The ways Donald Trump and Republicans have tried to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 win

WASHINGTON — In their latest move as part of the attempt to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s 2020 win, some Republican officials are hoping to put the authority to do so in the hands of the vice president.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and a group of other Republicans filed a lawsuit in federal court against Vice President Mike Pence. Pence is set to oversee Congress when it officially counts the votes cast by the Electoral College, and the suit argues that Pence has the constitutional authority to ignore votes cast for Biden in states where Republicans have cast doubt on the results, with virtually no evidence.

The suit, a seemingly last-ditch effort to keep President Donald Trump’s efforts alive among his base, is just the latest in a long list of long-shot legal challenges.

Some GOP leaders, such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have congratulated Biden on his win. But here ways Trump and some of his Republican allies have tried to overturn the election results:

Arguments by Trump and allies

Trump, Republican allies and conservative media outlets have spread unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, arguing that the fraud means Trump won the election by a landslide even though the Electoral College formally elected Biden earlier this month. 

The claims are numerous and varied, but all come down to Trump’s refusal to accept that he lost the election, and are all based on dubious premises. Trump has said that Democrats waged an attack at every stage of the 2020 election, arguing everything from polling with Biden leading ahead of the election suppressed Trump votes to Democrats fraudulently filled out tens of thousands of ballots to make up Trump’s lead. 

Trump has argued that voting machines changed votes from Trump to Biden, Republican poll watchers were not allowed to observe election processes, dead people voted in masses and the use of Sharpies allowed poll workers to invalidate Trump votes.

Read USA TODAY’s fact checks on election claims:What’s true and what’s false about the 2020 election

Giuliani holds events with Republican lawmakers

Trump’s legal team, spearheaded by his attorney Rudy Giuliani, held a series of media events to present what it claimed was evidence of voting irregularities that would overturn the election results in battleground states. These events, billed as “hearings,” were held before an audience of mostly Republican state legislators. Giuliani made stops in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan and Georgia.

He paraded a slew of GOP poll challengers, volunteers and others who claimed they witnessed irregularities. With legal battles headed toward dead ends, these hourslong events served as a way for the campaign to motivate Trump’s base and put pressure on lawmakers in those states.

Trump has also been publicly chastising Republican officials leading battleground states where Biden won, such as Georgia and Arizona, urging them to go along with his  

The president has blamed Georgia’s Republican officials, Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, for refusing to go along with his attempts to overturn the state’s results. Raffensperger said there was no evidence of widespread fraud, and the state’s recounts showed Biden won.

Trump team files lawsuits targeting battleground states

The lawsuits filed to overturn Biden’s win have hit wall after wall, with courts tossing out cases in several states. That hasn’t stopped Trump’s legal team from trying, though. Its lawsuits have consisted of challenges to election certification processes and attempts to stop the counting of votes.

In Arizona, the Trump team argued that the use of Sharpies caused votes to be invalidated, but the case was dismissed.

In Pennsylvania, the legal team argued that Republicans were blocked from observing the election processes in a case that was denied. In another case in that state, Trump’s team tried to challenge hundreds of votes that didn’t include full addresses, but withdrew the challenge.

The Trump team also withdrew a case in Michigan where it argued Republican observers weren’t granted access to ballot counting. A Michigan judge also denied a case seeking to add Republican poll observers.

In Wisconsin, The Trump team was denied an effort to not have some mail-in ballots count during a canvas in two counties. In another case in that state, a judge dismissed a case that claimed drop boxes for ballots were used in contrast to state law.

A case in Georgia that was dismissed claimed unauthorized voters cast thousands of votes. 

These cases are just a sampling of the dozens filed by the Trump campaign’s legal team and other Republicans to benefit Trump.

More:For these Trump supporters primed to disbelieve defeat, challenging the election was a civic duty

Trump tries to take it to the high court

A blow to Trump’s legal arguments came when the Supreme Court refused to let Texas challenge the election results in four battleground states critical to Trump’s defeat earlier this month.

Texas had made an 11th-hour attempt to have the nation’s highest court block Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin from casting their electoral votes for Biden, claiming the four states used the COVID-19 pandemic to change election rules and expand mail voting in violation of the Constitution.

The court also dismissed an attempt by Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Mike Kelly to stop the state from certifying its results with the argument that its expansion of mail-in ballots was not legal.

More:Supreme Court denies effort to block election results in 4 key states that sealed Trump’s fate

Republicans say they will object to Biden electors

Aside from Gohmert’s lawsuit, other Republican lawmakers have said they will back Trump by challenging the election results when Congress meets to count the results.

Some House Republicans have said they intend to object to Biden’s slate of electors in some states. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., is leading an effort to reject the electoral votes certified by states such as Georgia and Pennsylvania that had “flawed election systems.”

Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., has indicated he might join the objections. 

Any objections on Jan. 6 would require support from at least one House member and one senator to be considered. But even if a senator does endorse a House objection, the effort is destined to fail in the Democratic-controlled House and likely to fail in the Republican-led Senate as well after McConnell has already recognized Biden as the president-elect.

Contributing: Richard Wolf, Joey Garrison

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