Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) is among those condemning Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) and any members of Congress who try to disrupt the routine certification of election results on January 6th. In a lengthy Facebook post, Sasse wrote, “I will not be participating in a project to overturn the election – and why I have been urging my colleagues also to reject this dangerous ploy.” He went on to say:
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. 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.
While Hawley’s move won’t impact whether the results are certified, what it does is force Republicans in the Senate and the House to go on record with their vote. Many Republicans have said they will vote to certify the results, though they realize this may attract the ire of the current president.
A Republican aide told CNN this about Hawley’s move, “It’s the height of selfishness to subject nearly all his colleagues to a backlash from conservatives just so he can kickstart his presidential campaign… Reminds me of the brilliant ‘shut down the government to defund Obamacare’ strategy.’ This will turn out the same way and he knows it.”
The Atlantic’s Peter Wehner adds, “The problem with the Republican “establishment” and with elected officials such as Josh Hawley is not that they are crazy, or that they don’t know any better; it is that they are cowards, and that they are weak. They are far more ambitious than they are principled, and they are willing to damage American politics and society rather than be criticized by their own tribe.”