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WASHINGTON (AP) – Despite President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said President Donald Trump is “100% within his right” to question election results, while Republican lawmakers follow the White House line.
The Republican leader’s remarks on Monday, his first public comments since Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election, show how reluctant Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill have been to challenge the president, even in his defeat.
Most Republicans refuse to congratulate Biden or refuse to pressure Trump to accept the result, even though there is no evidence of widespread electoral fraud.
“Our institutions are really designed for this,” McConnell said when inaugurating the Senate. “We have the system in place to consider concerns, and President Trump is 100% within his rights to investigate allegations of wrongdoing and weigh his legal options.”
McConnell said the process will unfold and “come to a close.”
Republicans are closing the Trump era the way they started it, joining the president in breaking civic norms and sowing uncertainty in institutions, now in a way that threatens the nation’s normal transition of power.
Privately, Republicans on Capitol Hill say they are in a tough spot, wary of crossing over to Trump and his most ardent supporters. But his actions cast doubt on the durability of the nation’s electoral system and impede the new Biden administration. The head of Trump’s General Services Administration has refrained from formally initiating Biden’s transition to the White House.
Trump has refused to admit the presidential race and is organizing legal fights in several states, but there has been no indication or evidence of voter wrongdoing or widespread election fraud.
The president’s refusal to accept the results means that electoral disputes could drag on for weeks as states certify their counts or advance until mid-December, when the Electoral College is ready to vote.
Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., said he would encourage the president to “not compromise.”
With the Senate majority at stake, Republicans dare not risk alienating Trump or his supporters before Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
In Georgia, where Trump is reeling, both Republican senators are forced into a runoff on January 5 that will determine control of the party. Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler jointly called their state’s electoral system a “disgrace.”
Many Republicans have set a December deadline, noting how long it took to resolve the disputed 2000 race before Democrat Al Gore gave in to Republican George W. Bush.
McConnell spoke shortly after meeting with Attorney General William Barr on Capitol Hill. Barr has authorized federal prosecutors across the United States to pursue “substantial allegations” of voting irregularities, according to a memo to United States prosecutors obtained by The Associated Press.
“In the end, we want all legal ballots to be counted,” House Republican No. 2 Steve Scalise told the AP. “Go back to Bush v. Gore, it was the second week of December when it was resolved … so there are still questions to be resolved and that process is unfolding.”
Unlike the 2000 election, when a few hundred votes in Florida separated Bush and Gore, Trump is launching a wide web of legal challenges in states where Biden has thousands of votes ahead of him.
Some Republicans scoff at the president’s legal team, led by personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and doubt that the president has a credible route to challenge the election results. Election officials from both political parties have publicly stated that the elections went well.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that Republicans’ refusal to endorse the election results is “extremely dangerous, extremely poisonous to our democracy.”
Schumer said electoral demands can be valid but must be based on evidence and facts. He dismissed Trump’s challenges as “frivolous.”
“Joe Biden won the fair and square election,” Schumer said.
McConnell and Republicans said Monday that they do not want the “media” to declare the outcome of the election.
But in reality, the results of the presidential elections are being determined in the same way as in all elections, including those of the House and Senate that are not being questioned, based on an analysis of the vote counts.
McConnell touted the results Monday of the congressional races – Republican senators pushed back Democratic hopefuls and House Republicans expanded their ranks – even as he raised questions about the presidential race.
“Let’s not have lectures, or conferences, on how the president should immediately and happily accept the preliminary election results,” McConnell said.
Pressed if there was any evidence of voter fraud, Republican Senator John Cornyn, who just won re-election in Texas, objected.
“That’s not really my, my role,” Cornyn told reporters on Capitol Hill. “There is a process that is available, and I do not envy the president that he uses that process, but in the end, they will have to provide some facts and evidence.”
Privately, Republicans on Capitol Hill have said they are trying to give Trump the time and space he needs to face the election results.
“Well, I think you have a right, a constitutional right, if there are legal challenges that you want to present,” said Senator John Thune, the second Republican. “Let those unfold.”
Republican lawmakers are hesitant to pressure Trump to give in to Biden, knowing it would anger his base of most devoted Trump supporters. But Republican lawmakers are not openly encouraging the president’s fraud allegations, even as they allow questions to drag on.
Only a handful of Republicans, including Senators Susan Collins, Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski, have congratulated Biden on the election.
“Stay out of the fray,” as one Republican aide put it. The aide and other Republicans obtained anonymity to frankly discuss the situation.
Whatever the position, “you’re going to enrage half the country,” said another Republican on Capitol Hill.
At the same time, Republicans feel increasingly helpless in the White House. Trump himself has not been answering phone calls from some senators, one of the attendees said.
Scalise said he spoke to Trump a few days ago and said the president “left it all in the field” on the campaign trail.
