US elections: Trump’s allies have urged him to accept defeat

A famous ally of Donald Trump has urged him to give up his attempt to reverse the resulting loss to Joe Biden in the US presidential election.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie called the president’s legal team a “national disgrace.”

President Trump refused to admit the election results and made unsubstantiated statements about widespread electoral fraud.

Many Republicans support Trump’s legal efforts, but a small but growing number have spoken out against the party line.

In a harsh ruling, Judge Matthew Brann said his court was presented with “unfounded and tense legal arguments and arbitrary charges.”

The move paved the way for the state of Pennsylvania to certify Biden’s victory on Monday – the Democrat-led president-elect with more than 80,000 votes.

However, the Trump campaign appeals against the ruling.

Biden is expected to beat President Trump by 306 of the 232 US electoral votes, far exceeding the 270 he needs to be elected.

Speaking to ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Christie, the former New Jersey governor, said: “To be honest, the behavior of the president’s legal team is a national disgrace.”

He said Trump’s election team often discusses voter fraud “out of court, but when they walk into the courtroom, they don’t show cheating and they don’t discuss cheating.”

“I am a supporter of the president. I voted for him twice. But the election has consequences, and we cannot continue to act as if something happened here, while it happened. It did not happen.”

Christie was the first governor to announce his endorsement of Trump as the 2016 presidential candidate. He also helped prepare Trump for his debates with Biden earlier this year.

He criticized Sidney Powell, a lawyer who appeared with Trump’s legal team during a press conference Thursday and who did not provide evidence, but said electronic voting systems have passed millions of votes to Biden. and Biden also won with “communist money.”

On Sunday, the Trump campaign issued a statement separating itself from Powell, saying he “practices private law” and “is not a member of Trump’s legal team.”

On Sunday, other Republicans also urged President Trump to give in.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan told CNN on Sunday that continued efforts to reverse the election results of the Trump faction “have begun to make us look like a banana republic.”

Michigan Rep. Fred Upton told CNN that voters in his battlefield state were “talking” in electing Biden.

Meanwhile, North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer said in an interview with NBC that “it was too late to begin a transition,” although he did not clearly say that he accepted Biden’s victory.

Joe Biden is promoting his inauguration plan despite President Trump’s refusal to compromise, making the transition difficult.

He is expected to announce his first cabinet appointments on Tuesday, and US media said that veteran diplomat Antony Blinken, 58, was named secretary of state, the government’s highest bond political post.

Mr. Blinken is a longtime aide to the president-elect and has held various positions in the State Department during the Obama administration.

Meanwhile, Ron Klain, chosen by Biden as White House Chief of Staff, urged the Trump administration to ease the transition.

“A record number of Americans have rejected the Trump presidency, so Donald Trump has rejected democracy,” he told ABC News.

Ron Klain also said that Biden’s campaign was gearing up for the “miniaturized” inauguration on January 20 as the corona virus outbreak worsened.