Trump touts Texas Supreme Court case as ‘the big one,’ says ‘we will be intervening’ by SOUHAIB | December 9, 2020 in News
President Trump on Wednesday touted Texas’ suit demanding the U.S. Supreme Court block the Electoral College votes of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, calling it the “big one.”
“We will be INTERVENING in the Texas (plus many other states) case. This is the big one. Our Country needs a victory!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Trump’s legal team has faced repeated setbacks in challenging the results of states that went for President-elect Joe Biden. Trump’s team could file an amicus brief in support of Texas’ suit.
TRUMP TEAM CONTINUES LEGAL FIGHT AS ELECTORAL COLLEGE ‘SAFE HARBOR’ DEADLINE ARRIVES
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued battleground states Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin on Tuesday to challenge their 2020 presidential election results.
The legal challenge seeks to invalidate the 62 Electoral College votes from those four battleground states and award Trump with a second term, alleging unconstitutional changes to election rules before the vote.
“Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a justification, government officials in the defendant states of Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (collectively, ‘Defendant State’), usurped their legislatures’ authority and unconstitutionally revised their state’s election statutes,” Paxton’s complaint says. “They accomplished these statutory revisions through executive fiat or friendly lawsuits, thereby weakening ballot integrity.”
Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general, speaks during a news conference outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Sept. 9, 2019. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
At least two more states are getting behind the Texas lawsuit.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said Tuesday her office would be joining the suit, and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, the attorney general from Missouri, announced that his state is also “in the fight” with Texas.
“Election integrity is central to our republic,” Schmitt, a Republican, tweeted. “And I will defend it at every turn. As I have in other cases—I will help lead the effort in support of Texas’ #SCOTUS filing today. Missouri is in the fight.”
The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request from Trump allies to stop the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results.
The high court left intact a decision from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court which tossed a lawsuit from Rep. Mike Kelly challenging a 2019 law to expand mail-in voting.
Georgia stands out as a defendant in the Texas suit because both of its senators are facing tough challenges in runoff elections that will determine the balance of power in the Senate.
“We fully support President Trump’s legal recourses and Attorney General Paxton’s lawsuit,” Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler said in a joint statement on Tuesday. “The President has every right to use every legal recourse available to guarantee these simple principles: every lawful vote cast should be counted, any illegal vote submitted cannot be counted, and there must be full transparency and uniformity in the counting process. This isn’t hard and it isn’t partisan. It’s American. No one should ever have to question the integrity of our elections system and the credibility of its outcomes.”
Trump has attacked Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, after he certified the state’s election results for Biden.