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President Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell’s public disagreement over the election result could serve to satisfy both of their interests, as the president is given another figure to lobby against and the Senate Majority Leader can look ahead. .
McConnell recognized Joe Biden as victorious over Trump on Tuesday, after Electoral College voters cast their votes, with the Democrat securing 306, surpassing the necessary majority of 270.
Trump later dismissed the Kentucky senator’s comments, telling him that it is “too early to give up.”
The president continues to question the election outcome, despite not having provided any evidence of fraud and wrongdoing at a level that would be sufficient to alter it.
He continues to rally against those who disagree with him, and McConnell has now become a target.
“Trump rarely alters his base when he criticizes ‘Washington’ insiders, even Republicans, and it’s hard to think of anyone who fits that bill more than McConnell,” Thomas Gift, founding director of the Center for Politics from the United States at University College London said Newsweek.
“In comparison, McConnell needs to consider how the Republican Party can reinvent itself in the future, so distancing itself slightly from Trump now, albeit late, allows the Republican Party to get on with the business of governing.”
On the crash, Gift added: “A little fight will probably serve each other’s interests.
“It was also probably inevitable. Sometime between now and January 20, McConnell was going to be forced to acknowledge the reality of Biden’s victory. Trump, by contrast, still shows zero signs of accepting defeat.”
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McConnell and the other Republican senators in breaking ranks with Trump have seen it “prudent for them to change step,” said Clodagh Harrington, associate professor of American Politics at De Montfort University in the UK. Newsweek.
McConnell can now turn to “business as usual,” Harrington said, while Trump could “build on the basis of Twitter’s spiel against McConnell.”
While Gift and Harrington said there might be room for the senator and the president to use this situation to further their own separate ends, Richard Johnson, a professor of American politics at Queen Mary University of London, suggested that McConnell should be somewhat cautious not to going too far against Trump.
“I don’t expect a firm ‘break’ in the Trump-McConnell relationship anytime soon. Trump is likely to remain the de facto leader of his party until at least the 2022 midterm elections, while McConnell will be the Republican. most important in Washington. “Johnson said Newsweek.
Johnson suggested that while McConnell might now have more room to disagree with Trump, he can’t completely ignore him.
“Trump remains overwhelmingly popular with Republican voters. McConnell risks provoking a backlash among Republican voters if he directly confronts Trump,” Johnson added.
McConnell had said in a speech on the floor: “Many of us expected that the presidential election would yield a different result, but our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in on January 20. The Electoral College has spoken.
“So today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden.”
Since then, he has also urged other Republican lawmakers not to oppose the certification of Electoral College votes, although some have spoken of remaining open to this idea.
Biden dismissed Trump’s accusation against the result, speaking of his “clear victory” in a speech delivered after the Electoral College vote.
Newsweek has reached out to the Trump campaign and McConnell’s office for comment.
