[ad_1]
A small but influential group of Republicans has begun urging President Donald Trump to concede last week’s election, with a growing number urging him to at least allow Joe Biden access to daily intelligence reports.
Trump has refused to accept his loss and has prohibited federal agencies from cooperating with the president-elect’s transition team, including preventing US spy agencies from reporting to Biden, a tradition of incoming presidents who are goes back decades.
Republican leaders in Congress have argued that the winner is only declared once each state certifies its results, a position that avoids antagonizing the conservative base of Trump supporters. But a growing number have started urging Trump to accept the inevitable.
In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Mike DeWine, the governor of Ohio, acknowledged that Biden had won the presidential election. “Joe Biden is president-elect,” said DeWine, a Republican who supported Trump’s reelection.
Trump and other White House officials have continued to make unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, while Republican lawyers have filed lawsuits intended to challenge the results in some of the decisive states that helped Biden secure victory, such as Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Although Trump has made no public comment since Biden was declared the winner on Saturday, on Thursday he repeated wild claims of fraud on Twitter, which the social network labeled “disputed.”
The federal government agency responsible for overseeing electoral security issued a statement Thursday night, co-signed by various state and local government constituencies, testifying to the robustness of the November 3 vote and warning against claims that it was compromised. .
“While we know that there are many unsubstantiated claims and opportunities for misinformation about our election process, we can assure you that we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too,” the agency heads said.
Karl Rove, a former George W Bush campaign strategist, said there was “no evidence” of the kind of fraud that could overturn the election result, adding that margins in states like Pennsylvania and Michigan meant that any recount would not alter the result of the race.
“Once his days in court are over, the president must do his part to unite the country by leading a peaceful transition and letting go of grievances,” Rove wrote in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
Trump’s Republican allies have begun to focus on intelligence briefings, arguing that even if the president questions the outcome, ensuring that Biden is fully briefed on national security matters should not be controversial.
Republican James Lankford, an Oklahoma senator who sits on the oversight committee, vowed to intervene if Trump does not allow Biden to receive intelligence updates. “There is no loss of him getting the briefings and being able to do that,” Lankford told a radio station in Oklahoma.
Two other high-ranking Republican senators, John Thune of South Dakota and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, told CNN on Thursday that they also believed Biden should receive intelligence reports.
Mitch McConnell, the Republican Majority Leader in the Senate, said Trump had the right to file legal challenges, which has raised concerns among Democrats. But the Kentucky senator, known for his accurate use of language, has not endorsed the unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
Corey Stapleton, the secretary of state for Montana, one of the most conservative states, said Trump had accomplished “incredible things” in office, but that it was time he moved on with grace.
“I have supported you, Mr. President, we (Montana) have supported you. . . But that time has passed. Tip your hat, bite your lip and congratulate @JoeBiden, ”Stapleton tweeted.
Trump still retains the support of his biggest allies in the conservative media, including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, three Fox News anchors who have been strong supporters of the president. But Geraldo Rivera, a Fox News correspondent at large, joined the chorus of allies who pleaded with Trump to accept Biden as the rightful winner.
“Soon the time will come to say goodbye with grace and dignity,” Rivera tweeted.
2020 US Presidential Election – You Tell Us
How do you feel now that the elections are over? Are you happy with the winner? Do you think the election process was fair? How do you see the outlook for the United States? Are you feeling positive about the incoming president or insecure? Share your ideas with us.
He was joined by Hugh Hewitt, a popular conservative radio host and staunch Trump supporter, who wrote in The Washington Post: “Trump must look forward. His party must also do it. “
In a harsh reprimand, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a newspaper owned by Sheldon Adelson, the casino mogul who has been a major Republican donor and a proponent of the president, asked him to stop delaying the inevitable outcome.
“The president is doing his most rabid supporters a disservice by insisting that he would have won the November 3 election without electoral fraud,” the newspaper wrote in an editorial.
“However, there is no evidence that the fraud cost Trump the election, no matter how much the president tweets otherwise and his supporters wish to do so.”
Swamp notes
After a landmark 2020 election, stay on top of the biggest issues driving America’s politics, business, and markets from Washington, New York, and beyond with Rana Foroohar and Edward Luce. sign up here
