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US President Donald Trump and senior officials in his administration continued to dispute the outcome of the presidential election and refused to accept Joe Biden’s appointment as president-elect.
“WE WILL WIN!” Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning one of several tweets posted by the president in which he disputed Biden’s victory in last week’s election.
In a tweet, he warned of “massive abuse of vote counting,” prompting a warning from Twitter.
The president’s continued claims that he will win the election, which has already been called for Biden, appeared to be echoed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. At his first press conference since the presidential election a week ago, Pompeo was asked if the State Department was prepared to engage with Biden’s transition team. “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” he responded. It was unclear if he meant the comments as a joke.
He continued: “We are ready. The world is watching what is happening. We are going to count all the votes. When the process is complete, there will be selected voters. There is a process. The constitution states it quite clearly. The world must have full confidence that the transition needed to make sure the State Department is functional today … and succeeds with a president taking office on January 20, one minute after noon, will be too. ” .
The states of Arizona and Georgia have not yet been called for elections, but Biden leads as the final votes are counted. Even if Trump won those two states, Biden would still win the election given he won Pennsylvania.
The Trump campaign has launched multiple legal actions, though it has yet to publicly offer any evidence of widespread electoral fraud.
But he has received broad support from Republicans for his efforts, with a majority saying he should take legal action in court and demand recount when necessary.
Speaking when he was re-elected Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell redoubled his defense of Trump’s right to challenge the election result. He told reporters Tuesday that the legal cases brought by the Trump campaign “are not cause for alarm” and will not prevent a new administration from taking office in January, although he said “there is one.”
But speaking in the Senate, minority leader Chuck Schumer chided Republicans for backing the president’s position.
“The extent to which the Republican Party is legitimizing the president’s attack on our democracy is infuriating and deeply flawed,” he said. “He declares himself the winner of an election that he lost. He claims to gain statuses that he lost. His legal team is filing dozens of frivolous and unsubstantiated lawsuits. “
He spoke when the two Republican senators facing Georgia’s runoff elections in January asked Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, himself a Republican, to resign, citing his “mismanagement” and “lack of transparency.” they were “unacceptable”. .
But Mr. Raffensperger replied: “This is not going to happen. The voters of Georgia hired me and it will be the voters who will fire me. As secretary of state, I will continue to fight every day to ensure fair elections in Georgia, that every legal vote counts and that illegal votes do not count. “
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