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FILE PHOTO: Committee Chair Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) delivers his opening statement during a hearing of the United States Senate Health, Education, Work and Pensions Committee at the United States Capitol in Washington, DC, United States, on Sept. 23, 2020. Alex Edelman / Pool via REUTERS / File Photo
WASHINGTON – Pressure for President Donald Trump to begin the transition process to President-elect Joe Biden built among Republicans in the United States Congress on Friday, as several expressed doubts about Trump’s claims of fraudulent voting.
Senator Lamar Alexander, who will retire at the end of the year, said Biden had a “very good chance” of becoming the next president and urged the Trump administration to begin the transition process. The loser of this election should “put the country first, congratulate the winner and help him get off to a good start in the new term,” the Tennessee senator wrote in a statement.
Michigan Rep. Fred Upton told reporters Friday: “I have not seen any evidence of fraud nullifying 150,000 and some votes” that Biden brings to Trump in his home state. “No one has shown any evidence” of fraud in Michigan, Upton said.
Conservative Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan told reporters that Trump has “a very high bar” to prove his claims that Democrats have stolen the election. “And they have to prove it in court,” Sullivan said.
Mitt Romney, the Utah senator who has been a critic of Trump, wrote on Twitter Thursday night that Trump had failed to present a “plausible case” of widespread voter fraud and was now trying to pressure state and local officials to to revoke the elections. “It is difficult to imagine a worse and more undemocratic action,” he wrote.
So far, Republicans in Congress have mostly said Trump should be free to pursue legal claims for election irregularities.
Now, there is an ongoing cascading effect on the party, according to a Republican strategist who has advised campaigns for several years.
First, “never trumpers” asked Trump to begin handing over power to Biden almost immediately after the Nov. 3 election, the strategist said Friday, followed by “never fringe trumpers” a week later.
They are now joined by Republicans who have reluctantly supported him for the past four years, he said. “All Republicans are actually turning the page” on Trump’s presidency, he said.
Republican Rep. Jim Banks, the incoming speaker of a large group of conservative House Republicans, indirectly acknowledged that Biden is likely to prevail and told reporters that he expects the Democratic president-elect to “be a lame jerk from the first. day “in office.
Still, the vast majority of Republicans in Congress have yet to publicly acknowledge Biden’s victory.
Official certifications of the election results in all 50 states have begun to arrive, and are expected to show that Biden won about 6 million more votes than Trump and 306 votes in the Electoral College determining the winner, compared to the 232 Trump.
Trump insisted again on Friday that he won the election. But so far, the president’s court challenges alleging fraud have either been dismissed or failed to present evidence that would significantly cut Biden’s lead.
A press conference Thursday in which Trump’s attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, raised a series of electoral conspiracies that he said were fought against Trump, without providing any evidence, may have been a turning point for some former allies, they said. two republican sources. They noted a lack of logic in Giuliani’s presentation that they said undermined the president’s argument.
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