Vice President Mike Pence is egging on Republican members of Congress who plan to try and upset the election certification process next week, despite having asked a federal judge to keep him out of it. In a statement late Saturday—a day after a federal judge shot down Rep. Louie Gohmert’s (R-TX) last-ditch lawsuit seeking to force Pence to interfere in the count of electoral votes—Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short wrote: “Vice President Pence shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the last election.” He went on to say that “the Vice President welcomes the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections and bring forward evidence before the Congress and the American people on January 6th.”

Ted Cruz and at least 10 other senators are planning to refuse to certify the results of November’s election in which President-elect Biden was the clear winner. One hundred and forty Republicans in the House say they will reject the results in the joint session as well. The action is largely symbolic and unlikely to make a difference in the actual outcome of the session.