Some Republican Senators Begin To Walk Back Objections To Election Results

Heading into today's Electoral College counting process, 14 Republican senators said they planned to object to at least one state's results.

But that number has now started to dwindle, after a mob overtook the U.S. Capitol building Wednesday afternoon, stoked by President Trump and his continued falsehoods about the election's legitimacy.

Many Republican lawmakers have based their reasons for objecting on the same sorts of conspiracy theories that election experts say led to the violence.

And specific focus is being paid to Republican senators, as objections to a state's results during the counting process can be sustained only if a senator and a House member sign off on them.

More than 100 House Republicans had said they planned to object to results, but Republicans in the Senate have been less willing. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said that rejecting results without evidence would threaten to send U.S. democracy into a "death spiral."

Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., said on the Senate floor after the proceedings were halted and then resumed Wednesday night that she had intended to object to her state's results, but no longer could "in good conscience."

Loeffler lost her runoff race this week to Democrat Raphael Warnock.

"The violence, the lawlessness, and siege of the halls of Congress are abhorrent and stand as a direct attack on the very institution my objection was intended to protect," she said.

It's worth noting that over the past two months, Loeffler has also been one of the loudest amplifiers of falsehoods about supposed voter fraud in Georgia, after President Trump lost in the November election. Election administrators there begged for weeks for officials to stop sharing such claims, for fear of violence.

Republican Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Steve Daines of Montana, also said they no longer planned to object to any state's results.

But Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said on the Senate floor that they would go forward with their objections, so it remains unclear how many states will end up having their results debated.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.