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Updated 11 hours ago
SENATE MAJORITY LEADER Mitch McConnell has congratulated Democrat Joe Biden as president-elect, saying “the Electoral College has spoken.”
The Republican leader’s statement, delivered today in a speech in the Senate, ends weeks of silence over the defeat of Donald Trump.
It also comes a day after voters met and officially affirmed Biden’s victory in the election, while people were also urged to avoid traveling for his inauguration next month due to the pandemic.
“I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden,” McConnell said.
“Many of us expected that the presidential election would yield a different result.
“But our government system has the processes to determine who will take office on January 20. The Electoral College has spoken ”.
McConnell described Biden as someone “who has been in public service for many years.”
He also congratulated Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, saying, “All Americans can be proud that our nation has a Vice President-elect for the first time.”
Mitch McConnell.
Source: PA
McConnell preceded his remarks with high praise for what he characterized as Trump’s “endless” accomplishments during four years in office.
He said Trump and Vice President Mike Pence “deserve our thanks.”
The Senate leader cited Trump’s nomination and the subsequent Senate confirmation of three Supreme Court justices, among other accomplishments.
McConnell’s comments follow a wave of Republican leaders who have said for the first time that Biden is the winner of the presidential election, essentially abandoning Trump’s assault on the result after the Electoral College certified the vote.
For his part, Trump continued to promote his claims of “voter fraud” in a new tweet today.
With the states affirming the results, Republicans faced a pivotal choice: declare Biden president-elect, as the count showed, or remain silent while Trump waged a potentially damaging campaign to annul the election.
His change comes almost six weeks after Election Day.
Many Republicans held the time in silence, allowing Trump to undertake an unprecedented challenge to the voting system.
Some have vowed to carry the fight until Jan. 6, when Congress votes to accept or reject the Electoral College results, while others have said Trump’s legal battles should continue toward a resolution on Inauguration Day on Jan. 20. January.
“It’s a very, very narrow road for the president,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
“But having said that, I think we will let those legal challenges play out.”
Opening day
With a high number of Covid-19 cases still being reported in the US, the crowd at next month’s inauguration will be much smaller than usual.
“Strong health and safety protocols” will be implemented when Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are sworn in at a public ceremony in Washington, the Presidential Inaugural Committee said in a statement.
Biden “will deliver a keynote address that sets out his vision of defeating the virus, building back better and uniting the country,” the committee said.
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“The footprint of the ceremony will be extremely limited and the parade that follows will be reinvented,” he said.
The committee said it was “urging the public to refrain from traveling and participating in the inaugural activities from home.”
The pandemic is killing a record number of people in the United States and is expected to continue to wreak havoc through the winter.
That means there won’t be the traditionally large crowds on the National Mall and the crowds of politicians on the steps of the Capitol.
There is also a crucial question mark as to whether the outgoing President Donald Trump will attend the ceremony, as is tradition, symbolizing the peaceful transfer of power.
Maju Varghese, executive director of the inauguration, told The Washington Post that creative ways would be found to broadcast the ceremonies to the American people who watch them on television or online.
“The idea of some of the models that you have seen during the pandemic, from the screens of NBA games or different camera angles to watch events at home, are things that our creative and digital team are thinking about,” he said Varghese to the Post.
“Instead of thinking of all the things we cannot do, we are thinking of all the things we can do.”
Varghese said virtual technology would be especially helpful in trying to replicate the traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, with video links that attract people from across the country.
“There are traditions that we really want to hold on to,” Varghese said. “We are trying to do that with the swearing in.”
With AFP report
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