Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, Mississippi’s senior senator and an ardent ally of Donald Trump, is helping the president look for alleged voter fraud.
Three days after the Nov. 3 election, Wicker sent an email to his supporters providing a link for people to file reports of voter fraud.
“President Trump’s team reached out to me about the voting fraud that is going on in our country right now,” Wicker said in a Nov. 6 email and on social media. “There is NO excuse for any of this. Americans should be confident that their ballot was submitted correctly, legally and untampered.”
Wicker this week did not respond to questions asking how many people reading his email have reported voter fraud.
The Trump campaign since the election has issued multiple unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud, ranging from Venezuela conspiring with a voting machine company to change votes to dead people voting. No widespread voter fraud has been found, and more than 30 Trump campaign lawsuits have been dismissed in several states since the election.
The Trump campaign and its supporters also have attempted to ask courts to throw out large swarths of ballots from large urban areas with a high density of minority voters. None of those efforts have succeeded, and in most cases, judges have tossed the cases.
A growing number of congressional Republicans, meanwhile, have publicly conceded that former Vice President Joe Biden won the Nov. 3 election and is the president-elect. An even larger number of congressional Republicans have reportedly privately acknowledged that Trump’s efforts to litigate the 2020 election are futile.
But Republicans in Mississippi’s congressional delegation have remained silent on the issue in recent days. They have publicly endorsed Trump’s challenge of the election and have stoked unfounded narratives of widespread voter fraud.
They did not, however, respond to recent questions from Mississippi Today about the president’s challenge of the election in which he lost the popular vote by more than 6 million votes and lost the electoral college 306-232.
Staffers for Wicker, junior Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, and Reps. Trent Kelly, Michael Guest and Steven Palazzo did not respond to several Mississippi Today questions about the matter.
Mississippi’s sole Democratic congressman, House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, told Mississippi Today that Trump should concede. Thompson also said the president’s efforts to convince state legislative leaders to try to appoint alternative electors in some of the states the president lost should be investigated.
“In my mind, Trump should be charged with some form of obstruction because the process of elections in Michigan is clear,” Thompson said in a statement. “Any candidate on the ballot who is having meetings with people who are making the decision is tantamount to obstruction and should be illegal.”
While the state’s congressional delegation, with the exception of Thompson, has refused to comment recently, they voiced support for the president’s effort to challenge the election results soon after Election Day.
Hyde-Smith, also a staunch supporter of the president, has commented on the election results multiple times on social media.
“Do you stand for fair and transparent elections? Do you believe in protecting our democracy? If you want every legal vote counted, you can help President Trump by donating to his legal fund here,” she said on social media on Nov. 6.
The day before multiple news organizations called the election for Biden, Wicker, Hyde-Smith, Kelly, Guest and Palazzo issued a joint statement, saying in part: “Americans should have confidence in our voting systems and that all ballots have been submitted correctly and legally. This is precisely what President Trump and his legal team are seeking.
“Any allegations of voting irregularities, including ballot tampering or voting by ineligible persons, should be investigated and adjudicated to the fullest extent of the law,” the joint statement continued.
Trump campaign attorney Rudy Giuliani has argued that votes from large cities should not be counted because of alleged fraud. They have not documented that alleged fraud in the multiple lawsuits that have been filed.
“It changes the results of the election in Michigan if you take out Wayne County,” he argued recently, referring to Detroit.
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