Florida senators split on Pennsylvania electors; Gimenez, Diaz-Balart vote to decertify

After an afternoon of unprecedented chaos in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday that turned into an evening of solemn debate on the basic principles of American democracy, Florida’s two Republican U.S. senators split on a vote to decertify Pennsylvania’s electoral college results early Thursday morning.

Sen. Marco Rubio voted against decertifying the results, joining 93 of his colleagues in the U.S. Senate. But Sen. Rick Scott was one of seven Republican senators to vote in favor of decertifying the results, hours after voting the opposite way in a similar vote regarding Arizona’s electors.

Scott said in an earlier statement that he would “likely” object to Pennsylvania’s electors, but that was before the U.S. Capitol became the scene of a violent riot where at least one person was killed. Some Republican lawmakers, particularly in the U.S. Senate, switched positions in light of Wednesday’s violence.

Congress continued to certify the vote for president on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, reconvening after the Capitol was cleared of the violent mob that broke in. In the case of Arizona’s electors, Rubio and Scott voted with all Democrats and a majority of Republicans in what is typically a procedural move that marks the final step of the presidential election before inauguration.

The House and Senate finalized the electoral college tally after 3 a.m. Thursday, further formalizing Joe Biden’s 306-232 electoral vote win.

In a Senate speech, Rubio said he’d heard from friends, family and Republicans about their frustrations with how states handled their elections and their feelings that the media had downplayed negative stories about Biden, and that objecting to states’ electors was a way for some Republicans to send a message.

“But then today a woman died here. Today, police officers were hurt here,” he said. “And now is no longer the time for that kind of message.”

Six Senate Republicans voted to challenge Arizona’s electors, a departure from earlier Wednesday when at least 14 senators, including Scott, indicated they would vote with Trump. Scott said earlier on Wednesday he was “likely” to challenge Pennsylvania’s results.

The vote was a rebuke of Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was wrongly decided.

The House of Representatives later also voted to uphold Arizona’s and Pennsylvania’s electors on Wednesday evening but Florida’s Republican delegation overwhelmingly voted to decertify the electoral votes. Two of Florida’s 15 House Republicans voted not to decertify Arizona’s and Pennsylvania’s electors.

Miami’s two Republicans in the House of Representatives — Reps. Carlos Gimenez and Mario Diaz-Balart — voted in favor of decertifying Arizona’s and Pennsylvania’s electors late Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

“I have become convinced that the electors in some states were selected in an unconstitutional manner,” Diaz-Balart said in a statement, though he acknowledged that Biden will be sworn in as president on Jan. 20. “I simply cannot vote to uphold a slate of electors under those circumstances.”

Rep.-elect Maria Elvira Salazar, who hasn’t been sworn in after testing positive for COVID, did not reveal her position even though she cannot vote.

The two Florida Republicans to vote against decertifying Arizona’s electors were Reps. Vern Buchanan and Michael Waltz. Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis did not vote. Bilirakis announced a positive COVID test on Wednesday and said he was quarantining.

At one point during a speech by Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., Florida Democratic Rep. Al Lawson nearly came to blows with Maryland Republican Rep. Andy Harris, when Republicans objected to Lamb’s speech.

The dispute happened at the same spot where police hours earlier had pointed guns at rioters from inside the House chamber. The two men did not actually come to blows and eventually returned to their seats.

All Democrats present voted against decertifying the electors. In the final Arizona vote, 122 lawmakers, all Republicans, were in favor of decertifying, while 303 lawmakers, including 82 Republicans, were against decertifying. In the final Pennsylvania vote, 138 lawmakers, all Republican, were in favor of decertifying while 282 lawmakers, including 64 Republicans, were against decertifying.

Florida Reps. Matt Gaetz and Brian Mast spoke in favor of overturning Arizona’s electors on the House floor ahead of the vote. Gaetz’s speech defending the president drew groans from Democrats after he said some of the rioters who breached the Capitol on Tuesday were left-wing agitators and not Trump supporters.

The push to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory will be unsuccessful. But the debate in the Capitol — and the unruly occupation of the building by thousands of Trump’s angry supporters that included the death of one woman in the Capitol — displayed the extent to which the president’s refusal to concede to Biden has divided his own party and the country.

As the House finished its vote on Wednesday, with the prospect of future challenges beyond Arizona uncertain, the glass window door of the House of Representatives remained shattered after rioters engaged in an armed standoff with police eight hours earlier.

“The voters, the courts and the states have all spoken,” said Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who urged his colleagues to accept the results. “If we overrule them, it would damage our Republic forever.”