A Thursday morning conference call was set with Republican Senators to hear how Missouri Senator Josh Hawley plans to object to the Electoral College vote on January 6, but Hawley was not present. Instead, Hawley later sent an e-mail to outline his decision to oppose final certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
According to multiple people familiar with the discussion, Mitch McConnell asked Hawley several times to walk through how his objection would play out. They were met with silence, and Todd Young (IN) remarked, “Surely Josh Hawley is having technological issues because he would want to speak on such an important matter.” Pat Toomey (PA) made his denunciation quite forceful in the conversation, and others were clearly annoyed that Hawley missed the call.
“If you’ve been speaking to folks at home, I’m sure you know how deeply angry and disillusioned many, many people are – and how frustrated that Congress has taken no action,” Hawley said in his e-mail. “I strongly believe there should be a full-fledged congressional investigation and also a slate of election integrity legislation,” Hawley added. “I intend to object during the certification process on January 6 in order to force these issues to the fore, and to point out the unprecedented failure of states like Pennsylvania to follow their own election laws and the unprecedented efforts of Big Tech corporations to interfere with the election.”
During the sans-Hawley conference call, Mitch McConnell said his vote certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election will be “the most consequential I have ever cast,” according to a source on a call and two other sources briefed on the private remarks.
Paraphrasing McConnell, according to sources on the call:
- McConnell called it a “vote of conscience.”
- “I’m finishing 36 years in the Senate and I’ve cast a lot of big votes.” including over war and impeachment.
- “And in my view, just my view,” McConnell said, “this is will be the most consequential I have ever cast.”
- “The context was McConnell saying we’re being asked to overturn the results after a guy didn’t get as many electoral votes and lost by 7 million popular votes,” the source said.