Last Updated on January 3, 2021
Yesterday, National File reported that Sen. John Cornyn (TX) flippantly offered a demonstrably false summary of the 12th Amendment when he claimed that, in the event of a contingent election, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrat representatives would pick the next President.
As National File reported yesterday, we contacted Cornyn’s office at 2:02 p.m. on Saturday to offer the sitting U.S. Senator the opportunity to read an excerpt of the U.S. Constitution and correct his completely incorrect statement.
While speaking to a Politico reporter, Cornyn claimed, incorrectly, “I confirmed yesterday that if in fact some of the certified votes are not counted and nobody gets to 270 that Nancy Pelosi and the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives gets to choose the next president.”
This is fundamentally false, and easily provable by reading the U.S. Constitution. In an effort to help educate the U.S. Senator, National File provided the relevant excerpt of the 12th Amendment to Cornyn in our email.
According to the 12th Amendment, “if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote”.
This means that each state represented in the House only has one vote. As National File has previously reported, “While the House of Representatives has more representatives based on population, there are currently 27 states that have sent Republican representatives to the House, and 20 states that have sent Democratic representatives to the House. Three states have an even split.”
This would almost certainly result in a victory for President Donald Trump, secured by Republican representatives.
Over 24 hours after our attempt to glean comment from Cornyn, we have received no response.
In fact, Cornyn seems to have doubled down on his unproven claim that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
Appeals court upholds ruling tossing out Gohmert's election lawsuit against Pence https://t.co/gHZi8noMSA
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) January 4, 2021
This comes after his colleague from Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz, led a new coalition of 11 senators who will join the Electoral College challenge and object to the electoral votes from states with credible accusations of widespread voter fraud.
Unlike Sen. Josh Hawley, Cruz is stipulating that he will object unless a full Congressional examination of the contested states
