| | | After meeting Trump, Michigan Republicans say there are no new details that change state's vote
Trump suffered another blow Friday after Georgia certified vote for Biden
The Associated Press · Posted: Nov 20, 2020 3:54 PM ET | Last Updated: 1 hour ago
Michigan's top Republican state legislators said after meeting with President Donald Trump on Friday that they did not have any information that would change the outcome of the presidential election in the state, where Democrat Joe Biden defeated Republican Trump.
"We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors," Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House of Representatives Speaker Lee Chatfield said in a joint statement.
Earlier, Trump was dealt another blow when Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced that a manual recount and audit of all ballots cast in the southern state determined Biden was the winner. Biden is the first Democrat to carry Georgia since 1992.
"Working as an engineer throughout my life, I live by the motto that numbers don't lie," said Raffensperger, a self-described "passionate conservative," who has endured criticism and insults from fellow Republicans.
"As secretary of state, I believe that the numbers that we have presented today are correct. The numbers reflect the verdict of the people, not a decision by the secretary of state's office or of courts or of either campaign."
Michigan has yet to certify its results for Biden, who won Michigan by more than 154,000 votes, according to unofficial results. Trump and his allies have been trying to convince judges and lawmakers in the state to set aside the popular vote and swap in Republican-chosen electors.
Trump's roughly hour-long meeting with the Michigan lawmakers in Washington, D.C., on Friday came days after he personally called two county canvass board officials who had refused to certify the results in Wayne County, Michigan's most populous county and one that overwhelmingly favoured Biden.
The two Republican officials, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, eventually agreed to certify the results, but following Trump's call, they later said they had second thoughts.Some Michigan legislators have reported being deluged with calls and emails from Trump supporters demanding that they intervene. The House Republican caucus has prepared a 732-word stock response that pushes back, stating that state law clearly requires that electors be nominated by the party that wins the most votes.
"The law does not allow for the nomination or approval of alternative electors," the email states.The Michigan effort is among multiple last-ditch tactics Trump and his allies are using to challenge his defeat. His team also has suggested in a legal challenge that Pennsylvania set aside the popular vote there and pressured county officials in Arizona to delay certifying vote tallies.
Election law experts see it all as the last, dying gasps of the Trump campaign and say Biden is certain to walk into the Oval Office come January. But there is great concern that Trump's effort is doing real damage to public faith in the integrity of U.S. elections.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, one of Trump's most vocal Republican critics, accused Trump of resorting to "overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election."
Romney added: "It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American president."
Trump's own election security agency has declared the 2020 presidential election to have been the most secure in history. Days after that statement was issued, Trump fired the agency's leader.
The increasingly desperate and erratic moves have no reasonable chance of changing the outcome of the 2020 election, in which Biden has now received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history and has clinched the 270 electoral college votes needed to win. |
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