"Our
Country is deeply divided in ways that it arguably has not been seen
since the election of 1860," the petition states. "There is a high level
of distrust between the opposing sides, compounded by the fact that, in
the election just held, election officials in key swing states, for
apparently partisan advantage, failed to conduct their state elections
in compliance with state election law."
Echoing
arguments made by Texas, Trump says the battleground states used the
pandemic "as an excuse" and "ignored or suspended the operation of
numerous state laws designed to protect the integrity of the ballot."
He
asks the court to block the states from using "constitutionally infirm
2020 election results" unless the legislatures of the states "review the
2020 election results."
He
stressed that if any of the states have "already appointed electors to
the electoral college using the 2020 election results," the legislatures
have the authority to appoint "a new set of electors."
Or the election could go to the House, where Trump would presumably win.
"Defendant
States' electors will determine the outcome of the election," the
President states. "Alternatively, if Defendant States are unable to
certify 38 or more electors, neither candidate will have a majority of
the total number of electors in the Electoral College, in which case the
election would devolve to the House of Representatives under the
Twelfth Amendment."
Paxton is expected to be at the White House on Thursday, a day after Trump's request was filed at the court, CNN has learned.
Paxton
will be in Washington for a lunch with other attorneys general that a
White House official said had been previously scheduled. The lunch with
the attorneys general is on Trump's public schedule. An official
confirmed separately that Paxton is expected to attend.
Republicans mixed on lawsuit
Trump has been rallying support from fellow Republicans in Washington, with mixed results.
Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, a close ally of Trump's, sent an email from a personal email
account to every House Republican soliciting signatures for an amicus
brief in the long-shot Texas lawsuit. The email said Trump is "anxiously
awaiting the final list" to see who signs on to the amicus brief. One House Republican told CNN he was put off by the Johnson email. "Are we the party of list-making now?" the member asked.
Attorney
George Conway, once a candidate for solicitor general for the Trump
administration before becoming a prominent critic, said Tuesday that
there was no merit to the Texas-led suit and described the effort as
"the most insane thing yet."
"For a member of the Supreme Court Bar to do this in the Supreme Court of the United States is absolutely outrageous," Conway said on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper," in reference to Paxton seeking to block election results. "It's
absurd and an embarrassment. And for a public official, let alone any
lawyer, let alone any member of the Supreme Court Bar, to bring this
lawsuit is atrocious."
Sen. John
Cornyn, the senior Texas Republican, told CNN that "I frankly struggle
to understand the legal theory of it. Number one, why would a state,
even such a great state as Texas, have a say-so on how other states
administer their elections? We have a diffused and dispersed system and
even though we might not like it, they may think it's unfair, those are
decided at the state and local level and not at the national level."
Sen.
Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, called the Texas lawsuit "simply
madness" and "dangerous and destructive of the cause of democracy."
"It's
just simply madness. The idea of supplanting the vote of the people
with partisan legislators is so completely out of our national character
that it's simply mad."
Lawsuits from the Trump campaign and GOP allies have been dismissed or dropped at a furious pace.
Still, the President's staunchest defenders
on Capitol Hill are urging him not to concede even after Biden wins the
Electoral College vote next week, calling on him to battle it out all
the way to the House floor in January. The four states have until 3 p.m. ET Thursday to respond to the lawsuit.
This story has been updated with more details and background.
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