MILWAUKEE (AP) - U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson on Tuesday acknowledged that Democrat Joe Biden is the president-elect and the election was legitimate, and said he would not object when Congress meets next month to tabulate the Electoral College results.
However, Johnson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an interview that he still had unanswered questions about the election and planned to move ahead with a Senate homeland security committee hearing on Wednesday to look into “legitimate questions” about “irregularities.”
“All I’m trying to do is hold a very upfront, straightforward hearing talking about what controls there are in place, what fraud does occur, what can we do to prevent fraud in the future,” Johnson told the newspaper.
When asked if he thought the election was legitimate, Johnson said it was.
“I haven’t seen anything that would convince me that the results - the overall national result - would be overturned,” he said.
Congress meets on Jan. 6 to receive the results of the Electoral College votes that were cast in all 50 states on Monday. Johnson had earlier refused to say whether he would object, but he said Tuesday that he had no plans to raise an objection.
“Something would have to surface that would call into question the legitimacy of the election,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday also acknowledged Biden’s victory for the first time.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Johnson’s witnesses will include Ken Starr, the former independent counsel, and three Republicans who have tried to overturn the 2020 election results: attorneys Jim Troupis and Jesse Binnall, and Pennsylvania state lawmaker Francis X. Ryan.
Troupis is a Wisconsin attorney who represented the Trump campaign in failed legal challenges to the election results in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit brought by Troupis on a 4-3 vote Monday, just an hour before the Electoral College met and cast its votes.
Committee Democrats plan to call as a witness Christopher Krebs, the former homeland security official who was fired by Trump after he defended the security of the election.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.