Tiffany, Fitzgerald Object To Some Biden Electors
Hours after chaos at the Capitol, two members of Wisconsin's congressional delegation vote to overturn part of the election, effort fails.
Two Republican members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation voted to overturn part of President-elect Joe Biden‘s victory Wednesday, capping off an unprecedented day that saw violent supporters of President Donald Trump storm the U.S. Capitol, leaving at least one person dead.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, and U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, were among 121 House Republicans who voted to object to counting Biden’s electors from Arizona, a vote made possible by several Republican U.S. senators, including Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson. Tiffany and Fitzgerald were later among 138 Republicans who voted to object to Biden’s Pennsylvania electors.
Tiffany raised the prospect of objecting to some Biden electors in a statement issued Tuesday, while Fitzgerald kept his vote — one of his first as a member of Congress — under wraps until Wednesday night.
The normally mundane process of counting Electoral College votes began Wednesday morning in a joint session of Congress, shortly before the insurrection of the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.
Under the rules of Congress, any objection to Electoral College votes must be signed by both a member of the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. Before violence struck the Capitol complex and Capitol building, Johnson was one of eight U.S. senators who signed an objection to Arizona’s electors.
Once those signatures were registered, the Senate and House each debated in their own chambers about whether to block the electors. That debate was happening when lawmakers were forced to abruptly leave the chambers.
When lawmakers returned Wednesday evening, the vote to overturn Biden’s Arizona electors failed 6-93 in the Senate. Despite Johnson’s signature clearing the way for the debate, he did not vote to overturn the electors.
The statement made repeated allusions, without evidence, of a variety of voter fraud, calling the people who had lost confidence in the election “patriots” and saying they “heard” reports of everything from “large Democrat-controlled counties” dumping ballots to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spending money to “increase Democrat turnout in Democrat-controlled jurisdictions.”
“Is it any wonder that so many have lost confidence in the fairness of our election system and question the legitimacy of the result?” Johnson said in the statement.
Wisconsin Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin did not speak during debate, but issued a brief statement on Twitter blaming Trump for Wednesday’s violence.
“Everyone in Congress should put country over party and condemn Trump for starting this attack,” Baldwin said. “Let’s stop it by getting back to our job of accepting the election that Trump clearly lost and Biden won.”
The vote to overturn Arizona’s electors failed 121-303 in the House.
Johnson did not sign the objection to Pennsylvania’s electors, which failed by by a vote of 7-92 in the Senate and 128-282 in the House.
Both Tiffany and Fitzgerald issued statements condemning Wednesday’s violence at the Capitol, but neither spoke during the debate on the Electoral College. Both are among the newest members of Congress, with Fitzgerald having been elected in November to replace former U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner and Tiffany winning a May special election to replace former U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy.
Early Thursday morning, U.S. Rep. Louis Gohmert, R-Texas, objected to the counting of Biden’s Wisconsin electors, prompting a brief exchange with Vice President Mike Pence, the presiding officer of the joint session of Congress.
“Is the objection in writing and signed by a member and a senator?” Pence asked Gohmert.
“It is in writing,” Gohmert responded. “It’s signed by a member, but it is not signed and objected to by a senator.”
Pence ruled that the objection could not be entertained, and Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes were counted for Biden.
Wisconsin US Reps. Tiffany, Fitzgerald Object To Some Biden Electors was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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More about the 2020 General Election
- Judge Orders Gableman To Pay $163,000 In Legal Fees - Rich Kremer - Aug 2nd, 2022
- Prosecute 2020 Fake Electors, Advocates Demand - Erik Gunn - Aug 1st, 2022
- Trump Calls For Nullification of Wisconsin’s 2020 Election - Henry Redman - Jul 12th, 2022
- Legal Fight Over Gableman Probe Keeps Growing - Shawn Johnson - Jun 30th, 2022
- Back In the News: Fake Elector Scheme Dogs Ron Johnson - Bruce Murphy - Jun 28th, 2022
- Judge Lifts Contempt Order for Speaker Vos - Rich Kremer - Jun 24th, 2022
- Gableman’s Office Held in Contempt of Court - Madeline Fox - Jun 10th, 2022
- Murphy’s Law: The Bradley Foundation’s Election Deniers - Bruce Murphy - Jun 7th, 2022
- The State of Politics: ‘Telling The Truth’ Led to Knudson Resignation - Steven Walters - Jun 6th, 2022
- Gableman Election Review $220,500 Over Budget - Henry Redman - Jun 2nd, 2022
Read more about 2020 General Election here
More about the Chaos at the Capitol
- Wisconsin’s Starring Role in Jan. 6 Insurrection - Ruth Conniff - Jun 9th, 2022
- Democrats File Suit Against State Republicans Who Posed As Electors - Shawn Johnson - May 17th, 2022
- Plover Man Charged in U.S. Capital Attack - Deneen Smith - May 14th, 2022
- Ron Johnson Attended Meeting To Oppose Election Certification - Henry Redman - Feb 5th, 2022
- Op Ed: Wisconsin’s January 6 Collaborators - Matt Rothschild - Jan 9th, 2022
- Rep. Robyn Vining Statement on the One-Year Anniversary of the United States Capitol Insurrection - State Rep. Robyn Vining - Jan 6th, 2022
- Op Ed: Hold Wisconsin’s Fraudulent Electors Accountable - Jeffrey Mandell - Jan 6th, 2022
- Joint Statement on the One-Year Anniversary of the Capitol Insurrection - State Rep. Jonathan Brostoff - Jan 6th, 2022
- One Year After January 6th Insurrection, Wisconsinites Haven’t Forgotten Ron Johnson’s Dangerous Efforts to Undermine U.S. Democracy - Democratic Party of Wisconsin - Jan 6th, 2022
- Six Wisconsinites Charged in Capitol Insurrection - Rob Mentzer - Jan 6th, 2022
Read more about Chaos at the Capitol here
Traitors and terrorists both.
I call for the resignation and if not that the censure and removal of these 121/128 Representatives and Senator Johnson as well as the 7 Republicans in the Senate. A free ride for those who would destroy American Democracy is over.
Travesty is too simple a description of yesterday’s actions by the president and members of congress! As a disabled combat veteran of Vietnam, i would ask senator Johnson and representatives Tiffany and Fitzgerald to find some decency and resign for aiding and abetting this effort! Their continued participation as constitutional officers shows how little respect they have for this country, its traditions, and its laws!
All of them are complicit. To vote that way AFTER the Capitol was overrun by seditious terrorists is unforgivable. I believe they have violated their oath of office and should resign.