Hoyer on GOP challenges to Biden win: ‘A sad day’

Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Sunday the challenge by Republican senators who said they will oppose the Electoral College count by Congress marks “a sad day for democracy.”

“This is a sad day for democracy, a sad day for the confidence of the American people, that so many members of the Congress, in the House and now in the Senate would do what they know is not right to do,” said Hoyer when appearing on MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart.”

“They know President Biden has been elected,” he said.

On Saturday, 11 GOP Senators announced they would be challenging the Electoral College votes that resulted in Biden winning the presidential election when Congress convenes on Wednesday to certify the count.

In a statement, the Republican senators said, “Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states.”

The plan to challenge the vote has been criticized by lawmakers from both parties.

“The egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic. The congressional power to reject electors is reserved for the most extreme and unusual circumstances. These are far from it,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) in a statement released on Saturday.

Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said on Saturday, “For a group of my Republican colleagues to claim that they want an additional federal ‘commission’ to supersede state certifications when the votes have already been counted, recounted, litigated, and state-certified, amounts to nothing more than an attempt to subvert the will of the voters.”