massie said i feel like there are people getting sucked into the other vortex as the hours go byother republicans including some of the presidents most ardent defenders were plainly uneasy about the coming vote prompting a series of tortured statements seeking to justify the most basic of democratic positions a vote to respect the outcome of an electionthe easiest vote for me politically would be to object to everything and vote for every objection senator kevin cramer republican of north dakota said on sunday on monday mr cramer issued a statement saying he would not object adding objecting to the electoral college votes is not an appropriate or effective way to change the resultssenator rob portman an ohio republican who is up for reelection in 2022 said in a lengthy statement that he voted for mr trump but could not object to certifying the election results citing his opposition to a similar democraticled effort in 2005i stood in opposition to democrats then saying congress should not obstruct the will of the american people mr portman said i was concerned then that democrats were establishing a dangerous precedent where congress would inappropriately assert itself to try to reverse the will of the voters i cannot now support republicans doing the same thingimagecreditanna moneymaker for the new york timesby monday afternoon mr mcconnell had dialed dozens of senators to try to map out the process on wednesday but remained in the dark about how many would lodge objections and to which states according to people familiar with the discussionseven the 11 senators who signed onto the effort led by senator ted cruz of texas were debating how far to push their objections according to a person familiar with their discussions some of them were unsure of how to defend their position in interviews the person said and were looking to mr cruz to serve as the spokesman for the groupnone of us want to vote against electors but we all want to get the facts out there said senator james lankford of oklahoma one of the 11 who signed onto a statement over the weekend pledging to oppose certifying mr bidens win unless an independent commission was formed to audit the election results there are lots of folks in my state that still want those answers to come out and so at least one of the electors i would vote against at that point once we get to that moment and its a statement to be able to say we got to get this donehe repeatedly declined to say which states electors he would object to on wednesday even as he conceded that the establishment of a commission was highly unlikelyas the vote approached some republicans said they were alarmed at a process that appeared to be spiraling out of control mr massie said he was frustrated with conservative groups that have promoted the effort to reject the election results including exhorting followers to travel to washington for a stop the