President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Nov. 28 to praise state lawmakers for their defense of the U.S. Constitution.
"So much credit to all of the brave men and women in state houses who are defending our great Constitution. Thank you!" the president said in the tweet.
While it's unclear what actions Trump was specifically referring to, his campaign’s legal team announced last week that state legislatures in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Michigan would be holding public hearings to restore confidence in election integrity. Meanwhile, Republican state lawmakers have ramped up their efforts to dispute the results of the election.
“It’s in everyone’s interest to have a full vetting of election irregularities and fraud,” Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said in a statement. “And the only way to do this is with public hearings, complete with witnesses, videos, pictures, and other evidence of illegalities from the November 3rd election.”
Some of the Trump team's legal challenges have focused on the claim that the constitutional rights of voters were violated by actions that include state officials effectively changing voting rules ahead of the election, while the Constitution gives the authority to make such changes to state legislators.
The first of these hearings was convened Nov. 25 by the Pennsylvania State Senate Majority Policy Committee in Gettysburg. At the hearing, Giuliani made a case that there was widespread voter fraud, called for 672,000 votes to be rejected, and urged Pennsylvania state senators to appoint their own slate of electors. He also addressed claims by critics that Republicans are trying to disenfranchise voters by filing contest-of-election lawsuits.
“We want to disqualify 672,000 votes so that 74 million people are not disenfranchised,” Giuliani said, referring to the number of people who voted for Trump, many of whom likely have had their confidence shaken in the result of the election by the growing body of evidence of election-related irregularities.
President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani speaks during a Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee public hearing at the Wyndham Gettysburg Hotel to discuss 2020 election issues and irregularities, in Gettysburg, Pa., on Nov. 25, 2020. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Pennsylvania Senate Democrats, in response to the GOP hearing, said Giuliani is “[peddling] unsubstantiated voter fraud claims in any place that will have him” and won’t accept the “loss with grace or a modicum of dignity.”
Republican state lawmakers in the Keystone State said on Nov. 27 said they’ll soon introduce a resolution to dispute the results of the election, which could lead to the GOP-controlled legislature appointing electors for Trump.
A Michigan Senate committee is scheduled to meet this week to review vote-counting in Detroit, with the agenda indicating that members will hear testimony about absentee ballot counting at Detroit’s TCF Center, the site of Election Day drama, and ensuing protests over what some alleged was a fraudulent process.
Michigan officially certified its election results on Nov. 23, handing victory in the state to Democrat Joe Biden, although attorney Sidney Powell filed a lawsuit on Nov. 25, alleging voter fraud with the complicity of state officials and asking the courts to order the results de-certified.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has disputed claims of voter fraud, saying in a statement that the State Board of Canvassers' decision to certify the vote "confirms the truth: the election was fair and secure, and the results accurately reflect the will of the voters."
Arizona lawmakers and members of the Trump campaign plan to hold a hearing in Phoenix on Nov. 30 to discuss election-related issues, the same day that the state's election officials are scheduled to certify the vote.
State Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley), who announced he will be chairing the meeting, said in a statement that his “worst fears have come to light” after “examining potential fraud pathways and illegal actions through which our 2020 election could have been tainted.”
"After a review of the statistical anomalies, and there are to numbers [sic] to count, affidavits of improper actions, and community outrage that has grown out of what appears to voters to be an attempt to throw the election through a number of fraudulent efforts, we decided as a Members [sic] of the Legislature, and not as members of any specific committee, that we should move forward with a public hearing," Finchem wrote.
Finchem's remarks follow Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's comments that he trusts the state's election system after he had held off making statements regarding which presidential candidate won the state, citing ongoing legal cases.
"I've said several times: Arizona is a good government state," Ducey, a Republican, told radio station KTAR on Nov. 24. "I trust our election system. There's integrity in our election system. He added that he believes "Joe Biden did win Arizona."
The Epoch Times will not declare a winner of the presidential race until all results are certified and any legal challenges are resolved.
Tom Ozimek is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times. He has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education.
