(FILES) In this file photo taken on December 5, 2020 US President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks at a rally to support Republican Senate candidates at Valdosta Regional Airport in Valdosta, Georgia. – President Donald Trump on December 22, 2020 rejected a $900 billion bipartisan Covid stimulus package, calling it “a disgrace” and demanding that lawmakers more than triple relief payments to Americans. (Photo by Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
WASHINGTON, United States – President Donald Trump is urging supporters to amass in Washington on January 6 for a last-ditch rally to pressure Congress to not certify Joe Biden’s election victory.
Thousands of supporters from around the country, from the Women for America First group, to StoptheSteal, to the violent Proud Boys, are expected to descend on the US capital pressing Trump’s unsupported claim that massive voter fraud was behind his defeat in the November 3 election.
Trump tweeted twice this weekend urging supporters to attend, labelling the election “the biggest SCAM in our nation’s history.”
“See you in Washington, DC, on January 6th. Don’t miss it,” he wrote Sunday.
The rally raised fears of fresh violence after the previous pro-Trump protest that included the Proud Boys on December 12 saw several people stabbed and dozens arrested.
Trump appears to hope that the protestors could pressure Congress to reject the final count of state-based electors and reverse his election loss.
“We the People must take to the US Capitol lawn and steps and tell Congress #DoNotCertify,” StopTheSteal declared online.
“Congress cannot certify this fraudulent Electoral College,” they said.
On January 6 Vice President Mike Pence is to lead Congress in certifying the Electoral College votes submitted by each state, which represent the results of the popular vote.
In the joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate, Pence is to open and read the certificates reporting elector tallies from each state, and then declare the victor.
That process should be, as it almost always is, a formality.
Democrat Biden captured 306 electors while Republican Trump only won 232.
Trump’s campaign has lost dozens of court challenges in several contested states, with judge after judge saying they showed no evidence of any significant fraud.
But the session can be stalled if lawmakers from both houses submit formal objections to any state’s report.
Alabama Representative Mo Brooks told Fox News on Monday that he has the support of “dozens” of lawmakers to formally challenge the counts.
Meanwhile Trump and supporters have pressured Pence to unilaterally reject some pro-Biden states’ elector certificates, a power legal experts say Pence does not have.
Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger on Sunday said it was all an effort by “certain members of Congress and the president” to raise money.
“It is a scam and it is going to disappoint the people that believe this election was stolen,” he told CNN.