Lawmakers Fear More Jan. 6-Like Violence As Trump Amps Up Election Lies | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON ― Members of Congress are on edge about the potential for extra violence on this 12 months’s presidential election, lower than 4 years after a mob of Donald Trump supporters ransacked the U.S. Capitol searching for to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s win within the 2020 contest.

Lawmakers on either side of the aisle are anticipating that Trump, who faces felony expenses for working to overturn the outcomes of the final election, will once more sow chaos and problem the election outcomes if he loses to Vice President Kamala Harris.

“If for some reason he were to lose, he will contest the validity of the election, just like he did last time,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) instructed HuffPost this week, warning that the previous president is liable to invent a motive to take action.

“If he were to lose ― particularly if he were to lose by a small margin ― of course, he will contest it… and there could well be disruption if that were the case,” Romney mentioned.

“I’m worried about another January 6 scenario because former President Trump is acting like he did when he lost the last time,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) mentioned. “I mean, you don’t have to be a mind reader to know what their game plan is ― they’re saying the silent part out loud.”

Trump’s lies about voter fraud within the final election incited the violent Jan. 6, 2021, rebellion on the U.S. Capitol, the place greater than 140 law enforcement officials sustained accidents whereas defending the constructing. Five individuals died after the riot, and the assault on Congress prompted about $2.7 billion in damages, based on the Government Accountability Office.

This time round, Trump and his Republican allies are trying to stir fears about noncitizen voting, one thing that’s unlawful and barely occurs. The former president has refused to decide to accepting November’s election outcomes, and final month, he instructed supporters the one approach he can lose is that if the Democrats “cheat.” Earlier this week, Trump reprised his lies concerning the “stolen” 2020 election throughout a debate with Harris in Philadelphia.

“No, I don’t acknowledge that at all,” the GOP presidential nominee mentioned when requested if he was lastly admitting that he misplaced the White House race 4 years in the past.

Trump has additionally threatened jail time for his opponents if he wins the presidency once more. “WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED” in 2020 or 2024 “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences,” he wrote final week on his platform Truth Social. “Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials.”

The possibilities of one other violent Jan. 6-like occasion occurring on the Capitol this time round appear smaller. The federal authorities this week took steps to extend safety in Washington forward of and on Jan. 6, 2025, the date of the subsequent electoral certification in Congress, designating the vote counting a “National Special Security Event.”

It’ll even be harder for members of Congress to efficiently problem any state’s electoral vote and drive a prolonged debate on the Senate ground. The Electoral Count Reform Act, handed in 2022, raised the edge to lodge an objection to electors to a minimum of one-fifth of members of each the House and the Senate. (In 2021, the assist of just one senator was required to lodge an objection to electors.)

“My hope is that that critically needed update to the Electoral Count Act will make another January 6 unlikely,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), an writer of the invoice, instructed HuffPost.

Sen. Chris Muphy (D-Conn.), in the meantime, mentioned the reforms to the method make it more durable “to use the Senate or the House as a mechanism to promote a conspiracy theory, but it doesn’t eliminate that threat, and it certainly doesn’t eliminate the prospect of violence if Trump tries to rally a mob again.”

Some Republicans may attempt to problem the electoral vote within the occasion of a Trump loss anyway, regardless of the upper threshold required to lodge an objection.

Asked if he may see himself objecting to the electoral vote once more, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who’s one in every of eight GOP senators who challenged the 2020 election outcomes, instructed HuffPost: “Not unless there’s widespread voter fraud.” He mentioned his objection to Pennsylvania’s electors was primarily based on voting modifications in that election.

“I hope we would not see anything like that again, ever,” Hawley mentioned.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who additionally challenged the 2020 election outcomes, declined to reply when requested if he would achieve this once more, calling the query a “hypothetical.”

“I hope Trump wins by a landslide so there won’t be any issues,” Scott mentioned.

Asked what he would do if there have been points with the approaching election, the senator responded: “I hope not. It’s not good for the country.”

More than 30 House members, together with half a dozen Republicans, have signed a bipartisan pledge to uphold the outcomes of the 2024 election, based on Politico. None of the six Republicans who signed the pledge, nonetheless, objected to the outcomes final time.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who objected to the 2020 electoral vote alongside 138 different Republicans when he served within the House, refused to decide to upholding the outcomes of the 2024 election in an interview on CNN.

“It’s hard to say what you’re going to do and what you’re not,” Mullin mentioned. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you what I’m going to do and not going to do until I can see the results.”