President Donald Trump will skip his annual New Year’s Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago resort and return the White House earlier than planned so he can plot a strategy for helping some Republican members of Congress in their vain attempt to overturn the 2020 election, CNN reports:
“Trump is now slated to leave Palm Beach before his annual New Year’s Eve party, even though guests had already gathered at his south Florida club and were told Trump would be in attendance, according to three people familiar with the matter. The President typically relishes appearing on the red carpet in front of the press and his friends, but is skipping the event altogether this year in what will be an unusual move.”
The change in Trump’s itinerary comes the day after Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced he would object to the certification of electoral votes that will make Joe Biden the 46th president on January 6. The incumbent president is reportedly laser focused on a last-ditch effort to steal the election when a joint session of Congress convenes next Wednesday to complete the final step of certifying Biden’s win:
“Before leaving for Palm Beach, he learned of Vice President Mike Pence’s role in the certification proceedings on Capitol Hill, which is mostly ceremonial. As he was flying to Florida for his vacation, Trump retweeted a call from one of his supporters for Pence to refuse to ratify the Electoral College count on January 6.
“While in Florida, Trump has repeatedly raised the January 6 date with members of Congress and other associates, according to people familiar with the conversations. He lobbied senators on whether they would go along with House conservatives in objecting to the results.”
However, Constitutional law experts have repeatedly noted that neither Trump or his allies will succeed in trying to reverse the will of the American voters, no matter what stunts they attempt next week as Trevor Potter, the former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, explained in an article he penned for the Washington Post:
“The Electoral Count Act requires both the House and the Senate to reject a slate of electors, and there is no sign that either chamber would do so. A number of Republican senators have already rejected such a challenge to the votes of the people, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is telling his caucus not to join any such effort. Surely a majority-Democratic House won’t do so.”
Exactly. No matter what shenanigans Senate Republicans might attempt, their efforts will be for naught because there’s no way the House would agree to participate in such a blatantly illegal act.
Donald Trump will go down in history as a failed, one-term president who was impeached and allowed nearly 350,000 Americans to die from a deadly pandemic on his watch.
Featured Image Via NBC News
