In a video posted on YouTube on Thursday, Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, Illinois, addressed the prevalence of conspiracy theories in U.S. politics while exposing President Donald Trump’s allegations of voter fraud.
Trump refused to concede the November election to President-elect Joe Biden, claiming that Democrats’ widespread voter fraud brought victory to Biden. Trump and members of his legal team claimed that voting machines distributed by Dominion Voting Systems were programmed to turn votes from Trump to Biden.
While a majority of Trump’s legal efforts to overturn the election results have failed, some Republicans in the House have said they intend to object to the results of the Electoral College during the official count of Congress Wednesday. Kinzinger said in the video that the challenges lie in misinformation.
“The president does not want to acknowledge the defeat, and no one wants to, but he is currently trying to discredit the election results through lies and conspiracies,” Kinzinger said. “As someone entrusted to lead, I have a choice. I can be quiet and I can survive by taking the easy path, or I can talk and lead without worrying about the consequences. I choose to lead without to lead fear. “
“As civil servants, we have a responsibility to serve in good faith,” Kinzinger added. “Pointing out falsehoods is dangerously irresponsible – and it’s simply wrong.”
One of the allegations made by Trump’s legal teams was that Dominion voting machines in Michigan counted votes for Trump as votes for Biden. Kinzinger said the allegations were false.
“There was an error, but it was a human error, not a Dominion problem, and it was corrected,” Kinzinger said.
Republicans planning to challenge the Electoral College base their actions on conspiracy theories, an effort Kinzinger said “will not succeed and we all know that.”
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Alabama’s Republican Rep. Mo Brooks said in December that he would challenge the Electoral College because some state power states used ‘faulty electoral systems’ in the November election. More GOP representatives said they would follow Brooks’ lead in objecting to the score.
Brooks said Monday that Kinzinger does not have all the facts.
“If he did his homework,” Brooks said of Kinzinger Fox & Friends“he will understand that the evidence is overwhelming. He can either surrender to the people who support voter fraud, election theft, or he can fight for his country on this particular issue.”
Kinzinger responded on social media, writing that the only thing he ‘surrendered to’ was the Constitution and the will of the people. ‘
In order to present a formal challenge, a member of the House as well as a member of the Senate must sign the objection. Josh Hawley, the Republican senator from Missouri, announced Wednesday that he will join the House of Representatives voting to challenge the count of the Congressional election.
“Someone needs to get up here,” Hawley told Fox News on Wednesday. ‘You have 74 million Americans who feel free to vote and feel that their vote does not matter, and this is the only opportunity I have as a US senator, this process here, my one opportunity to stand up and say something, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. ‘
Newsweek reached out to Hawley’s office for comment.
All 50 states have certified their voting votes. Biden received 306 votes in the Electoral College, more than the 270 electoral votes needed to be considered the winner of the presidential election.