THE US CONGRESS WILL HAVE THE FINAL VERDICT ON WHO BECOMES THE NEXT PRESIDENT -MO BROOKS

Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks said Congress will have the “final verdict” in determining who will be the next President of the United States.

The Republican representative was quoted in The New York Times today in a piece examining his proposed challenge to the Electoral College’s official certification of President-Elect Joe Biden’s victory on Jan. 6.

“We have a superior role under the Constitution than the Supreme Court does, than any federal court judge does, than any state court judge does,” Brooks said in an interview. “What we say, goes. That’s the final verdict.”

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge by Texas to election results in four states – a lawsuit for which Alabama and 16 other states had filed a brief in support.

The Electoral College meets Monday to formally elect Biden as the next president. On January 6, members of Congress will convene to count the electoral votes and officially declare the winner. The joint session also allows members to object to returns. Challenges similar to the one proposed by Brooks took place in 1969, 2001, 2005 and 2017.

Last week, Brooks said he is basing his objection on three issues, apart from those being addressed in court challenges by President Donald Trump’s legal team. He said Biden received an undetermined number of votes from non-citizens in states that do not ask for proof of citizenship, as well as votes in states with what Brooks said were inadequate voter ID laws.

At the same time, he argued, Biden was the recipient of a majority of mail-in ballots, some of which were collected outside the 24-hour period of Election Day, Nov. 3. Brooks said this method of voting is “subject to voting fraud and error.” All three factors, he argued, benefited Biden.

He later accused Biden last week in a floor speech of “criminal solicitation of voter fraud and election theft” by promising a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. His actions drew a thank you tweet from President Trump.

To lodge a challenge, Brooks said he will need a senator to join him. The New York Times said Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky have signaled they would be open to doing so.

Once an objection is heard from a member of each house of Congress, senators and representatives hold a two-hour debate before voting on whether to disqualify a state’s votes. Both houses of Congress would have to agree to reject a state’s results. A number of Republican senators have already publicly rejected the notion.

The Times reported Brooks has met with Mike Lee of Utah and separately with the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

“My No. 1 goal is to fix a badly flawed American election system that too easily permits voter fraud and election theft,” Brooks told the paper. “A possible bonus from achieving that goal is that Donald Trump would win the Electoral College officially, as I believe he in fact did if you only count lawful votes by eligible American citizens and exclude all illegal votes.”