Donald Trump raises supporter hopes before another inevitable election letdown

President Donald Trump continues to rally his supporters in the doomed bid to undo the election outcome, setting his sights on next month in Congress, raising their hopes that this final push will succeed despite all signs pointing to yet another failure.

The president has previously said there will be a “wild” protest in Washington, D.C., on January 6, the day when lawmakers will gather to formally count the Electoral College votes. President-elect Joe Biden won the election by a large margin.

On Sunday, he tweeted, “See you in Washington, DC, on January 6th. Don’t miss it. Information to follow!” and many of his followers responded with excitement about what they see as the climax of the campaign to upend Biden’s win.

Trump and his allies have failed in dozens of legal actions under the effort to change the presidential election result. Despite this, they continue to push the false claim that widespread irregularities and fraud facilitated Biden’s win.

There is no evidence of fraud on a scale that could have altered the election outcome.

The Electoral College electors previously met to cast their votes in December, with 306 going to Biden, passing the 270 threshold to seal the presidency. Biden said it showed his victory was clear.

However, Trump has continued to dispute the point and some close to him persist in pushing the fraud issue. His allies in Congress have discussed objecting to the count on January 6 when lawmakers meet for the tally.

It would be his last chance to change the outcome and is highly unlikely to succeed.

For this to work, a lawmaker from each chamber must first co-sign a written objection to a state’s votes.

No formal allegiances between a pair of lawmakers on this point have been made public, though some representatives have discussed their desire to object and several senators have appeared open to such a possibility.

This formal objection would then need to be brought to Vice President Mike Pence, who will preside over the session. Following this would be a debate and then a vote on rejecting the state’s votes.

Pence’s role on the day is to open and tally the votes, not to cast judgement on their validity.

Such an objection, or set of objections, may happen but is almost certain to lack enough votes to succeed in either chamber of Congress. There is a Democratic majority in the House and most Republican senators acknowledge Biden as president-elect.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and other Republican figureheads have urged their colleagues not to go down such a route. Trump has railed against those breaking line with him.

Even in the unlikely event that the Senate voted to affirm an objection, it would fail in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, told the Associated Press there is “zero chance such a maneuver” from the Republicans would work to block Biden’s victory.

Newsweek has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.