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US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has warned his fellow Republican senators not to join President Donald Trump’s extended attack on the electoral college results.
In public statements and private warnings, McConnell worked to move into the Joe Biden era and unite a fractured Republican Party ahead of Georgia’s runoff elections that will determine control of the Senate.
But as soon as McConnell made his comment that Joe Biden is president-elect, Trump publicly pleaded with him to support his continued efforts to change the election with unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud.
“Mitch, 75,000,000 VOTES, a record for a sitting president (by far). Too early to give up, ”the president tweeted at one in the morning yesterday. “The Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry! “
Trump’s tweet made clear that McConnell’s decision to recognize Biden as president-elect has driven a wedge at the top of the Republicans, with the president continuing to falsely claim victory as McConnell works behind the scenes to convince Republican senators of that they do not challenge. the electoral college, which cast 306 votes in favor of Biden on Monday, formalizing his victory.
Before Tuesday, McConnell was among the majority of Republican politicians in both houses who had refused to recognize Biden as the incoming president for weeks. But in a speech in the Senate, he said he accepted the results of the electoral college.
“Many of us expected the presidential election to yield a different result, but our system of government has processes in place to determine who will be sworn in on January 20,” McConnell said.
“The electoral college has spoken. So I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden. The President-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He has been in public service for many years.”
The Senate Majority Leader’s speech sets up a potential fight for control of a party that has been reshaped by Trump. Republicans now face their two most influential leaders occupying completely irreconcilable positions ahead of Georgia’s two decisive Senate elections.
McConnell and other Republican leaders urged Senate Republicans in a conference call not to join a risky effort led by House conservatives to challenge the electoral college results when Congress officially tabulates the vote on January 6 according to the reports.
Among those who joined McConnell in accepting the electoral college results was Senator Shelley Moore Capito. “I think that as difficult as it is to bear the losses, at the end of the day, you have to accept what the voices of the people told you,” he said.
On Twitter, Trump pleaded with McConnell and other Republicans to reconsider. Amid another barrage of morning tweets promoting the same unfounded claims of voter fraud that have been defeated in his campaign legal challenges, the president falsely claimed he did better than the ballot projections in the swing states he lost, ” but bad things happened. “
Some of the president’s allies also lashed out at the top Senate Republican, and Trump-aligned attorney L Lin Wood called him “a traitor to American patriots.”
“His judgment day is coming up,” Wood tweeted.
Fox News host Mark Levin asked that McConnell step down. Although without naming McConnell, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia’s elected representative and supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, said that Republicans who do not continue to contest the election results are supporting “the takeover of the United States by the Chinese Communist Party.” .
“You don’t normally use the term ‘congratulations’ when someone just robbed a bank,” said Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA.
Trump seemed to notice the hint of support, retweeting an article earlier yesterday titled: “Trump’s Allies Criticize Mitch McConnell for Congratulating Biden.”
(© The Washington Post)
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