Trump twice asked Pennsylvania House speaker to help overturn election results

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images.)

Over the past week, President Trump twice called Bryan Cutler, the Republican speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, asking for assistance in the quest to overturn his loss in the state.

"The president said, 'I'm hearing about all these issues in Philadelphia, and these issues with your law,'" Michael Straub, a spokesman for Cutler, told The Washington Post. "'What can we do to fix it?'" Straub, who described the calls as being "amicable," said Cutler explained to Trump that the legislature did not have the power to overturn Pennsylvania's chosen slate of electors.

Late last week, Cutler and roughly 60 other GOP state lawmakers signed a letter encouraging Pennsylvania's congressional representatives to object to the Electoral College votes received from Pennsylvania during the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress.

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Trump continues to spread his baseless claims about voter fraud, despite the fact that his campaign has lost dozens of legal challenges across the country and has yet to produce any tangible evidence. The president has asked Republicans in Michigan and Georgia to overturn their results, with Trump telling Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) he should call a special legislative session in order to change how the state's electors are selected; Kemp rejected the request, saying the law would not allow it.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.