Former House Speaker Paul Ryan on Sunday harshly criticized attempts by congressional Republicans to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, The Hill reported.
“Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden’s victory strike at the foundation of our republic,” he said in a rare statement since leaving office two years ago. “It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans.”
Ryan stressed that the Trump campaign "had ample opportunity to challenge election results, and those efforts failed from lack of evidence. The legal process was exhausted, and the results were decisively confirmed. The Department of Justice, too, found no basis for overturning the result. If states wish to reform their processes for future elections, that is their prerogative. But Joe Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate.”
Twelve GOP senators and dozens of House Republicans have announced their intention to object to the Electoral College results on Wednesday, even though numerous courts have rejected legal challenges by Trump campaign and its supporters, according to USA Today.
Although these attempts have no realistic chance of success, the objections will put in process a lengthy procedure that includes several hours of debate and a vote in each chamber for every state that is challenged.
Since serving as Speaker from 2015 to 2019, Ryan has largely stayed away from commenting on current events, although he did urge Trump to accept the results of the election in late November, when the General Services Administration was still refusing to offically begin the transition period, The Hill reported.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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