Republican leading Wisconsin's Assembly election committee calls for decertifying Trump's 2020 loss
MADISON – The leader of the Assembly elections committee is calling for her colleagues to take the unconstitutional action of decertifying former President Donald Trump's election loss in 2020, a move that prompted her Republican counterpart in the Senate to call for her removal.
Rep. Janel Brandtjen, a Republican from Menomonee Falls who was endorsed by Trump earlier this year, said Friday she was joining Republican candidate for governor Tim Ramthun's push to overturn the last presidential election because "tyranny is at Wisconsin's door."
"We have been told for months now that decertification is impossible, meaning there is no downside to cheating in Wisconsin elections. How many more times do we need to endure this election injustice?" she wrote in a statement.
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Even before Trump lost the November 2020 election in Wisconsin, the former president argued without evidence voter fraud would be the only way he could lose re-election.
After President Joe Biden defeated Trump by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin, Trump continued to make baseless claims of voter fraud and sought to overturn his loss by throwing out hundreds of thousands of ballots in Democratic-leaning cities.
Since then, Trump has called on Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to decertify the 2020 election — an idea that legal experts and scholars, including Trump's former campaign attorney and nonpartisan lawyers who work for the state Legislature, have said is impossible and unconstitutional.
More: A who's who guide to the Republican review of Wisconsin's 2020 presidential election
Vos has rejected such calls from Trump, Ramthun and other Wisconsin Republicans to do so.
A spokeswoman for Vos did not answer whether Brandtjen, whom he appointed as chairwoman of the Assembly's elections committee, should continue to lead the panel.
The Republican chairwoman of the Senate's elections committee said Brandtjen should be removed or step down from the committee.
"Absolutely not. It was a mistake that I think Robin Vos has admitted to," Sen. Kathy Bernier, R-Chippewa Falls, said about whether Brandtjen should continue leading the Assembly's elections committee. "And she will not ever be the head of an election committee ever again."
Bernier said the continued focus on 2020 through baseless claims hurts voter confidence needlessly.
"There is absolutely no proof that Donald Trump actually got more votes in the state of Wisconsin. And so even if you could, even if there were a provision legally to decertify an election, the proof has not been provided to even do it. If there was even a provision that allowed for it. There is not enough proof," Bernier said.
Contact Molly Beck at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Janel Brandtjen pushes decertifying 2020 election in Wisconsin
