Sasse slams 'institutional arsonist members of Congress' who plan Electoral College objection

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Sen. Hawley plans to contest electoral college vote certification

Fox News correspondent Rich Edson has the latest on 'Special Report.'

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., posted a scathing rebuke of his colleagues who plan on objecting to the election of Joe Biden as the next president when Congress certifies the Electoral College outcome on Jan. 6.

In a lengthy Facebook post early Thursday morning, Sasse warned of the damage that could be done by trying to overturn the election results, and explained why he believes Biden is the rightful winner, despite the likelihood of at least some voter fraud.

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"The president and his allies are playing with fire. They have been asking – first the courts, then state legislatures, now the Congress – to overturn the results of a presidential election," Sasse said. "They have unsuccessfully called on judges and are now calling on federal officeholders to invalidate millions and millions of votes. If you make big claims, you had better have the evidence. But the president doesn’t and neither do the institutional arsonist members of Congress who will object to the Electoral College vote."

Sasse noted that there is a legal framework for challenging electoral votes, but explained that this has never been done successfully. He referenced the most recent time this was attempted, which was then- Sen. Barbara Boxer’s failed attempted. The California Democrat’s objection was rejected with a 74-1 vote.

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Sasse went on to acknowledge that he believes that there was a degree of voter fraud, as well as questionable legal decisions ahead of November’s election, but not enough to make a difference, given the size of Biden’s lead in various battleground states and the number of states that would have to be overturned to change the result.

"In Pennsylvania, Team Trump is right that lots went wrong," he said, pointing to a "highly partisan state supreme court" that changed the state’s election rules. "But Biden won Pennsylvania by 81,000 votes – and there appear to have been only 10,000 votes received and counted after election day. So even if every one of these votes were for Biden and were thrown out, they would not come close to affecting the outcome."

Similarly, Sasse wrote that allegations in Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin would not impact those states' totals to a degree that would change their outcomes, and he noted that an audit conducted in Georgia showed that the number of improperly counted ballots was minimal.

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While dismissing the impact of voter fraud on the 2020 election, Sasse did criticize the media for acting as if there was no fraud at all, which he said only sowed greater doubt among President Trump's supporters.

"There is some voter fraud every election cycle – and the media flatly declaring from on high that ‘there is no fraud!’ has made things worse," he said.

Trump, his attorneys and supporters have publicly declared that there was massive fraud, but Sasse noted that the president’s public rhetoric and his campaign’s legal filings tell different stories.

"So, here’s the heart of this whole thing: this isn’t really a legal strategy – it’s a fundraising strategy," Sasse claimed. "Since Election Day, the president and his allied organizations have raised well over half a billion (billion!) dollars from supporters who have been led to believe that they’re contributing to a ferocious legal defense. But in reality, they’re mostly just giving the president and his allies a blank check that can go to their super-PACs, their next plane trip, their next campaign or project."

All that being said, Sasse blasted his colleagues on Capitol Hill who plan to object to the Electoral College votes, stating that he has not heard a single Republican in Congress claim that the election was fraudulent. He claimed that those who raise objections on Jan. 6 will merely be putting on a show to appeal to Trump’s base. Sasse warned that their actions could bear consequences that are felt for longer than they realize.

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"Let's be clear what is happening here: We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there's a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage," he said. "But they're wrong – and this issue is bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults don't point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government."

Any objection to electoral votes appears destined to fail. According to the Electoral Counting Act, objections are resolved by votes of both the House and Senate. With the former being controlled by Democrats and the majority in the latter remaining up in the air until Georgia runoff elections on Jan. 5, a successful challenge would be nearly impossible.