Republican legislators who challenged Joe Biden’s electoral college victory may be expelled from Congress under a planned resolution.
Newly elected Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) on Wednesday revealed the draft proposal shortly after Trump supporters broke into the Capitol, causing chaos and destruction. The crowd delayed the counting of Biden’s election victory under the baseless pretext that the election was “stolen,” as President Donald Trump has often repeated.
“I believe the Republican members of Congress who have incited this domestic terror attack through their attempts to overturn the election must face consequences,” Bush said in a statement. “They have broken their sacred Oath of Office.”
Under the preliminary draft of Bush’s resolution, the Committee on House Administration and the Committee on Ethics would be directed to “issue a report” on whether members of Congress who declined to count the electoral college results “have violated their oath of office to uphold the Constitution or the Rules of the House of Representatives and should face sanction, including removal from the House of Representatives.”
Bush did not name the specific legislators she was referring to, nor when she plans to officially introduce the bill.
Earlier on Wednesday, a group of Republicans led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), argued on the Senate floor that Congress should set aside Arizona’s electoral votes, effectively helping President Trump’s so-far futile attempts to overturn the presidential election results.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) joined Cruz in his formal objection on Wednesday, and earlier this month, other Republican senators including Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Steve Daines (R-Mont.), said they planned “to reject the electors from disputed states” during the certification process.