In scathing statement, former GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan said Republican attempts to reject Electoral College vote were 'antidemocratic and anti-conservative'
- Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican who represented Wisconsin in Congress from 1999 to 2019, spoke out Sunday against members of his party who were planning to object to congressional certification of the 2020 US presidential election.
- About a dozen GOP senators have said they plan to reject the certification of December's Electoral College vote, and many House Republicans are expected to do the same.
- Some other Republicans, including Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland and Sens. Susan Collins and Mitt Romney, have also spoken out against the lawmaker's plan.
Paul Ryan, the Republican former House speaker, on Sunday spoke out against members of his party who had hatched a plan to object to the certification of the Electoral College's December vote that affirmed Trump's reelection defeat.
"All our basic rights and freedoms flow from a fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law," Ryan, who represented Wisconsin in the House from 1999 until 2019, said in a statement. "This principle is not only fundamentally American but a central tenet of conservatism. Under our system, voters determine the president, and this self-governance cannot sustain itself if the whims of Congress replace the will of the people. I urge members to consider the precedent that it would set."
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is leading an effort to reject the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory, and about a dozen Republican senators have said publicly they plan to do the same. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri last week became the first senator to say he'd reject the certification, and CNN reported that approximately 140 members of the House of Representatives were also believed to be planning to reject the counting the Electoral College's vote.
"Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden's victory strike at the foundation of our republic," Ryan continued. "It is difficult to conceive of a more antidemocratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans."
Ryan announced his retirement from the House of Representatives in 2018. He served as House speaker from 2015 until his exit from Congress in 2019.
Since Trump's loss to Biden in November, the president and his allies have refused to accept Biden's win, instead alleging widespread voter fraud without providing legitimate evidence, lobbing pressure on officials in some states where Trump lost, and filing dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits.
"The Trump campaign had ample opportunity to challenge election results, and those efforts failed from lack of evidence," Ryan said Sunday. "The legal process was exhausted, and the results were decisively confirmed."
The former House speaker also noted that the Department of Justice had also said it had not "seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election," as the president has alleged.
Some Republicans like Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland have also spoken out against the effort. A group of 10 bipartisan senators, including the Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and Mitt Romney of Utah, have urged lawmakers to "move forward."
"If states wish to reform their processes for future elections, that is their prerogative," Ryan concluded. "But Joe Biden's victory is entirely legitimate."
While the lawmakers' objections would force a vote by the House and the Senate, it is extremely unlikely to have any impact on the outcome of the election because Democrats control the House. Biden won 306 Electoral College votes compared with Trump's 232. A candidate must receive at least 270 votes to win the presidency.