One of President Donald Trump's most vocal detractors, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is now rebuking his Senate GOP colleagues for their planned effort to added voter and election fraud Jan. 6.
Romney concluded in a statement Saturday:
"Were Congress to actually reject state electors, partisans would inevitably demand the same any time their candidate had lost. Congress, not voters in the respective states, would choose our presidents.
"Adding to this ill-conceived endeavor by some in Congress is the president's call for his supporters to come to the Capitol on the day when this matter is to be debated and decided. This has the predictable potential to lead to disruption, and worse.
"I could never have imagined seeing these things in the greatest democracy in the world. Has ambition so eclipsed principle?"
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Saturday he is joining a block of about a dozen Republican senators that will raise objections Jan 6 to Joe Biden's Nov. 3 victory, according to a joint statement from the lawmakers.
Romney called the effort "nonsense":
"My fellow Sen. Ted Cruz and the co-signers of his statement argue that rejection of electors or an election audit directed by Congress would restore trust in the election. Nonsense. This argument ignores the widely perceived reality that Congress is an overwhelmingly partisan body; the American people wisely place greater trust in the federal courts where judges serve for life. Members of Congress who would substitute their own partisan judgement [sic] for that of the courts do not enhance public trust, they imperil it."
Romney also backed the Democrats' and mainstream media's manta that voter and election fraud is a Trump-fed hoax:
"The egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic. The congressional power to reject electors is reserved for the most extreme and unusual circumstances. These are far from it.
"More Americans participated in this election than ever before, and they made their choice.
"President Trump's lawyers made their case before scores of courts; in every instance, they failed. The Justice Department found no evidence of irregularity sufficient to overturn the election. The Presidential Voter Fraud Commission disbanded without finding such evidence."
Trump has repeatedly rejected Romney's criticism as that of a "rino," which stands for Republican in name only.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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