CNN
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday he would support legislation that would make it harder to overturn a certified presidential election, an endorsement that will bolster its chances for passage in his chamber and puts him at sharp odds with former President Donald Trump, who has called on GOP senators to sink the plan.
McConnell said the “chaos” of the pro-Trump attack on the Capitol last year “certainly underscored the need for an update.”
“I strongly support the modest changes that our colleagues in the working group have fleshed out after literally months of detailed discussions,” McConnell said. “I’ll proudly support the legislation, provided that nothing more than technical changes are made to its current form.”
“Congress’ process for counting the presidential electors’ votes was written 135 years ago. The chaos that came to a head on January 6th of last year certainly underscored the need for an update,” added McConnell. “So did Januaries 2001, 2005 and 2017. In each of which, Democrats tried to challenge the lawful election of a Republican president.”
Last week, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and the vast majority of House Republicans opposed their chamber’s version of the bill that would amend the Electoral Count Act of 1887. While the House bill has a number of similarities with the Senate’s version, including ensuring the vice president only has a ministerial role in overseeing a joint session of Congress approving state-certified electoral results, it differs in some of its details. Among the differences: The number of lawmakers who would be required to force the House and Senate to vote to overturn a state’s certified electoral results and the procedures for resolving election disputes in federal courts.
Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin have already lined up 10 Republican co-sponsors for their so-called Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, enough support to surpass a filibuster with 50 Democratic votes.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
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