
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Majority Leader and the
Democratic Leader be allowed to speak, and that following their remarks, the
Majority Leader and the Democratic Leader each control up to one
hour of debate -- debate time and be authorized to yield up to five minutes of
that time to any senator seeking recognition. Further, I ask unanimous consent
that the senators be permitted to insert statements into the record.
Vice President Pence:
Is there objection? [None offered.] Without objection, so
ordered.
Senator McConnell: Mr. President.
Vice President Pence: Majority Leader.
Senator McConnell: We're debating a step that has never been taken in
American history, whether Congress should overrule the voters and overturn a
presidential election. I've served 36 years in the Senate. This will be the most
important vote I've 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, the
courts rejected these claims, including all-star judges whom the President
himself has nominated.
Every election we know features some illegality and irregularity, and of course
that's 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've 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 Card -- 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'd never see the whole nation accept an
election again. Every four years would be a scramble for power at any cost.
The
Electoral College, which most of us on this side have been 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
towards 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've tried to challenge just like this -- after 2000,
after 2004, 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 them and applauded the stunt. Republicans condemned those
baseless efforts back then, and we just spent four years condemning democrats'
shameful attacks on the validity of President Trump's own election.
So look, there can be no double standard. The media that is outraged today spent
four years aiding and abetting 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 override the
voters, overrule them, the voters, the states, and the courts for the first time
ever, or honor the people's decision.
We'll either guarantee democrats' delegitimizing efforts after 2016 become a
permanent new routine for both sides or declare that our nation deserves a lot
better than this. We'll either hasten down a poisonous path where only the
winners of [an] election 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 disenfries -- 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.
OOriginal Audio and Video Source:
C-SPAN.org
Audio Note: AR-XE = American Rhetoric Extreme Enhancement
Video Note: Cropped, stereo widened, frame rate increased from
30fps to 60fps
And also:
CRS document "Counting Electoral Votes:
An Overview of Procedures at the Joint Session, Including Objections by
Members of Congress." Updated November 15, 2016.
Page Updated: 12/21/24
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AmericanRhetoric.com.
