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WASHINGTON: Top Republicans in the U.S. Congress for now support President Donald Trump’s attempt to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, but some high-level aides said Trump must soon present significant evidence or exit the stage.
A handful of Republican senators have said they recognize Biden as last week’s winner. Many more have not, but are suggesting limits on their patience to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.
Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, a state Trump comfortably won last week, said in a statement that Biden leads in enough states to win the election “and President Donald Trump’s campaign must produce evidence to support allegations of voter fraud.” .
Portman added that he hoped states and courts would act “quickly” to resolve the matter.
READ: Biden tells world leaders ‘America is back’, but Pompeo holds on
Behind the scenes, some were more explicit.
“I think the goal here is to give the president and his campaign team some space to show that there is real evidence to support any claim of voter fraud. If there is, then they will be litigated quickly. If not, we will all move,” he said a senior Republican aide to the Senate.
A second such aide, while noting that most Republican senators support Trump’s right to refuse to budge, added that if there were no surprise revelations, “At some point this has to give. And I give it a week. or two. “
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in Congress, delivered a stinging speech that sounded more like a continuation of the 2020 campaign rhetoric than a post-election call for action.
READ: As Trump challenges Biden’s victory, attorney general gives green light to fraud investigations
While defending Trump’s defiance of the election result, McConnell took the time to punish the “far-left mobs” who participated in “summer riots” following the death of George Floyd while in police custody.
McConnell also hinted at something far less than protracted litigation, as seen in the 2000 contest between George W Bush and Al Gore: “Suffice it to say, a few legal investigations by the president do not exactly spell the end of the Republic.”
Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio late Monday refused to recognize Biden as president-elect yet.
But responding to journalists’ questions about unsubstantiated fraud allegations in highly controversial states like Pennsylvania, Rubio said he was in no position to know what was going on anywhere outside of his home state of Florida.
Another issue was more important on the minds of some senators: a pair of runoff elections in Georgia on Jan. 5 that will determine whether Republicans retain control of the Senate next year or should hand it over to Democrats.
When asked about the battle Trump is waging against Biden, Republican Sen. Mike Rounds said: “No. 1, we have to focus on Georgia and how critical that is as an endorsement right now to limit the number of major changes that various from our fellow Democrats. ” They have suggested.”
