WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a measure intended to make it more difficult to decertify elections, The Epoch Times reported. The legislative effort could indicate that Democrats and establishment Republicans are worried that decertification of the 2020 election could actually be possible, according to Epoch TV Crossroads host Joshua Phillipp.
The House passed H.R.8873, also known as the Presidential Election Reform Act in a 229–203 vote on September 1, with nine Republicans breaking ranks to join 221 Democrats. All nine of the Republican defectors will be out of office next year due either to retirement or losing their primaries, The Washington Post noted.
The US House passed an election law bill designed to address President Trump’s legal efforts to decertify some electoral slates in 2021.@RepLizCheney says the bill it will “ensure that in the future our election process reflects the will of the people.” https://t.co/iKpEdGOTpt
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) September 22, 2022
The legislation was sponsored by Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California and co-sponsored by outgoing Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who resoundingly lost her primary in August by nearly 40 points.
Both Lofgren and Cheney serve on the Democrat-led January 6 Committee, launched to “investigate” the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump has blasted the Committee for engaging in what he termed a “one-sided witch hunt.”
Citing the January 6 riot as a justification for the measure, the House bill seeks “to prevent other future unlawful efforts to overturn Presidential elections and to ensure future peaceful transfers of Presidential power.”
If passed in the divided Senate, the legislation would amend the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to drastically increase the number of lawmakers required to meaningfully object to the state’s electoral results.
While currently one member of the House and one member of the Senate can force a vote on the validity of the electoral count, the new law would require a full third of the House and another third of the Senate before the matter could come to a vote, The Epoch Times reported. The bill would also ensure that the role of vice president in certifying the electoral votes would be purely “ceremonial.”
The legislation is meant to blockade legal avenues for decertification explored by former President Donald Trump after the 2020 election.
Trump reportedly agreed with legal analysts who argued that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the authority under the 12th Amendment to refuse to certify the electoral votes in areas where fraud was suspected.
After Trump attempted to persuade Pence to do so, Pence refused, arguing that the “Constitution affords the vice president no authority to reject or return electoral votes submitted to the Congress by the states.”
The former vice president’s insistence that he could not refuse to certify electoral slates led to a souring of the relationship between himself and the former president. Last summer, Trump told an interviewer that he was “very disappointed that [Pence] didn’t send it back to the legislatures.”
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On Monday, Phillipp argued that the decision to advance legislation complicating the decertification process may signal growing concerns among Democrats and establishment Republicans that decertification could actually be possible.
The worries, he said, concern speculation that Trump may be intentionally endorsing Republican candidates for the 2022 midterm elections who will back his allegations that the 2020 election was rigged, and move to decertify the election in several key states.
According to Phillipp, whistleblowers reaching out to Democrats are alleging that Trump is asking the Republican candidates he’s endorsing “to decertify the elections in their respective states.”
Citing Biden’s now-infamous “Soul of the Nation” speech September 1 in which he demonized so-called “MAGA Republicans,” Phillipp pointed out that “Biden in his speech was claiming that there was a movement” among Trump-supporting Republicans “to try to decertify the 2020 election.”
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If Trump-backed candidates succeed in decertifying 2020 presidential election results in their states, they could trigger a contingency election that might, in theory, put Trump back in the White House before the 2024 presidential election.
“All the evidence does appear to be lining up that this is, in fact, what Trump is at least accused of trying to do,” Phillipp said.
“I find it interesting that they’re doing this because frankly it adds a lot of credibility to what I’ve been suspecting is in fact taking place,” he added.
Trump has consistently argued that the 2020 election was “rigged,” and recently argued that
“the minimal solution” would be to hold a new election.
“So now it comes out, conclusively, that the FBI BURIED THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY BEFORE THE ELECTION knowing that, if they didn’t, ‘Trump would have easily won the 2020 Presidential Election,’” Trump wrote in an August 29 Truth Social post.
“This is massive FRAUD & ELECTION INTERFERENCE at a level never seen before in our Country. REMEDY: Declare the rightful winner or, and this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately!” Trump said.