State Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward on Wednesday refused to budge from her position questioning the integrity of Nov. 3 election in Pennsylvania, even as an angry crowd of Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol and Gov. Tom Wolf called out state Republicans for fomenting a “shameful lie.”

Ward of Hempfield, who is the state Senate’s second-ranking Republican, was among state GOP lawmakers and eight Pennsylvania congressmen Wolf blasted for perpetrating disinformation about the election that saw President-elect Joe Biden beat President Trump by about 81,000 votes in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania was among several swing states Biden won and which Trump has attacked the integrity of those elections and urged officials to act on his behalf.

Ward was among a group of GOP senators who signed off Tuesday on a letter to Congress asking that Pennsylvania’s Electoral College votes be set aside while the courts weighed the latest challenges. Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman of Centre County declined to comment on the letter, which he also signed. He referred questions to Ward.

President Trump, who insists he won the election, tweeted out their letter Tuesday night, along with the banner “Big News in Pennsylvania.”

BIG NEWS IN PENNSYLVANIA! pic.twitter.com/7JqTWYUgOr

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2021

Ward pointed to the crowd in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday as support for the questions she and her colleagues raised.

“The sheer size of the crowd is emblematic of a truly divided country,” Ward said in a text when asked if she was supportive of the group that clashed violently with Capitol Police as security officers dispensed gas masks to members of Congress.

“There is never a time or place for violence, and I pray for everyone’s safety,” she wrote, as reports surfaced of shots being fired during the confrontation.

Trump’s supporters had gathered in Washington at the president’s behest to be on hand when Congress convened for the ceremonial reading of the Electoral College results that confirmed Biden’s victory.

Republican members of the state House and Senate here, as well as eight of Pennsylvania’s nine Republican congressmen, all raised objections to the same election that ushered each of them back to office. Those included Western Pennsylvania representatives Guy Reschenthaler of Peters, Mike Kelly of Butler, John Joyce of Blair County and Glenn Thompson of Centre County.

Two hours before violence broke out in Washington, Wolf, a Democrat, called out his Republican colleagues for their attacks on the election in Pennsylvania. He noted the courts have consistently upheld the vote, finding no evidence of fraud.

“The very democracy these lawmakers swore to uphold is at risk here,” Wolf warned. “They are purposefully spreading disinformation about our elections for personal political gain. That is shameful and it is destructive, and I cannot let it stand.”

The Pennsylvania congressmen joined more than 100 other Republican members of Congress who signed on to a maneuver designed to force a brief adjournment, during which members of the House and Senate would air their concerns in what has been described as a purely ceremonial debate and one likely to do little more than briefly delay formalization of Biden’s election.

A group of Republican Pennsylvania state House members, including state Reps. Eric Nelson of Hempfield and Daryl Metcalfe of Cranberry, previously petitioned Congress to set aside their state’s Electoral College votes.

Much of the dispute stems from attacks on the legitimacy of a change in the state’s election law that permitted all eligible voters to cast mail ballots for the first time in 2020.

Republicans have complained that the state provided inconsistent guidance on how counties were to handle mail-in ballots that lacked information such as dates and that the courts permitted counties to forgo verifying signatures on mail-in ballots.

Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar countered that all counties received the same information regarding handling ballots and that the courts had upheld the state’s guidance.

Wolf noted Act 77, the law that upended 100 years of election procedure in Pennsylvania, passed with an overwhelming majority in the Republican-controlled General Assembly.

“I thought (Act 77) was great,” Wolf said. “I signed it willingly. We did what you are supposed to do in a democracy, whether you are a Republican or a Democrat.”

While he defended the outcome of the election as “free and fair,” Wolf said he would be open to discussing changes to the law, such as giving local election boards additional time to canvass mail-in ballots in advance of Election Day.

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