Graham to urge McConnell to probe mail-in voting if GOP controls Senate next year

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Monday that he will ask Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to create a joint committee next year to probe mail-in voting if Republicans hold on to control of the chamber.

Graham, during an interview with Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade, pointed to votes in Arizona, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania — four states that President-elect Joe Biden has either won or is currently leading in.

“What I’m going to tell Mitch McConnell today when we get back, if we keep the Senate, we need to do a joint committee in the Senate to analyze mail-in balloting and how it worked in 2020,” Graham said.

President Trump has made baseless claims that the presidential election was stolen from him as it became clearer that Biden was going to win. Biden currently holds 290 electoral votes, according to an Associated Press projection, and could get up to 306 if he wins Georgia.

While some GOP lawmakers have pushed back against his rhetoric, many have mirrored his claims of potential substantial voter fraud. Trump has railed for months against mail-in voting, even though election experts have said there is no evidence it is linked to widespread fraud.

Graham painted a multiscale effort to question the outcome of the 2020 election, including lawsuits and reviews in several states, vowing that the election is “by no means over.”

“All I’m asking people to do is run down every credible allegation of misconduct, look at the computer systems, look at the provisional ballots, then we’ll make a decision, go to court, then we’ll make a decision about who won the presidency. It would be insane for President Trump not to look at all this stuff,” Graham said.

McConnell, and most members of Senate GOP leadership, haven’t yet commented on Biden’s victory.

McConnell, speaking to reporters in Kentucky on Friday, said that he “of course” believed there would be a peaceful transfer of power if Biden wins, but declined to comment beyond that on the presidential race.

McConnell did not mention Trump in a tweet he issued on Friday, in which he said that “every legal vote should be counted.”

“Here’s how this must work in our great country: Every legal vote should be counted. Any illegally-submitted ballots must not. All sides must get to observe the process. And the courts are here to apply the laws & resolve disputes. That’s how Americans’ votes decide the result,” McConnell tweeted.