Trump criticizes Senate Republicans ahead of election results vote, urges a ‘fight’

President Trump on Saturday ramped up his criticism of Senate Republicans over their unwillingness to aid his efforts to overturn the election, pressing them to “fight” before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office.

Trump called out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republicans, asserting they are doing “NOTHING” as Congress heads toward a vote early next month to certify the Electoral College results.

“If a Democrat Presidential Candidate had an Election Rigged & Stolen, with proof of such acts at a level never seen before, the Democrat Senators would consider it an act of war, and fight to the death. Mitch & the Republicans do NOTHING, just want to let it pass. NO FIGHT!” Trump tweeted.

If a Democrat Presidential Candidate had an Election Rigged & Stolen, with proof of such acts at a level never seen before, the Democrat Senators would consider it an act of war, and fight to the death. Mitch & the Republicans do NOTHING, just want to let it pass. NO FIGHT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2020

The comment marked the latest broadside in Trump’s attempt to get at least one GOP senator to back a challenge to the Electoral College results when Congress meets to certify them on Jan. 6.

Thus far, no Republicans in the upper chamber have definitively said they will back a challenge that’s being pushed by several GOP members in the House, though Alabama Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville (R) has suggested he may back the challenge.

Senate Republicans are hoping to avoid a bitter fight with the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue over the Electoral College results as Trump ramps up his pressure campaign to convince Tuberville to join his House allies.

“Ultimately every senator will have to make their own decision about that but I think there will be people, yeah, reaching out him just to kind of find out” what he’s going to do, Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said of Tuberville’s intentions about the Electoral College tally.

“I’m hoping in the end that all senators will conclude that this election needs to be over with and it’s time to move on,” Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, added.

Trump earlier in the week went after Thune while lashing out at Senate Republicans ahead of the January certification vote, suggesting that the top GOP senator would be primaried in two years.

“Republicans in the Senate so quickly forget. Right now they would be down 8 seats without my backing them in the last Election,” Trump tweeted. “RINO John Thune, ‘Mitch’s boy’, should just let it play out. South Dakota doesn’t like weakness. He will be primaried in 2022, political career over!!!”

McConnell has pressed his colleagues to stay away from the Electoral College fight, saying doing so would force a vote over swatting away the challenge that would divide the GOP with Trump.

Trump and his allies in Congress and right-leaning media have claimed without evidence that widespread fraud and electoral irregularities cost him a second term. The president has gone after individual Republicans, such as Thune, for not going along with his efforts to overturn the election.

Thune said this week that Trump’s efforts to subvert the election would “go down like a shot dog.”

The president has roped the Justice Department into his pressure campaign, saying the agency should be ashamed of itself for not backing his claims. 

“The ‘Justice’ Department and the FBI have done nothing about the 2020 Presidential Election Voter Fraud, the biggest SCAM in our nation’s history, despite overwhelming evidence. They should be ashamed. History will remember. Never give up. See everyone in D.C. on January 6th,” he tweeted Saturday.

The “Justice” Department and the FBI have done nothing about the 2020 Presidential Election Voter Fraud, the biggest SCAM in our nation’s history, despite overwhelming evidence. They should be ashamed. History will remember. Never give up. See everyone in D.C. on January 6th.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2020