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Updated January 5th, 2021 at 02:27 IST

Trump push to overturn election loss fractures GOP

Trump's refusal to accept his defeat is tearing the party apart as Republicans are forced to make consequential choices that will set the contours of the post-Trump era. Hawley and Cruz are both among potential 2024 presidential contenders.

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US President Donald Trump is deepening fractures in the Republican party as he pressures lawmakers to pick a side in his ongoing attempts to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 electoral wins in battleground states like Georgia.

In a phone call, President Donald Trump pressured Georgia's Republican secretary of state to "find" enough votes to overturn the results of the state's presidential election, according to a recording of the conversation obtained by the Associated Press.

The phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to press a state official to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election that he lost. The Republican president, who has refused to accept his loss to Democratic President-elect Biden, repeatedly argued that Raffensperger could change the certified results.

Election officials in Georgia counted its votes three times before certifying Biden's win by a 11,779-vote margin.

AP's Washington Bureau Chief Julie Pace decribed Trump's phone call as "extraordinary."

"It's something that we really haven't seen from a sitting president, and I think it's frankly undemocratic," Pace said. "And it comes at this really pivotal time. It comes as Republicans are pretty torn apart in Washington over having to certify Biden's election on January 6th. And the thing that happens the day before is they're also asking voters to go to the polls in Georgia to participate in an election that will determine the outcome of the Senate."

Trump's renewed intervention and the persistent and unfounded claims of fraud came nearly two weeks before he leaves office and two days before twin runoff elections in Georgia that will determine political control of the U.S. Senate under President Elect Joe Biden.

It also added a level of further intrigue to Trump's rally in Georgia on Monday night — likely the last of his term — in which he is supposed to boost the two Republican candidates. In a rage after the Raffensperger call, Trump floated the idea of pulling out of the rally, which would have potentially devastated the GOP chances in what is expected to be a pair of razor-thin races.

"Those two priorities seem to be running into each other right now," Pace said. "I think it is very difficult for Republicans to thread this needle when you are both encouraging people to show up to vote and telling them that the election in November was rigged."

A growing number of Republican lawmakers are joining President Donald Trump's extraordinary effort to overturn the election, pledging to reject the results when Congress meets next week to count the Electoral College votes and certify President-elect Joe Biden's win.

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Saturday announced a coalition of 11 senators and senators-elect who have been enlisted for Trump's effort to subvert the will of American voters.

This follows the declaration from Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who was the first to buck Senate leadership by saying he would join with House Republicans in objecting to the state tallies during Wednesday's joint session of Congress.

Trump's refusal to accept his defeat is tearing the party apart as Republicans are forced to make consequential choices that will set the contours of the post-Trump era. Hawley and Cruz are both among potential 2024 presidential contenders.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had urged his party not to try to overturn what nonpartisan election officials have concluded was a free and fair vote.

"You have a real move among some Republicans to try to be the heir to Trump, to really solidify their own support among his base. And those are people like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz," Pace said. "On the other hand, you have real blowback coming from what you would describe as sort of the old school Republican establishment. Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, several others who are saying, 'Hey, this is undemocratic. This is not what we do. We might be upset about the election results, but we can't actually overturn them just because we are unhappy here.'"

The 11 senators largely acknowledged Saturday they will not succeed in preventing Biden from being inaugurated on Jan. 20 after he won the Electoral College 306-232. But their challenges, and those from House Republicans, represent the most sweeping effort to undo a presidential election outcome since the Civil War.

The objections will force votes in both the House and Senate on Wednesday, but none are expected to prevail.

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Published January 5th, 2021 at 02:28 IST

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