How Congress May Make Trump Win

11/14/2020
Updated:
11/14/2020

Back in September, President Trump told his supporters that the election could eventually land in the Congress—in which case he would have an advantage to win.

“We have an advantage if we go back to Congress. Does everyone understand that? I think it’s 26 to 22 or something because it’s counted as one vote per state. So we actually have an advantage.”

At the time House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was also warning Democrats to prepare for the possibility.

Writing in a letter, “If Trump can’t win at the ballot box, he wants the house to deliver him the presidency.”

So how could Trump win the election through Congress?

Paul Engel is a speaker and author of the book “The Constitution Study.” He explains how things could play out.

“Technically, we have not had an election for president yet. All we’ve had is an election for electors.”

The electors will cast their votes that decide the presidency, on December the 14th.

But things get complicated with more allegations of vote fraud emerging, leaving several states still lingering in disputes.

“There are deadlines by which the state must appoint its electors and must get those certificates into Congress to be counted. Now, one of the things that could happen and it’s allowed by federal law is if the election is still in limbo, a state legislature can say, ‘Okay, this election’s a mess, we are going to assume our responsibility and we are going to appoint electors.’ State legislators have final authority on who those electors are, that then go and vote," Paul added.

In multiple states where most media outlets have called for a narrow win for Biden, the state legislatures are controlled by Republicans. That includes Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia.

In this case, Congress will have to decide whether to count those votes. If not, the situation could happen where neither candidate gets the 270 electoral votes to be president.

“Even if one of the other candidates gets a plurality, not a majority, then the presidential decision goes to the House, and the vice president goes to the Senate. But here’s the next interesting twist. When the house votes for president, it is not by a house member, it is by state delegation. In other words, each state gets one, and only one vote per president.”

That means California or New York will get one vote—as would Wyoming.

The GOP now has unified control in 24 states, meaning both the state legislature and the governors are Republicans.

That’s compared to 15 controlled by Democrats. The rest are split.

But, even if the Republicans, with their state legislature majority, confirmed Trump as the president, there could be a strong backlash.

“Because most Americans know so little about the Constitution ... they’re gonna see this as shenanigans, even though you’re actually following what the Constitution and the law says; we still misunderstand it. They’re gonna see this as attempting to steal an election even though you’re following the actual rules of the election.”

Paul said it eventually should come down to the American people.

“These counting issues, these irregularities are not new. There was ample evidence of fraud and abuse before election day, and the people we hired to oversee this did little if anything about it. ... This election is a match because we the people have allowed ignorance, reckless[ness], and corruption in all levels of government of our country. And until we demand that they be honest, brave, and pure, we will continue to get this type of shenanigans over and over.”