Schumer Floor Remarks: The Congress Will Dispense With Objections To The Certified Results Of The Election And Joe Biden Will Be Sworn In As President On January 20.

Washington, D.C. — Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding Senator Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) newly stated intentions to object to the results of the Electoral College when presented to the Congress on January 6. Senator Schumer reiterated that the Congress will dispense with any objections to the clear and certified results of the election and that President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in on January 20. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

I was prepared this afternoon to speak about the business the Senate must address—and I will do that—but first, I must respond to the recent announcement by the Junior Senator from Missouri that he intends to contest the certified votes of the Electoral College when Congress meets to count those votes next week.

The process for electing American presidents is provided for in our Constitution and laws. The process has been followed fully, fairly. The results have been duly certified by the governors of the states, and they have been reviewed and confirmed by the courts, many times over.

The result is that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the election by overwhelming margins in both the popular vote and electoral vote. The Biden-Harris ticket received more than 81 million votes – more than any ticket in American history. That was over 7 million votes more than Trump-Pence. The Biden-Harris ticket won the Electoral College 306 to 232, the very same total that President Trump called a “landslide” for himself then just four years ago.

Since the election process, President Trump and his acolytes have lost more than 50 lawsuits falsely claiming fraud or other irregularities in the conduct of the 2020 election – including the unanimous decision by the Supreme Court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Attorney General of Texas and more than half of Republican Members of the House.

And today, we heard from the junior Senator from Missouri that he intends to object to election results, particularly in Pennsylvania, a state where the Trump campaign and its allies have brought no fewer than 13 lawsuits—and lost every single one, many with Republican judges ruling. There have been only three individuals, three, charged with voter fraud in Pennsylvania—and in each case, the person voted for Trump.

The effort by the sitting President of the United States to overturn the results is patently undemocratic. The effort by others to amplify and burnish his ludicrous claims of fraud is equally revolting. This is America. We have elections. We have results. We make arguments based on fact and reason, not conspiracy and fantasy.

On January 6th, the Congress will meet to formally recognize the Electoral College result. There is a very clear process to handle, and dispense with, objections from members of Congress to the counting of the result. And that’s just what we’ll do—dispense with them.

The Congress will ratify the Electoral College’s decision that Joe Biden will be President and Kamala Harris will be Vice President on January 6th.

And make no mistake about it, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in as President and Vice President on January 20th.

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