BY December 10, 2020
The Senate will hold a hearing next week on irregularities that took place during the 2020 presidential election.
“I am mindful that many of the issues that have been raised have been, and will continue to be, appropriately resolved in the courts. But the fact remains that a large percentage of the American public does not view the 2020 election result as legitimate because of apparent irregularities that have not been fully examined. That is not a sustainable state of affairs for our country,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement.
“The only way to resolve suspicions is with full transparency and public awareness. That will be the goal of the hearing.”
The committee will hold the hearing on Dec. 16. Additional details, including witnesses, will be made available next week. The hearing is not yet listed on the committee’s calendar.
According to officials, witnesses, whistleblowers, and data experts, some level of fraud and other irregularities occurred during the 2020 election. The level is disputed. Democrats and many officials argue it wasn’t enough to alter the election results, while President Donald Trump and Republicans say it does look like it was enough, considering how close the election was, according to the current results.
Gwinnett County workers begin their recount of the ballots in Lawrenceville, Ga., on Nov. 13, 2020. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has declared victory in the election but Trump and others are contesting results in key battleground states in court. The Epoch Times is not calling the race at this time.
Attorneys from Wisconsin and Nevada are among the witnesses who lawmakers will hear from, Johnson told Fox News’ “Hannity” on Wednesday. In Nevada, he said, 42,000 people voted twice and dead people voted, referencing charges made by Trump lawyers.
“We’re going to ask these questions, what about this truckload of ballots from Great Plains, New York, headed toward Philadelphia? How do you explain that type of thing? So we’re going to hold that hearing and we’re going to ask those questions and we’re going to ask for explanations. Because the American people deserve to know what happened,” he said.
“This is a terrible state of affairs that you have a great percentage of the American public that don’t view this election as legitimate, because the Democrats pushed the envelope; they did everything they could to make this a suspicious result.”
A spokesperson for Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the ranking member of Johnson’s committee, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The Dec. 16 hearing will be the first at the federal level examining accusations of fraud and other irregularities. Hearings have been held in Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania featuring poll workers, experts, and Trump lawyers on the matters.
Trump’s campaign is trying to convince state legislatures to take back the power to select electors in a bid to upend the current results, alleging that the level of fraud that occurred makes the atypical scenario necessary.
Johnson earlier Wednesday indicated he may support a secondary path to victory that would be triggered on Jan. 6, 2021, when a joint session of Congress is scheduled to count electoral votes.
A representative and two representative-elects are planning to file objections during the vote counting on that day. They need at least one senator to join them to make the objections legitimate, under congressional rules.
Johnson told reporters in Washington when asked if he’d challenge the results that it depends on what lawmakers find out.
“I need more information. The American people need more information. I’m not ready to just close and slam the book on this thing and go ‘OK, let’s walk away from it,’” he said.
The Epoch Times reached out to the offices of all Republican senators and senators-elect to inquire whether the lawmakers had been in touch with the group planning to file objections, and whether they would consider joining them.
The only on-the-record response was from a spokeswoman for Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who referred to comments the senator made to reporters earlier this week.
Romney had called the planned objections “madness.”
“It would be saying, ‘Look, let’s not follow the vote of the people, let’s instead do it [sic] what we want.’ That would not be the way a democratic republic ought to work,” Romney added.
Why only NOW?